Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:12:09.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bastardy and Legitimacy in the Formation of a Regional State in Italy: The Estense Succession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Jane Fair Bestor
Jane Fair Bestor
Affiliation:
Somerville, Massachusetts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In Italy during the Renaissance, an age that conjures up open systems of succession and ruthless dynastic struggle, the House of Este stood out for its singular succession practices. For almost one hundred and fifty years, illegitimately born Estense princes held office. Pope Pius II (r. 1458–64) marvelled:

It is an extraordinary thing about that family that within our fathers' memory no legitimate heir has ever inherited the principate; the sons of their mistresses have been so much more fortunate than those of their wives. It is a circumstance contrary not only to Christian custom but to the law of almost all nations.

Type
Family Trees
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 549 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

MANUSCRIPT SOURCES

Archivio di Stato, Mantua (cited herein as ASMa). Archivio Gonzaga, b. 217 and b.1228.Google Scholar
Archivio di Stato, Milan (cited herein as ASMi). Archivio Sforzesco, cart. 323.Google Scholar
Archivio di Stato, Modena (cited herein as ASMo). Casa e Stato: b.324, Ramo ducale 10; 15, b.l; b.358; cass.13, no. 8. Notai camerali ferraresi: VII, Moyses Benintendi; XIX, Masius del Conte.Google Scholar
Seminario, Padua. Nono, Giovanni da. De generatione aliquorum civium urbis Padue, tarn nobilium quam ignobilium. Manuscript No. 11.Google Scholar
Antonius, de Butrio. [1578] 1967. In librum quartum Decretalium commentarii. Venice: Apud Iuntas; Turin: Bottega d'Erasmo.Google Scholar
Ubaldi, Baldo degli. 1550. Super feudis. Lyons: S. N.Google Scholar
Ubaldi, Baldo degli. 1599. In Corpus iuris civilis commentaria, vols. 7 and 8 of 10 vols. in 8. Venice: Apud Iuntas.Google Scholar
Ubaldi, Baldo degli. 1609. Volumen primum consiliorum sive responsorum. Venice: Apud Haeredes Alexandri Paganini.Google Scholar
Bartolo of Sassoferrato. 1588. Opera quae nunc extant omnia, vols. 3 and 6 of 11 vols. Basil: Ex Officina Episcopiana.Google Scholar
Bartolo, of Sassoferrato. 1986. “On the Tyrant,” in The Renaissance, Cochrane, Eric and Kirshner, Julius, eds. (University of Chicago, Readings in Western Civilization, 5), 7–30. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Barzi, Benedetto. 1584. Tractatus de filiis non legitime natis, in Tractatus universi iuris, 29 vols., vol. 8. pt. 2, fols. 24ra–29vb. Venice: Societas Aquilae Renovantis.Google Scholar
ChroniconEstense. 1729. In RerumItalicarum Scriptores, vol. 15, Muratori, L.A., ed. Milan: Ex Typographia Societatis Palatinae.Google Scholar
Codex Justinianus (cited by book, title, law, and section numbers); see Corpus iuris civilis.Google Scholar
Corpus iuris civilis. 1954–59. Krüger, Paul, Mommsen, Teodor, Scholl, Rudolph, Kroll, Wilhelm, eds., 3 vols., 6th ed. Berlin: Apud Weidmannos.Google Scholar
Digest (cited by book, title, and lex number); see Corpus iuris civilis.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Emil. ed. 1879–81. Corpus iuris canonici, vol. 2. Leipzig: Ex Officina Bernhard Tauchnitz.Google Scholar
Giovanni, d'Andrea. [1581] 1963. In quartum Decretalium librum novella commentaria. Venice: Apud Franciscum Franciscium Senensem; Turin: Bottega d'Erasmo.Google Scholar
Guadenzi, Augusto, ed. 1908. “II testamento di Azzo VIII d'Este e la pace del 1326 tra Modena e Bologna,” in Miscellanea Tassoniana di Studi Storici e Letterari, Casini, Tommaso and Santi, Venceslao, eds. Bologna-Modena: A.F. Formiggini.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Karl, ed. 1971. Consuetudines feudorum. Wiesbaden: Scientia Verlag Aalen.Google Scholar
Lünig, Joannes Christianus, ed. 1725–1735. Codex Italiae diplomatics, vol. 3. Frankfurt: Impensis Haeredum Lanckisianorum.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince, Musa, Mark, ed. and trans. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
de Tudeschi, Niccolò. 1500. Lectura super Quarto. Milan: Johannes Angelus Scinzenzeler for Johannes de Lignano.Google Scholar
Novellae Constitutiones Justiniani (cited by novel, chapter, and section numbers), see Corpus iuris civilis.Google Scholar
Paulus de, Castro, 1546. Prima et secundapars consiliorum. Lyons. Thomas Bertheau.Google Scholar
de Ancharano, Petrus. 1504. Consilia. Pavia: Andreas de Boschis.Google Scholar
Pius, II (Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini). 1939–40. The Commentaries of Pius II, Gragg, Florence, trans. (Smith College Studies in History, 25), 1–4.Google Scholar
