To Roberto Strozzi in La Badia, 10 December 1489

I am unable to identify the carrier into whose charge Luisa handed over her letter. In the absence of a central personalised postal system, Luisa entrusted her letters to carriers or messengers. These might have taken the form of regular carriers or bearers, travelling friends, relatives or personal servants. As Judith Bryce has recently shown to be the case with Alessandra Strozzi, Luisa may also have benefited from the couriers ('fanti') who serviced businesses and banks, such as the Strozzi or Machiavelli banks in Ferrara, and who would travel established routes. [Judith Bryce, ‘Introduction', in Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi, 'Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi: Letters to Her Sons (1447-1470)', ed. and trans. by Judith Bryce (Tempe: ACMRS, 2016), pp. 1-28 (p. 17).] Luisa's correspondence was sometimes carried in conjunction with other commodities and personal goods, such as cloth, items of clothing, wax, flax, cheese, and other foodstuffs.

The town and commune of Bologna was an important junction of the roads and waterways connecting Lombardy and the Romagna with the Veneto and Tuscany. The Bentivoglio family established a long-lasting 'Signoria' in Bologna in the fifteenth century. It is likely that Luisa's spelling of Bologna as 'Bolognia' is phonetic and close to her spoken language and pronunciation of the city's name.

Although the identity of the person named here is obscure, Luisa's reference is to a private carrier or bearer.

The multiple hands and stages through which Luisa's cloth and letters passed before they reached her at their final destination sheds light on the intricacies of postal arrangements in the period.

Luisa's reference is to Isabella d'Este, aged fourteen years. Isabella was the first of six children and the eldest daughter born to Duke Ercole I, d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and to the daughter of King Ferrante of Naples, Eleonora d'Aragona (d. 1493). She was betrothed in 1480 to Francesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519), marchese of Mantua, and was married in 1490. In her role as marchesa of Mantua, Isabella was a powerful consort wielding considerable cultural and political influence in Mantua and the region. Luisa's accompanying of the adolescent Isabella d'Este, along with 'the other girls' of the court, to dinner with the duke's brother sheds light on the Strozzi widow in her role as governess to Isabella and her younger sister, Beatrice. Luisa's appointment at court was at the request of the Este Signoria and she served in the child-care role from 1480 until 1490.

Luisa's reference here is to 'the other girls' of the court.

A personal title used for knights and lawyers: the former intended by Luisa in this instance.

Sigismondo d’Este (1433-1507) was the full brother of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Slightly younger than the Duke, Sigismondo and Ercole had grown up together in Naples and remained close. Ercole relied on Sigismondo more than anyone except his wife, Eleonora d'Aragona, whom incidentally he was deputed to escort from Naples to their wedding in 1473. Following the death of Eleonora d'Aragona in 1493, Sigismondo was charged with the governing of the state in the absence of the duke. [Thomas Tuohy, 'Herculean Ferrara: Ercole d’Este (1471-1505) and the invention of a ducal capital' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 41.]

Tantalizing insights into Luisa’s integration into Ferrarese court society emerge in this letter, revealing the close proximity of this Florentine émigré widow to the ruling family which was very important for developing new and creative strategies of personal and family survival in the hostland. This is observable in the long anecdote here in which Luisa, discharging her duty as Isabella d'Este's governess, accompanied the young marchesa and the other children of the court to dine at the residence of Sigismondo d’Este.

A description of court festivities is masterfully corralled in the body of the letter to underscore Luisa’s inclusion in the network of the courtly milieu. Unable to attend to her other letter-writing labours, Luisa reported that she had suffered the symptoms of ‘a great fever’ over night, having caught her ‘death of cold’ upon leaving Sigismondo’s palace, with its ‘rooms with great fires’ and stepping out ‘into the wind and rain’ of the night. The cursory treatment of her dining companions implies a well-established familiarity with this elite community; though the decorum and obligations of courtly society could be taxing. Luisa grumbles here to Roberto that, weary of court festivities, she was ‘no longer able to practice these courtesies, that every evening they dance up to eight hours’: an endless round of musical evenings and banquets her aging body and rheumatic ailments rendered difficult for her to partake in, and indicated by her poor health reported on below.

The first main horizontal fold of the letter renders a small fragment of the text in this section illegible.

Modena: a city in northern Italy, southwest of Ferrara and in the region of the Emilia-Romagna. Dominion by the Estense family began in the thirteenth century and lasted until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The edge of the manuscript has crumbled and, therefore, I surmise the word 'conforto' here.

