Maria d’Aragona (±1503-1568)

In the "Golden Age of Bastards" King Ferrante I of Naples (1423-1494) was an illegitimate son of King Alfonso V of Aragon and his mistress Giraldona Carlino. Ferrante I married twice and had several illegitimate children, too. One of Ferrante’s mistresses, Diana Guardado, was a member of an aristocratic patrician family. She gave birth to three of his children: Maria d’Aragona (who married a brother of Pope Pius III), Giovanna d’Aragona (who married a brother of Pope Julius II) and Ferdinando d’Aragona (†1542). Ferdinando was created Duke of Montaldo and married twice, too. His youngest child was Maria d’Aragona (1503-1568).

Maria's sister Giovanna 

d'Aragona (1502-1575) 

was also a patron 

of writers.

Maria d’Aragona’s brilliance and beauty were widely praised. She frequented intellectual and religious circles, and was acquainted with the poetess Victoria Colonna. In 1523 Maria married Alfonso d’Avalos (1502-1546), Marquess del Vasco. He became a decorated soldier. In 1538 he was appointed governor of Milan for Emperor Charles V. Subsequently, Maria lived in the ducal palace in Milan, while her husband was constantly in the field with his army. In 1544, in one of the worst massacres of the century, Alfonso lost 12,000 of his men in a battle against the French. He was wounded in a battle and never fully recovered from his wounds. The last years of his life he was a broken. After her husband’s death in 1546 Maria, her 7 children and her sister Giovanna (to the right), settled in Pavia, where they established a literary salon. In 1547 they moved to Castell dell’Ovo in Naples and reopened their salon. Driven out of the castle during a rebellion, Maria managed to live out the last years of her life in Naples, where she died in 1568.

In 2012 the remains of Maria d’Aragona were dug up in Naples. When a linen bandage was cut off from Maria’s arm, a large, oval ulcer was discovered. Examination of the tissue with a microscope showed the presence of Treponema Pallidum, a spirochaete bacterium that is known to cause syphilis. The tissue was so well preserved that the spiral shape of the bacteria could be detected. Maria also harbored human papillomavirus in a venereal wart—the first diagnosis of this sexually transmitted, cancer-causing disease in the tissue of a mummy.

Sexually transmitted diseases were common in Renaissance Italy. It was easily spread by soldiers, having sex with - or raping – women, so Maria was most likely infected by her soldiering husband. See also: Syphilis in the Italian Renaissance.