Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The financial status of patrician women in Renaissance Italy remains obscure in all but a few cases, but the prevailing paradigm frames them as being dedicated to the well-being of their families, subordinating their interests to those of their spouses. Where known, their financial activities consist for the most part of supervising small farms, marketing livestock and produce, buying and selling properties, and lending money at interest. Lucrezia Borgia confounds this paradigm: she was a budding capitalist entrepreneur, leveraging her own capital by obtaining marshland at negligible cost and then investing in massive reclamation enterprises. She also raised livestock and rented parts of her newly arable land for short terms, nearly doubling her annual income in the process.
During my research I have been assisted by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and the Graham Foundation. The staffs of the Archivio Storico Comunale di Ferrara, the Archivio Storico Comunale di Modena, the Archivio di Stato of Ferrara, of Mantua, and of Modena, as well as the Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, Ferrara, all facilitated my research in various ways. Particular thanks go to the staff of the Seminary of Ferrara, and especially Mons. Danilo Bisarello and Stefania Calzolari, and the Fondazione Carife, who graciously made abundant texts available to me. I presented versions of this paper at the conference organized by Professors Letizia Arcangeli and Suzanna Peyronel, “Donne di Potere,” on 29 November 2006 in Milan, and in Rome at the Polish Academy for the Circolo Medieovisti, 12 February 2007. Professors Anna Esposito and Gabriella Zarri kindly commented upon my presentations and offered invaluable assistance in other ways; Dr. Michelangelo Caberletti generously shared his extensive and intimate knowledge of early modern reclamation in the Po Delta with me; Vittoria Antonellini, Andrea Faoro, Vittorio Fava, Eleonora Lupini, Cristiano Orlando, Don Lorenzo Paliotta, Don Enrico Peverada, Valentino Sani, and Jon Snyder also contributed in ways numerous and delightful; and Silvia Villani once again saved me from error. I dedicate this study to Mac, who will know why.