Rome, Sept. 21: Some of Michelangelo’s love poetry, which he had intended to publish with a dedication to his muse, Vittoria Colonna, is to be published as a collection for the first time.

The poems, written more than 450 years ago, were never published together as he had planned, possibly because of his artistic workload. Colonna, the Marchesa di Pescara, had struck him with her sculptural beauty and the depth of her mourning for her husband. But she died before he could publish the poetry.

The 80 works, edited by Jonathan Nelson, a leading Michelangelo scholar, are to be brought out next month in the order that the author chose. They have been described by Italian critics as “shot through with an inner torment”.

One critic, Martco Carminati, said: “In his statues, Michelangelo exalts the external physicality of Man, while in his verses he probes into his inner abysses.”

Among the poems, which the artist wanted to publish in 1545 when he was 70, are meditations on a series of dilemmas about beauty, love and death.