Silvia Ruffini

Silvia Ruffini (1475 – 6 December 1561 in Rome) was an Italian noble woman and mistress of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese before he became pope (Pope Paul III from 1534); she was the mother of his four children.

Biography

Ruffini was the daughter of Rufino Ruffini and Giulia (last name unknown), who lived in a palace in the Colonna neighbourhood of Rome. She had four brothers, Giacomo, Girolamo, Ascanio and Mario, and two sisters, Camilla and Ippolita.

Around 1496 Ruffini married a Roman merchant named Giovanni Battista Crispo, with whom she had three sons: Sallustio, Virgilio and Cardinal Tiberio Crispo. Her husband died in 1501;[1] she may already have been romantically involved with Cardinal Farnese by then.[2]

Ruffini was introduced to Alessandro Farnese by his sister Giulia (mistress to Pope Alexander VI), and the cardinal offered to be her escort through Rome. Their first daughter, Costanza Farnese,[1] was probably born in 1500. Ruffini had three other children with the cardinal;[3] some of them may have been born while Ruffini's husband was still alive.[4] The children were Pier Luigi Farnese, Paolo Farnese and Ranuccio Farnese.[5][6] Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X legitimised the sons,[7] as they had been born after Ruffini became a widow.[8]

When Alessandro became Bishop of Parma, the church's vicar-general, Bishop Bartolomeo Guidiccioni, required him to end his relationship with Ruffini.[9] As pope, Paul III kept her identity a secret, fearing the negative publicity that had plagued his sister Giulia. Baldassarre Molosso, a poet and guardian of the couple's children,[10] hints that Paul III kept her in the town of Bolsena, a village owned by her son and where Paul III had a villa. The location was also close to Silvia's sister Camilla.

Ruffini died on Tuesday 5 December 1561 in Rome, at the age of about 86, and was buried in a family crypt.

Issue

She had three children by Giovanni Battista Crispo:

  • Virgilio Crispo.

She had four children by Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III):

Portrayals

Ruffini is portrayed by Laura Fedorowycz in the TV series Borgia.

Historian Patrizia Rosini believes Silvia was the model for two portraits: one in the Allegory of Baptism in the Rondanini Palace and the second in the Sala del Perseo in the castle of Sant'Angelo.

References

  1. ^ a b "FARNESE, Costanza in "Dizionario Biografico"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  2. ^ Giessauf, Johannes; Penz, Andrea; Wiesflecker, Peter (2011). Im Bett mit der Macht: kulturgeschichtliche Blicke in die Schlafzimmer der Herrschenden (in German). Böhlau Verlag Wien. p. 93. ISBN 978-3-205-78629-0.
  3. ^ Rendina, Claudio (6 December 2011). Le papesse (in Italian). Newton Compton Editori. ISBN 9788854136816 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ FARNESE, Costanza, di Roberto Zapperi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 45 (1995) .
  5. ^ a b c d e Majanlahti, Anthony (2006). The Families who Made Rome: A History and a Guide. Pimlico. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-84413-409-0.
  6. ^ Bradshaw, Marilyn (2009). Italian Renaissance Art: A Sourcebook. Pearson-Prentice Hall. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-13-606128-1.
  7. ^ Gamrath, Helge (2007). Farnese: Pomp, Power and Politics in Renaissance Italy. L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. p. 30. ISBN 978-88-8265-426-9.
  8. ^ Mroziewicz, Karolina Anna; Sroczynski, Aleksander (1 October 2025). Premodern Rulership and Contemporary Political Power: The King's Body Never Dies. Taylor & Francis. p. 207. ISBN 978-1-040-78925-4.
  9. ^ Pope Paul III, Reformation 500.
  10. ^ Rendina, Claudio (16 July 2012). Os Pecados do Vaticano: Soberba, avareza, luxúria, pedofilia: os escândalos e os segredos da Igreja Católica (in Brazilian Portuguese). Gryphus Editora. ISBN 978-85-60610-82-2.
  • Media related to Silvia Ruffini at Wikimedia Commons
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