ABOUT THIS BOOK

Isabella d’Este (1474–1539), daughter of the Este dukes of Ferrara and wife of Marchese Francesco II Gonzaga of Mantua, co-regent of the Gonzaga state, art collector, musician, diplomat, dynastic mother, traveler, reader, gardener, fashion innovator, and consummate politician, was also, as this volume attests, a prolific letter writer with a highly developed epistolary network. Presented here for the first time in any language is a representative selection from over 16,000 letters sent by Isabella to addressees across a wide social spectrum. Together, they paint a nuanced and colorful portrait of a brilliant and influential female protagonist of early modern European society.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Deanna Shemek is Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she currently holds the Gary Licker Memorial Chair in Cowell College. She is author of Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order in Early Modern Italy (1998) and numerous other works on the Italian Renaissance. She co-directs the online project IDEA: Isabella d’Este Archive.

REVIEWS

"Deanna Shemek’s translation of 830 letters of Isabella d’Este does not disappoint. She has selected letters that demonstrate the variety of Isabella’s interests and document a life that was both long and extraordinarily dramatic. We see the marchioness evolve intellectually, politically and culturally, against the backdrop of a volatile political climate and a rapidly changing diplomatic scene, to become a shrewd political actor and an ever more discerning patron of the arts. Shemek has produced an epistolary voice for her subject that is a welljudged amalgam of dignified formality and colloquial ease. The translation captures just how well the marchioness communicated with a very large cast of correspondents and for a huge range of purposes. This collection provides rare insight into the social, cultural, and political world of the Italian Renaissance — as seen through one powerful woman’s eyes."

— Carolyn James, Monash University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Letters of Isabella d’Este
1. 1479–1499: Letters 1–200 21
2. 1500–1509: Letters 201–420 141
3. 1510–1519: Letters 421–608 307
4. 1520–1529: Letters 609–748 441
5. 1530–1539: Letters 749–830 535
Weights, Measures, and Time 583
Genealogical Tables 585
Glossary of Names 593
Abbreviations 647
Bibliography 649
Index 669