Cecilia Gallerani was the favourite and most celebrated of the many mistresses of Ludovico Sforza, known as Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan.
10 Facts About Cecilia Gallerani
2.
Cecilia Gallerani is best known as the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Lady with an Ermine.
3.
Cecilia Gallerani was not a member of the nobility, but he occupied several important posts at the Milanese court, including the position of ambassador to Republic of Florence and Duchy of Lucca.
4.
Cecilia Gallerani's mother was Margherita Busti, the daughter of a noted doctor of law.
5.
Cecilia Gallerani was educated alongside her six brothers in Latin and literature.
6.
In 1483 at the age of ten, Cecilia Gallerani was betrothed to Stefano Visconti, but the betrothal was broken off in 1487 for unknown reasons.
7.
Cecilia Gallerani was a lifelong scholar with a musical gift and love of poetry, which she composed in Latin and Italian.
8.
Cecilia Gallerani became a mistress of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza "il Moro" when she was 16 or 18 and enjoyed entertaining the intellectual elite out of her apartments in his Milanese castle and seat of the ducal court at the Porta Giovia.
9.
Cecilia Gallerani was purportedly buried in the Carminati family tomb in the Church of San Zavedro.
10.
The Leonardo portrait of Cecilia Gallerani plays an important role in the plot of the alternative historical novel Fatherland by Robert Harris.