CATERINA WAS BORN in Milan in 1463, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, heir to the Duchy of Milan, and the beautiful Lucrezia Landriani, who, for Galeazzo's convenience, had been married off to a compliant palace courtier. In almost any other realm in Europe, illegitimacy was a stigma that effectively prevented a person from attaining a respectable social standing, but in Italy, bastard children were the norm—especially in the ruling house of Milan. Custom held that natural children would be raised in the house of the father, side by side with the rightful heirs, and thus Caterina grew up in the ducal household. She carried her Sforza surname with such pride that even after three marriages she would still retain it.
The Sforza family had risen from peasantry to nobility by sword and skirmish. Muzio Attendolo, the founder of the Sforza line and Caterina's great-grandfather, had run away from his family farm in the 1390s to fight as a mercenary soldier, acondottiere.Fourteenth-century Italy was a mosaic of separate principalities characterized by complex military alliances and shifting borders. From the kingdom of Sicily to the free Republic of Venice, young warriors looking for fame and fortune were well accommodated with battles to fight. Muzio Attendolo's courageous exploits on the battlefield had earned him the nickname "Sforza," meaning "strength." After fighting for the papacy, the Republic of Florence, and the kingdom of Naples, he settled into regular service with the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. The Viscontis, who had been vested with the dukedom of Milan in 1395 by the Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslaus, had turned Milan into a wealthy state and one of the most politically significant territories in Italy. Muzio's illegitimate son Francesco carried on the new family name, Sforza, and its mercenary enterprise, earning increasing fame through his valor in Italy's ceaseless wars and military disputes. Francesco Sforza married the illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, Bianca Maria, and when Duke Filippo died without a male heir in 1447, Sforza was poised to claim the duchy.
Francesco's plan was foiled by the Milanese nobility, who on the day of Filippo's death declared the city a republic, destroyed the Visconti castle of Porta Giovia, and occupied all the public buildings. The newly formed republic soon faced formidable enemies including Venice, which exploited the weakened city by plucking away its territories. The embattled republic had no choice but to hire the Sforza army to repel these foreign foes, and in a swift campaign, Francesco recaptured the subject cities. In 1448, Francesco signed a treaty with Venice and then turned to retake his own city. After a couple of months of siege, Milan finally capitulated and opened its gates to Francesco, the de facto duke of Milan, confirming one of the many shrewd statements of the political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli: even a tenuous hereditary claim to a throne is an advantage in regaining power.
The Holy Roman Emperor never officially recognized Francesco and Bianca Maria, but they ruled Milan as grandly as any duke and duchess the city had ever known. Boasting one of the largest urban populations in fifteenth-century Europe—about 200,000 inhabitants—the city enjoyed the products of its fertile farmlands as well as thriving commerce, particularly in the production of silk and armor.
Under Francesco Sforza, Milan set up one of the first printing presses in Europe and became world famous for its sophisticated technical advances in myriad industries.1 Nonetheless, a constant undercurrent of violence rippled beneath this busy surface. The first architectural project of the Sforza rule was the rebuilding of the defensive castle of Porta Giovia, which would later be renamed Castello Sforzesco. Francesco devoted particular attention to reinforcing the battlements facing the city, reflecting his belief that the greater danger to the Sforza family lurked within, not outside, the city walls. Despite internal tensions, Milan flourished. Francesco built the innovative and highly effective Maggiore hospital and the magnificent Certosa di Pavia, a monastery at the customary burial site of the Visconti dukes.
Francesco's son Galeazzo Maria continued the tradition of emphasizing municipal development along with military prowess during his ten-year reign. Assuming the leadership of Milan upon Francesco's death in 1466, he enacted Milan's most lavish displays of luxury and extravagance. He was superbly instructed in the arts befitting a prince, but Galeazzo Maria's streak of self-indulgence would earn him many enemies within his own boundaries. Caterina was three when her father, Galeazzo, became duke of Milan, and along with her father's court she took up residence in the renovated castle of Porta Giovia. Surrounded by every luxury produced by nature and man, she received a first-rate education alongside the duke's four legitimate children. Little difference was drawn between male and female offspring. The children spent long hours with their tutor, Francesco Filefo, a humanist and poet of the court. Filefo had authored Sforzinda, an epic poem inspired by Homer's Iliad, memorializing the grand deeds of Francesco Sforza's conquest of Milan. Under his tutelage, the Sforza children learned to read Latin, particularly the works of Virgil, Cicero, and Seneca. The vast ducal library contained over one thousand books, some exquisitely illuminated with brilliantly colored scenes and fine tendrils of gold leaf highlighting the borders; others were transcribed in the innovative, easy-to-read Florentine script. To complement their study of the classics, the young Sforzas read the stories of the saints. From the legend of her namesake, Catherine of Alexandria, Caterina learned that faith can make a young girl wiser than fifty philosophers. The family's immense book collection was also liberally sprinkled with French chivalric romances of the type that Cervantes would satirize a century later in Don Quixote. For Caterina and other young aristocrats, however, they were useful manuals, initiating them into the duties and ideals of their station through captivating tales of noble deeds and adventures.