Carlo Strozzi's birth and death dates are unknown. However, of Luisa's sons who remain to any degree visible to the historian’s eye, no less than two embarked upon military careers. Carlo had initially commenced training to become a priest. However, a position in the Church appears to have fallen away and he pursued a career as a soldier, serving as a mercenary captain in the Venetian republic until 1509 when he was employed by the Estensi in the war of the League of Cambrai. Throughout Luisa's widowhood, Carlo's litigious and quarrelsome nature was the source of considerable financial and emotional distress suffered by the widow. Indeed, mother and son were often pitted against one another in protracted litigation over property claims and Luisa's right to lifetime use over property that Carlo Strozzi regarded as his own.

The basis of the currency system in central and northern Italy during the Renaissance period was 12 denari = 1 soldo.

The centre right-hand side of the manuscript has been torn off and lost, eliminating one to two words from the end of the line, and, therefore, the beginning of the first word of the subsequent line.

Luisa's correspondence is interspersed with direct references to her letter-writing. Moreover, her comment here points explicitly to the autograph status of her letters. Although there is no concrete information regarding the development of Luisa's literacy skills, it is most likely that their acquisition took place within her natal home in Florence. As Judith Bryce has recently argued in the case of Alessandra Strozzi, Luisa's writing ability was also considerably developed as a result of the exilic circumstances in which she found herself, and in carrying our her perceived role in relation to her exiled sons. [Bryce, ‘Introduction’, pp. 5-6.] Differently from her distant Strozzi kinswoman, however, Luisa's ability to write was also developed and enhanced away from her natal city and kin, and under the circumstances of migration and widowhood.

The large tear on the right-hand side of the manuscript eliminates the word here, which continues onto the subsequent line, and for which I am unable to supply even a conjectural transcription.

Luisa frequently pawned precious material goods belonging both to her and her sons, including fine fabrics and clothing, in order to obtain cash.

The tear also eliminates the word here, which continues onto the subsequent line, and for which I am unable to supply even a conjectural transcription.

Clothing, linens, cloth, and the mending or altering and dispatching of these items saturate Luisa's correspondence. Here, the Strozzi mother's punctilious presiding over the construction and alteration of her son's garments, including the problem of their correct fit, can be viewed as Luisa's maternal obligation to care for the physical bodies and appearance of her sons, even throughout their adulthood. This point is also made by Bryce regarding Alessandra Strozzi and the 'pervasive presence of the material world' in her letters as evidence of the maternal care of the filial physical body. [ Bryce, ‘Introduction', p. 19.]

It is possible that the tear from the centre of the folio has eliminated the letter 'n' here, and which would, therefore, have formed the word 'un'.

The tear has eliminated one to two letters of the word. I have supplied the most plausible missing letter.

A tear in the fold has removed the word here and I have supplied only a conjectural transcription.

The use of Luisa's court appointment by Roberto to assimilate himself into courtly society led his mother to snappily scold him in her letter for his extravagant jousting expenses, which amounted to a ‘huge disgrace’. Presumably Luisa was left to use her position to resolve the debt with the court.

A hole in the manuscript has eliminated the entire word.

It is possible that one to three letters have been eliminated here by the tear in the folio.

One to two letters have been eliminated in this section of the letter by the tear in the folio. From the opening letters of the subsequent line, it is plausible that the missing letter is 'n', thereby forming 'zanza' for 'senza'.

As a permanent salaried member of the Este court, employed in the capacity of governess to Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, Luisa occupied a desirable condition: the security of life at court, which could neutralize the vulnerability and impoverishment of widowhood. Moreover, for a widow in a foreign hostland and attached to exiled menfolk, a court position that was independent from the disgraced status of her deceased husband could provided practical financial consequences for the support of the remaining members of her family. Luisa's notification to Roberto suggests, however, that the opportunities to generate income could be exploited by her adult sons for personal financial gain.

Isabella d'Este

The reference is to Isabella's younger sister, Beatrice (1475-1497), betrothed to Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Bari.

Luisa's explanation to Roberto that she would be unable to request money from the court, presumably to funnel it his way, is noteworthy. It is plausible that the reason she offers is concerned with the considerable expenses incurred by the court in amassing the large dowries required for the marriages of the two Este princesses. Isabella d'Este was betrothed to Francesco Gonzaga (1466-1519), marquis of the state of Mantua, and her sister Beatrice to Lodovico Sforza ("il Moro") (1451-1508), Duke of Bari. The official nuptials were to have taken place in 1490 in a double wedding, but Lodovico postponed the wedding more than once, and it may be this to which Luisa here refers in her statement that Lodovico 'want(ed) Beatrice in April'. Isabella and Francesco were married three months after this letter of Luisa in February 1490, while Beatrice and Lodovico were married in January 1491.

