Genevra Sforza (ca. 1441–1507) lived her long life near the apex of Italian Renaissance society as wife of two successive de facto rulers of Bologna: Sante then Giovanni II Bentivoglio. Placed twice there without a dowry by Duke Francesco Sforza as part of a larger Milanese plan, Genevra served her family by fulfilling the gendered role demanded of her by society, most notably by contributing eighteen children, accepting many illegitimates born to Giovanni II, and helping arrange their future alliances for the success of the family at large. Based on contemporary archival research conducted across Italy, this biography presents Genevra as the object of academic study for the first time. The book explores how Genevra’s life-story, filled with a multitude of successes appropriate for an elite fifteenth-century female, was transformed into a concordant body of misogynistic legends about how she destroyed the Bentivoglio and the city of Bologna.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations of Archives and Libraries
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. Genevra Sforza de’ Bentivoglio (ca. 1441–1507):
- Lost and Found in Renaissance Italy
- 2. Twice Bentivoglio
- Genevra Sforza on the Marriage Market (1446–1454 and 1463–1464)
- 3. Genevra Sforza and Bentivoglio Family Strategies
- Creating and Extending Kinship on a Massive Scale
- 4. Genevra Sforza in Her Own Words
- Patron and Client Relationships from Her Correspondence
- 5. The Wheel of Fortune
- Genevra Sforza and the Fall of the Bentivoglio (1506–1507)
- 6. Making and Dispelling Fake History
- Genevra Sforza and Her ‘Black Legends’ (1506–present)
- Conclusions
- Index
- Illustrations, Tables, Figures, and Documents
- Figure 1.1: Portrait medal (in lead) of Genevra Sforza by Antonio Marescotti, ca. 1454. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Obverse inscription reads: DIVAE GENEVRAE SFORTIA BENTIVOLLAE; reverse: flat and blank. (Genevra age ca. 13, at the time of h
- Figure 1.2: Diptych Portrait of Giovanni II Bentivoglio and Genevra Sforza by Ercole de’ Roberti, ca. 1475. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Genevra age ca. 34)
- Figure 1.3: Bentivoglio Family Donor Portrait by Lorenzo Costa, Church of San Giacomo, Bologna, 1488. Children, left to right: Camilla, Bianca, Francesca, Eleonora, Violante, Laura, Isotta, Ermes, Alessandro, AntonGaleazzo, Annibale II. (Genevra age ca. 4
- Figure 1.4: A portion of Genevra’s biography (including individualised woodcut) in Giacomo Filippo Foresti [also Jacobus Philippus Bergomensis], De plurimis claris selectisque mulieribus (Ferrara: Laurentius de Rubeis, 1497), f. 164; image (detail) from J
- Document 1.1 Vita of Genevra Sforza by Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti from his collection of women’s lives entitled Gynevera de le clare donne (early 1490s, held at ASBO); published by Ricci and Bacchi della Lega, eds., Gynevera de le clare donne (Bolog
- Document 1.2 A Sforza-Bentivoglio Family Tree
- Table 3.1 GENEVRA SFORZA’S EIGHTEEN PREGNANCIES, ca. 1457–ca. 1482
- Table 3.2 THE BENTIVOGLIO CHILDREN (in chronological order; illegitimates italicised)
- Table 3.3 BENTIVOGLIO AS GODPARENTS IN BOLOGNA
- Table 3.4 POLITICAL DESTINIES OF BENTIVOGLIO CHILDREN (in chronological order; illegitimates in italics)
- Table 3.5 WEDDING FESTIVITIES OF BENTIVOGLIO OFFSPRING (illegitimates in italics)
- Table 3.6 ECCLESIASTICAL VOCATIONS OF BENTIVOGLIO OFFSPRING (illegitimates in italics)
- Map 3.1 Political Destinies of Bentivoglio Offspring
- Figures 6.1 and 6.2: These two 1911 postcards feature the hybrid reconstruction of Palazzo Bentivoglio at the Emilia pavilion built for the Esposizione nazionale in Rome. The top card features the front entry side of the building while the card below show
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