Julia Cartwright’s biography rescues Beatrice d’Este from the shadow of her more famous sister Isabella, portraying her as one of the most vivid personalities of the Italian Renaissance. As Duchess of Milan and wife of Ludovico Sforza, Beatrice presided over a brilliant court that included Leonardo da Vinci, transforming the Castello Sforzesco into a centre of humanist culture before her sudden death in childbirth at twenty-two.
Cartwright draws on contemporary letters and chronicles to reconstruct Beatrice’s brief, dazzling life with warmth and scholarly precision. Essential reading for admirers of Renaissance Italy and its extraordinary women.