Search

d’Este, Isabella

Active 1490-1500

Previous Next
Person Born Died Gender Person ID
Isabella d’Este Ferrara 18-5-1474 Mantua 13-21539 F P0245

Instrument(s) Professional group Social status Social sphere Why is the person listed?
vihuela viola da mano (vihuela de mano) viola da mano Nobility Patron Instrumentalist (plucked)

Years active Place active Century Region
1490-1500 Mantua, Ferrara 15cent/3/late 16cent/1/early Italy
Biographical information

Isabella d’Este — eldest daughter of Ercole d’Este of Ferrara and Eleanora de Aragón (of Naples). In 1490 (aged 16) she married Francesco Gonzaga and went to Mantua. Started singing and playing keyboard instruments in Ferrara. Continued this in Mantua, and also started to learn stringed instruments—the new violas. By 1500 she was also competent on lute, lira da braccio, and viola. • Letter to Isabella from the Marchese di Bitonto: “It would please me greatly to hear you sing it [a capitolo by Sannazaro] to the accompaniment of your viola” Cited in ward1953, p. 62, from rubsamenLS, pp 29-30.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_d'Este

Related persons


Source documents
Date Document
1497 Letter from Francesco Comparini to Isabella d’Este.
1493.03.06 Bernardo Prospero, letter to Isabella d’Este.
1497-1499 Isabella d’Este and Lorenzo di Pavia, letters.


Bibliography
Ref Author Item Pages
rubsamenLS Rubsamen, Walter H. Literary Sources of Secular Music in Italy (ca. 1500). University of California Press, 1943. 29-30
ward1953 Ward, John M. “The ‘Vihuela de mano’ and its Music, 1536-1576”. Diss., New York University, 1953. 62
Contributor