Like many noblewomen of the Renaissance, young Caterina spent many an hour immersed in Boccaccio's popular De Mulieribus Claris (Illustrious Women). The first collection of women's biographies written in the West, Illustrious Women recounted with earthy detail 104 stories of the most famous female figures of all time, from Eve in the Garden of Eden to Joanna, queen of Jerusalem and Sicily. Joanna had been a contemporary of Boccaccio, and she had not only hired Caterina's great-grandfather Muzio Attendolo as her personal bodyguard but was also rumored to have been his lover. Within those vellum pages Caterina found the glorious histories of the virtuous Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, and the decadent Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians—to whom Caterina would later be likened by detractors. The stories were worldly and sexually explicit, often touting grand deeds rather than strict morals. Little did Caterina suspect that by the time she was thirty-three years old, she herself would be named as an illustrious woman in Jacopo Filippo Foresti's similar collection, De Plurimis Claris Selectisque Mulieribus.
The muscles of the Sforza scions were as well trained as their minds. The children passed hour upon hour learning to bear and wield arms in the tradition of their warrior family. Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, a passionate and frequent hunter, acquired the best weapons and the finest horses, dogs, falcons, and hunters for the family's huge park at Pavia. Hunting was an age-old tradition in the training of young knights and princes. King Alfonso of Castile in the fourteenth century had sung its praises: "A knight should always engage in anything to do with arms and chivalry and, if he cannot do so in war then he should do so in activities that resemble war. And the chase is most similar to war."2 The hunt required alert minds, toned bodies, and the occasional forgoing of sleep, food, and other creature comforts. Most important, it taught children at an early age to overcome fear.
Unlike the nobility of most other European courts, the Sforzas emphasized training the female children alongside the males in the use of weapons, riding, and the chase. Thus Caterina gained an unusual advantage over her peers: her education developed both the intellect and the fundamentals of military leadership. Isabella of Castile, Caterina's contemporary in Spain, would also learn to hunt and ride, but she would be little schooled in the arts and letters because her indoor hours would be spent in the chapel. Closer to home, Isabella d'Este, the daughter of the illustrious duke of Ferrara, would hone her literary skills and develop an art connoisseur's eye, but she would be kept from activities that required the physical exertion that is essential to the hunt. These young women, who would all serve as marital bargaining chips in the contest for political power in Europe, received an upbringing that fit the character of their court of origin. As condottieri, the Sforzas had fought their way to the throne and considered strength and discipline to be their greatest assets. Hunting instilled in their women the ability to master their emotions, which would serve them well as they left home at a youthful age to venture to strange lands with new husbands. It also taught children to take swift and decisive action tempered with patience. Caterina frequently set out alongside her stepmother and grandmother, both formidable hunters, to the well-stocked Pavia hunting grounds. Carrying a child-size hunting knife with fine gold chasing or a falcon sporting a tooled-leather hood decorated with gilt, Caterina chased stag, boar, hare, and even ostrich alongside her male kin.
Most of Caterina's early life was spent at the Sforza castle in Pavia and the Milanese fortress of Porta Giovia. The high stone walls that surrounded her from infancy offered a sense of protection and security. War, and all the devastation that came with it, was a constant in Renaissance Italy. Caterina's world was a microcosm of peace and privilege, and for the moment the powerful ramparts shielded her from poverty, unrest, and danger.
Fifteenth-century Milan was already an international center for luxury clothes and high-tech armor. Agents throughout the world flocked to the Via dei Spadari, "Street of the Swordsmiths." Early in the morning they would line up outside the large palace markedMY, the symbol of the Missaglia family, the most famous armorers in Europe.3 Tommaso Missaglia's development of asymmetrical plates, allowing warriors greater freedom of movement, had revolutionized fighting. From France to Naples, kings sported the distinctive rounded armor bearing the MY logo. The design of this state-of-the-art equipment took into account recent improvements in firearms as well as in defense; special auxiliary plates at the back of the helmet and the center of the breastplate offered greater protection from projectiles. To fill the massive orders, Milanese manufacturers set up primitive assembly lines to mass-produce the suits. Watching her brothers being fitted for Missaglia armor, Caterina would learn to appreciate a well-made cuirass.
