They were further united by another bond, which was their common interest in poetry.

The Marchioness of Pescara was justly celebrated during her lifetime as one of the most natural writers of Italian verse.

Her poems consist principally of sonnets consecrated to the memory of her husband, or composed on sacred and moral subjects.
Penetrated by genuine feeling, and almost wholly free from literary affectation, they have that dignity and sweetness which belong to the spontaneous utterances of a noble heart.

Whether she treats of love or of religion, we find the same simplicity and sincerity of style.

There is nothing in her pious meditations that a Christian of any communion may not read with profit, as the heartfelt outpourings of a soul athirst for God and nourished on the study of the gospel.
Michelangelo preserved a large number of her sonnets, which he kept together in one volume.