New Decameron Forty-Seven: Lauren Schiller (Patreon)

Admired Miranda

By Lauren Schiller

Admired Miranda: A Life in Letters: Miranda Maria Sforza, Duchess of Milan, Queen of Naples and Spain, from Her Early Years in Exile on Her Island Throughout Her Rule

Introduction:

She was best known from Shakespeare's romanticized history "The Tempest" (1610) and Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio epic poem "La Música de la Reina" (1597) which both cover her early days in exile and experience with magics she was later rumored to control, and from Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's contemporary historical writings that focus on her scholarship and political life at the Spanish court. But you cannot truly come to know and understand the workings of the mind of the great humanist and diplomat Queen Miranda Sforza until you approach her through her own words. Until recently this has been difficult, as very few of her letters and only a handful of her humanist writings in Latin have been translated into English. There was no uniform Italian edition until 1993, also covering her humanist letters only, and only a portion of her political letters had been made available to the general public even in Spanish before the present century. Now, for the first time for the English speaking reader, I have the pleasure to present an almost complete collection of her personal and political letters. I precede the letters themselves with the briefest of biographical sketches, in order to orient the reader in Miranda's sixteenth century world.

Miranda Maria Sforza was born in Milan in 1520, the only daughter of Prospero Maria Massimiliano Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Marguerite d’Angoulême, sister to Francis I, of France. Her parent's union in 1515 merged the French and Sforza claims on Milan, and the Treaty of Noyon (13 August 1516) ended the fighting between Spain and France after Francis I's first invasion of Italy. In the treaty, Spain agreed to support French control of Genoa and France agreed to pass claim to Naples to King Alonso Carlos I of Spain through a marriage alliance which never occurred because the French princess died, setting the stage for further conflict.

In 1523, Prospero's younger brother Antonio Maria Francesco Sforza seized power in Milan with the help of Naples and Spain. Marguerite d’Angoulême was captured and ransomed to France. Prospero and Miranda escaped with the help of Giovanni Gonzaga and were thought to be dead until 1535, when a storm brought a ship carrying Antonio, Alonso I, members of the court, and the young heir to Naples and Spain to the island where Prospero lived with his daughter. The island is referred to in Miranda's letters as "Aeaea", after the island where Odysseus lived with the witch Circe, but the location of her island remains unconfirmed. Most contemporary scholars belive it is likely that the island is Ponza or Ustica due to their sizes and the proximity to plausible routes between Naples and Tunis, as the ship had been returning from the wedding of Tunisian king Muhammad b. al-Hasan (Muley Hassan) and Alonso's daughter Claribel as part of their agreement that Tunis become a vassal of Spain.

Shakespeare describes Miranda as an innocent and naive girl, but her letters show a keen mind that delights in scholarship and that understands the complexities of the political situations surrounding her family and Europe at large. After leaving the island, her influence quickly spread as she reached out to her peers, queens, kings, and scholars alike, and she was able to catch up on the politics and history that she missed and take her place amongst the leaders who shaped the continuing strong influence of humanist thought and wide ranging scholarship throughout Europe, both though her letters and by hosting salons to discuss philosophy, religion, and other fields of study, that, like her mother's, because internationally famous.

Miranda returned to Milan and started corresponding with Catherine de Médicis, who had married the younger son of the King of France and unexpectedly became Dauphine of France after the death of the older son and presumptive heir. She also wrote to her new sisters-in law, Margaret of Austria and Claribel of Tunis (bastard daughters of Alonso Carlos), and at long last, to her mother, who had since married the King of Navarre after her first husband's death, causing great consternation in the houses of Sforza, Navarre, France, and Spain alike. (Finally settled by a papal dispensation by Pope Paul III to annual Marguerite's first marriage and reaffirm the second while maintaining the legitimacy of Miranda's birth.) The loss of the marriage alliance between France and Milan, while unavoidable, was perhaps in part the cause of further wars between them, and Miranda and Catherine in particular spent many letters discussing how to use their influence to bring peace.

Miranda also corresponded with many scholars, with a particular interest in philosophy and magic. Some letters refer to her intent to return to the island to retrieve her father's books of magic, but there is no mention of success or failure. No other records of such a trip have been found, and anything resembling her father's books of magic likewise remain missing. There are records of visits to the court of Milan of self-described magicians and scholars Girolamo Cardano and John Dee, as well as active correspondence, but once again, while it was widely believed that Miranda had followed in her father's footsteps and bound a djinn to her service, there are no known records of her methods or spellbooks. Of course, the stories she controlled the magic of the djinn need not be true to explain her diplomatic successes, and the respect given to the well loved and 'admired' Miranda is well justified by her letters alone, a woman fluent in eight languages, well versed in humanist scholarship, and influence that spread from Spain to Persia, and even united these two empires through marriage alliances to stand against the mutual threat of the Ottoman Empire. 