Bardo Strozzi, the grandson of Palla Strozzi, was the son of Lorenzo di Palla and Alessandra de' Bardi. Marietta Strozzi, who also appears in the letter below, was Bardo's sister. Bardo settled in Ferrara and married Diana Riccardi, the daughter of a noble Abruzzese family. [Pompeo Litta, 'Famiglie celebri d’Italia', Vol. 4 (Milan 1837), Tav. IX.] This branch of the Strozzi and their descendants remained in Ferrara. Though Bardo demonstrated a fervent patriotism for the Strozzi's ancestral city where he was brought up, he did not ever return there permanently. Presumably his decision had to do with his favourable position at the Ferrarese court. It is evident from her correspondence that Luisa was in contact with Bardo, who appears to have been a trusted confidant and adviser of the widow.

Because of the projected wedding of Lodovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este, it is possible that Luisa's reference here in her letter is to a request of the duke for the presence of Bardo and all the Strozzi of Ferrara. According to Luisa, the request invested the Strozzi with a higher dignity, equal to that of the bishop of Ferrara, the Franciscan Bartolomeo della Rovere (d. 1494).

Marietta Strozzi was the niece of Luisa Strozzi: the daughter of Lorenzo di Palla Strozzi, the brother of Luisa's husband, Giovanfrancesco Strozzi. Marietta had lived as a ward with Giovanfrancesco following the death of her parents. Marietta's marriage to Teofilo Calcagnini, a courtier and close associate of Duke Borso d'Este, provided Luisa with an important and strategic familial connection at the Este court.

A messenger used by Luisa.

A fold and partial tear in the folio obscures the last two letters. As such, I have supplied the particular spelling of 'della' ('dela') utilised consistently by Luisa elsewhere in her correspondence.

A fold and partial tear in the folio obscures the last two or, possibly, three letters of the last word of the line.

Following her marriage to Giovanfrancesco Strozzi in Verona in 1449, aged fifteen, Luisa left her native Florence for Padua. She appears to have lived for some time in the Paduan residence of her father-in-law Palla Strozzi, along with her infant children. It is probable that the establishment of Giovanfrancesco’s household in Ferrara in 1453 brought the nineteen-year-old Luisa to the court city, where she remained until her death in 1510.

The broadening of the Medici regime's expulsion decrees in late 1458 against the original rebels of 1434 to include their male descendants, placed Roberto Strozzi under the formal ban of exile from Florence for twenty-five years. Born in Ferrara in 1465, Roberto Strozzi was educated as a page in the court of Ercole d’Este I where, as was customary within the courtly environment, he could cultivate military skills together with more peaceabale achievements. When Roberto was recruited into the military service of Venice is unclear, but he served the Republic until his death at thirty as a mercenary captain in the battle of Taro, fighting as part of the Italian League led by Venice against Charles VIII in 1495. Though he does not cite his sources, Pompeo Litta describes the gruesome death of Roberto Strozzi on 6 July 1495: 'Certamente il suo cadavere coperto di ferite, fu trovato in mezzo a' corpi morti de' nemici'; and for which see, Pompeo Litta, 'Famiglie celebri d’Italia', Vol. 4 (Milan 1837), Tav. IX.

Unfortunately the epistolary sources are unclear as to which ‘Badia’ located near Ferrara Luisa here refers. In an early essay, Cecil Clough referred to the Strozzi family farm in the Badia of Villabona, near Castelbaldo: a comune in the Province of Padua and located on the western side of the Adige River. [Cecil H. Clough, ‘The Archivio Bentivoglio in Ferrara’, 'Renaissance News', Vol. 18, No. 1 (1965), 12-19 (p. 15). ] An alternate possibility to that proposed by Clough might in fact be Badia Polesine in the Province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy. It is likely that it was the same ‘Badia’ to which Giovanfrancesco Strozzi retired; though which of the two possibilities this in fact was remains obscure.

This section of the manuscript is written in another contemporary hand, and which belongs to Alessandro Strozzi, Luisa's son: interestingly, not the intended recipient of the letter. The short annotation provides an example of the epistolary summaries Alessandro composed on the backs of many of his mother's letters. From these annotations, it would appear that Alessandro preserved many of them. The preservation of more than two hundred of her letters within the family collection is largely a measure of the perceived importance by Alessandro, who was a male head of household, of Luisa’s correspondence as patrimonial records connected to land, patterns of inheritance and family. However, drawing from James Daybell's analysis of epistolary annotations in his recent study of British correspondence, Alessandro's summaries might also be seen as a biographical act of recording and classifying his mother's role and activities in the Strozzi's family history after the initial function of her letters were exhausted. [James Daybell, 'Gendered Archival Practices and the Future Lives of Letters', in James Daybell and Andrew Gordon (eds)., 'Cultures of Correspondence in Early Modern Britain' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), pp. 210-36 (pp.218 and 226).]