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

by Murphy, Caroline P.

• ISBN13: 9780195312010
• ISBN10: 0195312015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-04
• 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
I THE CARDINAL'S DAUGHTER
1 Felice's Father,	3	(6)
2 Felice's Mother,	9	(2)
3 The Birth of Felice,	11	(3)
4 Felice's Stepfather,	14	(4)
5 Felice's Rome,	18	(6)
6 Felice's Childhood,	24	(2)
7 Enter the Borgia,	26	(2)
8 Felice's Departure,	28	(4)
9 The Adolescent Felice,	32	(3)
10 Felice's First Marriage,	35	(6)
II THE POPE'S DAUGHTER
1 The New Pope,	41	(4)
2 The Reluctant Bride,	45	(6)
3 The della Rovere Women in Rome,	51	(5)
4 The Prince of Salerno,	56	(5)
5 Self-Promotion,	61	(9)
6 The Education of Felice della Rovere,	70	(3)
7 Enter the Orsini,	73	(6)
8 Gian Giordano,	79	(3)
9 The Orsini Wedding,	82	(7)
III FELIX OF THE OAK AND THE BEAR
1 A Bride at Bracciano,	89	(6)
2 Felice and the Orsini,	95	(3)
3 Felice and Gian Giordano,	98	(4)
4 Father and Daughter Reunion,	102	(4)
5 The Castello of Palo,	106	(4)
6 The Entrepreneur,	110	(3)
7 Vatican Ambassadress,	113	(6)
8 Felice and the Queen of France,	119	(3)
9 Madonna Felice is Everything,	122	(3)
10 Code Name Sappho,	125	(6)
11 The Julian Legacy,	131	(6)
12 Felice, Michelangelo and the Pincian Hill,	137	(10)
IV PATRONA ET GUBERNATRIX
1 A Trip to Loreto,	147	(3)
2 Childbirth and its Aftermath,	150	(3)
3 The Pope's Daughter Becomes the Pope's Friend,	153	(3)
4 The Pope Goes Hunting,	156	(5)
5 Papal Payback,	161	(2)
6 Orsini Signora Revisited,	163	(3)
7 Bracciano's forte,	166	(3)
8 Weaving,	169	(3)
9 Personal Reckoning,	172	(4)
10 A Slave to the House of Orsini,	176	(5)
11 More Reckoning,	181	(5)
12 The Temporal Mother,	186	(11)
13 Statio,	197	(5)
14 Family Matters,	202	(8)
15 Dowries and the Great Queen,	210	(4)
16 Napoleone,	214	(4)
17 The Taking of Palo,	218	(5)
18 Papal Reprieve,	223	(6)
V DISPOSSESSED AND REPOSSESSED
1 At Prayer,	229	(3)
2 The Fall of Rome,	232	(4)
3 Hostages,	236	(5)
4 Escape from Rome,	241	(3)
5 Fossombrone,	244	(5)
6 The Exiled,	249	(5)
7 The Return to Rome,	254	(3)
8 Rebuilding,	257	(4)
9 At the Trinity,	261	(3)
10 A Memorial to the Past,	264	(5)
11 Glance,	269	(6)
12 The Boys,	275	(5)
13 The War of Vicovaro,	280	(6)
14 A Brother's Revenge,	286	(3)
15 Restitution,	289	(8)
VI THE MOST LOVING MOTHER IN THE WORLD
1 Final Reckoning,	297	(16)
Epilogue: Felice's Legacy,	313	(4)
Bibliography,	317	(6)
Notes,	323	(18)
List of illustrations,	341	(4)
Index,	345