Genevra Sforza and the Bentivoglio : : Family, Politics, Gender and Reputation in (and beyond) Renaissance Bologna / / Elizabeth Bernhardt.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Bernhardt, Elizabeth,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Gendering the Late Medieval and Early Modern World ; 19
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Illustrations, Tables, Figures, and Documents -- 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