Daughter of: Cunimund, King of the Gepids.
Wife of:
1. Alboin, King of the Lombards
2. Helmichis, her lover; 3) Longinus, Exarch of Ravenna.
Her lover was:
Helmichis.
Ugo of Italy
King Hugh of Italy.
"On the subject of concubines, we hear from Liutprand of Cremona that King Hugh of Italy had several mistresses. Hugh detested his second wife, Berta, widow of King Rudolf, and loved three of his concubines especially. These were Pezola of servile origin who was called Venus; Roza who was called Juno although her father was beheaded; and Stephania who was called Semele. They were jealous of each other and kept bickering but all bore him children whom the king placed in influential positions. But concubines had no legal pretensions; their future depended upon the will of their master and their children." (A History of Women in the West: Silences of the Middle Ages: 184)
References:
The Early History of the House of Savoy, 1000-1233.
ITALIAN ARISTOCRATS.
Her lover was:
Helmichis.
Ugo of Italy
King Hugh of Italy.
"On the subject of concubines, we hear from Liutprand of Cremona that King Hugh of Italy had several mistresses. Hugh detested his second wife, Berta, widow of King Rudolf, and loved three of his concubines especially. These were Pezola of servile origin who was called Venus; Roza who was called Juno although her father was beheaded; and Stephania who was called Semele. They were jealous of each other and kept bickering but all bore him children whom the king placed in influential positions. But concubines had no legal pretensions; their future depended upon the will of their master and their children." (A History of Women in the West: Silences of the Middle Ages: 184)
References:
The Early History of the House of Savoy, 1000-1233.
ITALIAN ARISTOCRATS.
Aldobrandino II Orsini
1420/40-1472)
5th Conte di Pitigliano.
Son of: Nicola Orsini, 4th Conte di Pitigliano & Nola & Luigia Orsini.
Husband of:
1. Bartolomea Orsini, daughter of Carlo Orsini, Signore di Bracciano & Paola Gironima Orsini
2. Penelope Orsini.
His lovers were:
1) Penelope Orsini (d.1465)
" . . . Niccolo Orsini, 1442-1510, third Count of Pitigliano, a general in the service of Venice. In 1465 he killed his cousin Penelope Orsini, his father's mistress, and her son because she had had Niccolo's brother poisoned so that her own son could succeed the count in the rule of Pitigliano." (Terrell: 115)
2) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Unnamed child,
Alvise II Malipiero.
Italian a senator.
His lover was:
Rosalie Astrodi (1733-1756)
Italian singer, dancer, and actress.
"By her eighteenth year Teresa was the mistress of seventy-six-year-old Senator Malipiero. In his house she met, and was of course overcome by, Giacomo Casanova, by whom she had a daughter. . . ." (Highfill: 502)
". . . Seventy-six-year-old bachelor Alvise Malpiero II was the head of a patrician family whose name has been inscribed in the famous Libro d'Oro, or Golden Book, of Venetian nobility since 1297. . . Malpiero remained extremely sociable, however, and despite regular and severe attacks of gout that left him crippled in every limb he still held court every night to the cream of Venetian society in his vast salon on the piano nobile of his Byzantine palazzo on the Grand Canal. . . . Although he had never married, Malipiero often boasted that he had taken twenty mistresses during his lifetime, and claimed that he had only stopped at that number when he had realised the futility of trying to please yet another one." (Casanova's Women: 62)
His lover was:
Genevieve d'Urfe, Duchesse de Croy (d.1656)
" . . . The ambassador did not hesitate to enlist Montmorency, alongside Ambrogio Spinola's mistress, the Duchess of Croy, Genevieve d'Urse, in order to obtain swift and favourable settlements to his affairs." (The Politics of Female Households: 141)
Venetian nobleman, statesman & diplomat.
Governor of Padua 1775
Ambassador to Constantinople 1777; Procuratore di San Marco 1785.
Husband of: Elisabetta Piovene, married in 1769.
"Memmo di San Marcuola: Probably Andrea Memmo (1729-1793), Venetian patrician, diplomat, and Senator, who married Elisabetta Piovene in 1769 and became Procurator in 1785. Different branches of a Venetian patrician family added to their names a determinative drawn from the name of the parish in which they lived. The Church of San Marcuola is on the Grand Canal near the Palazzo Vendramin." (History of My Life: 304)
Physical Traits& Personal Qualities: ". . . Andrea was tall and vigorous---handsome in a Venetian sort of way, with the long aquiline nose that was typical of many patrician profiles. His sharp mind was tuned to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, and was possessed of the natural self-confidence that came with his class---assured as he was of his place in the Venetian oligarchy. . . . " (Robilant, 2007, n.p.)
His lovers were:
1) Giustiniana Wynne (1737-1791)
Countess Rosenberg-Orsini.
Anglo-Venetian author.
Daughter of: Sir Richard Wynne & Anna Gazini
Wife of: Philipp Josef, Graf von Rosenberg-Rosini (1691-1765), mar 1761, Imperial ambassador to Venice.
Lover in 1753-1760.
" . . . Giustiniana Wynne, 'a beautiful half-English, half-Venetian adventuress,' in Kelly's words, was pregnant with her lover Andrea Memmo's child when her mother arranged for her to marry a rich old man. The timing was terrible. She needed an abortion, both illegal and dangerous, so she wrote to Memmo's friend Casanova to ask for help. . . ." (Bently, NYT)
" . . . The letters were written by Andrea Memmo, one of Venice's most prestigious citizens, to Giustiniana Wynne, the illegitimate daughter of an Englishman, Sir Richard Wynne, and a Greek-born Venetian woman of dubious origin. For about five years in the 1750s, Andrea and Giustiniana had a scandalous affair. . . ." (New Yorker)
2) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Unnamed child,
Alvise II Malipiero.
Italian a senator.
His lover was:
Rosalie Astrodi (1733-1756)
Italian singer, dancer, and actress.
"By her eighteenth year Teresa was the mistress of seventy-six-year-old Senator Malipiero. In his house she met, and was of course overcome by, Giacomo Casanova, by whom she had a daughter. . . ." (Highfill: 502)
". . . Seventy-six-year-old bachelor Alvise Malpiero II was the head of a patrician family whose name has been inscribed in the famous Libro d'Oro, or Golden Book, of Venetian nobility since 1297. . . Malpiero remained extremely sociable, however, and despite regular and severe attacks of gout that left him crippled in every limb he still held court every night to the cream of Venetian society in his vast salon on the piano nobile of his Byzantine palazzo on the Grand Canal. . . . Although he had never married, Malipiero often boasted that he had taken twenty mistresses during his lifetime, and claimed that he had only stopped at that number when he had realised the futility of trying to please yet another one." (Casanova's Women: 62)
His lover was:
Genevieve d'Urfe, Duchesse de Croy (d.1656)
" . . . The ambassador did not hesitate to enlist Montmorency, alongside Ambrogio Spinola's mistress, the Duchess of Croy, Genevieve d'Urse, in order to obtain swift and favourable settlements to his affairs." (The Politics of Female Households: 141)
 |
| Andrea Memmo |
Andrea Memmo (1729-1793).
Venetian nobleman, statesman & diplomat.
Governor of Padua 1775
Ambassador to Constantinople 1777; Procuratore di San Marco 1785.
Husband of: Elisabetta Piovene, married in 1769.
"Memmo di San Marcuola: Probably Andrea Memmo (1729-1793), Venetian patrician, diplomat, and Senator, who married Elisabetta Piovene in 1769 and became Procurator in 1785. Different branches of a Venetian patrician family added to their names a determinative drawn from the name of the parish in which they lived. The Church of San Marcuola is on the Grand Canal near the Palazzo Vendramin." (History of My Life: 304)
Physical Traits& Personal Qualities: ". . . Andrea was tall and vigorous---handsome in a Venetian sort of way, with the long aquiline nose that was typical of many patrician profiles. His sharp mind was tuned to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, and was possessed of the natural self-confidence that came with his class---assured as he was of his place in the Venetian oligarchy. . . . " (Robilant, 2007, n.p.)
His lovers were:
 |
| Giustiniana Wynne Countess Rosenberg-Orsini |
Countess Rosenberg-Orsini.
Anglo-Venetian author.
Daughter of: Sir Richard Wynne & Anna Gazini
Wife of: Philipp Josef, Graf von Rosenberg-Rosini (1691-1765), mar 1761, Imperial ambassador to Venice.
Lover in 1753-1760.
