Politics, Pedagogy, and Praise: Three Literary Texts Dedicated to Eleonora d’Aragona, Duchess of Ferrara Jessica O’Leary, Monash University IN THE SUMMER OF 1479 , Eleonora d’Aragona was in her second term as regent after the outbreak of the Pazzi War, a conflict between Florence and the papacy that had erupted a year earlier and would drag on to 1480. The duchess of Ferrara was feverishly engaged with the business of ruling while her husband, Ercole d’Este, defended Tuscany from papal forces. 1 While the couple was in fre- quent contact and the duke’s vast retinue of staff undoubtedly bore much of the burden for executing the administrative tasks required of a fifteenth-century chan- cery, Eleonora was the target of incoming and outgoing requests, orders, and man- dates that required her vigilant supervision of the various divisions of the court. 2 The demands on the duchess’s time were gruffly noted by the Mantuan ambas- sador in Ferrara, Beltramino Cusadri. In a letter to the marchioness of Mantua, Contact Jessica O’Leary at 20 Chancellors Walk, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia ( jessica.oleary@monash.edu). I am very grateful to Carolyn James and Kathleen Neal for their helpful recommendations and advice at various stages of this essay as well as to Ernest Koh and Emma Gleadhill for their suggestions on an early draft. I also wish to acknowledge the expertise and generosity of the staff at the Archivio di Stato di Modena and of Mantua and the British and Morgan Libraries. I would like to further thank Jane Tylus and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. I also extend my grati- tude to the Bill Kent Foundation and the Fondazione Cassamarca for supporting the research on which this article is based. All translations are the author’s own unless otherwise indicated. 1. On Eleonora’s life see Luciano Chiappini, Eleonora d’Aragona, prima duchessa di Ferrara (Rovigo, 1956). On her access to power, see Werner L. Gundersheimer, “Women, Learning, and Power: Eleonora of Aragon and the Court of Ferrara,” in Beyond Their Sex: Learned Women of the European Past, ed. Patricia H. Labalme (New York, 1980), 43–65. 2. These demands are listed in an undated chancery memorandum in Archivio di Stato di Modena (hereafter ASMo), Casa e Stato, Ramo ducale, Documenti spettanti a principi estensi, prin- cipi non regnanti, busta 376/19, Recordi che facea la Excellentia de Madama. I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, volume 19, number 2. © 2016 by Villa I Tatti: The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. All rights reserved. 0393-5949/2016/1902-0003$10.00 285 This content downloaded from 130.194.020.173 on April 24, 2017 12:27:36 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).