Beatrice d'Este (died 1226)
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Blessed Beatrice d'Este (Occitan: Biatritz or Beatritz d'Est; 1192 – 10 May 1226) was the daughter of Azzo VI of the Este family by his second wife, Sophia Eleanor, daughter of Humbert III, Count of Savoy. She was the aunt of Saint Beatrix d'Este.[1]
An account of her life was written, in both Latin and the vernacular, by a Brother Alberto of the church of the Holy Spirit (S. Spirito). About her youth he writes:
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She passed the years of her adolescence in the pomp and appearances of the age: in delights of the flesh, in ornamentation and vanity of diverse fabrication, as is typical of noble, secular women. |
She became the object of the courtly love of Rambertino Buvalelli, a Bolognese troubadour widely travelled in northern Italy. In nine of his cansos Rambertino celebrates the beauty and character of Beatrice, whom he frequently calls by the senhal (a "sign", as in a byname) Mon Restaur ("My Refreshment" in Occitan). The large age difference between Rambertino and the young Beatrice probably amused the Estense court, though there was probably never an actual relationship between the two, their intercourse being purely poetic, lyric, and musical.
Beatrice became a Benedictine nun at Solarola near Padua at the age of 14, and later founded a religious house at an abandoned monastery at Gemmola in 1221.[1] She died there in 1226 and was removed to Padua for burial in Santa Sofia. From there she was transferred in 1256 to the Este mausoleum of Santa Tecla. Her cultus was approved in 1763.
[edit] Sources
- Bertoni, Giulio. I Trovatori d'Italia: Biografie, testi, tradizioni, note. Rome: Società Multigrafica Editrice Somu, 1967 [1915].
- Field, W. H. W. Review of Le poesie by Rambertino Buvalelli, ed. Elio Melli. In Speculum, 56:2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 362–366.
- Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Medieval Lands Project — Modena/Ferrara, D. Marchesi d'Este
