a woman. This error persisted until Caesare
Guasti, in his edition of 1863, re-established the exact text, but
nevertheless did not dare admit that Tommaso dei Cavalieri was a real
person and forced himself to believe that Vittoria Colonna was concealed
under the fictitious name. Mezieres in his "L'OEuvre et la Vie de
Michelange," published in 1876, repeated this same mistake, which was
only finally denounced and corrected by Scheffler and Symonds in 1878.

Tommaso dei Cavalieri, according to Vasari and Varchi, was "a young
Roman gentleman, devoted to art and of incomparable personal beauty,"
whom Michelangelo met in the autumn of 1532. It is in 1533-1534 that
this friendship reached its height and inspired his most ardent poems
and letters. Cavalieri remained a faithful friend to Michelangelo to his
very last hour, at which indeed he was present. He made use of this
friendship only for the good of his friend. Not only did he take devoted
care of the old man in his last years, but he saw to the carrying out of
his wishes while he was alive and after his death. It was he who
persuaded him to complete the wooden model of the dome of St. Peter's
and who preserved his plans for the construction of the Capitol. Their
names would always be associated together even if his beauty had not
inspired some of Michelangelo's most perfect sonnets.[51]

All these attachments, however, were to be eclipsed by his friendship
with Vittoria Colonna. She was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, Lord of
Paliano, Prince of Tagliacozzo, and of Agnesena di Montefeltro, daughter
of the great Federigo, Duke of Urbino. She had married Ferrante
Francesco d'Avalos, Marquis di Pescara, the victor of Pavia, who treated
her badly, but whom she loved. A widow since 1525, she had turned for
consolation to religion and poetry. Her sonnets, in which she sang her
idealised love, had been well known throughout Italy since 1530 and had
won for her a fame unique among the women of her day. She was a friend
of all the great poets and great writers: Bembo, Castiglione who
entrusted to her the manuscript of his "Cortegiano," Ariosto who
celebrated her in his Orlando, Paul Jove, Bernardo Tasso and Ludovico
Dolce. But after 1534 religion absorbed her and she was carried away by
the movement for the reform and regeneration of the Catholic Church.
Although she was a friend of all the men who personified in Italy this
spirit of religious freedom, Cardinal Contarini and Ca