A Long and Troubled Pilgrimage: The Correspondence of Marguerite D'Angoulême and Vittoria Colonna 1540-1545 (review)

224 Reviews Gospel, as well as linking the evangelist symbols to one ofthe four major events in the life of Jesus: the man with the Incarnation; the lion with the Resurrection; the ox with the Crucifixion and the eagle with the Ascension. Cohen's exposition of these symbols is perhaps the most sustained and clear account I have read. He then points out how the accompanying imagery in each ofthe border compartments reflect too thefirstpericopes in each Gospel in their iconography. In hisfinalsection Cohen discusses briefly the various stylistic influences played out in the manuscript as well as discussing in a more focused way the Codex's geometrical schemata and the sources of the tituli. It is, unusually, in thefinalsection that he also discusses the production of the manuscript, linking i t to the intellectual environment in Regensburg and in particular to such figures as the monk Hartwic of St Emmeram, who had studied liberal arts at Chartres and had contributed to the St E m m e r a m library, as well as to other noted scholars and to St Emmeram's reputation as a center of education. Ufa's contribution i s less easily demonstrated as is the possibility of the manuscript's production in Niedermunster itself. Cohen argues that, like other books associated with nunneries, the content of the work resists a gendered interpretation. This section is perhaps the most open to challenge, alAeHogh his argusKmeats are compelling. While I do think that more could be made of the femak audience and patron of this work, Cohen has ably demonstrated the significance of the Uta Codex in the development of Ottonian manuscripts and its connections to Regensburg's scriptoria and intellectual culture. H e also demonstrates how fruitful this approach can be for the study of a particular manuscript. Judith Collard Art History and Theory University ofOtago Collett, Barry, A Long and Troubled Pilgrimage: The Correspondence of Marguerite D'Angouleme and Vittoria Colonna 1540-1545 (Studies in Reformed Theology and History N e w Series 6), Princeton, Princeton Theological Seminary, 2000; pp. xix, 155; R R P US$12.00; ISBN 1889980099. The appearance of this volume is a tribute to the memory of a long-standin and much valued member of A N Z A M E M S ' s precursors, Dr Heather Vose. The original preface she and Barry Collett wrote together in 1990 underlines our loss. Reviews 225 Thefivesurviving letters are included in the original Italian in Appendix D and in modem translation into English in Appendix B. Appendix A gives details of their provenance and publication as well as a discussion of letters which once existed but are now lost. Appendix C is a list of Biblical citations and allusions. Appendix E is a translation of the dedication of A d a m Fumano's edition of a work of St Basil to Vittoria Colonna - and Appendix F contains selected letters from other eminent theologians and scholars - Luigi Alamanni, Pier Paulo Vergerio and Reginald Pole - to Vittoria and Marguerite. The relationship of these two women, each in their own sphere important players in the dangerous game ofRenaissance religious politics as well as creative writers and patrons, must lead any reader to seek more information than is likely to appear, even encoded - some of Vittoria's passages are well described as 'tortuously obscure' (p.xix) - in formal letters which were probably read by various interested parties in the process of transmission. H o w far their sex and gender affected their approach to one another, beyond a brief and possibly conventional reference to childbirth, adds imaginative interest to the interchange. Barry Collett has tiptoed cautiously through a careful analysis of the text in which he strives to set them in the context of a catholic reformation that is currently being reassessed by modem scholars. The links between humanism and evangelism evolved at various levels and illustrate various degrees of complexity all of which must be taken into account when examining quasi-formal letters as literary artefacts which can, nevertheless be persuaded to yield implications beyond their outer skin. Marguerite, in France, was part of the Briconnet circle and did not hesitate to entertain...