Salimbene, de Adam. 1966. Cronica fratris Salimbene de Adam, Scalia, Giuseppe, ed., vol. 1. Ban: Laterza e Figli.Google Scholar
Theiner, Augustin, ed. 1861–62. Codex diplomaticus dominii temporalis Sanctae Sedis, vol. 2. Rome: Imprimerie du Vatican.Google Scholar
Toderini, Teodoro, ed. 1861. Cenni documentati sul matrimonio diZiliola da Carrara con Nicold d'Este (1396–1398). Venice: P. Naratovich.Google Scholar
Zambotti, Bernardino. 1934–37. Diario ferrarese dall'anno 1476 sino al 1504, Pardi, Giuseppe, ed. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (2d ed.) 24, pt. 7 [2].Google Scholar
Bestor, Jane Fair. 1991. “Ideas about Procreation and Their Influence on Ancient and Medieval Views of Kinship,” in The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present, Kertzer, David I. and Sailer, Richard P., eds., 150–67. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bestor, Jane Fair. 1992. “Kinship and Marriage in the Politics of an Italian Ruling House: The Este of Ferrara in the Reign of Ercole I (1471–1505).” Ph.D. disser., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Bestor, Jane Fair. 1995. “The Problem of Bastardy in the Estense Succession.” Paper presented at conference on “Ferrara: Cultural Change from Boiardo to Tasso,” Newberry Library, April 27–29.Google Scholar
Brundage, James A. 1987. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1958. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, vol. 1. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, D. M. 1941. Giangaleazzo Visconti. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, D. M. 1988. “The Sforza Prince and His State,” in Florence and Venice: Renaissance Studies in Honour ofNicolai Rubenstein, Peter Denley and Caroline Elam, eds., 161–72. London: Westfield College, University of London Committee for Medieval Studies.Google Scholar
Canning, Joseph. 1987. The Political Thought of Baldus de Ubaldis. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cappelli, Antonio. 1870. “Niccolo di Lionello d'Este.” Atti e memorie delle reali deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie modenesi e parmensi, 5: 413–38.Google Scholar
Chiappini, Luciano. 1967. Gli Estensi. Varese: dall'Oglio.Google Scholar
Comaroff, John L. 1978. “Rules and Rulers: Political Processes in a Tswana Chiefdom.” Man, n.s. 13:1, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comaroff, John L.; and Simon, Roberts. 1981. Rules and Processes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Davis, James C. 1975. A Venetian Family and Its Fortune, 1500–1900. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Davis, Natalie Zemon. 1985. Review of The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe, by Goody, Jack. American Ethnologist, 12:1, 149–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, Trevor. 1986. “Venetian Economic Hegemony: The Case of Ferrara, 1200–1500.” Studi Veneziani n.s., 12: 45–98.Google Scholar
Dean, Trevor. 1988. Land and Power in Late Medieval Ferrara. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dean, Trevor. 1993. “Ercole I d'Este.” Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, XLIII, 97–107.Google Scholar
Duby, Georges. 1978. Medieval Marriage. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ettlinger, Helen S. 1994. “Visibilis et Invisibilis: The Mistress in Italian Renaissance Court Society.” Renaissance Quarterly, 47:4, 770–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fichtner, Paula Sutter. 1989. Protestantism and Primogeniture in Early Modern Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Hildred; and Geertz, Clifford. 1975. Kinship in Bali. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1965. The Ideas in Barotse Jurisprudence. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1966. “Introduction,” in Succession to High Office, Goody, Jack, ed., 1–56. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1983. The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guaitoli, Pietro. 1977. “Ricerche ed analisi dei titoli d'acquisto del potere signorile degli Estensi nelle citta padane.” Tesi di laurea, Faculty of Jurisprudence, University of Modena.Google Scholar
Gundersheimer, Werner. 1993. “Clarity and Ambiguity in Renaissance Gesture: The Case of Borso d'Este.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 23:1, 1–17.Google Scholar
Hughes, Diane Owen. 1976. “Struttura familiare e sistemi di successione ereditaria nei testamenti dell'Europa medievale.” Quaderni Storici, 32: 929–52.Google Scholar
Jones, P. J. 1974. The Malatesta of Rimini and the Papal State. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, Francis William. 1977. Household and Lineage in Renaissance Florence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kirshner, Julius. 1978. Pursuing Honor while Avoiding Sin: The Monte delle Doti of Florence. (Quaderni di Studi Senesi, 41). Milan: Dott. A. Giuffrè.Google Scholar
