4 - Genevra Sforza in Her Own Words

Summary

Abstract: Genevra helped create and maintain important relationships with courtly figures through an exchange of formal letters. As part of a de facto ruling family, she understood how crucial the development of these relationships were. Her correspondence reflects her gendered status within the nuances of the ruling class and that of her correspondents including rulers of Milan, Ferrara, Florence and Mantua. Her letters analysed here, predominantly exchanged with the Gonzaga, demonstrate that she acted as a loyal Bentivoglio consort who desired to serve her family and staff. Overall, she communicated as a traditional fifteenth-century female for the good of her family. In no way did she demonstrate hateful or inappropriate behaviour, psychologically manipulate others or arrange political coups—as legends proclaim.

Keywords: Genevra Sforza de’ Bentivoglio, Italian court culture, Italian women's writing, Gonzaga, family history, fifteenth-century Italy

Introduction

In the previous three chapters we have seen Genevra Sforza from multiple perspectives: from how the Bolognese and other contemporaries recorded her, from Milan where Francesco Sforza used her as a representative of the Sforza to create closer ties to Bologna, and from the framework of motherhood as she whole-heartedly contributed to the creation and management of the Bentivoglio cause. Now we will see how she presented herself in her correspondence as both patron and client. Who were her correspondents, what did she write about, and what can we learn about her from her surviving letters?

From Bologna Genevra exchanged mail with fellow members of the ruling class across Northern Italy including the Gonzaga in Mantua, Sforza in Milan, Medici in Florence and d’Este in Ferrara. Letters once sent to other places where Genevra had family seem to have been lost, including exchanges with the Malatesta in Rimini, Pio in Carpi, Pico in Mirandola, Manfredi in Faenza, Sforza in Pesaro, and others. Although this chapter will include information taken from all of her uncovered letters located in various archives, due to the most important cache in Mantua, the chapter will focus primarily on what we can learn from her epistolary relations with the Gonzaga. The Archivo Gonzaga is also particularly rich with material once sent by fifteenth-century Bolognese plus it is well organised and in amazingly good condition. And although Genevra was most closely tied to the Sforza, her correspondence suggests that she and the Bentivoglio became quite close to the Gonzaga over the years.