" . . . Giustiniana Wynne, 'a beautiful half-English, half-Venetian adventuress,' in Kelly's words, was pregnant with her lover Andrea Memmo's child when her mother arranged for her to marry a rich old man. The timing was terrible. She needed an abortion, both illegal and dangerous, so she wrote to Memmo's friend Casanova to ask for help. . . ." (Bently, NYT)
" . . . The letters were written by Andrea Memmo, one of Venice's most prestigious citizens, to Giustiniana Wynne, the illegitimate daughter of an Englishman, Sir Richard Wynne, and a Greek-born Venetian woman of dubious origin. For about five years in the 1750s, Andrea and Giustiniana had a scandalous affair. . . ." (New Yorker)
"Happy to flirt with him as she was, Giustiniana was not interested in Casanova. Although her Venetian mother was trying to marry her off to a wealthy many she detested -- France's Farmer General, arts patron Alexandre de la Riche de la Poupliniere, she was already pregnant by her secret lover, Venetian nobleman Andrea Memmo, whom she had been forced to leave behind in Venice. Since she knew that Casanova was a friend of Memmo's Giustiniana turned to him for advice about procuring an abortion -- a mark both of her desperation and of the confidence the adventurer inspired in women...." (Summers, 2012, p. 250)
Persona or Character: ". . . Giustiniana too stood out in those assemblies. Behind that innocent, awestruck gaze was a lovely girl brimming with life. She was bright, alert, and possessed of a quick sense of humor. Andrea was instantly taken with her. She was so different from the other young women of his set---familiar, in a way, for after all she was a Venetian born and raised, yet at the same time very distinctive, even a little exotic, not only on accaount of her English blood but also because of her unique character." (Robilant, 2007, n.p.) [Bio2] [Ref1] [Ref2:Casato Renier] [Ref3:Dicocorate2]
2) Mariettina Corner.
Persona or Character: ". . . Giustiniana too stood out in those assemblies. Behind that innocent, awestruck gaze was a lovely girl brimming with life. She was bright, alert, and possessed of a quick sense of humor. Andrea was instantly taken with her. She was so different from the other young women of his set---familiar, in a way, for after all she was a Venetian born and raised, yet at the same time very distinctive, even a little exotic, not only on accaount of her English blood but also because of her unique character." (Robilant, 2007, n.p.) [Bio2] [Ref1] [Ref2:Casato Renier] [Ref3:Dicocorate2]
2) Mariettina Corner.
A well-known seductress.
"The story of Andrea's presumed affair with Mariettina had all the ingredients of a Goldoni farce. It turned out that Andrea, at Mariettina's request, had acted as a go-between in her secret romance with Piero...." (di Robilant, 2007, p. 40)
" . . . Andrea was also flirting with Mariettina Corner, another well-known seductress. Mariettina's love live was complicated enough as it was: she was married to Lucrezia's brother, had an official lover and was having an affair with yet a third man, Piero Marcello---a gambler and philanderer who happened to be a neighbor of the Wynnes'. Giustiniana was told that though Mariettina was carrying on a relationship with Piero, it was really Andrea she had her eyes on." (Robilant, 2005, p. 40)
References for Andrea Memmo.
A Venetian Affair (Excerpt)
A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century.
Andrea Tron.
Procuratore di San Marco.
His lover was:
Caterina Dolfin (1736-1793).
"Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, Andrea Tron." (Gozzi: 9)
" . . . Finally,. he had made an implacable enemy of a great lady, who at that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the Grand Council. Caterina's husband was popularly known as Il Padrone, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued like Gratarol, with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so." (Gozzi: 8)
Anfrosina di Pietramala.
Her lover was:
Montedoglio.
" . . . Amphrosina of Pietra Mala, mistress of Montedoglio, was deprived of her estates, and went a solitary refuge with her daughters, to beg their subsistence from the Duke of Milan." (Pignotti: 96)
"Anfrosina, daughter of Count Gioacchino di Montedoglio (or Monte d'Oglio), was the widow of Carlo di Bartolomeo di Maso (or Masio) Tarlati da Peitramala, and controlled a part of the Arentine contado near Anghiari... The ancestral Pietramala was some five miles northeast of Arezzo, where the Tarlati had once had a castello...Anfrosina had constant complaints about Florentine intrusions into her state, which she apparently hoped to maintain and even extend... In his Istoire florentine, Cavalcanti remarked on her extreme hatred of Florence...." (The Free Library) [Ref1:Free Library] [Ref2:Tarot History] [Ref3:Treccani]
Bianca Fieschi.
Her lover was:
Lorenzo Alberti.
Natural offspring:
1) Carlo Alberti.
2) Leon Battista Alberti.
References for Andrea Memmo.
A Venetian Affair (Excerpt)
A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century.
Andrea Tron.
Procuratore di San Marco.
His lover was:
Caterina Dolfin (1736-1793).
"Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, Andrea Tron." (Gozzi: 9)
" . . . Finally,. he had made an implacable enemy of a great lady, who at that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the Grand Council. Caterina's husband was popularly known as Il Padrone, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued like Gratarol, with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so." (Gozzi: 8)
Anfrosina di Pietramala.
Her lover was:
Montedoglio.
" . . . Amphrosina of Pietra Mala, mistress of Montedoglio, was deprived of her estates, and went a solitary refuge with her daughters, to beg their subsistence from the Duke of Milan." (Pignotti: 96)
"Anfrosina, daughter of Count Gioacchino di Montedoglio (or Monte d'Oglio), was the widow of Carlo di Bartolomeo di Maso (or Masio) Tarlati da Peitramala, and controlled a part of the Arentine contado near Anghiari... The ancestral Pietramala was some five miles northeast of Arezzo, where the Tarlati had once had a castello...Anfrosina had constant complaints about Florentine intrusions into her state, which she apparently hoped to maintain and even extend... In his Istoire florentine, Cavalcanti remarked on her extreme hatred of Florence...." (The Free Library) [Ref1:Free Library] [Ref2:Tarot History] [Ref3:Treccani]
Bianca Fieschi.
Her lover was:
Lorenzo Alberti.
Natural offspring:
1) Carlo Alberti.
2) Leon Battista Alberti.
"The quintessential 'Renaissance man', Leon Battista Alberti was illegitimate. Although we know a great deal about Alberti's views on family life and about his own illegitimacy, we know little about his mother, Bianca di Carlo Fieschi, who bore the name of an illustrious Genoese family and who was the widow of a Grimaldi. Leon Battista was born in 1404; his father was Lorenzo Alberti, an exiled Florentine patrician. The reasons why Fieschi and Alberti did not marry are obscure. Bianca gave birth to another son, Carlo (who appears to have been named after her father) and she died in the plague of 1406. Lorenzo Alberti then married a Florentine." (Lawless)
Ambiguous Relationship: ". . . (T)he nature of Lorenzo's affair with Bianca Fieschi remains ambiguous in terms of this debate. Theirs may have been a passionate affair, but it also seems to have been stable and perhaps rational in Lionardo's terms. It was not technically a marriage, however. . . . " (Kuehn: 166)
Personal & Family Background: "On this scale of illegitimacy Battista Alberti stoop at the top, among the naturales. He was born in 1404, the second son of concubinage established in exile by his father, Lorenzo, with Bianca di Carlo Fieschi, daughter of a Genoese patrician family and widow of a Grimaldo, another powerful clan of that city. . . . " (Kuehn: 161)
Carlo Gozzi (1720-1806)
Venetian aristocrat, dramatist & memorialist.
His lover was:
Teodora Ricci.
[Ref1:Bondanella]
Camillo Cardinal Pamphilij, Principi di Valmontone.
His lover was:
 |
| Leonora Baroni |
Italian singer, theorbist, lutenist and composer
" . . . Although officially married to one Giulio Castellani, secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, her true role was as mistress of Prince Camillo Pamphili. . . ." (Anthony & Hayer: 14)
Carlo Gesualdo, Principe da Venosa (1566-1613)
3rd Principe da Venosa, 8th Conte di Conza
Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, prince, statesman & murderer
Leonora d'Este
Gesualdo was the second son of Fabrizio II Gesualdo and Girolama Borromeo.
He married 1) in 1586, his first cousin, Maria d'Avalos, the daughter of the Marchese di Pescara, and 2) Leonora d'Este, niece of Duca Alfonso II.
References: [Bio2:about.com] [Ref1:Irrational Geographic] [Ref2:Martin Basso] [Ref3:classical.com] [Ref4:Music Web] [Ref5:Rest is Noise] [Ref6:Thought Crime] [Ref7:allmusic.com] [Ref8:nme] [Ref9:musicologie] [Ref10:160] [Ref11:n.p.:Wilson]
Chiara Zorzi, Duchess-Regent of Athens (d.1454)
Daughter of: Niccolo III Zorzi, Titular Margrave of Bodonitsa.
Wife of:
Duke of Athens 1435 & 1441.
