ABSTRACT
On New Year’s Day of 1557, the young widow Cornelia Collonello, living in a small provincial town in the duchy of Urbino, wrote to her deceased husband’s employer and patron in Rome, Michelangelo Buonarroti. Although the first extant, the letter’s contents indicate that it was but one in an ongoing correspondence, while its form carefully blends filial affection and dutiful respect:
Like a most loving father, I have written to you twice, as I think you have seen, about the receipt that you sent me, and, as I’ve done the other times, I send you my thanks. As for what I can do for you, I ask only that you command me, and I beg you to come in the future, if not earlier, to Casteldurante, where you will see me and Michelangiolo and Giovansimone, who are as dear to you as though they were your own sons, who, with me, commend themselves to you from the heart. Since today is the new year, and since it is our custom here to recognize our patrons, I am sending to you a bundle of eight pounds of cheese. I regret that I must send it tomorrow, since I wanted to send you some handkerchiefs that I have had made, together with some other things that aren’t yet finished. But, because the courier wants to leave, I will send them another time. In the meantime, I beg you for the love of God that, if you need anything, you will not hesitate to ask me; you could not do anything that would be dearer to me. With this, I commend myself to you: enjoy the cheese with our love. Ugulino too commends himself to you and offers to you any service. The first day of January 1557. Like a most loving daughter/ Cornelia1
* For the warm reception and extraordinary access to the Urbania archive, I offer my most profound appreciation to its director, Dottor Feliciano Paoli, and for their spirited and tireless help, I thank his staff, especially Anita Guerra and Laura Benedetti. In Florence, the director of the Archivio Buonarroti, Dottoressa Pina Ragionieri welcomed me, and Dottoresse Elena Lombardi and Elisabetta Archi introduced me to the riches of their holdings.
