Eleonora d'Este (1515–1575)

Eleonora d'Este (4 July 1515 – 1575) was a Ferrarese noblewoman. She was the first daughter of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and his second wife Lucrezia Borgia – as his first daughter, Alfonso named her after his mother Eleanor of Naples.

Life

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She was brought up in Ferrara and her mother died when she was four – her father had two more children with Laura Dianti. Eleonora was the only one of Alfonso and Lucrezia's daughters to survive both their parents. She became a nun at the Corpus Domini Monastery and was buried there alongside her mother and other members of her family.

Musica quinque vocum motetta materna lingua vocata

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In 1543, Girolamo Scotto of Venice published a collection of 43 religious motets under the title Musica quinque vocum motetta materna lingua vocata. There is no indication in that publication as to who the composer might have been.[1]

Laurie Stras, professor of music at Southampton University, has argued that Leonora may have been the composer.[2] Leonora was triply disqualified from being named in those days: being a woman, and a princess, and a nun.

References

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  1. ^ [Musica quinque vocum: motteta materna lingua vocata] : [ab optimis & variis authoribus elaborata : paribus vocibus decantanda : nunquam antea excussa : nunc vero sub hoc signo anchorae in lucem prodit. maximo labore & diligentia emendata, ut patebit experientibus]. OCLC 497473896. Retrieved 11 March 2017 – via worldcat.org. worldcat.org lists these pieces as being for "cantus, altus, tenor, bassus, quintus"; but the 1543 publication says they are for paribus vocibus decantanda, to be sung by equal voices.
  2. ^ Stras, Laurie (10 March 2017). "Sisters doing it for themselves: radical motets from a 16th-century nunnery". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2017.

Sources

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