Silvia Ruffini

Silvia Ruffini (1475 – Rome, 6 December 1561) was a 16th-century Italian noble woman and mistress of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (Pope Paul III from 1534); she was the mother of his four children.

Biography

She was the daughter of Rufino Ruffini and Giovannella Caetani, and they lived in a palace in the Colonna neighborhood. She had four brothers (Giacomo, Girolamo, Ascanio and Mario) and two sisters (Camilla and Ippolita).

At some time around 1496 she married a Roman merchant Giovanni Battista Crispo, with whom she had three sons. One of them became Cardinal Tiberio Crispo. Her husband Crispo died in 1501; she may already have been romantically involved with Cardinal Farnese by then.

Ruffini was introduced to Alessandro Farnese by his sister Giulia (mistress to Pope Alexander), and the Cardinal offered to be her escort through Rome. The first daughter of Ruffini and Alessandro Farnese, Costanza, was probably born already in 1500. Ruffini also had four other children with the Cardinal. some of them may have been born while Ruffini's husband was still alive. The children were Pier Luigi, Paolo, Ranuccio and Lucrezia.

When Alessandro became Bishop of Parma, the church's vicar-general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni required him to end the relationship with Ruffini. As pope, Paul III kept her identify a secret, fearing the negative publicity that had plagued his sister Julia, who was mistress of Pope Alexander VI. Baldassarre Molosso, poet and guardian of the couple's children, hints that Paul III kept her in the town of Bolsena, a village owned by her son and where Paul III had a villa. The location was also close to Silvias sister Camilla.

Ruffini died on Tuesday 5 December 1561 in Rome, aged about 86 years old, and was buried in a family crypt.

Portrayals

Ruffini is portrayed by Laura Fedorowycz in the TV series Borgia.

Historian Patrizia Rosini believes Silvia was the model for two portraits: one in the Allegory of Baptism in the Rondanini Palace and the second in the Sala del Perseo in the castle of Sant'Angelo,