2) Bartolomeo Contarini, mar 1453)
Her lover was:
Bartolomeo Contarini
"Nerio's death was followed by one of those tragedies in which the women of Frankish Greece were so often protagonists, and of which a modern dramatist might well avail himself. After the death of his first wife, Nerio II had married a passionate Venetian beauty, Chiara Zorzi, or Giorgio, one of the daughters of the baron of Karystos, or Castel Rosso, in the south of Euboea, who sprang from the former Marquesses of Boudonitza. The Duchess Chiara bore him a son, Francesco, who was unfortunately still a minor at the time of his father's death. The child's mother possessed herself of the regency and persuaded the Porte, by the usual methods, to sanction her usurpation. Soon afterwards, however, there visited Athens on some commercial errand a young Venetian noble, Bartolomeo Contarini, whose father had been governor of the Venetian colony of Nauplia. The Duchess fell in love with her charming visitor, and bade him aspire to her hand and land. Contarini replied that alas! he had left a wife behind him in his palace on the lagoons... It was the age of great crimes. Contarini realised that Athens was worth a murder, poisoned his spouse, and returned to enjoy the embraces and the authority of the Duchess." (Essays on the Latin Orient, n.d. , p. 150)
"Meanwhile, the Ottomans also ended the Florentine Duchy of Athens and Thebes. In 1451 Nerio II died. His son Francesco was a minor. Nerio's young widow, Chiara, had a lover, a Venetian, Bartholomeo Contarini, whose father commanded the Venetian town of Nauplia. Bartholomeo was already married to a lady in Venice. Wanting to marry Chiara, he escaped the sin of bigamy by murdering his Venetian wife. Then he married Chiara and, as guardian for Francesco, took over the governorship of the duchy. He seems to have been an arbitrary ruler who stirred up much opposition among the local Greeks. They complained to the sultan, who had not been happy to see a Venetian ruling the duchy. The sultan summoned Bartholomeo to his court; Bartholomeo, upon obeying the summons, was thrown into jail." (Fine, 1994, p. 568)
 |
| Costanza Bonarelli |
Her lovers were:
1) Matteo Bonarelli.
later her husband.
2) Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
3) Luigi Bernini.
[Ref1:NYBooks]
[Ref2:NYT]
1) Matteo Bonarelli.
later her husband.
2) Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
3) Luigi Bernini.
[Ref1:NYBooks]
[Ref2:NYT]
 |
| Cunizza da Romano |
(1198-1279)
Daughter of: Ezzelino II da Romano, Signore da Treviso & Adelaide di Mangona.
Wife of:
1) Riccardo di San Bonifacio, Signore da Verona
2) Aimerio di Conte di Braganze.
Her lovers were:
Enrico da Bovio
a knight:
" . . . Cunizza da Romano . . . married (for political advantage) to a Guelph leader from Verona, she was the lover for several years of the troubadour poet Sordello (Valley of Rulers). Cunizza later had a love affair with the knight da Bovio, with whom she traveled extensively. After Enrico was killed in a battle between her brothers Alberico and Ezzelino, Cunizza married (at Ezzelino's bidding) a certain Count Aimerio; legend has it that, following the count's death, she married a nobleman from Verona and later (after his death?) her brother Ezzelino's astrologer from Padua. . . ." (The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Diving Comedy:251)
Sordello da Goito
Italian poet
Cunizza da Romano's lover
Sordello da Goito, 13th century Italian troubadour-poet (1200/10-1269): "The real Sordello . . . was the most famous of the Italian troubadours. About 1220 he was in a tavern brawl in Florence; and in 1226, while at the court of Ricciardo da Bonifazio in Verona, he abducted his master's wife, Cunizza, at the instigation of her brother, Ezzelino da Romano. The scandal resulted in the flight (1229) to Provence, where he seems to have remained for some time. He entered the service of Charles of Anjou, and probably accompanied him (1225) on his Naples expedition; in 1266 he ws a prisoner in Naples. The last documentary mention of him is in 1269, and he is supposed to have died in Provence. . . ." (Wikipedia)
Ezzelino II da Romano
Cunizza's father
"...This blessed soul, whose name will be revealed in line 31, is Cunizza da Romano (1198-1279), sister of the tyrant Azzelino da Romano... During her life, she had four husbands and two lovers. She first married Riccardo di San Bonifazio in 122 for political reasons, and she ran away--some say she was abducted---with the troubadour Sordello..., with whom she had lived for several years. Cunizza then eloped with Enrico di Bovio and apparently lived in a luxurious life before her husband was killed. After his death, she married Count Almerio (or Neimerio) di Braganza. Following his death, she wed a Veronese gentleman; when he died, Cunizza married her brother's astrologer, Salione Buzzacarini. After he fourth husband died, she went to live in Florence and freed her father's and brother's slaves in 1265. Cunizza was very generous with her love and her acts of compassion." (Alighieri, et. al., 2010, n.p.) [Ref1:251-252] [Ref2:192-195]
Dolcino de' Tornielli di Novara.
His lover was:
Margherita di Trento.
". . . Dolcino de' Tornielli di Novara (in Piedmont, west of Milan), son of a priest, became head of the Apostolic Brothers (a heretical sect) after Gerardo Segarelli of Parma, who founded the group in 1260, was burned alive by the Inquisition in 1300. . . The Dolcinites, as they were called, held out for over a year until, forced by immine [?] to make a last stand, they were nearly all killed or taken prisoner in 1307. Dolcino was captured together with his companion, Margaret of Trent, a woman known for her beauty and said to be Dolcino's mistress; after Fra Dolcino, his body horribly mutilated, had been paraded through the streets in a wagon, he and Margaret were burned at the stake." (Raffa, p. 103)
Duque de Osuna
Viceroy of Naples
His lover was:
Vittoria Mendoza.
[Ref1:104] [Ref2:98]
Edoardo, Conte Tiretta di Treviso (1734-1809)
Governor of Bengal.
" . . . Cunizza da Romano . . . married (for political advantage) to a Guelph leader from Verona, she was the lover for several years of the troubadour poet Sordello (Valley of Rulers). Cunizza later had a love affair with the knight da Bovio, with whom she traveled extensively. After Enrico was killed in a battle between her brothers Alberico and Ezzelino, Cunizza married (at Ezzelino's bidding) a certain Count Aimerio; legend has it that, following the count's death, she married a nobleman from Verona and later (after his death?) her brother Ezzelino's astrologer from Padua. . . ." (The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Diving Comedy:251)
Italian poet
Cunizza da Romano's lover
Sordello da Goito, 13th century Italian troubadour-poet (1200/10-1269): "The real Sordello . . . was the most famous of the Italian troubadours. About 1220 he was in a tavern brawl in Florence; and in 1226, while at the court of Ricciardo da Bonifazio in Verona, he abducted his master's wife, Cunizza, at the instigation of her brother, Ezzelino da Romano. The scandal resulted in the flight (1229) to Provence, where he seems to have remained for some time. He entered the service of Charles of Anjou, and probably accompanied him (1225) on his Naples expedition; in 1266 he ws a prisoner in Naples. The last documentary mention of him is in 1269, and he is supposed to have died in Provence. . . ." (Wikipedia)
Cunizza's father
"...This blessed soul, whose name will be revealed in line 31, is Cunizza da Romano (1198-1279), sister of the tyrant Azzelino da Romano... During her life, she had four husbands and two lovers. She first married Riccardo di San Bonifazio in 122 for political reasons, and she ran away--some say she was abducted---with the troubadour Sordello..., with whom she had lived for several years. Cunizza then eloped with Enrico di Bovio and apparently lived in a luxurious life before her husband was killed. After his death, she married Count Almerio (or Neimerio) di Braganza. Following his death, she wed a Veronese gentleman; when he died, Cunizza married her brother's astrologer, Salione Buzzacarini. After he fourth husband died, she went to live in Florence and freed her father's and brother's slaves in 1265. Cunizza was very generous with her love and her acts of compassion." (Alighieri, et. al., 2010, n.p.) [Ref1:251-252] [Ref2:192-195]
Dolcino de' Tornielli di Novara.
His lover was:
Margherita di Trento.
". . . Dolcino de' Tornielli di Novara (in Piedmont, west of Milan), son of a priest, became head of the Apostolic Brothers (a heretical sect) after Gerardo Segarelli of Parma, who founded the group in 1260, was burned alive by the Inquisition in 1300. . . The Dolcinites, as they were called, held out for over a year until, forced by immine [?] to make a last stand, they were nearly all killed or taken prisoner in 1307. Dolcino was captured together with his companion, Margaret of Trent, a woman known for her beauty and said to be Dolcino's mistress; after Fra Dolcino, his body horribly mutilated, had been paraded through the streets in a wagon, he and Margaret were burned at the stake." (Raffa, p. 103)
Duque de Osuna
Viceroy of Naples
His lover was:
Vittoria Mendoza.
[Ref1:104] [Ref2:98]
Edoardo, Conte Tiretta di Treviso (1734-1809)
Governor of Bengal.
