The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere [Hardcover]

Caroline P. Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005

The illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, Felice della Rovere became one of the most powerful and accomplished women of the Italian Renaissance. Now, Caroline Murphy vividly captures the untold story of a rare woman who moved with confidence through a world of popes and princes.
Using a wide variety of sources, including Felice's personal correspondence, as well as diaries, account books, and chronicles of Renaissance Rome, Murphy skillfully weaves a compelling portrait of this remarkable woman. Felice della Rovere was to witness Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, watch her father Pope Julius II lay the foundation stone for the new Saint Peter's, and see herself immortalized by Raphael in his Vatican frescos. With her marriage to Gian Giordano Orsini--arranged, though not attended, by her father the Pope--she came to possess great wealth and power, assets which she turned to her advantage. While her father lived, Felice exercised much influence in the affairs of Rome--even negotiating for peace with the Queen of France--and after his death, Felice persevered, making allies of the cardinals and clerics of St. Peter's and maintaining her control of the Orsini land through tenacity, ingenuity, and carefully cultivated political savvy. She survived the Sack of Rome in 1527, but her greatest enemy proved to be her own stepson Napoleone. The rivalry between him and her son Girolamo had a sudden and violent end, and brought her perilously close to losing everything she had spent her life acquiring.
With a marvelous cast of characters, this is a spellbinding biography set against the brilliant backdrop of Renaissance Rome.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Felice della Rovere (1483?–1536) emerges from obscurity to rival other great Renaissance women in this rendering of her life and legacy by Renaissance art scholar Murphy (Lavinia Fontana). Offspring of what was probably a brief liaison between Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere—later Pope Julius II—and Lucrezia Normanni, daughter of an old Roman family, Felice grew up in her mother's house. Pope Julius, the great rebuilder of Rome and patron of Michelangelo, proved to be a generous father, marrying Felice into the Orsini family, which gave her social legitimacy, and providing her with the means to develop her own estates. Negotiating a complicated set of family and social relationships, Felice became a woman of stature and wealth, able to serve as a negotiator for her father in both international and Italian affairs. Felice's experience is woven into the lives of such notable figures as Catherine de Medici, Baldessar Castiglione and Michelangelo. Some of Murphy's speculations about Felice's emotions, especially in the early stages of her life, are less than convincing given the lack of evidence. Nonetheless, one feels in reading this vivid biography that one has gotten to know a woman of energy and talent who became "the most powerful woman in Rome of her day." 30 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The title hints at scandal, but this is a rather sedate account of the life and times of Felice della Rovere, daughter of Pope Julius II. There was no great shame attached to her as the illegitimate daughter of a man of the church. Instead, Julius saw her as an asset in his plans for family advancement, and his influence, combined with her arranged marriage to the head of the powerful Orsini clan, helped lay the foundations for substantial independent power and wealth, rare for a woman of her time. Widowed early, she spent the rest of her life--she died in 1536--capably managing the family properties and building a legacy for her children. The book is based on both archival and secondary sources, but there is much about Felice that is unknown, including even the year of her birth, and Murphy fills in some of the blanks with speculation. If Felice herself never quite emerges from behind the surviving letters and inventories, this biography is a vivid depiction of the society and circumstances in which she lived. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195182685
• ISBN-13: 978-0195182682
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Renaissance Lady, July 25, 2005

By 

Richard Sawyer (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating biography of Felice della Rovere, illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, the great Renaissance pope. Felice, however, was important and influential in her own right, and the author, with thorough research, has vividly provided an engrossing story of Felice's life, including her childhood; marriages and children; her complex relationship with her father, the pope; and her rise to power, political influence, and wealth within Renaissance Italy. The author convincingly contends that Felice became the most powerful woman of her time, and yet, strangely, her story has not been told before. The biography of this remarkable women is enhanced with the backdrop of life in Renaissance Rome and the surrounding Italian countryside; the life of the city streets, the day-to-day workings of the great palaces, how the economy worked, wars, the lives and works of the great painters Michelangelo and Raphael, and the intrigues of the nobility are all described. Dozens of beautiful black and white illustrations are placed at the beginning of each chapter, and an attractive set of color plates highlights key persons, important paintings, and castles and palaces of the era. Strongly recommended for readers interested in women's history, the history of the Renaissance and the history of Rome.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MORE REMARKABLE BECAUSE IT'S TRUE, June 19, 2005

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere (Hardcover)

It was Rome, 1483. If ever a baby was doomed by birth, it was Felice Della Rovere. The odds were stacked against her. She was female and illegitimate. Nonetheless she rose above the liabilities of birth to become the most powerful woman in Rome. The story of her life, as related by Harvard art historian Caroline P. Murphy is fascinating, as her achievements rival those of any contemporary woman.

It was one thing to be born illegitimate during the Renaissance, quite another to be the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere who would become Pope Julius II. Not a gentle leader, Julius was known as "The Warrior Pope," one who despised and reviled the rather hedonistic lifestyles of the Borgias. Nonetheless, he was in some ways a helpful father, seeing to the advantageous marriage of his daughter to a member of the wealthy Orsini family, which gave Felice access to the means necessary to amass a personal estate. Felice had been married once before but left a young widow. (The name of her first husband could not be traced).

She was raised in her mother's home and learned much of intrigue and manipulation during her formative years. When her father was elected to the papacy she became quite useful to him as a runner of errands. She was witness to the painting of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, and the laying of a foundation for a new St. Peter's. Felice may well have inherited her ambition from her father who sought greater Roman power.

Upon the death of Julius II, Felice used the Orsini family influence to become a friend of cardinals. She understood politics well, and used this knowledge to great advantage. Even the sack of Rome in 1527 did not see her downfall, as she successfully arranged safe passage for herself and her offspring to Urbino.

Murphy enriches Felice's story with myriad details regarding her daily life, whether it is the overseeing of servants, seeing to her gardens and wine cellars, cosseting the influential, bribing officials, or even arranging a murder, which we are told was commonplace in that day and time.

Felice's story may have been lost to us for half a century, but after reading "The Pope's Daughter" this incredible woman will not be forgotten again.

- Gail Cooke

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Renaissance Tapestry with New Colorful Threads, January 10, 2006

By 

Jane Brodsky - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere (Hardcover)

For the reader familiar with early sixteenth-century Rome, Caroline Murphy's book is a carefully compiled compendium of images and priceless facts, albeit some treading on familiar ground, for example the horrific Sack of Rome or the sexual anarchy in the Vatican during the reign of the infamous Borgia pope. Yet, there is so much new material on a fascinating woman, that even general readers interested in history should be mesmerized by it. The lives of numerous old baronial families form a foundation for the story of the Della Rovere and Orsini clans, of the militant Pope Julius, Felice's father, and the lords of Bracciano, the stronghold of the Orsini's. Minute details of everyday life in Rome enclose the broader picture of a papal daughter who governed her family with a suprisingly strong hand, long after her papal father died. Images of lavish feasts, rebuilding of St. Peter's, and perpetual enminity between the ruling clans are just minute details of an elaborate and very enjoyable reading. Although a page-turner, be prepared to move slowly, because the thousands of facts will demand time to savor them! Definitely not a quick read for most. Highly recommended.