DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0103
CORRESPONDENCE OF ISABELLA 71
weekly letters to her mother at Ferrara, to her sister
Beatrice and Lodovico Sforza at Milan, to Elisabetta
Gonzaga at Urbino, and corresponded frequently
with her half-sister Lucrezia Bentivoglio and her
husband, as well as with her own brothers. Alfonso
d’Este, her eldest brother, was deeply attached to this
sister, who was only two years older than himself,
and who shared his literary and artistic tastes. One
day in the autumn of 1490, after paying Isabella a
visit at Mantua, he sent her a long description of a
tournament at Bologna, in which his brother-in-law
Annibale Bentivoglio appeared in the guise of
Fortune and Count Niccolo Rangone figured as
Wisdom. Both princes were attended by pages in
French, German, Hungarian and Moorish costumes,
and recited allegorical verses and broke lances after
the approved fashion of the day. “ I cannot tell
you,” writes the enthusiastic boy, “how gallantly
Messer Annibale bore himself, but I felt sorry for
Count Niccolo when his horse stumbled and fell.”
A few months later he wrote to tell his sister that
a new island had been discovered on the coast of
Guinea, and sent her drawings of the strange race
of men who dwelt there and of their horses and
clothes, as well as of the trees and products of the
country.
The choice of new robes and jewels, of furs and
c amor as naturally took up a large part of Isabella’s
time and thoughts in these early days. She was in
constant communication with merchants and gold-
smiths, with embroiderers and engravers of gems.
Countless were the orders for rings, seals, diamond
rosettes and arrows, rubies, emeralds, and enamels
which she sent to her agents at Ferrara and Venice.
weekly letters to her mother at Ferrara, to her sister
Beatrice and Lodovico Sforza at Milan, to Elisabetta
Gonzaga at Urbino, and corresponded frequently
with her half-sister Lucrezia Bentivoglio and her
husband, as well as with her own brothers. Alfonso
d’Este, her eldest brother, was deeply attached to this
sister, who was only two years older than himself,
and who shared his literary and artistic tastes. One
day in the autumn of 1490, after paying Isabella a
visit at Mantua, he sent her a long description of a
tournament at Bologna, in which his brother-in-law
Annibale Bentivoglio appeared in the guise of
Fortune and Count Niccolo Rangone figured as
Wisdom. Both princes were attended by pages in
French, German, Hungarian and Moorish costumes,
and recited allegorical verses and broke lances after
the approved fashion of the day. “ I cannot tell
you,” writes the enthusiastic boy, “how gallantly
Messer Annibale bore himself, but I felt sorry for
Count Niccolo when his horse stumbled and fell.”
A few months later he wrote to tell his sister that
a new island had been discovered on the coast of
Guinea, and sent her drawings of the strange race
of men who dwelt there and of their horses and
clothes, as well as of the trees and products of the
country.
The choice of new robes and jewels, of furs and
c amor as naturally took up a large part of Isabella’s
time and thoughts in these early days. She was in
constant communication with merchants and gold-
smiths, with embroiderers and engravers of gems.
Countless were the orders for rings, seals, diamond
rosettes and arrows, rubies, emeralds, and enamels
which she sent to her agents at Ferrara and Venice.