His lover was:
Angelica Lambertini (1714-1759)
"Count Edoardo Tiretta (1734-ca 1809), fled from Treviso to Paris in 1757; he later became Governor of Bengal." (History of My Life: 283)
"Although he resolved to behave well and avoid bad company, Casanova could not resist the temptation to stray. When Count Edoardo Tiretta, a penniless fellow-adventurer, turned up in Paris in February, bearing greetings from their mutual Venetian friend Signora Manzoni, Casanova accompanied him to the house of Angelica Lambertini, a wealthy widow famous for her libertine behaviour (she later insisted on telling Casanova all the details of her sexual encounters with Tiretta, whom she christened the 'Count of Six Fucks' after a number of times he had made love to her in one night)...." (Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women He loved: 211)
"As [Casanova]watched, [the aged libertine Angelica Lambertini] allowed her skirts to be lifted from behind by Conte Eduardo Tiretta of Treviso--an acquaintance of Casanova from Venice, known around Paris as 'Count Six Times,' 'le compte six fois,' a title Lambertini had recently insisted he live up to with Casanova as witness when he happened to meet them for breakfast. Tiretta had made love to her 'merely' five times through the previous night--a limit, it might be noted, deemed absolute and medically inviolable at the time." (Ivebeenreadinglatelyannex.tumblr)
Fabrizio II Carafa, Duca di Andria.
(d.1590)
His lover was:
Maria d'Avalos, Principessa da Venosa.
Daughter of: Marchese di Pescara.
Wife of: Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa & Conte di Conza, mar 1586.
"Shortly after Luigi's death, in 1586, young prince Carlo began to hear many of the lurid rumors concerning his beautiful first cousin, Donna Maria d' Avalos. Donna Maria, also an Italian aristocrat and close blood relative, was already twice widowed at the age of only twenty-five. As with Don Carlo, sordid innuendo surrounded the beautiful Donna Maria, who she herself came to be known as "il morte bella", or loosely-translated, "the beautiful death-bringer." Donna Maria, had a rumored and suspicious past, to say the least, and it was this very past and the rumors that surrounded cousin Donna Maria, to which the young, albeit psychotic, prince would later proclaim as God's will for "ordaining" their love. Journals of the day stated that Donna Maria's first husband, Federigo Carafa Marchese di' San Lucido, apparently died from an "excess of conjugal bliss(!!!)," and Sicilian Alfonso Gioeni, her second husband, reportedly "escaped" a similar fate by arranging for a rather timely divorce." (Martin Basso) [Ref1:Women in Myth & Legends] [Ref2:Literature Network] [Ref3:Hogan Blog] [Ref4:Martin Basso] [Ref5:Music Web] [Ref6:Online Literature]
Francesca Zatrillas (1642-?)
Marchesa di Siefuentes.
5th Contessa di Cugliere
4th Marchesa di Siefuentes
Her lover was:
Silvestro Aymerich of Conte di Villamar.
Francesco I da Carrara (1325-1393)
Signore di Padova.
Lord of Padua 1350
Imperial Vicar 1356
Lord of Feltre
Lord of Belluno 1360
Lord of Treviso 1381.
Son of: Giacomo II da Carrara.
His lover was:
Giustina Maconia
"...The strangest small bequest---of 200 lire---went to one of her husband's illegitimate children, Margherita da Carrara, born of Francesco's favorite paramour, Giustina Maconia, who was also the mother of his oldest natural son, the able condottiere Conte da Carrara...." (Reiss & Vilkins, 2001, p. 24)
Francesco Barbavara (d.1413/15)
Conte di Valsesia.
First Chamberlain to Duke of Milan
Regent of Milan
Count of Valsesia 1403
Count of Pietre Gemelle 1403.
His lover was:
Caterina Visconti (1361-1404)
Regent of Milan 1402-1404.
Daughter of: Bernabo Visconti, Signore di Milano & Beatrice Regina della Scalla.
Wife of: Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, mar 1380
" . . . They did not long remain faithful guardians to the trust which their master had reposed in them. They shared it with Catherine, widow of Gian Galeazzo, and Francesco Barbavara, supposed to be her lover, and known to have commenced his career as valet-du-chambre to the duke. . . ." (Sismondi, 1841, p. 148)
Francesco Casi
Francesco de Ventimiglia, Conti di Gerace.
"...Two marriages triggered everything. Early in 1316 the king's illegitimate daughter, Eleanora, was wedded to Giovanni Chiaromonte II, the ten-year-old son of Manfredi Chiaromonte, the count of Modica and Mohac, as well as the royal seneschal. The previous year young Giovanni's sister Costanza had married Francesco Ventimiglia, the count of Gerace and along with Manfredi one of the wealthiest and most prominent figures in the realm. But Francesco also kept a mistress, and by her he had 'a multitude of children' on whom he doted so excessively that he apparently professed no desire for any legitimate offspring who might displace those he already had. Costanza was 'made a stranger to his bedroom'; and soon Francesco began proceedings to obtain an annulment of his loveless marriage (on what grounds it is not clear) and the legitimation of his bastards---both of which ends he achieved thanks to his contacts at the papal court, where he had led an embassy on behalf of the government...." (Backman, 2002, p. 78)
Francesco Giberti.
Genoese Admiral of the Pope's Fleet.
His illegitimate son was:
Giammateo Gibert
[Ref:]
Angelica Lambertini (1714-1759)
"Count Edoardo Tiretta (1734-ca 1809), fled from Treviso to Paris in 1757; he later became Governor of Bengal." (History of My Life: 283)
"Although he resolved to behave well and avoid bad company, Casanova could not resist the temptation to stray. When Count Edoardo Tiretta, a penniless fellow-adventurer, turned up in Paris in February, bearing greetings from their mutual Venetian friend Signora Manzoni, Casanova accompanied him to the house of Angelica Lambertini, a wealthy widow famous for her libertine behaviour (she later insisted on telling Casanova all the details of her sexual encounters with Tiretta, whom she christened the 'Count of Six Fucks' after a number of times he had made love to her in one night)...." (Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women He loved: 211)
"As [Casanova]watched, [the aged libertine Angelica Lambertini] allowed her skirts to be lifted from behind by Conte Eduardo Tiretta of Treviso--an acquaintance of Casanova from Venice, known around Paris as 'Count Six Times,' 'le compte six fois,' a title Lambertini had recently insisted he live up to with Casanova as witness when he happened to meet them for breakfast. Tiretta had made love to her 'merely' five times through the previous night--a limit, it might be noted, deemed absolute and medically inviolable at the time." (Ivebeenreadinglatelyannex.tumblr)
Fabrizio II Carafa, Duca di Andria.
(d.1590)
His lover was:
 |
| Maria d'Avalos Principessa da Venosa |
Daughter of: Marchese di Pescara.
Wife of: Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa & Conte di Conza, mar 1586.
"Shortly after Luigi's death, in 1586, young prince Carlo began to hear many of the lurid rumors concerning his beautiful first cousin, Donna Maria d' Avalos. Donna Maria, also an Italian aristocrat and close blood relative, was already twice widowed at the age of only twenty-five. As with Don Carlo, sordid innuendo surrounded the beautiful Donna Maria, who she herself came to be known as "il morte bella", or loosely-translated, "the beautiful death-bringer." Donna Maria, had a rumored and suspicious past, to say the least, and it was this very past and the rumors that surrounded cousin Donna Maria, to which the young, albeit psychotic, prince would later proclaim as God's will for "ordaining" their love. Journals of the day stated that Donna Maria's first husband, Federigo Carafa Marchese di' San Lucido, apparently died from an "excess of conjugal bliss(!!!)," and Sicilian Alfonso Gioeni, her second husband, reportedly "escaped" a similar fate by arranging for a rather timely divorce." (Martin Basso) [Ref1:Women in Myth & Legends] [Ref2:Literature Network] [Ref3:Hogan Blog] [Ref4:Martin Basso] [Ref5:Music Web] [Ref6:Online Literature]
Francesca Zatrillas (1642-?)
Marchesa di Siefuentes.
5th Contessa di Cugliere
4th Marchesa di Siefuentes
Her lover was:
Silvestro Aymerich of Conte di Villamar.
Francesco I da Carrara (1325-1393)
Signore di Padova.
Lord of Padua 1350
Imperial Vicar 1356
Lord of Feltre
Lord of Belluno 1360
Lord of Treviso 1381.
Son of: Giacomo II da Carrara.
His lover was:
Giustina Maconia
"...The strangest small bequest---of 200 lire---went to one of her husband's illegitimate children, Margherita da Carrara, born of Francesco's favorite paramour, Giustina Maconia, who was also the mother of his oldest natural son, the able condottiere Conte da Carrara...." (Reiss & Vilkins, 2001, p. 24)
Francesco Barbavara (d.1413/15)
Conte di Valsesia.
