Between friends? Two letters of Ippolita Sforza to Lorenzo de’ Medici

This article examines aspects of the relationship of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Ippolita Sforza, Duchess of Calabria, through a close reading of two familiar letters by the latter dating from 1480 and 1486. The reading takes into account the respective political contexts of these letters – the end of the War of the Pazzi Conspiracy and of the Barons’ Revolt respectively – but seeks above all to use them to explore the nature of a ‘friendship’ complicated by the political and dynastic agendas of the two individuals as well as by issues of status and, particularly, of gender.