Letter to Pietro Aretino
correspondent
Vittoria Colonna
(Marino, about 1490 - 1547, Rome)
recipient
Pietro Aretino
(Arezzo, 1492 - 1556, Venice)
Date6 November 1537
Place MadeItaly, Europe
MediumInk on paper
Dimensions30.3 x 22.2 x 1.2 cm (11 15/16 x 8 3/4 x 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsManuscripts
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number2.b.3.2
eMuseum ID726804
EmbARK ObjectID12551
Previous NumberDe Ricci 34
TMS Source ID1631
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
BibliographyNotesGiuseppe Bustelli. "La vita e la fama di Vittoria Colonna." Rivista bolognese di scienze, lettere ed arti, vol. I (1867), p. 349-59, 470-90.
Maria (Fletcher) Roscoe. Vittoria Colonna: her life and poems (London, 1868) pp. 356-57.
Vittoria Colonna. "Lettere scritte a Pietro Aretino (Venice, 1551)" in Vittoria Colonna: Carteggio raccolto e pubblicato da Ermanno Ferrero e Giuseppe Müller (Turin, 1892), pp. 150-51.
Maud F. Jerrold, Vittoria Colonna: with some account of her friends and her times (London, 1906), p. 114.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), pp. 80-81.
Seymour de Ricci and W.J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Vol. I (New York, 1935), p. 935, no. 34.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 251.
Alan Bullock. "Four Unpublished Autographs by Vittoria Colonna in American and European Libraries, Together with New Data for a Critical Edition of Her Correspondence." Italica (Summer, 1972), pp. 202-204.
Paul Oskar Kristeller. Iter italcium accedunt alia itinera: a finding list of uncatalogued or incompletly catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries, vol. V (London, 1990), p. 222, no. 34.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley, "A Sentimental Traveler: Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice" in Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), p. 39.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." Rivista di storia della miniatura (2012), pp. 91, 94.
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffery F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), p. 233, no. 2.
Shannon McHugh, "The Mythical, Powerful Vittoria Colonna," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/mythical-powerful-vittoria-colonna
Maria (Fletcher) Roscoe. Vittoria Colonna: her life and poems (London, 1868) pp. 356-57.
Vittoria Colonna. "Lettere scritte a Pietro Aretino (Venice, 1551)" in Vittoria Colonna: Carteggio raccolto e pubblicato da Ermanno Ferrero e Giuseppe Müller (Turin, 1892), pp. 150-51.
Maud F. Jerrold, Vittoria Colonna: with some account of her friends and her times (London, 1906), p. 114.
Isabella Stewart Gardner. A Choice of Manuscripts and Bookbindings from the Library of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fenway Court (Boston, 1922), pp. 80-81.
Seymour de Ricci and W.J. Wilson. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, Vol. I (New York, 1935), p. 935, no. 34.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 251.
Alan Bullock. "Four Unpublished Autographs by Vittoria Colonna in American and European Libraries, Together with New Data for a Critical Edition of Her Correspondence." Italica (Summer, 1972), pp. 202-204.
Paul Oskar Kristeller. Iter italcium accedunt alia itinera: a finding list of uncatalogued or incompletly catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries, vol. V (London, 1990), p. 222, no. 34.
Elizabeth Anne McCauley, "A Sentimental Traveler: Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice" in Elizabeth Anne McCauley et al. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Venice: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, 2004), p. 39.
Anne-Marie Eze. "Italian Illuminated Manuscripts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." Rivista di storia della miniatura (2012), pp. 91, 94.
Anne-Marie Eze in Jeffery F. Hamburger et al. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Newton: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; Cambridge: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2016), p. 233, no. 2.
Shannon McHugh, "The Mythical, Powerful Vittoria Colonna," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 30 November 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/mythical-powerful-vittoria-colonna
MarksNotesEmbossed (front of binding): Coat of arms of Innocent XIII (Michelangelo Contri r.1721-1724)
Embossed (back of binding): Coat of arms of Cardinal Agostino Spinola (about 1482-1537)
Embossed (back of binding): Coat of arms of Cardinal Agostino Spinola (about 1482-1537)
ProvenanceNotesPossibly entered the collection of Roman aristocrat and author Baron Pietro Ercole Visconti (1803-1880) from the Archivio Colonna in Rome.
Collection of the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Charles Eliot Norton on 3 April 1908 for $2,000 with other manuscripts.
Collection of the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Charles Eliot Norton on 3 April 1908 for $2,000 with other manuscripts.
Unknown
before 4 December 1899
Object/Enclosure
Object/Provenance
