ABSTRACT

Very few records exist regarding the life of Isabella Sforza, the last, and illegitimate, daughter of the Pesaro branch of the illustrious ruling family of Milan. The stereotype of Isabella's pietashas also overshadowed the fact that in the years before the Council of Trent, she and Ortensio Lando, and her spiritual guide, seem to have shared similar convictions regarding the quiet and peace of mind to be found in the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. Biographical research, in fact, overturns the hagiographical model based on the effacement of Isabella's private life in this world, on her self-abnegation and silence. In the early 1540s Lando became Isabella's 'assiduous visitor', and at that time he constructed a complex dossier on her which was continually filtered but fairly rich, often referring to circles in Milan and Piacenza.