DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0100
CHAPTER V
1491—1493
Correspondence of Isabella with her family and friends; with
merchants and jewellers—Her intellectual interests—Love of
French romances and classical authors—Greek and Hebrew
translations and devotional works — Fra Mariano and
Savonarola — Antonio Tebaldeo — Isabella’s friendships —
Niccolo da Correggio—Sonnets and eclogues composed for
her—Her love of music—Songs and favourite instruments
—Atalante Migliorotti’s lyre -— Isabella’s camerino in the
Castello — Liombeni decorates her studiolo — Mantegna
returns from Rome — Paints Isabella’s portrait — Giovanni
Santi at Mantua.
Nothing is more remarkable in the history of
Isabella than the vast correspondence which she
carried on with the most different personages on the
greatest variety of subjects. Her appetite for news
was insatiable, her curiosity boundless. There was
nothing which did not excite her interest, from the
most important affairs of state down to the newest
fashion in dress or jewellery, from the most recent
discoveries in the New World or the last cantos of
Ariosto’s “ Orlando ” to the purchase of a carved
turquoise or a Persian kitten. And she entered into
the smallest details on these subjects with the same
keen zest, and gave her orders with the same clearness
and minuteness, whether the defence of the State or
the painting of an illuminated missal were in question.
The correspondence which she kept up with her
relatives alone during these first years after her mar-
riage must have occupied many hours. She wrote
1491—1493
Correspondence of Isabella with her family and friends; with
merchants and jewellers—Her intellectual interests—Love of
French romances and classical authors—Greek and Hebrew
translations and devotional works — Fra Mariano and
Savonarola — Antonio Tebaldeo — Isabella’s friendships —
Niccolo da Correggio—Sonnets and eclogues composed for
her—Her love of music—Songs and favourite instruments
—Atalante Migliorotti’s lyre -— Isabella’s camerino in the
Castello — Liombeni decorates her studiolo — Mantegna
returns from Rome — Paints Isabella’s portrait — Giovanni
Santi at Mantua.
Nothing is more remarkable in the history of
Isabella than the vast correspondence which she
carried on with the most different personages on the
greatest variety of subjects. Her appetite for news
was insatiable, her curiosity boundless. There was
nothing which did not excite her interest, from the
most important affairs of state down to the newest
fashion in dress or jewellery, from the most recent
discoveries in the New World or the last cantos of
Ariosto’s “ Orlando ” to the purchase of a carved
turquoise or a Persian kitten. And she entered into
the smallest details on these subjects with the same
keen zest, and gave her orders with the same clearness
and minuteness, whether the defence of the State or
the painting of an illuminated missal were in question.
The correspondence which she kept up with her
relatives alone during these first years after her mar-
riage must have occupied many hours. She wrote