She left a volume of poems, among which is celebrated a sonnet written on the death of Irene of Spilimberg.
GONZAGA-COLONNA, JULIA,
Duchess of Traietto, and Countess of Fondi, was married, when very young, to Duke Vespasian Colonna, a man older than her father; but it seems he gained her heart. She was, in a few years after her marriage, left a widow, rich, exceedingly beautiful, and "the great attractions of her person were surpassed, if possible, by the qualifications of her mind." The first noblemen in Italy made proposals for her hand; but notwithstanding the duke her husband had been old and infirm, she paid the highest respect to his memory, and determined never to marry a second time. The fame of her charms extended beyond her own country, and at length reached the Ottoman Porte. The Sultan, Soliman the Second, determined to obtain her by force, as he could not gain her by other means. The commander of his navy, Ariadne Barbarossa, undertook to seize and carry her off; arriving at Fondi in the night, with two thousand soldiers, he found little difficulty in scaling the walls. The inhabitants of Fondi, alarmed by the appearance of the invaders, and ignorant of the purpose for which they had come, rushed out of their houses, uttering the most doleful shrieks. The beauful duchess, awakened by these cries of terror, escaped from her chamber-window, and fled to the mountains, where she was assailed by fresh terrors, for a desperate banditti made these mountains their haunt. She fell into their hands; but, moved by her appeals, or restrained by divine providence, these outcasts treated her with respect, and restored her to freedom.
The duchess devoted her time chiefly to literature, and her genius, beauty, and virtues, gained her many flattering tributes from the distinguished philosophers and poets of that age. Bernardo Tasso, father of Torquato, complimented her by name in his "Amadis;" and after her decease, which occurred April 19th., 1566, Ariosto thus commemorates her:—
"Giulia Gonzaga che doTxmque il piede
Volge e dovunque i sereni occhi gira
Non pur ogn' altxa di belt& la cede,
Ma come Dea dal ceil scesa l’ammira."
Julia was suspected of Lutheranism; and though she never acknowledged this, yet as she died without the usual Catholic ceremonies, the presumption is, that she was Protestant in her heart.
GONZAGA, ELEONORA,
Daughter of Francis the Second, Marquis of Mantua, was united, when very young, to the Duke of Urbino. She was celebrated for her devotion to her husband, who was deposed by Pope Leo the Tenth, in favour of Lorenzo de Medicis. The duke would have sunk under this misfortune, but for the strength of mind and tenderness of his wife. On the death of Lorenzo in 1492, the dukedom was restored to its rightftd owner. Two sons and three daughters were the fruit of this union. Eleonora, by the chastity and severity of her manners, reformed the morals of her court.
