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Mirjam M Foot, A Binding Made For Isabella d’Este, c. 1502, The Library, Volume 25, Issue 4, December 2024, Pages 453–460, https://doi.org/10.1093/library/fpae039
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THERE IS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY A COPY of Francesco Petrarca, Le cose volgari, Venice (Aldus), 1501, in octavo, printed on parchment, that has on sig. a iir the painted arms of Isabella d’Este, marchioness of Mantua. A detailed study of the binding and Isabella d’Este’s correspondence with Lorenzo da Pavia suggest that she was indeed its first owner, that this copy was bound for her and was in her library when she died.
Isabella d’Este was an interesting and powerful woman. She was born in Ferrara on 17 May 1474, the daughter of Ercole I d’Este, duke of Ferrara, and Eleanor of Naples, the daughter of Ferdinand I, king of Naples. She had one sister, Beatrice (b. 29 June 1475) and four brothers: Alfonso (b. 1476), Ferrante (b. 1477), Ippolito (b. 1479) and Sigismondo (b. 1480). Isabella was intelligent and very well educated, proficient in Roman history, Greek and Latin. While travelling with her mother, she met several painters, musicians, writers and scholars. Having been betrothed in 1480, at the age of six, to Francesco Gonzaga (1466–1519), heir to the Marquis of Mantua, she was married to him by proxy ten years later, thus becoming Marchioness of Mantua. As captain of the armies of the Republic of Venice, Francesco was frequently absent in Venice, while Isabella stayed in Mantua at La Reggia, the Gonzaga family seat, where her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga became her close friend. Isabella and Francesco had eight children: five daughters, two of whom died young, and three sons, one of whom, Ercole, became bishop of Mantua and, at the age of 20, a cardinal. Isabella’s brother Alfonso married in 1502 Lucrezia Borgia, who a year later would become Francesco Gonzaga’s mistress.