Kuehn, Thomas. 1991. Law, Family, and Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lansing, Carol. 1991. The Florentine Magnates: Lineage and Faction in a Medieval Commune. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, Jane. 1977. “The Signory and Its Supporters: The Este of Ferrara.” Journal of Medieval History, 3 (1977): 39–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, Jane. 1981. “The Exiles and the Signory: The Case of Ferrara.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 11:2, 281–97.Google Scholar
Leclerq, Jean. 1982. Monks on Marriage. New York: The Seabury Press.Google Scholar
Manfroni, C. 1885. “I diritti della casa Savoia sopra il marchesato di Saluzzo.” Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Rendiconti, I: 12–16.Google Scholar
Marongiu, Antonio. 1958a. “Adulterini e incestuosi (figli), Diritto intermedio.” Enciclopedia del diritto, 1: 610–11.Google Scholar
Marongiu, Antonio. 1958b. “Alimenti, Diritto intermedio.” Enciclopedia del diritto, 2: 21–24.Google Scholar
Michel, Jacques. 1962. Gratuite en droit romain. Brussels: Institut de Sociologie.Google Scholar
Moore, R. I. 1987. The Formation of a Persecuting Society. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally Falk. 1978. Law as Process. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally Falk. 1989. “History and the Redefinition of Custom on Kilimanjaro,” in History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology, Starr, June and Collier, Jane F., eds., 277–301. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Munn, Nancy D. [1986] 1992. The Fame ofGawa. Reprint, Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Muratori, Ludovico Antonio. 1717–1740. Delle antichità estensi ed italiane, 2 vols. Modena: Stamperia Ducale.Google Scholar
Pardi, Giuseppe. 1904. Leonelle d'Este, Marchese di Ferrara. Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli.Google Scholar
Partner, Peter. 1958. The Papal State under Martin V. London: British School at Rome.Google Scholar
Partner, Peter. 1972. The Lands of St. Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance. London: Eyre Methuen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pecorella, Corrado. 1968. “Filiazione (parte storica).” Enciclopedia del diritto, 17: 449–57.Google Scholar
Pennington, Kenneth. 1993. The Prince and the Law, 1200–1600. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitt-Rivers, Julian. 1966. “Honour and Social Status,” in Honour, and Shame, J. G. Peristiany, ed., 19–77. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Prodi, Paolo. 1982. II sovrano pontefice. Bologna: II Mulino.Google Scholar
Prosperi, Adriano. 1977. Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche e le idee religiose,” in II rinascimento nelle cortipadane, Rossi, Paolo, ed., 125–62. Bari: De Donate.Google Scholar
Robinson, I. S. 1990. The Papacy, 1073–1198. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Charles M. 1997. The Este Monuments and Urban Redevelopment in Renaissance Ferrara. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1985. Islands of History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Schimmelpfennig, Bernhard. 1979. “Ex Fornicatione Nati: Studies on the Position of Priests' Sons from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History (n.s.), 2: 3–50.Google Scholar
Swain, Elisabeth. 1989. “The Condotte of Ludovico Gonzaga.” Renaissance Studies, 3:1, 448–9.Google Scholar
Tenenti, Alberto. 1987. Stato: un'idea, una logica. Bologna: II Mulino.Google Scholar
Trombetti Budriesi, A. L. 1980. “Beni estensi nel Padovano: da un codice di Albertino Mussato del 1293.” Studi medievali, 3d ser. 21 3:1, 141–217.Google Scholar
Valeri, Valerio. 1985. Kingship and Sacrifice. Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorsten. 1963 [1899]. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Reprint: New York: New American Library, Menter Books.Google Scholar
Verci, Giambattista. 1779. Storia degli Ecelini, vol. 3. Bassano: Stamperia Remondini.Google Scholar
Vergottini, Giovanni de. 1938. “Di un vicariato imperiale degli Estensi a Ferrara sotto Lodovico IV.” Rivista di storia del diritto italiano, 16: 289–316.Google Scholar
Waugh, W. T. 1932. “Germany: Lewis the Bavarian and Charles IV,” in The Cambridge Medieval History, Tanner, J. R.et al., eds., VII: 113–54. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zenobi, Giacomo Bandino. 1988. Tra famiglia e ‘familia’: i bastardi delle case signorili di area marchigiana,” in “Familia” del principe e famiglia aristocratica, Mozzarelli, Cesare, ed., II, 415–35. Roma: Bulzoni.Google Scholar