Even more opulent than the specialized armor was Milan's fashionable clothing. The city's long association with France inspired its designers to create more elaborate, intricately constructed costumes than anything previously seen in Italy. Milan's primacy in silk production kept Milanese men and women shimmering in brilliant-hued robes. The nobles wore form-fitting garments covered by long overdresses called pallande. Sporting lengthy trains and voluminous sleeves, each robe was made from more than eighteen feet of cloth; the most extravagant incorporated gold brocade. The gowns were embroidered with jewels or pearls and also boasted a distinctive trim called "dagging," specially cut and twisted strips of cloth. This finery would later prompt Leonardo da Vinci to write, "I remember having seen them in my childhood, grown men and young boys going about with every single edge of their clothing dagged, from head to toe and down the right and left sides. At the time it seemed such a wonderful invention that they even dagged the dags."4
Although over the course of her life, many people would admire Caterina for her beauty and style, none would ever doubt the mettle beneath the elegance. Throughout her childhood, Caterina had been surrounded by strong-willed women. During her first years at court, she was raised by her grandmother, Bianca Maria Visconti, aunt of the king of France, Louis XI. Bianca, a beloved leader of her city, co-ruled with her son for the first few years of his reign, until Galeazzo Maria felt himself dwarfed by his mother, complaining that she treated him "as if he were a boy of little intelligence." Upon his marriage in 1468 to Bona of Savoy, he sent Bianca Maria to her dowry city of Cremona, where she died shortly after. The people of Milan mourned Bianca, praising her warm, caring treatment of her subjects as well as her courage in fighting by her husband's side in battle. After the death of her grandmother, Caterina was welcomed by Galeazzo Maria's new wife, who treated the five-year-old girl as her own daughter. Sister to the queen of France, Bona was renowned as a beauty. The Milanese ambassador who had negotiated the match with Galeazzo promised that the duke would be "much pleased with so beautiful a lady,"5 and when the court painter Bonifacio Bembo returned from France bearing a portrait of Bona to be shown to her intended, a smitten Galeazzo kept the work, claiming that he could not bear to part with it. Bona was a marvelous horsewoman and enthusiastically accompanied her husband on hunts. But beneath the beautiful and fun-loving demeanor of this fashionable lady there lay political savvy and a will of steel.
Caterina's first foray outside the confines of her family and court came in 1471, when her father embarked on a series of state visits to the neighboring territories. Galeazzo had been officially elected ruler of Milan in 1469, the same year that Lorenzo de' Medici assumed the rule of Florence. Ostensibly to fulfill a vow that he had made with his wife to visit the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, Galeazzo began planning the most elaborate cavalcade in living memory for a tour through the cities of Mantua, Ferrara, and Florence, intending to impress his peers, allies, and rivals.
Eight-year-old Caterina and her siblings were outfitted with new clothes, more elaborate than anything they had ever worn. In March 1471 the family set out in a flamboyant show of wealth that left onlookers marveling. Fourteen carriages decorated in gold and silver and drawn by horses draped in cloth-of-gold accompanied the ladies. The family escort comprised two thousand cavalrymen and five hundred infantrymen wearing silk costumes in the Sforza colors, red and white. To enliven the journey, the duke brought a thousand dogs and innumerable hawks and falcons as well as dwarfs, jesters, and musicians.
The ducal family spent the first few days in Mantua as guests of the Gonzaga court. Ludovico Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua, had much in common with Galeazzo Maria. His family had also risen from the status of condottiere to rule the wealthy and fertile lands of Mantua. The Gonzagas loved hunting, and Mantua bred the best hunting dogs and horses in Europe. The duke also found an outlet for his bawdy humor with the marquis. But for all the roughness, the Gonzaga court also embraced elegant refinement. Its choir was the finest in Italy, surpassing the pope's own singers. Assembled from all over the world, these musicians sang traditional liturgical music but also composed lively songs for the court's illustrious guests. Within the gloomy stone ramparts of the Gonzaga fortress lay chamber after chamber adorned with marvelous paintings, including those recently executed by the ingenious court painter Andrea Mantegna. It was here that Caterina was first exposed to the power of art. Galeazzo Maria spent hours studying the nearly complete Camera Picta, a room whose murals depicted the Gonzaga clan receiving guests and relatives. Grand architectural structures framed many of the scenes, proclaiming Mantua's urban renewal; others were set in lavish landscapes to underscore the fertile lands and generous spirit of the ruling house. The ceiling was a masterful demonstration of Mantegna's skill in trompe l'oeil: the medallions depicting the great caesars of Rome seemed to be carved of marble instead of painted. The vault was crowned with a painted aperture through which one seemed to view the sky. An illusionist dome, intended to resemble the Roman Pantheon, alluded to a connection between the Gonzaga court and imperial Rome. In Mantua, under Gonzaga dominion for over 150 years, art celebrated the success of kingship, not republican rule.
