GONZAGA, ISABELLA DE,
Wife of Guido Ubaldo de Montefeltro, Duke d'Urbino, was aunt Eleonora Gonzaga, who married the successor of her husband, This lady is celebrated for her conjugal fidelity and attachment. Her husband who was sick and infirm, was driven from his dominions by Caesar Borgia. In his distress, he implored the assistance of Louis the Twelfth of France; but he dared not comply with this request, lest he should draw on himself the resentment of the house of Borgia. The duke then intimated to the King of France, that, in consequence of his infirm health, he was willing to enter into holy orders, and divorce Isabella, whom a ceremony only made his wife. The duchess was powerfully solicited, in consequence of this declaration of her husband, to make another choice, but she resolutely refused. She devoted herself to the duke in his adversity with the tenderest affection. After his death, she abandoned herself to an excessive and unfeigned sorrow. She had been married twenty years, and devoted the rest of her life to the memory of her husband.
GONZAGA, LUCRETIA,
An illustrious Italian lady of the sixteenth century, was as remarkable for her wit and learning, as for high birth. She wrote such beautiful letters, that the utmost care was taken to preserve them; and a collection of them was printed at Venice in 1552. There is no learning in her letters, yet we perceive by them that she was learned; for, in a letter to Robertellus, she says, that his Commentaries had shewn her the true meaning of several obscure passages in Aristotle and Æschylus. All the wits of her time commended her highly; and Hortensio Lando, besides singing her praises, dedicated to her a piece written in Italian, "Upon moderating the passions of the soul." They corresponded, and more than thirty of her letters to him have been printed.
We learn from these letters that her marriage with John Paul Manfrone was unhappy. She was not fourteen when she was married to him against her consent; yet she treated him with due respect and obedience, though his conduct gave her great uneasiness. He engaged in a conspiracy against the Duke of Ferrara; was detected and imprisoned by him; but, though condemned, not put to death. She did all in her power to obtain his release; applied to every man of importance in Christendom to intercede for him; and even solicited the Grand Seignor to make himself master of the castle where her husband was kept. But her endeavours were vain, for he died in prison; after having shewn such impatience under his sufferings as made many persons imagine that he had lost his senses. She lived afterwards in honourable widowhood, though several men of rank were her suitors; but she resolutely rejected all such offers, declaring frankly on one occasion, that she had suffered too much in a conjugal state again to subject herself to the yoke, from which God had freed her, even though a husband richer than Crœsus, wiser than Lelius, or handsomer than Nireus, should offer himself. Of four daughters which Lucretia bore to her husband, two only survived, whom he dedicated to a conventual life.
Her writings were held in so much esteem, for the graces of her