The last decade of Miranda's life were filled with conflict between Spain and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over control of Tunis, which resulted in the death of Claribel, whom she had continued to correspond with over the course of their lives and changing political situations. The Reformation and troubles in France strongly influenced Miranda's desire for reform in the Spanish Catholic church, and while religious tolerance was promoted under her influence in Spain, the Catholic-Protestant conflicts caused the relationship between Spain and England to deteriorate, and England allied with the Ottoman Empire as Spain strengthened its relationship with Persia. 

Miranda died in 1588, shortly before the failed attempt by the Spanish Armada to conquer England due to storms which favored the English. Skepticism about the fate of the Armada is known to have existed among senior Spanish officers and later letters make reference to the djinn believed to have been released by Miranda's death and fearing retribution. Earlier letters about the storms and chaos that plagued the Spanish and Italian fleets in the early events leading up to the Battle of Lepanto also speculate that Miranda's grief over the recent death of her husband prevented her from controlling the djinn who had previously granted the Spanish good weather, though Spain and its allies were ultimately victorious. The official response from Spain about the Armada's mission rejected the existence of magic and insisted the operation go ahead.

Note: I would like to thank the Archivio di Stato di Milano and the National Archives of Spain for allowing me to conduct my research over the last five years. This work primarily collects Miranda's political letters from the Spanish archives. A further volume of her humanist letters, primarily found in Milan, is forthcoming from University of Chicago Press in 2022. The archivists of both libraries share my bafflement that the collections were sorted to the two locations thusly, and not by the place in which they were written or received. I would also like to thank my colleague, Dr. Tara Lajani, for alerting me about a small collection of Miranda's letters about hats and mathematics which were found in the Archive and Library of the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul, to be included in the volume of humanist letters, and for checking my translations of the letters written in Arabic and Persian.

The Letters:

Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit: Early Education on the Island (1523-1535)

[Note: The 1523-1524 letters are translated from the Tuscan dialect of Italian. The letters are written in a precise, scholarly hand, but signed in a childish scrawl.]

19th of May, 1523

To mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I live on a pretty island. A boy is here! Papa is here too. There is someone crying, always. 

I miss you.

Miranda

***

5th of October, 1523

To mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I am teaching Ardeas his letters. Ardeas is not his name but we do not know what his name is so Papa named him. He does not know how to write. He does not know Italian or French. This island must be very far from home. He teaches me some words he knows and shows me where there are pretty flowers.

I miss you.

Miranda

***

6th of January, 1524

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Papa gave me a new red dress and we said prayers for the Christ child. I miss you.

Miranda

***

21st of June, 1524

To mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Papa found the sad person! It isn’t a person, it is a djinn. The djinn was in a tree and was sad. Papa let him out and now he is happy!

Miranda

***

[Note: The rest of the letters are in the same hand as the signatures of the previous Miranda letters, though the handwriting changes and grows more scholarly and precise.]

[Translated from French]

25th of September, 1525

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I am big now and will write myself! I hope you are well Papa says you must be in France.

Papa has started to teach me Latin and Greek! Latin is like Italian and Papa says I am learning very well. Greek is hard, it has different letters, look. [Greek alphabet inserted, no particular order]

Papa is teaching me our history. My uncle was bad. I do not like the king of Naples.

I miss you.

Miranda

***

[Translated from Latin]

10th of March, 1526

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Papa says I should practice my letters, so I write in Latin. He says he cannot send you my letters and you must think I am dead. I pray to God that I see you again. My studies go well. I am learning more history. Your brother is the king of France so he is also my uncle. He was not the bad uncle I meant before that was Papa’s brother who sent us here. I cry you mercy if you were offended. Papa says France also wanted Milan and he fought with your brother and then you married Papa and they became friends!

When I am grown I will make everyone get married and then there will be peace.

Miranda

***

[Translated from Greek, with the signature only in Roman characters]

27th of August, 1526, the island of Aeaea.

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I asked Papa how he knows what the date is and now he is teaching me mathematics and astronomy. We have in our library very few poets but Papa showed me the story of the Illiad and the Odyssey with his magic. It was just pretend, he didn’t summon the Greek warriors from the dead or call the gods, it was the djinn. Odysseus' travels lasted ten years before he came home. I hope I may go home again before ten years pass. Papa recited Odysseus’ adventures on the island of Aeaea where the witch Circe lived. Papa says a witch lived with before we came, so I fancy that this is Circe’s island. I also learned that in Hesiod’s Theogony, Ardeas is the name of one of the sons of Circe and Odysseus. Papa named Ardeas that because he is the son of a witch. In Hesiod, Ardeas has brothers but Ardeas doesn’t have any, unless they are not on the island. Papa is like Odysseus because he is clever and doesn’t know how to get home. Are you like Penelope, waiting for Papa to return and tricking your suitors to wait longer? Papa isn’t Ardeas’ father because Ardeas was already grown when we came here and his mother went to God a long time ago.