What the Sforza family saw in Mantua showed them that Italians valued more than displays of opulence, and nowhere was this more true than in the Republic of Florence, where Caterina and her family were greeted by Lorenzo de' Medici and welcomed into his home on the Via Larga. Although the Medicis were not officially the rulers of Florence, they were the de facto leaders of the powerful city-state. Florence, unlike Milan or Mantua, had succeeded in winning its independence during the wars between the papacy and Holy Roman Empire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Together with Siena, Pisa, and Bologna, Florence was one of a handful of little Italian city-states with a fledgling form of representational government. Milan had twice attempted to throw off its feudal shackles (most recently before the reign of Galeazzo's father), but its proximity to France, the oldest monarchy in Europe, and its weak grounding in the principles of humanism seemed to destine all bids for freedom to failure.
Lorenzo de' Medici was neither prince nor duke, yet his people called him "the Magnificent" in recognition of his leadership and his generosity. He did not live in a castle, protected by high walls and moats, but in a palace similar to those of other wealthy Florentine families. Its exterior did not boast state-of-the-art battlements or other defenses. Instead, hand-tooled stones were arranged in decorative, orderly patterns, and large windows illuminated the interior, bathing the rooms with light.
The house contained a library even richer than that of the Sforzas, and the Medicis took great interest in its contents. Lorenzo kept among his household an academy of scholars who discussed the works of the ancient authors, particularly Plato, and who wrote copiously themselves. Lorenzo often spent time with them, composing poems. Less exuberant than his handsome younger brother Giuliano, Lorenzo the Magnificent was nonetheless never considered a weakling. Still very young, Caterina was captivated by this ruler, who fought his enemies valiantly, discussed Plato knowledgeably, and wrote poetry passionately. Her love for Florence and particularly the Medici family would long remain with her.
The Medicis were grateful for the friendship of the Sforzas. Less than one hundred years earlier, under the Viscontis, Milan had been Florence's bitterest enemy. As soon as Francesco Sforza assumed the rule of Milan, Cosimo the Elder, grandfather of Lorenzo, had offered his friendship and considerable banking power, opening a Medici bank in Milan and transforming adversary into ally. Lorenzo was a gracious host and staged various entertainments for his noble guests, even commissioning one of his favorite artists, Piero del Pollaiuolo, to paint Galeazzo's portrait. Nonetheless, the austerity of the Florentines must have surprised the Sforza entourage. The Republic of Florence had adopted strict sumptuary laws, which prohibited luxuries in dress and accessories for both men and women. The pearl embroidery, horned headdresses, and lengthy trains typical in Milan were strictly forbidden in Florence. Although Tuscany produced the finest dyed luxury cloths in Europe, its citizens wore simple attire, more often made of wool than silk or gold brocade. Though the women of Florence chafed under these rules, they were nevertheless scandalized by the extravagance of the Milanesi. Some even considered the company from Milan to be a negative influence on the city's youth. Machiavelli would later lament that if Duke Galeazzo had found the city with a tendency toward "courtly finery and customs contrary to any well-ordered society, he left it even more so."6
The wealth of Florence was displayed in its streets. The mighty cupola of the cathedral of Florence, Brunelleschi's astonishing architectural feat, dominated the city. The guild building of Orsanmichele, a few steps from the cathedral, was a proud showcase of sculpture commissioned by the Florentines. Donatello's Saint Mark was carved with a gravitas alien to the gothic-style sculptures of Milan, and Saint John the Baptist by Ghiberti was the first bronze life-size sculpture to be cast in a single piece since antiquity. Newly unveiled and the pride of the city were Ghiberti's doors to the Baptistery of Florence, with ten gilt-bronze panels in relief, which an admiring Michelangelo would later dub "the gates of Paradise."
The greatest Florentine riches, however, lay in the ingenuity and the creativity of its free citizens. The Florentines tried to outdo one another in inventiveness and novelty, not lavish display. For example, the Sforza family arrived in time for the Feast of the Annunciation. This holiday, celebrated on March 25, recalls the day the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that she would bear a child, the Son of God, and it marked the first day of the New Year in Florence. Their Medici hosts took the duke and his family to see miracle plays at the churches of Florence, including the most beloved production of the year, the "Ascension of Christ" at the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine. This breathtaking spectacle included arrays of flying angels played by local children, who descended from the skies to welcome Jesus as he rose on clouds into Paradise. Engineers had built machines to lift and move people, props, and scenery. The Florentines likewise excelled in games, from boxing to tennis, but always favored strategy over force. Even in jousts, they prided themselves on overcoming brute strength through intellectual superiority.
The Sforzas, expecting to overwhelm their Tuscan neighbors with their obvious military might and dazzling demonstration of wealth, found themselves gently rebuked by these practical, hardworking people. What the Milanesi had perceived as glamorous the Florentines derided as gaudy. And although not a single person in Florence—not even Lorenzo the Magnificent—vaguely approached Galeazzo Maria in rank and stature, it seemed that the people of this proud republic, ennobled by their intellectual achievements, were looking down on him and his entourage. The Milanese party returned home, sober but enlightened.