Among her many accomplishments, Vittoria was the very first woman in all of Italy to have a book of her poems appear in print. My interest was in the poetry of one member of the family, Vittoria Colonna, who lived from 1490 to 1547. I had come to consult the archive of the Colonna family, which has been housed in Subiaco since 1996, when it was moved from Rome. It was also in this celebrated library-now located in a different part of the monastery-that I found myself on a sweltering summer day several years ago, facing a Benedictine monk who was handing me a file of precious letters and documents from the early 1500s.
It was in the library of Saint Scholastica that Italy entered the world of print: in 1464 two German clerics, Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheym, crossed the Alps to set up a printing press in Subiaco, where they began to produce books using a technology that soon made the scriptorium obsolete. The monastery was renowned in the Middle Ages for its library, which had a famous scriptorium-a separate room where monks copied manuscripts-and it held ten thousand volumes by the year 1300. Just down the hill from the Benedictine monastery on the same winding road is a second monastery, dedicated to Benedict’s sister, Saint Scholastica. Looking as if it had been carved directly into the cliffs, the monastery of San Benedetto lies at the top of a very long, treacherously narrow drive lined with beautiful woods. It was where Saint Benedict spent three years as a hermit in a cave before founding his first monastic community on the site in the early sixth century. This is all done at no cost to you, and serves as a means to help our show and independent bookstores.High in the hills thirty miles to the east of Rome is the ancient town of Subiaco. Please note that ArtCurious is a participant in the Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to. Ad Music: " I Was Waiting for Him" by Lee Rosevere is licensed under BY 4.0. Show Music: " Cinnamon Teal" by Chad Crouch is licensed under BY-NC-3.0 " Western Shores" by Philipp Weigl is licensed under BY 4.0. Theme Music: " Angle of Light" by David Hilowitz is licensed under BY-NC 4.0. Image: Michelangelo Reading Poetry to Vittoria Colonna, by Enrico Fanfani (1824-1885) Social media assistance by Emily Crockett. This week’s topic: the deep relationship between Michelangelo Buonarotti, and a sweet arts patron and poet, Vittoria Colonna.
A Little Curious will publish in our season's "off" weeks. Welcome to A Little Curious, a series of special episodes that will provide you will short and sweet bonus content about the unexpected, the slightly odd, and the strangely wonderful in art history.
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