Food and necessities were distributed to the populace free of charge. She brought in special doctors to assist the ill and priests to console the dying. No market, no traveling shows, no large assemblies. With Cesare Borgia and the French closing in, a plague would weaken the defenses of Romagna the sickness would have to be defeated in Forli before it could contaminate other areas. Caterina had seen the plague before and though she personally feared it little, she knew its capacity for devastation. One hundred and fifty years later, its cause remained a mystery but most well-informed rulers knew of efficacious ways to limit its spread. Europe's first experience of the Black Death had occurred in 1348 when it claimed a third of the population. Its onset was marked by a high fever and enlarged lymph nodes, known as buboes, which typically killed victims within three to four days. The bane of the Renaissance era, this terrible disease came from a bacterium hosted by rats, traveling from the infected rodents to humans via fleas. By the end of August, the illness was raging through Forli. "The arrival of the bubonic plague abruptly halted Caterina's pleasant summer. Considering the situation we have today with the coronavirus, this particular paragraph caught my eyes. She mixed violent streaks, especially after her second husband was assassinated when she initiated a bloodbath, with humanitarian ones.
I am full of admiration for this lady who managed to survive, sometimes on her own terms, in a male world. When it comes to her practical life it was 'doing by learning' From an early age, her studies started, and she continued her whole life. These polymaths often combined didactic education and competence within different areas, and they continued their education all their life. I think for most of us Leonardo da Vinci comes into mind. They are marked by high intelligence, motivation, curiosity, and inspiration. The era developed several polymaths, a person who excels in several areas of specialisation. During the renaissance, a man, or lord (they were mostly men) was expected to speak several languages, play instruments, write poetry, know their geography and be well-traveled. She was a true Renaissance person and a celebrity. Even if it meant to ride from Forli to Rome, eight months pregnant! When her family was threatened she did not hesitate to take unusual measures to save them. She was intelligent and well-read and considered the most beautiful woman of her time. She was married to her first husband at the age of ten and bore him six children. That might have been the reason for her surviving all the different ordeals she met with during her life. Raised in the court of Milan, she grew up in a world of intrigues. Cesare Borgia, nephew to the ruthless Borgia pope Alexander VI, who would bring Caterina's rule to an end with unspeakable cruelty." Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano, Caterina's beloved third husband, who provided Caterina entrée into Florentine culture and society, and an heir worthy of her legacy. Giacomo Feo, Caterina's secret second husband, a jumped-up family retainer whose assassination led to a bloodbath on the streets of Forli.
Niccolò Machiavelli, the Florentine political theorist who as a young diplomat was humiliated by Caterina and later took revenge with his pen. Count Girolamo Riario, Caterina's first husband and an originator of the Pazzi conspiracy, whose corrupt ways led to their flight from Rome to Forli. " Pope Sixtus IV, Caterina's benefactor and uncle by marriage, who commissioned the Sistine Chapel frescoes in which she is immortalized. She met many of the important men of her time: She was an incredible woman mother, wife, warrior, and icon. The story of her life is more than life itself. She was the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan. While searching for books about this time, I happened to find a book about Caterina Riario Sforza (1463-1509). I am currently reading various books about the de' Medici family and will return to the subject later on. I recently visited Florence, which you can read about on my other blog The Content Reader Goes Outdoor. Florence is one of the prominent city-states during the Italian Renaissance.