Colonna, Vittoria ..............................
(1490–1547)
Italian poet and noblewoman, a significant
friend and patron of Renaissance authors
and artists. The daughter of a nobleman
who held the title of Grand Constable of
Naples, she was born in Marino, an estate
of her father Fabrizio Colonna near Rome.
Her marriage to Francesco D’Avalos, the
marquis of Pescara, was arranged when
she was just four years old. The wealth
and prestige of her family attracted several
more offers of marriage, but she met and
fell in love with D’Avalos and finally mar-
ried him when she was nineteen. Shortly
after the ceremony in Naples, her husband
enlisted with the armies of Emperor
Charles V, who was fighting the French in
northern Italy. D’Avalos was taken pris-
oner in Italy in 1512 and spent the next
dozen years campaigning throughout Italy,
while Colonna remained at his estate on
the island of Ischia. After the Battle of Pa-
via in 1525, when D’Avalos was offered
the throne of Naples for turning against
Charles V, she persuaded him to turn
down the offer. D’Avalos died soon after-
ward of wounds suffered in battle.
Grieving and determined to remain a
single widow, Colonna devoted the rest of
her life to the support of religious orders,
the reform of the Catholic Church, and
her poetry. Her verses in praise and
memory of Francesco D’Avalos would be
collected in 1538 under the titleRime de
la Divina Vittoria Colonna Marchesa di Pes-
cara. Her later poetry turned to religion
and her spiritual life; she was an outspo-
ken advocate of reform in the Catholic
Church but would not accept Protestant-
ism. She lived in Rome, Orvieto, and Fer-
rara, where she helped to establish a mon-
astery, and became a patron and close
friend of artists, including Michelangelo,
and the writers Baldassare Castiglione and
Pietro Bembo.SEEALSO: Michelangelo BuonarrotiColumbus, Christopher .....................
(1451–1506)
Italian navigator who led the first Euro-
pean expeditions to the coasts and islands
of the Caribbean Sea and South America.
Born in Genoa as Christoforo Colombo,
he was the son of a weaver, Domenico Co-
lombo, and Susanna Fontanarossa. He re-
ceived some education and learned Latin
and Greek, and may have apprenticed with
his father as a weaver. But finding a stron-
ger taste for adventure and the sailor’s life,
Columbus joined the fleet of Rene of An-
jou, a contestant for the throne of Naples,
and then enlisted as a sailor for his native
city of Genoa, at that time one of Europe’s
wealthiest merchant cities. He was
wounded off the coast of Portugal in 1476;
taking shelter in Lisbon, he joined his
brother, who was a mapmaker, and began
conceiving the idea of a western expedi-
tion to the East Indies.
The conquest of Constantinople by the
Ottoman Turks in 1453, as well as the con-
trol of ports along the coast of North Af-
rica and the Red Sea by Arab princes,
made the land route to Asia hazardous to
the health and wealth of European mer-
chants. In the late fifteenth century, Portu-
guese navigators were exploring new
routes to East Asia around the southern
limit of Africa. Some time during his
training and experience as a sailor, Co-
lumbus hit on the idea of a westerly route
through unknown seas that would, he
hoped, provide a much quicker route to
the spices, silks, and other valuables of
China, India, and the Spice Islands (of
what is now Indonesia). Using the calcula-
tions of ancient navigators and geogra-Colonna, Vittoria