CAPELLO, BIANCA

born 1548, Venice died Oct. 20, 1587, Poggio, near Florence Capello also spelled Cappello Venetian noblewoman, renowned for her beauty and intelligence, whose court intrigues were the scandal of her time. Against the will of her family, Bianca ran off and married a young Florentine named Pietro Buonaventuri. She soon became the mistress of Francesco I de' Medici, at first secretly and then openly after the murder of her husband (1569). She succeeded in marrying Francesco (1578) by means of a bizarre plot in which she feigned a pregnancy and presented him the baby of a common woman as her own son. Her conduct and machinations aroused much enmity at the Florentine court, especially that of the powerful Cardinal Ferdinando I de' Medici, brother of Francesco. Bianca and Francesco fell ill at Poggio and died within a day of each other; they may have been poisoned with the consent of Ferdinando.