Isabella Bendidio (Marchesa Bentivoglio) (13 September 1546 – ''after'' 1610) was a Ferrarese noblewoman who, along with her sister

Lucrezia Bendidio Lucrezia Bendidio (Signora or Contessa Machiavella) (April 8, 1547 –'' after'' 1584) was an Italian singer and noblewoman from Ferrara. She started as a lady-in-waiting for Leonora d'Este in 1561. Many poets wrote of her great skill as a s ...

, sang in the first incarnation of the ''

concerto delle donne The ''concerto delle donne'' () was an ensemble of professional female singers of late Renaissance music in Italy. The term usually refers to the first and most influential group in Ferrara, which existed between 1580 and 1597. Renowned for the ...

'' as part of the court's ''

musica secreta In music history, ''musica reservata'' (also ''musica secreta'') is either a style or a performance practice in ''a cappella'' vocal music of the latter half of the 16th century, mainly in Italy and southern Germany, involving refinement, exclusiv ...

''. She married

Cornelio Bentivoglio Cornelio Bentivoglio (27 March 1668 – 30 December 1732 in Ferrara) was an Italian nobleman and Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal. Born at Ferrara to the powerful House of Bentivoglio, Bentivoglio family, and a relative of the cardinal Guido Ben ...

, a powerful nobleman and member of the Bentivoglio family, in 1573, at which point she may have stopped singing at court. She was the mother of

Guido Guido is a given name. It has been a male first name in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as other places with migration from those. Regarding origins, there ...

and Enzo Bentivoglio, who were the earliest patrons of

Girolamo Frescobaldi Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of ke ...

. She was also the aunt of

Anna Guarini Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti (1563 – 3 May 1598) was an Italian virtuoso singer of the late Renaissance. She was one of the most renowned singers of the age, and was one of the four '' concerto di donne'' at the Ferrara court of the d' Est ...

, who later replaced her in the ''concerto delle donne''.

References

* Anthony Newcomb. "Lucrezia Bendidio", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', ed. L. Macy (accessed July 5, 2006)
grovemusic.com
(subscription access). 1546 births 17th-century deaths Musicians from Ferrara 16th-century Italian singers 16th-century Italian women singers {{italy-singer-stub