Medici, Contessina de (fl. 1400–1460)

Florentine noblewoman, one of the matriarchs of the Medici family . Name variations: Contessina de' Bardi. Born Contessina de Bardi (Contessina was her Christian name, not a title) in Florence; eldest daughter of Giovanni de Bardi (a partner in the Rome branch of the Bardi bank); married Cosimo de Medici the Elder (1389–1464), also known as Pater Patriae, ruler of Florence (r. 1434–1464); children: Piero de Medici (1416–1469), ruler of Florence; Giovanni de Medici (1421–1463); Lorenzo.

Contessina de Bardi came from an old Florentine family. In the 14th century, the Bardi were rich bankers; by the 15th century, after England's King Edward III reneged on a loan, they had fallen on hard times. With Contessina's marriage to Cosimo the Elder, the Bardi palace, which still stands in Florence, came into the possession of the Medici family as part of her dowry.

"Contessina appears to have been a rather unimaginative, fussy, managing woman," writes Christopher Hibbert. "Fond of good food, fat, capable and cheerful, she was also domestic and unsociable. Far more scantily educated than her granddaughters were to be, she was, like many another Florentine wife, denied access to her husband's study. Cosimo was quite fond of her; but he was never in the least uxorious, and bore his long partings from her with equanimity, writing to her seldom." During one of these long partings, Cosimo had a son Carlo with a slave-woman named Maddalena. Carlo, who was brought up by Contessina with her sons Piero, Giovanni, and Lorenzo, became rector of Prato and Protonotary Apostolic. Donatello sculpted a bronze head of Contessina.

sources:

Hibbert, Christopher. The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall. NY: William Morrow, 1975.