A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gonzaga, Colonna Ippolita
GONZAGA, COLONNA IPPOLITA.
Don Ferrante Gonzaga, one of the most renowned captains of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, had very singular ideas on the subject of education; ideas that met with little approval among his own sex at that day, and would find as little at present. He said that all exercises of the head and intellect tended to render men good for nothing; that military discipline, the use of arms, skill in horsemanship, were to be taught young noblemen; their moral training was to be patience, perseverance, long-suffering, bravery. As to women, it was quite another thing; their domain was in-doors; and as it was good for the world that science and literature should advance and embellish life, and add to its comforts, somebody must attend to these; nothing more clear, then, argued Don Ferrante, than that this is "woman's mission."
He had an opportunity of acting upon this theory, for he was the father of ten sons, all younger than his daughter Ippolita, who was born in 1535. She had, from her infancy, masters of the first intelligence for every science; and nature having endowed her with uncommon ability, her progress in every department of literature soon rendered her famous. Her father, becoming governor of Milan, brought her into a brilliant and courtly circle, where her personal charms, and the wealth and importance of her family attracted many suitors, undeterred by her extraordinary learning. She formed a marriage of love with Fabrizio Colonna, a Roman nobleman, who had distinguished himself in a military capacity. This union seems to have been one of great happiness; but it was of short duration. Fabrizio died in the flower of youth. His widow, after the manifestation of violent grief, sought solace in literature. Her house soon became the resort of all the eminent writers of the age; the most extravagant tributes of admiration were offered to her by the poets; nor were scientific or grave writers behind-hand in pouring out homage to a woman whose beauty, high rank, and talents, seemed to warrant this sort of adulation. In the meantime, her brothers grew up in the greatest ignorance; her uncle, the Cardinal Ercule, Bishop of Mantua, interceded in favour of the heir of the family, Don Cesare; he urged his brother to allow his eldest son some few of the advantages he had lavished on his daughter! In vain! Don Ferrante, firm to his theory, refused that the smallest part of the "ample page of knowledge" should be "unrolled" to the modern Caesar.
Ippolita formed a second union with the Count Caraffa, but it was productive of nothing but misery. The Count Caraffa, took umbrage at the crowd of literati and artists who surrounded his wife. She was not willing to abandon her habits and tastes; discord was fomented by the count's mother, a narrow-minded woman, who detested her daughter-in-law: these disputes resulted in a legal separation; upon which occasion Ippolita received a letter from her father breathing the tenderest consolation, and recalling his darling to the bosom of her family. She was received with tenderness, but her spirits were broken. She gradually declined in health, and died at the age of twenty-eight.
She left a volume of poems, among which is celebrated a sonnet written on the death of Irene of Spilimberg.