VERONICA GAMBARA. — Poetess, born at Pralabono in the Brescian district on 30 Nov. 1485, died on 13 June 1550 in a suburban villa which she had enriched with paintings by Antonio Allegri. At the age of twenty-three she married Gilberto X of Correggio, who died young, successfully repulsing the army of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. She obtained substantial privileges for her two sons, Geronimo and Ippolito, from Charles V. Colonna, Pietro Bembo, Benedetto Varchi, Jacopo Sannazzaro, and Pierio Valeriano.
She composed Rime (Brescia 1759; Florence 1879) in a Petrarchan style, among which are some religious poems dedicated to the Virgin, to the Nativity of Christ, to the mystery of predestination, and to the necessary concord among Christian peoples in the struggle against the Turks. Her Lettere (Florence 1879) are of notable significance; her intelligence reveals itself capable of the art of governance, highly sensitive to family affections and to the literary taste of poetry.