The Pope's Daughter The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere

by Murphy, Caroline P.

• ISBN13: 9780195182682
• ISBN10: 0195182685
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, Felice della Rovere became one of the most powerful and accomplished women of the Italian Renaissance. Now, Caroline Murphy vividly captures the untold story of a rare woman who moved with confidence through a world of popes and princes. Using a wide variety of sources, including Felice's personal correspondence, as well as diaries, account books, and chronicles of Renaissance Rome, Murphy skillfully weaves a compelling portrait of this remarkable woman. Felice della Rovere was to witness Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, watch her father Pope Julius II lay the foundation stone for the new Saint Peter's, and saw herself immortalized by Raphael in his Vatican frescos. With her marriage to Gian Giordano Orsini--arranged, though not attended, by her father the Pope--she came to possess great wealth and power, assets which she used to her advantage. While her father lived, Felice exercised much influence in the affairs of Rome, even egotiating for peace with the Queen of France. After his death, Felice persevered, making allies of the cardinals and clerics of St. Peter's and maintaining her control of the Orsini land through tenacity, ingenuity, and carefully cultivated political savvy. She survived the Sack of Rome in 1527, but her greatest enemy proved to be her own stepson Napoleone, whose rivalry with his stepbrother Girolamo ended suddenly and violently, and brought her perilously close to losing everything she had spent her life acquiring. With a marvelous cast of characters, The Pope's Daughter is a spellbinding biography set against the brilliant backdrop of Renaissance Rome.

Author Biography

Caroline P. Murphy is Associate Professor of Renaissance Art at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Lavinia Fontana: A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth-Century Bologna.

Table of Contents

Map of Felice's Rome	x
Acknowledgements	xiii
Prologue: Finding Felice	xv
The Cardinal's Daughter
Felice's Father	3	(6)
Felice's Mother	9	(2)
The Birth of Felice	11	(3)
Felice's Stepfather	14	(4)
Felice's Rome	18	(6)
Felice's Childhood	24	(2)
Enter the Borgia	26	(2)
Felice's Departure	28	(4)
The Adolescent Felice	32	(3)
Felice's First Marriage	35	(6)
The Pope's Daughter
The New Pope	41	(4)
The Reluctant Bride	45	(6)
The della Rovere Women in Rome	51	(5)
The Prince of Salerno	56	(5)
Self-Promotion	61	(9)
The Education of Felice della Rovere	70	(3)
Enter the Orsini	73	(6)
Gian Giordano	79	(3)
The Orsini Wedding	82	(7)
Felix of the Oak and the Bear
A Bride at Bracciano	89	(6)
Felice and the Orsini	95	(3)
Felice and Gian Giordano	98	(4)
Father and Daughter Reunion	102	(4)
The Castello of Palo	106	(4)
The Entrepreneur	110	(3)
Vatican Ambassadress	113	(6)
Felice and the Queen of France	119	(3)
Madonna Felice is Everything	122	(3)
Code Name Sappho	125	(6)
The Julian Legacy	131	(6)
Felice, Michelangelo and the Pincian Hill	137	(10)
Patrona Et Gubernatrix
A Trip to Loreto	147	(3)
Childbirth and its Aftermath	150	(3)
The Pope's Daughter Becomes the Pope's Friend	153	(3)
The Pope Goes Hunting	156	(5)
Papal Payback	161	(2)
Orsini Signora Revisited	163	(3)
Bracciano's fonte	166	(3)
Weaving	169	(3)
Personal Reckoning	172	(4)
A Slave to the House of Orsini	176	(5)
More Reckoning	181	(5)
The Temporal Mother	186	(11)
Statio	197	(5)
Family Matters	202	(8)
Dowries and the Great Queen	210	(4)
Napoleone	214	(4)
The Taking of Palo	218	(5)
Papal Reprieve	223	(6)
Dispossessed and Repossessed
At Prayer	229	(3)
The Fall of Rome	232	(4)
Hostages	236	(5)
Escape from Rome	241	(3)
Fossombrone	244	(5)
The Exiled	249	(5)
The Return to Rome	254	(3)
Rebuilding	257	(4)
At the Trinity	261	(3)
A Memorial to the Past	264	(5)
Clarice	269	(6)
The Boys	275	(5)
The War of Vicovaro	280	(6)
A Brother's Revenge	286	(3)
Restitution	289	(8)
The Most Loving Mother in the World
Final Reckoning	297	(16)
Epilogue: Felice's Legacy	313	(4)
Bibliography	317	(6)
Notes	323	(18)
List of Illustrations	341	(4)
Index	345