Il poema cinquecentesco sulla beata Colomba da Rieti (1476-1501) e l’immagine della protagonista nello spettro delle donne mistiche nordeuropee

The aim of this study is the analysis of a poem in Latin hexameters – "Columbeidos" – about the Dominican tertiary Colomba da Rieti (1476-1501), written around 1580 by the Dominican Niccolò Alessi (1509?-1585) and recently edited by Andrea Maiarelli. In the first part an overview of the poem is provided, which shows some similarities to the previous hagiographic text concerning Colomba written by another Dominican father, Sebastiano Angeli (m. 1521). The second part of the study follows a method of textual analysis developed by Romana Guarnieri. She argues that series of themes – or "topoi" – can be identified in hagiographies of European women mystics on a comparative basis. Therefore, the application of this method of textual analysis to Colomba's hagiographical poem will lead to a partial extension to the hagiographies of other medieval female mystics.