From the acclaimed author of The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan comes a vibrant exploration of the Italian Renaissance through the eyes of Isabella d’Este, the leading female art collector and patron of her time. Born in 1474, she ran a famed court, was a fashion icon and a cunning political operator. She left behind a magnificent collection of paintings, sculptures, books, instruments and curiosities. Long since lost or dispersed, all that remains is her correspondence – thousands of letters preserved in a deconsecrated church and convent, which make up the state archive of the city of Mantua.
Inside this cavernous space, the ghost of Isabella is searching for the right scholar to give voice to her story. When she finds her, together through the letters, they resurrect a remarkable life: from a precocious daughter of a Duke and the painfully young wife of the Marquis of Mantua to a formidable court consort, collector, patron and political operator, guiding the state through the vicissitudes of war. A woman who unapologetically refuses to be bound by convention.
The Marchesa is Renaissance history at its most vivid, an immersive, multi-layered experience that mixes historical fiction with biography, scholarship and art, images of both the people and the time. It is also a meditation on our attitude to history itself, challenging how far we can set aside our own values and moral certainties when it comes to understanding those in the past who grew out of very different cultural soil.
The Author
Sarah Dunant is a historical novelist, thriller writer, broadcaster and lecturer on women’s lives in Renaissance Italy. Explore her books, podcasts and online lectures on art, sex and religion in the 15th/16th centuries.
My thoughts: I love Sarah Dunant’s historical novels, she’s such a fantastic writer. This was a little bit different, with the ghost of the Marchesa, Isabella d’Este, narrating her story from the Mantua archives as a scholar, possibly the author, reads through the many letters that remain chronicling the life and times of this powerful and important woman.
Born into the Este family, rulers of the city state of Ferrara, the daughter of a Duke and granddaughter of a king, she marries the Marquise of Mantua, a small city state in Italy, which while it might not rival Venice or Rome, was, in its Marchesa’s eyes, equally as important.
It’s a fascinating and compelling story, as she wrote to and was related to crowned heads across Europe, including Popes, Dukes, Duchesses and royalty. Her careful letter writing was an important part of maintaining relationships with potential invaders and keeping her hot headed husband out of trouble at times. She understood the vital art of negotiation, flattery and maintaining those bonds when things went wrong.
In Dunant’s hands Isabella is clever, funny and a wonderful teller of her own tale. A really enjoyable read about one of history’s less well remembered women.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