First Chamberlain to Duke of Milan
Regent of Milan
Count of Valsesia 1403
Count of Pietre Gemelle 1403.
His lover was:
Caterina Visconti (1361-1404)
Regent of Milan 1402-1404.
Daughter of: Bernabo Visconti, Signore di Milano & Beatrice Regina della Scalla.
Wife of: Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, mar 1380
" . . . They did not long remain faithful guardians to the trust which their master had reposed in them. They shared it with Catherine, widow of Gian Galeazzo, and Francesco Barbavara, supposed to be her lover, and known to have commenced his career as valet-du-chambre to the duke. . . ." (Sismondi, 1841, p. 148)
Francesco Casi
Francesco de Ventimiglia, Conti di Gerace.
"...Two marriages triggered everything. Early in 1316 the king's illegitimate daughter, Eleanora, was wedded to Giovanni Chiaromonte II, the ten-year-old son of Manfredi Chiaromonte, the count of Modica and Mohac, as well as the royal seneschal. The previous year young Giovanni's sister Costanza had married Francesco Ventimiglia, the count of Gerace and along with Manfredi one of the wealthiest and most prominent figures in the realm. But Francesco also kept a mistress, and by her he had 'a multitude of children' on whom he doted so excessively that he apparently professed no desire for any legitimate offspring who might displace those he already had. Costanza was 'made a stranger to his bedroom'; and soon Francesco began proceedings to obtain an annulment of his loveless marriage (on what grounds it is not clear) and the legitimation of his bastards---both of which ends he achieved thanks to his contacts at the papal court, where he had led an embassy on behalf of the government...." (Backman, 2002, p. 78)
Francesco Giberti.
Genoese Admiral of the Pope's Fleet.
His illegitimate son was:
Giammateo Gibert
[Ref:]
Giacomo de Baballi di Ragusa.
His lover was:
Veronica Franco
Venetian poet & courtesan:
[Ref1:Robin, et. al., p. 153)
Giacomo Rossi di Parma.
His lover was:
Ginevra Terzi
"...Giacomo was also castigated for having a liaison with a married woman, Ginevra Terzi (whose family were bitter enemies of the Rossi), and for murdering her husband...." (Coing, 2000, p. 147)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-?)
His lover was:
Veronica Franco
Venetian poet & courtesan:
[Ref1:Robin, et. al., p. 153)
Giacomo Rossi di Parma.
His lover was:
Ginevra Terzi
"...Giacomo was also castigated for having a liaison with a married woman, Ginevra Terzi (whose family were bitter enemies of the Rossi), and for murdering her husband...." (Coing, 2000, p. 147)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-?)
His lover was:
Costanza Bonarelli
Wife of: Bernini's assistant
"Sometime in 1636 or 1637 Bernini found a willing playmate, a lusty, independent-minded, strong-willed woman capable of matching his passion and his ego. Her name was Costanza Piccolomini Bonarelli. She was young and presumably beautiful, at least in Bernini's eyes. His sensually wrought marble bust of her (today in the Bargello Museum in Florence) shows a full-faced (facciosa, the Italians would say), smooth-skinned woman, in a state of partial undress, full of vitality...." (Mormando, 2011, n.p.) [Bio1:Everything2] [Ref1:NYBooks] [Ref2:Getty]
Giovanni Andrea Bravo (d.1507)
His lover was:
Maria Giovanna della Rovere
"...When his sister was given an illegitimate child by a Veronese with the splendid name of Giovanni Andrea Bravo, Francesco Maria della Rovere immediately had Bravo stabbed to death." (Cronin, 2011, n.p.)
Giulia Campana.
Her lover was:
Luigi d'Aragona
" . . . After her arrival in Rome, Giulia had soon become the mistress of Ludovico d'Aragona who was descended from the royal house of Naples and who had been married to a Cybo princess -- from the papal family; when Ludovico d'Aragona became a widower, Alexander made him a cardinal. He was a cultivated man, the best protector Giulia could ever have aspired to. Moreover, he loved and kept her for a long time: when Tullia was born, he allowed her to carry his name. . . ." (Servadio: 40)
Giuseppe Rangone.
His lover was:
Maria Querini Benzon.
[Ref1:61:Norwich]
Guido Pignatelli, Comte d'Egmont (1720-1753)
9th Prince of Gavre
Prince de Steenuis
7th Duke of Bisaccia
13th Count of Egmont
Marquess of Renty
Baron of Cerignola
Baron of Riesi
Baron of Cipolla.
Son of: Procopio Carlo Pignatelli d'Egmont, Prince of Gavre (1703-1743) & Henriette-Julie de Durfort-Duras
Husband of: Amable-Angelique de Villars (1723-1771), mar 1744, natural daughter of Jean-Philippe d'Orleans who was natural son of Philippe II d'Orleans, Regent of France.
His lover was:
Rosalie Astrodi (1733-1756)
Italian singer, dancer, and actress.
". . . Gui Felix Pignatelli, Titular Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavre . . . , Grandee of Spain, officer in the French service." (Casanova, Vol. 8, 1997, p. 535)
" . . . Rosalie Astrodi. . . singer, dancer, and actress with the Comedie Italienne, elder sister of Marguerite Astrodi. . . ; after first being the mistress of the Count of Egmont, in 1756 she married the Sieur Pajot de Villiers." (Casanova, Vol. 8, 1997, p. 535) [Ref1]
". . . The police reports picked up her adventures in 1750, when Astrodi was in her early twenties. She was in the midst of a stormy affair with Count d'Egmont, a married military officer twelve years her senior. The police inspector reported the couple as being very much in love. The count's carriage took Astrodi to the theater and brought her back to a love nest outside Paris, in Chaillot, every night. Within six months, however, there were reports that the actress was secretly seeing other men and had accepted a regular income from a banker. By 1752, the inspector thought Astrodi ready to break with Egmont. The lover beat her when he found her with another man; she complained of neglect. He promised to be more attentive and was, in fact, prepared to bestow a 2,000-livre income on her. However, he tore up the document in her face when a servant alerted him to the presence of a young nobleman hidden in Astrodi's bedroom. That was the last straw for Egmont. . . ." (Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siecle:43-44)
Isotta da Magioli.
Her lovers were:
1) Alessandro d'Ercole Bentivoglio.
2) Giorgio de' Magioli.
"The match was broken off, but within a year of Pietro's renunciation another aspirant for Pellegrina's hand and dowry appeared in the person of a distinguished young foreigner---Conte Ulisee Bentivoglio de' Magioli da Bologna. He was reputed to be the natural son of Signore Alessandro d'Ercole Bentivoglio, and had been adopted by his maternal uncle, Conte Giorgio de' Magioli. His mother's name was Isotta---a beautiful girl at the Court of the Lords of Bologna, who had romantic relations with both Signore Alessandro and Conte Giorgio. Which of the two was Conte Ulisse's father mattered far less, from a matrimonial point of view, than the fact that the prospective bridegroom was unusually wealthy and well-placed." (Staley, 2006, p. 144)
Jacopo di Lionardo Strozzi.
His lover was:
Unknown mistress
" . . . Isabella (was) the daughter of Jacopo di Lionardo Strozzi by a slave in Valencia, Spain. Isabella, like many illegitimate children, were brought up by her father's kin because they could better support her and because children were considered to belong more to fathers than to mothers...." (Crabb, 2000, pp. 86-87)
Lorenzo Alberti (d.1421)
His lover was:
Bianca di Carlo Fieschi.
Natural Offspring:
Leon Battista Alberti
"Leon Battista was one of two illegitimate sons fathered by Lorenzo Alberti with a patrician Genoese widow (Bianca di Carlo Fieschi) during his exile from Florence. Leon Battista was recognized by his father, who made careful provisions for his upbringing, but he was never legitimated -- possibly because Lorenzo wished to father fully Florentine sons to carry on his name. In 1408, two years after the death of his Genoese consort, he married a Florentine woman, but had no further children. . . . " (Rubin, 2007, pp. 20-21)
"Lorenzo could have married Bianca Fieschi before her death---that would have legitimated Battista. Maybe, however, he had had no intention of marrying a Genoese but wanted to do eventually what he did in 1408---marry a Florentine. This marriage at least explains why Lorenzo did not legitimate his sons as long as he was married and had the hope of fathering legitimate, fully Florentine, sons. In the event, however, by the time of his death in Padua in 142, Lorenzo had had no other children. He could then have legitimated his boys by a last minute judicial declaration or merely by his express desire to do so communicated in his testament (by designating them his universal heirs)---a privilege available only to naturales. But, for whatever reason, Lorenzo chose not to. He merely left them a substantial legacy entrusted to the boys' uncle Ricciardo." (Kuehn, 1994, p.161)
Raising a Different Family -- and Its Consequence: "Architecture was (Leon Battista) Alberti's fame. . . He was born in 1404 in Genoa as the second natural son of Lorenzo Alberti, an exiled Florentine banker, and Bianca di Carlo Fieschi, a widow of the urban patriciate. He had an elder brother Carlo and he acquired as a boy a Florentine stepmother. His father recognized both of his illegitimate sons; he educated Leon Battista in a humanist gymnasium at Padua, then at the university of Bologna where he earned a doctorate in canon law. At the death of their father, then of their guardian, the Alberti brothers were deprived of their inheritance by certain kin. . . ." (Boyle: 145) [Ref1:Lawless]
Lorenzo Strozzi (1430-1479)
His lover was:
Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia.
