A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Arragon, Joan of
ARRAGON, JOAN OF,
Was the wife of Ascanio Colonna, prince of Tagliacozza, who was made grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, by Charles the Fifth, in 1520. He assisted the imperial forces when Rome was besieged, under the command of Bourbon, in 1527, and obtained a great reputation for bravery and military skill. Like all the petty sovereigns of that age of war and violence, his life was one of vicissitude and agitation. He died in the state prison of Castel Nuovo, at Naples, in 1557.
Of Joan herself, there are no anecdotes recorded. Nothing is known of the events of her life; but a more widely-spread contemporary celebrity is attached to few women. All the writers of her epoch, speak of her in terms that appear hyperbolical, so very extravagant are their epithets—divine, perfect, adorable, are the least of these. She is very much commended for her good judgment, practical sense, courage, and fortitude; but we are no where told how or where she exerted these qualities. Agostine Ninfo, a physician and philosophic writer, in speaking of perfect beauty, proposes Joan of Arragon as an example. Eulogies were composed to her honour by the greatest wits of her time; and in most languages, as Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Sclavonic, Polonese, Hungarian, and even Hebrew and Chaldean; one of the most singular monuments, undoubtedly, that gallantry ever raised to female merit. This homage was decreed her in 1555, at Venice, in the Academy of Dubbiosi, and a volume was published there in 1558, a few years before her death, with this magnificent title, "Temple to the divine Lady Signora Joan of Arragon—constructed by all the most elegant minds, in all the polite languages of the world." She died in 1577.