Antonia Malatesta of Cesena

Antonia Malatesta of Cesena, also known as Antonia Malatesta of Rimini, was a Duchess of Milan by marriage to Giovanni Maria Visconti. She was the Regent of Milan in the interim after the death of her spouse in 1412.

Life

Antonia Malatest was born sometime after 1391 in Cesena and was the daughter[1] of the condottiero Andrea Malatesta[2][3] and Ricciarda (or Rengarda) Alidosi and the niece[4] of Carlo I Malatesta, Lord of Cesena, Fano, Pesaro, and Rimini. Her paternal grandparents were Gaelotto Malatesta and Elisabetta da Varano, while her maternal grandparents were Bertrando Alidosi and Elisa Tarlati.

Antonia's mother, Rengarda, died very young in 1401, allegedly repudiated by her husband Malatesta and then poisoned by her brothers on suspicion of adultery.[5] Antonia's father would marry twice more. Antonia's stepmother, Lucrezia Ordelaffi, was also said to have been poisoned just days after giving birth to Antonia's half-sister Parisina.^

Marriage

Gian Maria Visconti

The Malatesta family wished to ally themselves with the powerful Visconti family and persuaded with the young Duke of Milan Giovanni Maria Visconti, the Duke of Milan to marry Antonia Malaesta.married Antonia in the city of Brescia[1][6] in 1408. They had no children.[7]

In 1410, Antonia sheltered Beatrice di Tenda after her husband Facino Cane had been driven from Milan due the persecutions of Antonia's husband.

Husband's assassination

On May 16, 1412, while Giovanni Maria was on his way to the church of San Gottardo, a large group of conspirators, among whom belonged to the major Milanese noble families, stabbed him to death.

After Giovanni Maria's assassination in 1412, the succeeding Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, permitted Antonia to continue sharing the governance of the duchy for a few months.[8] Although she soon retired to Cesena, she retained her title, Duchess of Milan.[8]

Death

The date of her death is unknown.

In art

• A portrait of Antonia at the Certosa (a Carthusian monastery, north of Pavia) and a portrait of her husband[9]

In literature

• Bellarion,[10] by Raphael Sabatini

Notes

1. In the case of Antonias mother Rengarda these allegations seems have to be made much later. The Italian librarian and bibliographer Romeo Gallo examines these claims in Atti e memorie (1922) and finds severally disrepancies.[11]

References

1. Tonini, Luigi (1884). Rimini (in Italian). Vol. 5. Rimini: Orfanelli e Grandi. p. 22. OCLC 35300205. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
2. Zazzeri, Raimondo (1890). Storia di Cesena: Dalla sua origine fino ai tempi di Cesare Borgia (in Italian). Vignuzzi. p. 263.
3. Moressa, Pierluigi (2023-09-19). I Malatesta: Filosofia, sentimento e guerra nella storia di una dinastia (in Italian). Diarkos. ISBN 978-88-3616-329-8.
4. Verri, Pietro (1834) [First published 1783]. Storia di Milano: In cui si narrano le vicende della cittla incominciando dai pilu rimoti principi sino alla fine del dominio de' Visconti (in Italian). Vol. 1. Milano. p. 503. OCLC 185598701. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
5. Moressa, Pierluigi (2023-09-19). I Malatesta: Filosofia, sentimento e guerra nella storia di una dinastia (in Italian). Diarkos. ISBN 978-88-3616-329-8.
6. Adams, John (1794). A defence of the constitutions of government of the United States of America, against the attack of M. Turgot in his letter to Dr. Price, dated the twenty-second day of March, 1778. London: John Stockdale. p. 154. OCLC 2678599. Retrieved November 6, 2010. Antonia.
7. Rossi, Antonio Domenico (1830). Ristretto di storia patria ad uso de'Piacentini (in Italian). Maino. p. 245. OCLC 163149045. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
8. Jones, P.J. (1974). The Malatesta of Rimini and the Papal State: a political history. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 155. hdl:2027/heb.01211. OCLC 296420840.
9. Campo, Antonio; et al. (1642). Historia Delle Vite De' Duchi, Et Duchesse Di Milano: Con i loro veri Ritratti cavati al Naturale (in Italian). Milano: Ghisolfi. pp. 4–5. OCLC 245786904. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
10. Sabatini, Raphael (1926). Bellarion the fortunate: a romance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1170948.
11. Atti e memorie (in Italian). Presso la Deputazione di storia patria. 1922.

[1]

Preceded by Caterina Visconti

Duchess of Milan 1408–1412

Succeeded by Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda

1. McCall, Timothy (2024-01-15). Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78914-814-5.