Vittoria Colonna

Vittoria Colonna (April 1492 – 25 February 1547), marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet.

Quotes

• Your virtue may raise you above the glory of being king. The sort of honour that goes down to our children with real lustre is derived from our deeds and qualities, not from power or titles. For myself, I do not wish to be the wife of a king, but of a general who can make himself superior to the greatest king, not only by courage, but by magnanimity, and superiority to any less elevated motive than duty
  • Letter to Francesco, Marquis of Pescara. Reported in Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record (1853), p. 93

About

• She bore me great affection, and I had none the less for her. Death deprived me of a great friend.
  • Michelangelo. Reported in Isidoro Del Lungo (tr. Mary C. Steegmann) Women of Florence (1907), p. xxix