Natural offspring:
1. Violante Strozzi
2. Giovanluigi Strozzi
"Around 1460 Lorenzo Strozzi had two children in Naples by Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, a woman of the humble classes. . . In 1467 Lorenzo found his mistress Caterina a husband, as men often did for the mothers of their illegitimate offspring. He gave her a dowry of two hundred florins." (Crabb, 2000, p. 182)
"Marietta's suitor, Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi, like many prosperous Florentines, had a mistress. What was more unusual about his situation was that the mistress does not appear to have been a slave or servant. We know nothing about his mistress, Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, apart from her bearing two children of Lorenzo's and her marriage to a Neapolitan in 1467. . . ." (Women on the Margins @ Academia)
In No Rush to Settle Down: "Filippo and Lorenzo were in their mid or late thirties before they married. Both had informal liaisons before they married, Filippo with a domestic slave, and Lorenzo with a lower-class Florentine woman, Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, who lived in Naples. Alessandra wrote to Filippo that she had heard about Marina and understood 'why you want to put off getting married for a year and why they're so slow in finding you a wife' [Letter 17]. Caterina da Sommaia bore Lorenzo two children, Violante and Giovanluigi. Before the birth of the first, Alessandra asked Filippo to tell her how Lorenzo was, 'and if he has had an heir, because Tommaso [Ginori] told me he was expecting one. You'll both be unmarried for so long that you'll have a dozen of them' [Letter 24]. . . ." (Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi, Bilingual Edition: 13-14)[Ref2:Crabb182] [Ref3:palazzostrozzi.org]
Husband of: Maria Mancini, mar 1661.
His lovers were:
1) Christina Dudley (1650-1719)
Costanza Bonarelli
Wife of: Bernini's assistant
"Sometime in 1636 or 1637 Bernini found a willing playmate, a lusty, independent-minded, strong-willed woman capable of matching his passion and his ego. Her name was Costanza Piccolomini Bonarelli. She was young and presumably beautiful, at least in Bernini's eyes. His sensually wrought marble bust of her (today in the Bargello Museum in Florence) shows a full-faced (facciosa, the Italians would say), smooth-skinned woman, in a state of partial undress, full of vitality...." (Mormando, 2011, n.p.) [Bio1:Everything2] [Ref1:NYBooks] [Ref2:Getty]
Giovanni Andrea Bravo (d.1507)
His lover was:
Maria Giovanna della Rovere
"...When his sister was given an illegitimate child by a Veronese with the splendid name of Giovanni Andrea Bravo, Francesco Maria della Rovere immediately had Bravo stabbed to death." (Cronin, 2011, n.p.)
Giulia Campana.
Her lover was:
Luigi d'Aragona
" . . . After her arrival in Rome, Giulia had soon become the mistress of Ludovico d'Aragona who was descended from the royal house of Naples and who had been married to a Cybo princess -- from the papal family; when Ludovico d'Aragona became a widower, Alexander made him a cardinal. He was a cultivated man, the best protector Giulia could ever have aspired to. Moreover, he loved and kept her for a long time: when Tullia was born, he allowed her to carry his name. . . ." (Servadio: 40)
Giuseppe Rangone.
His lover was:
Maria Querini Benzon.
[Ref1:61:Norwich]
Guido Pignatelli, Comte d'Egmont (1720-1753)
9th Prince of Gavre
Prince de Steenuis
7th Duke of Bisaccia
13th Count of Egmont
Marquess of Renty
Baron of Cerignola
Baron of Riesi
Baron of Cipolla.
Son of: Procopio Carlo Pignatelli d'Egmont, Prince of Gavre (1703-1743) & Henriette-Julie de Durfort-Duras
Husband of: Amable-Angelique de Villars (1723-1771), mar 1744, natural daughter of Jean-Philippe d'Orleans who was natural son of Philippe II d'Orleans, Regent of France.
His lover was:
Rosalie Astrodi (1733-1756)
Italian singer, dancer, and actress.
". . . Gui Felix Pignatelli, Titular Count of Egmont, Prince of Gavre . . . , Grandee of Spain, officer in the French service." (Casanova, Vol. 8, 1997, p. 535)
" . . . Rosalie Astrodi. . . singer, dancer, and actress with the Comedie Italienne, elder sister of Marguerite Astrodi. . . ; after first being the mistress of the Count of Egmont, in 1756 she married the Sieur Pajot de Villiers." (Casanova, Vol. 8, 1997, p. 535) [Ref1]
". . . The police reports picked up her adventures in 1750, when Astrodi was in her early twenties. She was in the midst of a stormy affair with Count d'Egmont, a married military officer twelve years her senior. The police inspector reported the couple as being very much in love. The count's carriage took Astrodi to the theater and brought her back to a love nest outside Paris, in Chaillot, every night. Within six months, however, there were reports that the actress was secretly seeing other men and had accepted a regular income from a banker. By 1752, the inspector thought Astrodi ready to break with Egmont. The lover beat her when he found her with another man; she complained of neglect. He promised to be more attentive and was, in fact, prepared to bestow a 2,000-livre income on her. However, he tore up the document in her face when a servant alerted him to the presence of a young nobleman hidden in Astrodi's bedroom. That was the last straw for Egmont. . . ." (Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women from the Old Regime to the Fin de Siecle:43-44)
Isotta da Magioli.
Her lovers were:
1) Alessandro d'Ercole Bentivoglio.
2) Giorgio de' Magioli.
"The match was broken off, but within a year of Pietro's renunciation another aspirant for Pellegrina's hand and dowry appeared in the person of a distinguished young foreigner---Conte Ulisee Bentivoglio de' Magioli da Bologna. He was reputed to be the natural son of Signore Alessandro d'Ercole Bentivoglio, and had been adopted by his maternal uncle, Conte Giorgio de' Magioli. His mother's name was Isotta---a beautiful girl at the Court of the Lords of Bologna, who had romantic relations with both Signore Alessandro and Conte Giorgio. Which of the two was Conte Ulisse's father mattered far less, from a matrimonial point of view, than the fact that the prospective bridegroom was unusually wealthy and well-placed." (Staley, 2006, p. 144)
Jacopo di Lionardo Strozzi.
His lover was:
Unknown mistress
" . . . Isabella (was) the daughter of Jacopo di Lionardo Strozzi by a slave in Valencia, Spain. Isabella, like many illegitimate children, were brought up by her father's kin because they could better support her and because children were considered to belong more to fathers than to mothers...." (Crabb, 2000, pp. 86-87)
Lorenzo Alberti (d.1421)
His lover was:
Bianca di Carlo Fieschi.
Natural Offspring:
Leon Battista Alberti
"Leon Battista was one of two illegitimate sons fathered by Lorenzo Alberti with a patrician Genoese widow (Bianca di Carlo Fieschi) during his exile from Florence. Leon Battista was recognized by his father, who made careful provisions for his upbringing, but he was never legitimated -- possibly because Lorenzo wished to father fully Florentine sons to carry on his name. In 1408, two years after the death of his Genoese consort, he married a Florentine woman, but had no further children. . . . " (Rubin, 2007, pp. 20-21)
"Lorenzo could have married Bianca Fieschi before her death---that would have legitimated Battista. Maybe, however, he had had no intention of marrying a Genoese but wanted to do eventually what he did in 1408---marry a Florentine. This marriage at least explains why Lorenzo did not legitimate his sons as long as he was married and had the hope of fathering legitimate, fully Florentine, sons. In the event, however, by the time of his death in Padua in 142, Lorenzo had had no other children. He could then have legitimated his boys by a last minute judicial declaration or merely by his express desire to do so communicated in his testament (by designating them his universal heirs)---a privilege available only to naturales. But, for whatever reason, Lorenzo chose not to. He merely left them a substantial legacy entrusted to the boys' uncle Ricciardo." (Kuehn, 1994, p.161)
Raising a Different Family -- and Its Consequence: "Architecture was (Leon Battista) Alberti's fame. . . He was born in 1404 in Genoa as the second natural son of Lorenzo Alberti, an exiled Florentine banker, and Bianca di Carlo Fieschi, a widow of the urban patriciate. He had an elder brother Carlo and he acquired as a boy a Florentine stepmother. His father recognized both of his illegitimate sons; he educated Leon Battista in a humanist gymnasium at Padua, then at the university of Bologna where he earned a doctorate in canon law. At the death of their father, then of their guardian, the Alberti brothers were deprived of their inheritance by certain kin. . . ." (Boyle: 145) [Ref1:Lawless]
Lorenzo Strozzi (1430-1479)
His lover was:
Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia.
