16th century AD

Even after Lucrezia's tomb was placed in the oratory of S. Maria, the monks offered prayers for her in the chapel of St. Jerome, as required in her will. [93] Lucrezia had stipulated that Polirone's new church include a chapel dedicated to the saint, and that the monks celebrate two masses on his feast day for the salvation of herself and her family. [94] Although referring only to the new church, her request should be considered in the context of the old one. An altar to Saint Jerome had been consecrated in the first chapel on the right (its present location) in 1448 (Fig. 5). [95] This chapel was directly across the nave from the chapel of S. Giustina, which, by the end of the fifteenth century, held the tomb of Matilda (Fig. 5, M3). [96] As noted earlier, Matilda's tomb was a prayer station in Polirone's monastic liturgy, including the celebration of All Souls. In 1500, rites such as these prompted Lucrezia to cite Matilda as a model for her own prayers of salvation. Undoubtedly, Lucrezia hoped that the m onks would prove as faithful in their future services for her own soul as they had been for Matilda's in the past.

While not Lucrezia's name or family saint, Jerome was, in a certain sense, a patron saint of women patrons. [97] His followers had included an elite circle of noble women, most notably his protegee Paula, who established religious communities. Jerome's praise of Paula (later Saint Paula) for building a monastery in Bethlehem was well known in the Renaissance. In his biographies of famous and noble women entitled Gynevera de le Clare Donne, Sabadino degli Arienti noted that if Paola Malatesta Gonzaga, founder of Corpus Domini (S. Paola) in Mantua, had lived in the time of Jerome, the saint would have celebrated her as eloquently as he had her namesake. [98]

The Gynevera, written by the Bolognese humanist Sabadino degli Arienti about 1489-90, was one of a spate of treatises on illustrious women produced around the turn of the century among the courts of northeastern Italy. Several of these florilegia were associated with the Este court of Ferrara and two were commissioned by Isabella d'Este's intimate friend Margherita Cantelmo. [99] Arienti's biographies of thirty-three women, many of them contemporary, included Bianca Maria d'Este and Costanza Bentivoglio, sisters-in-law to Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola. [100] Lucrezia may have been familiar with the Gynevera through a copy owned by Isabella d'Este, marchesa of Mantua, where Lucrezia had a house. Related by marriage, the two women exchanged gifts and letters that demonstrate a warm affection. [101] In 1492, Sabadino degli Arienti had sent a copy of his collection of exempla to Isabella, who promised to "read it with attention and try to follow in the footsteps [imitare le vestigie] of those illustrious ladies. " [102]

In Arienti's treatise, Matilda was the object of highest praise: "I believe that human nature never produced a more worthy woman than her." [103] Matilda's well-known deeds and virtues had long constituted popular literary fare among aristocratic audiences in the region. [104] Indeed, Arienti complained that it was not easy to summarize her "celebrated virtues" described by so many writers, each of whom "spoke gloriously of her." [105] In his long chapter on Matilda, laced with panegyrics on her noble origins, abilities, deeds, and virtues, the countess of Tuscany is singled out as "a mirror and exemplum of magnanimity, a virtue of such splendor, that from [it] all the others proceed which make mortals worthy of Heaven." [106] Examples of Matilda's liberality encompassed not only gifts and charity, but also her construction of and donations to monasteries such as S. Cesario, Nonantola, Canossa, Trixonoro (Frassinoro?) near Lucca, and "the most magnificent monastery" of Polirone, which she "richly augmented [ augmenta ricamente]." [107] Arienti closed his biography of Matilda with the following encomium: "Thus every other woman tries to lead her life with as much virtue and glory in order to become blessed on earth and in heaven." [108]