I asked Papa if it was wasteful for me to use paper to write to you when you will never read my letters, but Papa says it is my scholarship and study is never wasted.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

13th of November 1526, the island of Aeaea

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Ardeas is supposed to carry in the wood for our fire but he is all bent and it hurts him, so I carry the wood too. It will help me grow strong, like a Sforza warrior, and it is a kindness, so it is a good thing for me to carry the wood. He helps me with my exercises and showed me how to climb the rocks faster. He is not very good at Latin but he is better at music. This island is full of music. Ardeas sings with the djinn and weeps. The music is so beautiful it makes me weep too.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of the Tuscan dialect of Italian]

3rd of February 1527, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Papa says I must not neglect the vulgar tongue, so I write to you in Italian today. I have begun to learn Spanish, which is a little like Italian, and Hebrew and Arabic, which are nothing like each other or anything else I have learned. Papa says it is most important to study the classics, but there are wise scholars who studied Plato who wrote in Hebrew and Arabic and I should know how to read their work as well as studying our Ficino and Valla.

Ardeas learns to speak Arabic faster than I do. Papa says he must have heard it before, though Ardeas spoke nothing Papa recognized when we first came. I am better at writing. Ardeas doesn’t practice very often.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

28th of June, 1527, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Nature is my study today. I have been trying my hand at sketching the plants and animals of the isle, but I confess myself to be most dissatisfied with the results, for they are not very like. With more practice I hope to improve myself. This world has so many wonders and I do love to discover them! I have taken many portraits of Papa and Ardeas and I would like to draw [redacted] but he doesn’t like to be still ever and the djinn are mostly invisible unless they want us to see them anyway. 

Miranda

[Editor's note: There is damage to the original letters which seems to be intentional throughout Miranda's life that occurs wherever Miranda mentions the name or names of djinn. No records have been found to suggest when or by whom these names were excised.]

***

[Translated out of Greek]

30th of August, 1527

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Oh, how I wish I was in Milan! This island is beautiful and Papa is a most careful tutor, but though we thank God that old Gonzaga gave us what he could, we both feel the lack of his old library. I have only one small volume of Plato, who Ficino finds so wise, I wish to read more of him. I could be content to live here forever if I had more books.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

8th of December, 1527

To my dear mama, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

What a life my cousin Catarina had! I wish she had lived long enough for me to know her, and I hope that I may be as brave and clever as she in meeting my troubles. I confess to some envy of her use of the full library in Milan, for there are so many books there that I wish to read! She also studied alchemy, which I most ardently desire to study myself, but Papa says not yet. I will work harder at my military training. There is no one here but myself and Adreas to be our militia, but should we return home to Milan, as I pray we will, it will be well if I know how to make proper defense of our fortresses, for war is uncertain and I must know for myself how to tell if my men are skilled and can be trusted.

Miranda 

[Catarina Maria Sforza (1463 –1509), the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who was Duke of Milan and the brother of Miranda's grandfather, Ludovico Maria Sforza.]

***

[Translated out of Arabic]

21st of April 1529, from the island of Aeaea

To his most high, Sultan of the Ottoman, Muḥteşem Süleymān, from a humble scholar and duchessina of Milan, Miranda Maria Sforza

My letter to you is but a fancy of mine, for my honored father wishes me to practice my Arabic and there is no one else of my acquaintance who knows this language. I have heard that you love learning, so I dare hope that you have found as much wisdom in our Christian scholars as I have found in your Muslim ones. While my father was still Duke of Milan, scholars of many faiths came to study there, who spoke of your court as being a center of learning where many faiths came together. Good Christians fear your coming, but I live in exile because of my Christian uncle and Christian armies, not the Turk. War is a terrible thing and I pray to God that we will find a way to live together in peace, Christian, Jew, and Muslim. 

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

16th of October 1530, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mother, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

The more I learn of the history of the city-states of Italy, and all of Europe, the more I understand why my uncle Antonio might have thought to do what he did. Though I trust my father’s goodness and love for his people, with the worldly powers outside changing so quickly, it may have been not only ambition, but concern for Milan when Father kept to his library rapt in secret studies. I fear Father paid but little attention to the affairs of state, for he could tell me but the broad strokes of what happened in the world after he gained his dukedom. I do not remember my uncle, and perhaps it is true that he thought of nothing but his own power and wished to be Absolute Milan in name and being, and little thought of what benefit he would bring our people. I do not want to think badly of my father, and when he gave over the government of Milan to Antonio, my uncle should have been content and sought not the name of Duke. But it was not right for my father to neglect his duties so, and when my grandfather ruled in the place of the Duke, his nephew, it was because the young Duke thought only of his pleasures and had no interest in the government that must be done. If ever I meet my uncle, I will ask him what he thought when he called on Naples to overthrow us, and if he is an honest man, as I hope he is, for his mother’s sake, he will tell me true.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