Natural offspring:
1. Violante Strozzi
2. Giovanluigi Strozzi
"Around 1460 Lorenzo Strozzi had two children in Naples by Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, a woman of the humble classes. . . In 1467 Lorenzo found his mistress Caterina a husband, as men often did for the mothers of their illegitimate offspring. He gave her a dowry of two hundred florins." (Crabb, 2000, p. 182)
"Marietta's suitor, Lorenzo di Matteo Strozzi, like many prosperous Florentines, had a mistress. What was more unusual about his situation was that the mistress does not appear to have been a slave or servant. We know nothing about his mistress, Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, apart from her bearing two children of Lorenzo's and her marriage to a Neapolitan in 1467. . . ." (Women on the Margins @ Academia)
In No Rush to Settle Down: "Filippo and Lorenzo were in their mid or late thirties before they married. Both had informal liaisons before they married, Filippo with a domestic slave, and Lorenzo with a lower-class Florentine woman, Caterina di Chimenti da Sommaia, who lived in Naples. Alessandra wrote to Filippo that she had heard about Marina and understood 'why you want to put off getting married for a year and why they're so slow in finding you a wife' [Letter 17]. Caterina da Sommaia bore Lorenzo two children, Violante and Giovanluigi. Before the birth of the first, Alessandra asked Filippo to tell her how Lorenzo was, 'and if he has had an heir, because Tommaso [Ginori] told me he was expecting one. You'll both be unmarried for so long that you'll have a dozen of them' [Letter 24]. . . ." (Selected Letters of Alessandra Strozzi, Bilingual Edition: 13-14)[Ref2:Crabb182] [Ref3:palazzostrozzi.org]
(1637-1689)
Husband of: Maria Mancini, mar 1661.
His lovers were:
Natural offspring:
a. Maria Colonna (1665-1750)
2) Comtesse Stella.
3) Maria Virginia Borghese, Princess Chigi.
4) Marquise Paleotti.
Lucrezia Scaglione.
Wife of: Paolo Carafa.
Her lover was:
Charles de Lannoy
Viceroy of Naples:
"Lucrezia Scaglione was a famous Neapolitan beauty 'whose vivacity and renown had captivated the viceroy Lannoy [a former viceroy of Naples]'. In the winter of 1527-8 her beauty led a young courtier to attempt to climb a rope down to her bedchamber, but instead he fell to his death, thus immortalizing her reputation. According to the historian Paolo Giovio, who attended the imperial court in Naples, Charles did not want to appear melancholy, so he 'has worn a mask, and paid a visit to Lucrezia Scaglione, who is more beautiful than ever. Surrounded by equally beautiful maidens, Lucrezia was the hit of the party and caused a stir by freely insulting the looks of the young Duke of Alba, the viceroy's nephew. In later years Juan ended letters to Cobos by adding a special greeting from a Lucrezia, with whom Cobos had a notorious reputation, and his eye for women probably caused him to burn all his personal correspondence. Valdes's greeting from Lucrezia may well have been from the famous Neapolitan beauty Lucrezia Scaglione." (Crews, 2008, p. 98)
"Lucrezia Scaglione, the wife of Paolo Carafa and the mistress of the Viceroy of Naples, was indeed fast; Charles V said 'although she was not born a titled lady, among all those dames she was famous and celebrated and treated herself as if titled, courageous, of excellent conversation and beautiful!' Victoria Colonna wrote an epigram about her but none of her epigrams have survived." (Servadio, 2006, p. 73)
Maria d'Aquino.
Illegitimate daughter of: King Roberto of Naples.
[Ref1] [Ref2]
Her lover was:
Giovanni Boccaccio
"1336: Giovanni Boccaccio met Maria d'Aquino, the illegitimate daughter of King Robert of Naples. Maria d'Aquino inspired Giovanni Boccaccio in prose and verse as Fiammetta. Although Maria d'Aquino was married she entered in (sic) an affair with the besotted Giovanni Boccaccio." (The Middle Ages Website)
"By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in 1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world...." (Brogan, trans., p. 3)
Pellegrina Buonaventuri.
Daughter of: Pietro Buonaventuri and Bianca Capello.
Wife of: Ulisse Bentivoglio, Conte di Monzoli.
Her lover was:
Antonio Riari
"What she sought came at last, when young Antonio Riari took up his residence at Bologna as a student-in-law. He was the great-grandnephew of the infamous creature of reprobate Pope Sixtus IV---Count Girolamo de' Riari---of the Pazzi Conspiracy a hundred years before. Good-looking, gay, amorous, and blessed with a robust health and ample means, the young man was the lover of every pretty girl. Attracted mutually to one another, the Countess Pellegrina yielded herself to her admirer's embraces---although Antonio was a mere lad of seventeen. The intimacy grew until news of it reached Count Ulisse's ears in the boudoir of his sweetheart! The gossip doubtless was garnished to the taste of the retailers and the receivers." (Staley, 2006, p. 115)
Pier Maria II de' Rossi (1413-1482).
Conte di San Secondo.
a. Maria Colonna (1665-1750)
2) Comtesse Stella.
3) Maria Virginia Borghese, Princess Chigi.
4) Marquise Paleotti.
Lucrezia Scaglione.
Wife of: Paolo Carafa.
Her lover was:
Charles de Lannoy
Viceroy of Naples:
"Lucrezia Scaglione was a famous Neapolitan beauty 'whose vivacity and renown had captivated the viceroy Lannoy [a former viceroy of Naples]'. In the winter of 1527-8 her beauty led a young courtier to attempt to climb a rope down to her bedchamber, but instead he fell to his death, thus immortalizing her reputation. According to the historian Paolo Giovio, who attended the imperial court in Naples, Charles did not want to appear melancholy, so he 'has worn a mask, and paid a visit to Lucrezia Scaglione, who is more beautiful than ever. Surrounded by equally beautiful maidens, Lucrezia was the hit of the party and caused a stir by freely insulting the looks of the young Duke of Alba, the viceroy's nephew. In later years Juan ended letters to Cobos by adding a special greeting from a Lucrezia, with whom Cobos had a notorious reputation, and his eye for women probably caused him to burn all his personal correspondence. Valdes's greeting from Lucrezia may well have been from the famous Neapolitan beauty Lucrezia Scaglione." (Crews, 2008, p. 98)
"Lucrezia Scaglione, the wife of Paolo Carafa and the mistress of the Viceroy of Naples, was indeed fast; Charles V said 'although she was not born a titled lady, among all those dames she was famous and celebrated and treated herself as if titled, courageous, of excellent conversation and beautiful!' Victoria Colonna wrote an epigram about her but none of her epigrams have survived." (Servadio, 2006, p. 73)
Maria d'Aquino.
Illegitimate daughter of: King Roberto of Naples.
[Ref1] [Ref2]
Her lover was:
Giovanni Boccaccio
"1336: Giovanni Boccaccio met Maria d'Aquino, the illegitimate daughter of King Robert of Naples. Maria d'Aquino inspired Giovanni Boccaccio in prose and verse as Fiammetta. Although Maria d'Aquino was married she entered in (sic) an affair with the besotted Giovanni Boccaccio." (The Middle Ages Website)
"By the time he was twenty-five, Boccaccio had fallen in love with the Lady Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert of Naples, who had caused her to be adopted as a member of the family of the Count d'Aquino, and to be married when very young to a Neapolitan nobleman. Boccaccio first saw her in the Church of San Lorenzo on the morning of Easter eve, in 1338, and their ensuing friendship was no secret to their world...." (Brogan, trans., p. 3)
Pellegrina Buonaventuri.
Daughter of: Pietro Buonaventuri and Bianca Capello.
Wife of: Ulisse Bentivoglio, Conte di Monzoli.
Her lover was:
Antonio Riari
"What she sought came at last, when young Antonio Riari took up his residence at Bologna as a student-in-law. He was the great-grandnephew of the infamous creature of reprobate Pope Sixtus IV---Count Girolamo de' Riari---of the Pazzi Conspiracy a hundred years before. Good-looking, gay, amorous, and blessed with a robust health and ample means, the young man was the lover of every pretty girl. Attracted mutually to one another, the Countess Pellegrina yielded herself to her admirer's embraces---although Antonio was a mere lad of seventeen. The intimacy grew until news of it reached Count Ulisse's ears in the boudoir of his sweetheart! The gossip doubtless was garnished to the taste of the retailers and the receivers." (Staley, 2006, p. 115)
Pier Maria II de' Rossi (1413-1482).
