LECTURE. Author Sarah Dunant: Resurrecting the Marchesa: the life and exploits of Isabella d’Este (2025. Dec. 3)

This 6pm 'Wednesday Lecture' at the British Institute of Florence, on December 3, 2025, is sponsored by the Calliope Arts Foundation.

In an age where women had little public power, Isabella d’Este (1474 – 1539) stands out as a formidable figure. She was born into one of Italy’s most illustrious dynasties and married into another. Her husband, Francesco Gonzaga, was a warrior and a philanderer, but their partnership – she ran the state while he was away fighting – lasted over a quarter of a century, during which time she became the greatest female patron and art collector of the Italian renaissance. To research her acclaimed new novel The Marchesa, Sarah Dunant accessed the  extraordinary archive of 33,000 letters that Isabella d’Este left, from which her voice, charming, cunning , clever and ruthless by degrees sings out.   

‘Dunant’s Isabella is a triumph — she is too ferocious, too alive to be a mere whisp of a ghost. Dunant gives her a brilliantly lively afterlife.’  Antonia Senior, The Times

If you are in Florence and would like to attend the lecture in person at the British Institute Library, please register here or send an email to bif@britishinstitute.it

The registration fee for in-person participants is 15 Euro per person. 

To join this lecture online, simply click on this link to register and receive the Zoom meeting invitation: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0dqqIZFrQOu1aWnUm93MTQ. The virtual doors will open at 18:00 Italian time on Wednesday 3rd December.

The recording of the virtual lecture will be available for registered participants only. Clicking on the link above, you authorise the British Institute of Florence to use your image, name and comments.