On the 7th of August 1509, Francesco Gonzaga marquis of Mantua and general captain of the papal armies during the war of the League of Cambrai was captured in Isola della Scala by the Venetian captain, the Bolognese aristocrat Lucio Malvezzi. Taken to Venice through the cities of the Venetian Terraferma in a journey which was painful for his pride, honour and dignity, and after a long captivity in the Venetian gaols, the marquis was released almost a year later, on the 14th of July 1510. His imprisonment stroke Mantua as a lightening, and put the small marquisate’s survival at stake. Isabella of Este, Francesco’s wife, promptly reacted to the event by ensuring the military safety of the marquisate, and then committed herself to obtain the marquis’ release. Such a reaction took the form of an extraordinary epistolary effort to reach and activate every layer of the many political, dynastic, diplomatic, and personal networks of the Este and the Gonzaga: princes and kings, popes and cardinals, princesses and gentlewomen, military captain and officers, kin and friends, subjects and allies were remembered of their ancient or new bonds to Mantua. Seven registers of Copialettere were filled in those few months, and several hundred answers flew back to the Gonzaga chancery. Such a powerful effort is extremely telling. It reveals the many forms of loyalty, allegiance, and alliance on which the decades, even centuries- long foundations of a Renaissance princely power were built. It also discloses to the scholar the many languages and tones that graduated such a call of arms in an extremely dangerous moment. My essay will work on this epistolary wealth by focusing at once on the networks and the languages, and by taking into account the fact that it was a princess, Isabella, the one who took charge of the task of convincing, pleading, and commanding. She wrote or simply signed by her own hand, and she used her chancellors, in a finely graduated strategy of humility, intimacy, and authority. Isabella’s grasp on power, and her familiarity with all the political languages available to her steered the course of the marquisate. At the end the Gonzaga did survive and Mantua did not see a regime change, but the risk was real, and the reaction telling.

In the Name of the Marquis, by the Hand of the Marchioness: Epistolary Networks and Languages of Resilience and Reaction in Mantua during the League of Cambrai (1509-1510)

Isabella Lazzarini
Primo
2023-01-01

Abstract

On the 7th of August 1509, Francesco Gonzaga marquis of Mantua and general captain of the papal armies during the war of the League of Cambrai was captured in Isola della Scala by the Venetian captain, the Bolognese aristocrat Lucio Malvezzi. Taken to Venice through the cities of the Venetian Terraferma in a journey which was painful for his pride, honour and dignity, and after a long captivity in the Venetian gaols, the marquis was released almost a year later, on the 14th of July 1510. His imprisonment stroke Mantua as a lightening, and put the small marquisate’s survival at stake. Isabella of Este, Francesco’s wife, promptly reacted to the event by ensuring the military safety of the marquisate, and then committed herself to obtain the marquis’ release. Such a reaction took the form of an extraordinary epistolary effort to reach and activate every layer of the many political, dynastic, diplomatic, and personal networks of the Este and the Gonzaga: princes and kings, popes and cardinals, princesses and gentlewomen, military captain and officers, kin and friends, subjects and allies were remembered of their ancient or new bonds to Mantua. Seven registers of Copialettere were filled in those few months, and several hundred answers flew back to the Gonzaga chancery. Such a powerful effort is extremely telling. It reveals the many forms of loyalty, allegiance, and alliance on which the decades, even centuries- long foundations of a Renaissance princely power were built. It also discloses to the scholar the many languages and tones that graduated such a call of arms in an extremely dangerous moment. My essay will work on this epistolary wealth by focusing at once on the networks and the languages, and by taking into account the fact that it was a princess, Isabella, the one who took charge of the task of convincing, pleading, and commanding. She wrote or simply signed by her own hand, and she used her chancellors, in a finely graduated strategy of humility, intimacy, and authority. Isabella’s grasp on power, and her familiarity with all the political languages available to her steered the course of the marquisate. At the end the Gonzaga did survive and Mantua did not see a regime change, but the risk was real, and the reaction telling.
2023
978-1-032-05755-2
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11695/114393
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