Conte di San Secondo.
His lover was:
Bianca Pellegrini.
Pier Maria was "...a 'faithful' adulterer, who had a long-standing affair with Bianchina Pellegrini of Como, while she was married to a Milanese aristocrat. To his inamorata, Rossi bequeathed major properties in his last will, as well as properties to Bianchina's children...." (Coing, 2000, p. 147)
"As the father of at least eight sons, Pier Maria Rossi was ultimately incapable of ensuring a successfully unified state for the next generation of his dynasty. Pier Maria's attitude toward his various legitimate and illegitimate children has been interpreted by art historians as having been dictated entirely by a supposed sentimental preference for his mistress Bianca Pellegrini (devotion to whom he advertised to many audiences in frescoes, medals, sculpted emblems, and manuscripts).over his wife Antonia Torelli...." (McIver, 2012, p. 36)[Bio1:Torrechiara] [Ref1:36] [Ref2:79] [Ref3:Parmigianino 2003]
Pietro Bonaventuri (d.1572)
Husband of: Bianca Capello, mar 1563
His lover was:
Cassandra de' Ricci.
"Pietro Bonaventuri had a post at court, and a large salary found for him, and, freed from all clerkly (sic) duties, he threw himself recklessly into the wildest and most frivolous amusements of the young nobility. He engaged in several love intrigues, and more especially one which caused much scandal with a young and beautiful widow, Cassandra Bonciani, whose proud family, the Ricci, had already found means to compass the death of two of her lovers. But Pietro disregarded the warning; and one night when he was returning from a visit to her, and had reached the eastern side of Santo Spirito, near the foot of the bridge of Santa Trinita, across the Arno, suddenly he was attacked by a number of armed bravos; of his two serving-men one fled, and the other was stabbed, while Bonaventuri fought for his life, and actually succeeded in crossing the bridge, where he was near his palace in the Via Maggio. But after a desperate struggle, in which he killed one of his assailants, he was pierced with dagger thrusts, and left dead on the stones." (The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Italian Renaissance: 209-210)
"If anyone reaped the benefits of the affair between Francesco and the Blonde Bianca, it was Bianca’s husband, who gained much money, benefits and a magnificent palace, and so he was nicknamed Cornidoro by the Florentines. However, by this time being addicted to the thrill and having many other addictions, he must have, at some point, gone overboard with his demands. So much so that, one night, near to the Santa Trinita Bridge he was stabbed to death by several hitmen, whilst his lover, Cassandra de’ Ricci, who had consoled him over the many disasters of his marital life, was assassinated in her bed by several masked men." (www.tuscany.travel)
Silvestro Aymerich of Conti di Villamar (1647-1671)
His lover was:
Francesca Zatrillas
Marchesa di Siefuentes.
[Bio1:Enciclopedia Italiana]
[Gen1:Famiglia Aymerich]
[Ref1:29]
[Ref2:Abruzzo in Mostra]
[Ref3:Nuova Sardegna]
[Ref4:Araldica Sardegna]
Teresa Gamba Ghiselli (1800-1873)
Contessa Guiccioli.
Daughter of: Count Ruggiero Gamba
Wife of:
1) Alessandro Guiccioli, mar 1818
2) Marquis de Boissy.
Her lovers were:
1) Count Cristoforo Ferri.
Lover in mid-1818
"Teresa answered all his letters, but her replies were vague, and left him somehow unsatisfied. It was some time before he discovered that her references to a fever in fact referred to a miscarriage---for which, however, he knew that he had not been responsible, since she had confessed to him that when their affair began that she was already three months pregnant. (What he did not know was that Count Guiccioli was probably not responsible either, Teresa having only six months after her marriage take a previous lover: a certain Count Crisroforo Ferri, described by one who knew him as 'a licentious brazen satyr.')..." (Norwich, 2004, p. 74)
2) George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
6th Baron Byron of Rochdale.
"...He spent two years in Venice and there met the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who became his mistress." (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003, p. 254)
Physical Traits & Personal Qualities: "She was auburn-haired with a lovely bust and shoulders, only nineteen, well educated, and like Augusta she had a fine sense of the ridiculous. She was the only woman who could make Byron jealous. She calmed, teased, pleased, and exasperated him. She was not boring...." (Bloom, 2003, p. 48) [Ref1:Youens:127]
Bianca Pellegrini.
Pier Maria was "...a 'faithful' adulterer, who had a long-standing affair with Bianchina Pellegrini of Como, while she was married to a Milanese aristocrat. To his inamorata, Rossi bequeathed major properties in his last will, as well as properties to Bianchina's children...." (Coing, 2000, p. 147)
"As the father of at least eight sons, Pier Maria Rossi was ultimately incapable of ensuring a successfully unified state for the next generation of his dynasty. Pier Maria's attitude toward his various legitimate and illegitimate children has been interpreted by art historians as having been dictated entirely by a supposed sentimental preference for his mistress Bianca Pellegrini (devotion to whom he advertised to many audiences in frescoes, medals, sculpted emblems, and manuscripts).over his wife Antonia Torelli...." (McIver, 2012, p. 36)[Bio1:Torrechiara] [Ref1:36] [Ref2:79] [Ref3:Parmigianino 2003]
Pietro Bonaventuri (d.1572)
Husband of: Bianca Capello, mar 1563
His lover was:
Cassandra de' Ricci.
"Pietro Bonaventuri had a post at court, and a large salary found for him, and, freed from all clerkly (sic) duties, he threw himself recklessly into the wildest and most frivolous amusements of the young nobility. He engaged in several love intrigues, and more especially one which caused much scandal with a young and beautiful widow, Cassandra Bonciani, whose proud family, the Ricci, had already found means to compass the death of two of her lovers. But Pietro disregarded the warning; and one night when he was returning from a visit to her, and had reached the eastern side of Santo Spirito, near the foot of the bridge of Santa Trinita, across the Arno, suddenly he was attacked by a number of armed bravos; of his two serving-men one fled, and the other was stabbed, while Bonaventuri fought for his life, and actually succeeded in crossing the bridge, where he was near his palace in the Via Maggio. But after a desperate struggle, in which he killed one of his assailants, he was pierced with dagger thrusts, and left dead on the stones." (The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Italian Renaissance: 209-210)
"If anyone reaped the benefits of the affair between Francesco and the Blonde Bianca, it was Bianca’s husband, who gained much money, benefits and a magnificent palace, and so he was nicknamed Cornidoro by the Florentines. However, by this time being addicted to the thrill and having many other addictions, he must have, at some point, gone overboard with his demands. So much so that, one night, near to the Santa Trinita Bridge he was stabbed to death by several hitmen, whilst his lover, Cassandra de’ Ricci, who had consoled him over the many disasters of his marital life, was assassinated in her bed by several masked men." (www.tuscany.travel)
Silvestro Aymerich of Conti di Villamar (1647-1671)
His lover was:
Francesca Zatrillas
Marchesa di Siefuentes.
[Bio1:Enciclopedia Italiana]
[Gen1:Famiglia Aymerich]
[Ref1:29]
[Ref2:Abruzzo in Mostra]
[Ref3:Nuova Sardegna]
[Ref4:Araldica Sardegna]
 | |
| Teresa, Contessa Guiccioli |
Teresa Gamba Ghiselli (1800-1873)
Contessa Guiccioli.
Daughter of: Count Ruggiero Gamba
Wife of:
1) Alessandro Guiccioli, mar 1818
2) Marquis de Boissy.
Her lovers were:
1) Count Cristoforo Ferri.
Lover in mid-1818
"Teresa answered all his letters, but her replies were vague, and left him somehow unsatisfied. It was some time before he discovered that her references to a fever in fact referred to a miscarriage---for which, however, he knew that he had not been responsible, since she had confessed to him that when their affair began that she was already three months pregnant. (What he did not know was that Count Guiccioli was probably not responsible either, Teresa having only six months after her marriage take a previous lover: a certain Count Crisroforo Ferri, described by one who knew him as 'a licentious brazen satyr.')..." (Norwich, 2004, p. 74)
 |
| Lord Byron in Albanian Dress |
6th Baron Byron of Rochdale.
"...He spent two years in Venice and there met the Countess Teresa Guiccioli, who became his mistress." (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003, p. 254)
Physical Traits & Personal Qualities: "She was auburn-haired with a lovely bust and shoulders, only nineteen, well educated, and like Augusta she had a fine sense of the ridiculous. She was the only woman who could make Byron jealous. She calmed, teased, pleased, and exasperated him. She was not boring...." (Bloom, 2003, p. 48) [Ref1:Youens:127]
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