Historians and scholars often overlook the role played by women in the Renaissance. Have women had a Renaissance? The period did not occur in an exclusively male vacuum; women have played an important role in the changes that have occurred throughout Europe. No matter a woman's position in the class system, women were still considered the sinful daughter of Eve, the fallen of man. Into this world entered Isabella d'Este, one of the great women of the Renaissance. Isabella d'Este left behind not only the great works of art she collected and commissioned during her lifetime, but a treasure "equaling over two thousand letters, which fortunately have been preserved." Through these letters, scholars learn what kind of woman Isabella was and what she expected from her patronage. One such example of Isabella's correspondence is the "chronicles of [her] efforts between 1496 and 1505 to obtain the battle between virtue and vice from Pietro Perugino". The Marchioness, undoubtedly one of the great patrons of her time, lived among the masters of Renaissance art. Isabella became a powerful woman in an era when women were still mostly cut off from learning and art. She surpassed both her husband and her father in patronage of the arts, as well as any other woman on the playing field. Clifford Brown writes: “It is even more difficult to attempt to explain the factors which motivated these activities, for it was by no means a foregone conclusion that an individual of Isabella's rank and position in life would so single-mindedly attempt to excel only in areas rarely associated with her kind."Chapter One: The first IsabellaBorn in 1474, the eldest daughter of Duke Ercole I and his duchess Leonora of Aragon. All of Ferrara rejoices......middle of paper......wright Ady. New York: Dutton & Company, 1905.Gonzaga, Isabella D'Este to Zorzo Brognolo. Letter, autumn 1490. Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. Edited by Julia Mary Cartwright Ady. Boston: Dutton And Company, 1905.Gonzaga , Isabella D'este to Zzorzo Brognolo. Letter, undated. Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. Edited by Julia Mary Cartwright Ady. Boston: Dutton And Company, 1905. Edith Patterson First Lady of the Renaissance biography of Isabella d'Este. Boston: Little, Brown And Company, 1970. Plumb, JH. The Italian Renaissance. First edition by Mariner Books, 2001. Boston: Mariner Books, 1961. Robin, Diana, Anne B. Larsen, and Carole Evans, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France and England. Santa Barbara: Abc Clio, 2007.Vinci, Lenardo Da. Portrait of Isabella d'Este. Paris, France, Louvre, 1499. Charcoal drawing on paper.