Blessed Beatrice d'Este

Blessed Beatrice d'Este ( or ) (1192 – 10 May 1226) was the daughter of Azzo VI of the Este family by his second wife, Sophia Eleanor, daughter of Humbert III, Count of Savoy. She was the aunt of Saint Beatrice d'Este. Life An account of her life was written, in both medieval Latin and the Italian vernacular, by a Brother Alberto of the church of the Holy Spirit (S. Spirito). This text was unknown for centuries, until it was rediscovered by the historian Giovanni Brunacci in the eighteenth century in an “old Ferrarese codex." Beatrice was born at the Castello Estense, the seat of her family's power. About her youth Alberto wrote: She became the object of the courtly love of Rambertino Buvalelli, a Bolognese troubadour who traveled widely in northern Italy. In nine of his cansos Rambertino celebrates the beauty and character of Beatrice, whom he frequently calls by the senhal (a "sign", as in a nickname) Mon Restaur ("My Refreshment" in Occitan). The relationship between Rambertino and the young Beatrice was purely poetic, lyric, and musical.