Giovanna d'Aragona

Giovanna d'Aragona (1502– September 11, 1575) was a patron of the arts, printers and religious reform in Naples during the Renaissance.

Family She was the oldest daughter of Duke Ferdinando of Malteno and Castellana de Cardona. Her father was a younger, illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples by Diana Guardato. Giovanna was a celebrated beauty of her time. She was described as "beautiful, but cold". In 1518, the year of her engagement to Ascanio Colonna, Constable of Naples, Cardinal Bibbiena, papal ambassador to the French court, commissioned a portrait of her from the workshop of his friend Raphael as a gift for the King.

Life Her parents had fled to the island Ischia after French troops had overrun Naples. Constanza d'Avalos resided here as well and gathered a literary circle around her. Amongst them was her sister-in-law, the poet Vittoria Colonna, wife of Constanza's nephew, Fernando d'Ávalos.

In 1521, Giovanna married Vittoria's brother Ascanio. Upon marriage they became Duke and Duchess of Tagliacozzo. The marriage was unhappy, and after giving birth to six children, Giovanna asked Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor for the means to live apart from her husband. He granted her 3,000 scudi a year. Ascanio left for Lombardy, and she, pretending to go to the baths of Pozzuoli, with all Ascanio's possessions, and her children, went to Ischia. The emperor then directed her to the Castel dell'Ovo. She escaped by wearing servants' clothes and fled to Tagliacozzo with her children and servants. In 1560, after the death of Paul IV, she returned to Rome and became a prominent figure in Italy's political and religious life.

The poet Girolamo Ruscelli paid tribute to her in an anthology with work from many contemporary Italian poets.