Barbara Torelli
Barbara Torelli (c.1475 – after 1533) was an Italian noblewoman known for her entanglement in the murder of her second husband, Ercole Strozzi. She is supposed to have written a sonnet about his death, which has been much anthologised but also suspected of being a forgery.
Life
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Barbara was born in about 1475 to Marsilio II, fourth count of Montechiarugolo.[1]
In 1491, she married the warlord Ercole Bentivoglio.[1] By 1503, she had separated from him and was having a relationship with the poet Ercole Strozzi. Her first child with Strozzi, Cesare, was born in 1506. They married in September 1507, after Bentivoglio's death, and had a daughter, Giulia, in 1508.[2]
In the morning of 6 June 1508, Strozzi was found dead in the streets near his house with twenty-two stab wounds. It was speculated that the murder was connected with Strozzi’s friend Lucrezia Borgia: either that Lucrezia was jealous of Strozzi’s new wife, or that her husband, Alfonso d'Este, was in love with Barbara. Another suspect was Giangaleazzo Sforza, Ercole Bentivoglio’s brother-in-law who was trying to get Barbara’s dowry back from her first marriage to Bentivoglio. Two days after the murder, Barbara and her two brothers-in-law went to Mantua to ask for Francesco Gonzaga’s help avenging it, but he did not intervene.[3][4]
Several poets, including Aldo Manuzio and Pietro Bembo, wrote obituary verses for Strozzi which emphasised Barbara’s loyalty to him.[2] Barbara is also supposed to have written a sonnet which was performed at his funeral. However, it has been suggested that the sonnet was a forgery by the seventeenth-century anthologist Girolamo Baruffaldi.[5]
Barbara asked Francesco Gonzaga to be godfather to her daughter Giulia,[3] who would go on to be engaged to Alberto Gazolo in 1518.[1] In a letter to Francesco, Barbara accused Bentivoglio's family of both taking her husband from her and trying to take her dowry.[6] The Strozzi brothers also contested her inheritance from her second husband.[1]
In 1525, Barbara married for a third time, to Lazzaro Doria. They travelled from Pisa to Lucca for the wedding in order to avoid paying tax on the dowry.[2]
She spent her last years between Parma and Bologna. She was still alive in 1533, when she dictated her will in Bologna.[2]
In popular culture
[edit | edit source]Barbara Torelli was portrayed by Pina de Angelis in the 1940 Italian film Lucrezia Borgia.[7]
References
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Barbara Torelli's attributed sonnet at LibriVox.org