Fondazione Azzurra

Last April in An Afternoon At Home With Lucrezia Borgia and Obikà Mozzarella Bar Diane Ghirardo  discussed how duchesses Eleonora d’Aragona and Lucrezia Borgia of Ferrara, during the 15th and 16th centuries, raised Mediterranean water buffaloes and produced mozzarella cheese, a product normally associated with Lazio and Campania.

The author discussed both the water buffaloes and production of mozzarella within the context of their personal activities, and in particular, the entrepreneurial activities of Lucrezia in her land reclamation projects in the duchy of Ferrara. Lucrezia can be considered the first female capitalist entrepreneur in Italy, perhaps even in Europe.

Diane Ghirardo said: “Records in the State Archives of Modena and Ferrara document the considerable patrimonies of duchess Eleonora d’Aragona and duchess Lucrezia Borgia, in Ferrara at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries respectively. More than just attractive consorts or mothers of male heirs, hostesses or consumers of fashion and jewelry, these women were active partners with their husbands in all of the activities essential to the health and wealth of their families and their states. Water buffaloes and cheese production comprised part of their agricultural activities, but Lucrezia Borgia in particular distinguished herself as a fledgling capitalist entrepreneur whose economic strategies differed remarkably from those of aristocratic rulers in the Po Valley, including those of her husband. In the space of but six short years, she more than doubled her annual income with her shrewd investments in land reclamation, cultivation and livestock breeding.”