30th of January 1531, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mother, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I have been dreaming that I visit the djinn these last few months. I am on the island and yet not on the island, it is nothing like what I know when I am awake, but somehow it is the same place. I see [redacted] and we talk together of philosophy and music and mathematics. Sometimes I see Ardeas there too, but he never says anything, he just watches me. Ardeas also looks quite different. I wonder if I look different as well. I never think to ask for a glass when I am there because it feels so unimportant, but when I am awake and remember, I wonder.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of French]

1st of July, 1532, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mother, from her grateful daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I have had a fright, but I hasten to assure you that I am quite well! I came near to drowning today, but by the grace of God, Fortuna smiled on me and Ardeas was nearby and drew me out. I was swimming near the caves as I often do when something drew me under and I could not find the surface again, though I could see it always glimmering out of my reach. It was like a great hand squeezed my chest and I sought for air without relief. I must have fainted, for I do not remember anything else until I coughed up water and found myself on the rocks with Ardeas bent over me, wild-eyed and pale under his brown cheeks. I confess I clung to him and sobbed before regaining the composure befitting a Sforza woman, have since given him my most sincere thanks. Thanks to God that He kept Ardeas by! I shall be more careful hereafter.

Miranda

***

[Translated out of Latin]

23rd of November 1532, from the island of Aeaea,

To my dear mother, from her loving daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

I have not written lately about my dreams of visiting [redacted] in the land of the djinn, but I have been going there quite often since I first spoke of it. The djinn talk so learnedly of many things, I always delight to visit them and count myself fortunate to hear their conversation even when I know too little to add my thoughts, much less guide the conversations as Father says you used to do in your salons. I saw Father there last night and was overjoyed, but when I went up to him, he was angry with me and told me to wake up at once. [Redacted] looked like he wanted to have me stay, but he did not dare contradict Father, and I could see the magic Father was using to command us both.

I woke up and Father said that it was much too dangerous to go to visit the djinn and I must never do it again. Of course, I will try to obey, but I do not know how I started going or how to stop. Father refuses most unreasonably to teach me anything else about it, and he is still too angry to listen to my arguments that if I must not go, I need to learn how I went in the first place, so I can do something to avoid doing the same!

I must pray then, that God will keep me from going against Father's wishes, or at least, if He does not, that Father does not go when I do, until Father becomes calm enough again to listen to reason and teach me how to avoid the place I have so loved to visit.

Miranda

***

[Translated from the Tuscan dialect of Italian]

15th of June, 1535, from the island of Aeaea

To my dear mama, from her despairing daughter, Miranda Maria Sforza

Oh, my mother, I am so afraid! Ardeas has done such terrible things, I shudder to speak of them. My father is furious and calls him violator of his daughter’s honor and kalebon and says he does not deserve more name than that. But dear mother, I assure you I am unhurt and still a virgin, praise God! Kalebon, so must I call him now, has been looking at me most strangely these last months, and his eyes made me feel most unsettled. I never feared him or thought he might harm me, but now I know not what to believe. Kalebon rages and swears that he loves me and will have me, to be his queen on the island, but Father says Kalebon is a monster and an unworthy slave and not a king at all.

I wish you were here to advise me, mother. Who else is there for me to marry here? I cannot marry my father, for that would be sinful. I loved Kalebon like a brother. He was so fierce and strong, and I felt so strange and afraid. Are all men like this in their lusts? Were you afraid, when you first came to my father’s bed?

My father says the stars have a better husband in mind for me, and so I must wait, but I know not how he will find me, or if I wish him to.

Miranda

[Kalebon: Arabic, meaning ‘vile dog’. Miranda has transliterated the word into Roman script.]

*********************************************

"Ha," he said, smiling. "She didn't use... the djinn's name."

"It's in The Tempest," Maya says. The cat purrs on her lap.

"But Lauren Schiller has the good sense or the good taste not to use it. What fun!" He's still smiling.

"Is that the Miranda you know?" Maya asks, curious.

"Maybe," he says. "Though she definitely wasn't Miranda Sforza and she wasn't Queen of Spain, so maybe not. What fun though, as backstory to The Tempest. Indeed, the only think I can complain about there is that she didn't feed us. This is a very hungry day. I really hope there's some food in the next thing."

"What is it?" Maya asks, reaching for it.

"It's a story by Nisi Shawl called White Dawn," he says.

"Ooh, Nisi Shawl. She's amazing. Her collection Filter House is one of my favourites. And she does often have food."

And they read.