‘In Competition with and Perhaps More Felicitously Than Petrarch’ : The Canonization of Vittoria Colonna in Rinaldo Corso’s Tutte le rime (1558)

Abstract

This essay examines one of the most important documents in the reception of Colonna’s poetry: the 1558 edition of her complete lyrics with the commentary of Rinaldo Corso. Earlier, partial versions were published in 1542 and 1543, during the author’s lifetime, an honour not previously accorded to a living poet. I argue that the 1558 edition may be taken as a veritable testament of Colonna’s canonization illustrating several facets of this process at work. In particular, through a reading of three key poems and their accompanying commentary, I demonstrate that Corso effectively places Colonna into dialogue with her classical and vernacular predecessors and inscribes her into literary history, including her among a canon of auctores from Homer to Petrarch.