DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0190
154
MILANESE REFUGEES
on the 31st of July 1501, she wrote joyfully to tell her
friend Messer Lorenzo that the beautiful clavichord
which he had made for her sister, the Duchess of
blessed memory, had been given her by Messer
Galeazzo Pallavicino, the husband of her cousin,
Elisabetta Sforza. “ And I felt,” she adds, “ that
I must let you know this, feeling sure you will be
glad to hear it was in my hands, being as it is your
work, and so excellent an instrument that it must
always be very dear to me.” 1
At the same time, she showed the real warmth
of her heart by the tenderness with which she treated
the unfortunate Milanese exiles who came to seek
refuge at Mantua. Many of these were kinsfolk of
the Sforzas, or high-born ladies whom she had known
intimately at the Moro’s court. Among them, strange
to say, were Lodovico’s two mistresses, the accom-
plished Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli. Isa-
bella entertained Cecilia courteously, and afterwards
recommended her to the favour of the French king,
as a lady of rare gifts and charm, while Lucrezia and
her two little sons found an asylum in the Rocca of
Canneto, and lived there many years under the pro-
tection of the Gonzagas.2 Another distinguished
visitor who spent some weeks at Mantua that
winter was the Marchesa’s unfortunate cousin, Isa-
bella of Aragon, whose only son had been carried off
to France by Louis XII., and who, with her two
young daughters, was now on her way to Bari.
The two Sanseverino brothers, Antonio Maria,
with his wife Margherita Pia—an intimate friend
of Isabella—and the brave Captain Fracassa, also
1 Lorenzo Gusnasco, Carlo dell’ Acqua, p. 20.
2 Luzio in Arch. St. Lomb., 1901, p. 154.
MILANESE REFUGEES
on the 31st of July 1501, she wrote joyfully to tell her
friend Messer Lorenzo that the beautiful clavichord
which he had made for her sister, the Duchess of
blessed memory, had been given her by Messer
Galeazzo Pallavicino, the husband of her cousin,
Elisabetta Sforza. “ And I felt,” she adds, “ that
I must let you know this, feeling sure you will be
glad to hear it was in my hands, being as it is your
work, and so excellent an instrument that it must
always be very dear to me.” 1
At the same time, she showed the real warmth
of her heart by the tenderness with which she treated
the unfortunate Milanese exiles who came to seek
refuge at Mantua. Many of these were kinsfolk of
the Sforzas, or high-born ladies whom she had known
intimately at the Moro’s court. Among them, strange
to say, were Lodovico’s two mistresses, the accom-
plished Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli. Isa-
bella entertained Cecilia courteously, and afterwards
recommended her to the favour of the French king,
as a lady of rare gifts and charm, while Lucrezia and
her two little sons found an asylum in the Rocca of
Canneto, and lived there many years under the pro-
tection of the Gonzagas.2 Another distinguished
visitor who spent some weeks at Mantua that
winter was the Marchesa’s unfortunate cousin, Isa-
bella of Aragon, whose only son had been carried off
to France by Louis XII., and who, with her two
young daughters, was now on her way to Bari.
The two Sanseverino brothers, Antonio Maria,
with his wife Margherita Pia—an intimate friend
of Isabella—and the brave Captain Fracassa, also
1 Lorenzo Gusnasco, Carlo dell’ Acqua, p. 20.
2 Luzio in Arch. St. Lomb., 1901, p. 154.