Lucrezia Gonzaga di Gazzuolo (1522 - 11 February 1576) was an Italian noblewoman known for her literary talents, and her association with Matteo Bandello

Matteo Bandello

-Biography:Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona , c. 1480 or 1485. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology. For many years he lived at Mantua, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia...

. Bandello taught her mathematics, astronomy, rhetoric and logic, and wrote poetry in her honour. A volume of her letters was published in Venice in 1552, but some people believe Ortensio Lando was the author and not just the editor.

She was born in Bozzolo

Bozzolo

Bozzolo is a comune in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 110 km southeast of Milan and about 25 km southwest of Mantua....

  to Pirro Gonzaga

Pirro Gonzaga

Pirro Gonzaga was an Italian nobleman and condottiero.He was the second child of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Antonia Del Balzo. In 1499, at his father's death, he shared the heritage of Sabbioneta, Dosolo, Pomponesco, Gazzuolo and Rodigo with his brother Ludovico...

, lord of Gazzuolo

Gazzuolo

Gazzuolo is a comune in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 120 km southeast of Milan and about 20 km southwest of Mantua....

, member of a secondary branch of the Gonzaga family, and Camilla Bentivoglio

Bentivoglio

Bentivoglio was an Italian family of princely rank, long supreme in Bologna and responsible for giving the city its political autonomy during the Renaissance.-History:...

. At the age of 14 she married Paolo Manfrone, and is sometimes known as Lucrezia Gonzaga Manfrona. She died in 1576 in Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

.

Works

• Lettere della molto illustre sig. la s.ra donna Lucretia Gonzaga da Gazuolo con gran diligentia raccolte, & a gloria del sesso feminile nuouamente in luce poste. Venice, 1552 (Collected by Ortensio Lando?)
• Lucrezia Gonzaga, Lettere. Vita quotidiana e sensibilità religiosa nel Polesine di metà ‘500, a cura di Renzo Bragantini e Primo Griguolo, Minelliana, Rovigo, 2009.

Sources

• Ginevra Canonici Fachini, Prospetto biografico delle donne italiane rinomate in letteratura, 1824
• Giuseppe Maffei, Storia della letteratura italiana, 1834