"""Isabella d’Este Archive (IDEA) is a work-in-progress: an online, open-access, interactive resource for the study of early modern culture through the correspondence and collecting of one of the most important female figures of the...
more"""Isabella d’Este Archive (IDEA) is a work-in-progress: an online, open-access, interactive resource for the study of early modern culture through the correspondence and collecting of one of the most important female figures of the Italian Renaissance, Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), Marchesa of Mantua and consort of Francesco II Gonzaga.
Granddaughter of King Ferdinand I of Naples, daughter of Duke Ercole d’Este and Duchess Eleonora d’Aragona of Ferrara and wife of Marchese Francesco II Gonzaga, Isabella co-governed the strategically key court of Mantua for forty-nine years, first with her husband and then with her son. These were years in which much of Europe was warring over the Italian peninsula, in which navigation and exploration were making Europeans conscious of a wider world than they had known existed, and in which Italy was embroiled in artistic, scientific, and economic revolutions that defined the sixteenth century. Isabella d’Este was both an observer and a participant in the momentous developments known as the Italian Renaissance. In addition to her high profile as a governing co-regent, she was famous among her contemporaries for collecting art, antiquities, and books; engaging with contemporary writers; sponsoring and performing new music; planning gardens; operating a perfume and cosmetic pharmacy; traveling and conducting diplomacy; designing clothing; raising animals; and more. The expanse of Isabella d’Este’s activities included contacts far and wide, high and low in early modern society, from emperors to slaves, from criminals to holywomen.
"""
