Abstract

On 27 November 1537, the Ferrarese humanist Daniele Fini sent a Latin epigram to Vittoria Colonna, at that time residing in Ferrara. She responded a few months later with an epigram of her own, a poem that has been all but neglected in the scholarship. This essay aims to verify Colonna's authorship of the epigram through analysis of the manuscript against the historical details of the author's life and travels, as well as a comparison with the lexicon and themes of her vernacular rime spirituali.

Keywords: spiritual poems, Ferrara, Renaissance Latin poems, Reformation in Italy

Daniel Finus ad Divam Victoriam Aterninam

Ex te nomen habes victo Victoria mundo:

conveniens aliud non tibi nomen erat.

Illud ab effectu tibi congruit; indidit illud

en tibi, venturi praescia facta, parens.

Illecebras et opes et mundi commoda calcas;

quae tibi nunc vilis regia vestis erat

nunc ieiuna factos Davidis, Christique libellos

dextera, quae sceptrum ferre solebat, habet.

Si mundi es νίκη, quae sunt tibi praemia pugnae?

Mox mihi: ‘Post cinerea’, inquis, ‘Olympus erit’.

Daniele Fini to the Divine Vittoria of the Aterno

You take your name from yourself, Vittoria, because you are victorious over the world: no other name was fitting for you. That name befits you owing to your accomplishments; your mother, prescient of the future, bestowed it upon you. You disdain worldly enticements, riches and luxuries; you who once donned the robes of a queen now assume a humble habit. Your right hand, which once held a sceptre, now—thin from fasting—takes up the deeds of David and the books of Christ. If you are victor over the world, what rewards do you receive for your struggle? Straightaway you say to me: ‘After death comes Olympus’. The identification of this ‘Victoriam Aterninam’ with Vittoria Colonna is indisputable. First, the epithet Aternina derives from the Aterno river, which runs through Pescara. Throughout her life, Colonna referred to herself in writing as the ‘Marchioness of Pescara’ (Marchesa di Pescara), the title she acquired when she married Ferrante Francesco d’Avalos.