Africano Orlandini, from the noble Orlandini family. There are accounts of Tullia being back in Rome in 1524 when she is immortalized in a madrigal by Philippe Verdelot. She is undoubtedly in Rome by June 1526 in the company of the Florentine banker Filippo Strozzi, as claimed by him in his letter to Francesco Vettori. They spent many years together traveling throughout Italy until his death via suicide in 1538. Years in Rome Entering into the world as courtesan at age 18, Tullia became successful as a writer and an intellectual. She was often seen in the company of poets, such as Sperone Speroni. After the Cardinal's death in 1519, Tullia spent seven years in Siena, before she returned to Rome in 1526. Available evidence suggests that she was highly mobile and stayed in Bologna in 1529, where Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V were engaged in negotiations after the Sack of Rome in 1527. In 1531, she became involved with Filippo Strozzi, a Florentine banking magnate who had been famous for a short-lived affair with Italy's most beautiful courtesan, Camilla Pisana. Strozzi became so enamored with d'Aragona that he shared state secrets with her and had to be recalled to Florence. Other lovers included Emilio Orsini, who founded a Tullia Society of six cavaliers who protected her honor. In 1535, Penelope d’Aragona was born in Rome. Scholars debate whether Penelope d'Aragona was Tullia's daughter (Tullia at the time was 25 years old), or her sister, as the family claimed. Later years As early as 1530 texts place Tullia in Venice although it is unsure when she was in fact there. She is said be there in the spring of 1532 by Filippo Strozzi in a letter. Tullia appears, together with Bernardo Tasso in Sperone Speroni's Dialogo d'amore, which takes place in Venice. Supposedly Speroni began composing the dialogue in 1528, but he did not include Tullia as an interlocutor until later, certainly by June 1536 when Aretino mentions the work was circulating in manuscript to a letter to Speroni. By 1535 Tullia was back in Rome for the birth of Penelope d'Aragona on March 10, 1535. Scholars disagree on whether Penelope was Tullia's daughter or sister. While at a minimum a twenty-five year age difference between siblings is not implausible of a gap it is uncommon. Claims by Tullia's family support the argument that Penelope was