attitude became more distinctly pro-Venetian. She also carried out an important work of mediation between her husband and the various leaders on the one hand – who resorted to her, as in the case of Fracasso, to obtain favors – and between her husband and the Italian lords on the other. The few surviving letters show her participating in all her husband's secrets, and her correspondence with Francesco Gonzaga is also remarkable. According to the testimony of Sanudo, it was Beatrice who urged the coming to Italy of Emperor Maximilian in 1496, so that he would take part in the enterprise of Pisa against the Florentines, allies of the French. Since her death the Faenza people were very upset, judging that Astorre Manfredi would have lost the favor of Milan: Faenza, pro-Venetian, was an enemy of Forlì, pro-Florentine, of which was countess Caterina Sforza, nephew of Ludovico. Beatrice must have persuaded her husband to extend her protection to Faenza and it was feared, with his death, a reversal of alliances, which then in fact happened with the war of Pisa, when Ludovico abandoned the ally Venice for Florence, a move that then marked his ruin. Malipiero rejoiced instead, saying: "and with this death will cease so much intelligentness that son-in-law and father-in-law had together". In Beatrice, moreover, Ludovico had placed all his hopes for the succession and for the maintenance of the state during the minority of the children, since he had always been convinced that he would die before her."And true, the death of Beatrice, the superb and intelligent Ferrarese, was a serious disaster for Ludovico il Moro. She was the soul of all his undertakings, she was the true queen of his heart and his court [...]. If the Duke of Bari [...] managed to represent on the theater of Europe a scene of much superior, as was observed, to his condition, it is largely due to this woman, vain feminally, if you will, and cruel, especially with the Duchess Isabella, but of resolute and tenacious character, of ready ingenuity, of soul open to all the seductions of luxury and to all the attractions of art. When it [...] failed [...] it was like a great storm that came to upset the soul of Ludovico. Nor did he ever recover from it; that death was the beginning of his misfortunes. Gloomy premonitions crossed his mind; it seemed to