Pellina Spinola

Pellina Spinola was born in 1599 in Genoa, daughter of Giovanni Battista Spinola, First Duke of San Pietro, and of Maria Spinola, daughter of Filippo Spinola and Polissena Grimaldi. She was the sister-in-law of Brigida Spinola, because she married the brother and nephew of Ambrogio Spinola, brother of her mother Maria.

In 1615 she married Luca Spinola, son of Gaspare, Prince of Molfetta, Marquis of Dego, Giusvalla, Piana and Cagna in Monferrato, heir to part of the conspicuous patrimony of Gio Stefano Doria, brother of his mother Maria Doria. In order to celebrate the marriage, dispensation was necessary because of the bond of third degree consanguinity between the spouses. The dowry was 40.000 crowns. They had two daughters: Aurelia and Veronica Spinola.

Luca Spinola, patrician from Genoa, was an influential character, accustomed to receiving princes and popes; he was a sweet man, generous and in love with his wife, whose wishes and desires he satisfied.

Due to the habits of Pellina, the Genoese invented the motto “pelineggiare”, which means demanding. She loved to travel, which her daughter Aurelia also did, to Sicily, to Naples to visit her domains, to Turin, to Milan, Florence and Venice, in Germany, Switzerland, Saint Moritz for cures, in Vals les Bains for thermal waters, in Dauphiné, in Paris, in Rome where she loved to meet his friends Olimpia Pamphili and Princess Botero. Pellina spent a lot on decorating palaces, for stuccoes and statues. She loved to live in the pomp, her table was extremely refined, she appreciated music and singing, surrounded by singers, in particular she preferred the company of Soprano Antonio Rivani. She organized dance parties, where she often abandoned herself to games of money. For her strong-willed and authoritarian character, she was always remembered as the one who directed the Domus Spinola.

She died in Genoa in 1663, leaving in distress her daughters of whom she had certainly influenced the choices of life.

News about the life of Aurelia Spinola is taken from LE DESTIN D’AURELIA SPINOLA, UNE ARISTOCRATE DU XVIIème SIECLE PARTAGEE ENTRE GENES, MONACO ET LA FRANCE, première and deuxieme partie, by Raffaella Noero, in Annales Monégasques n 32-2008, n 33-2009

Image taken from the https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Le_nozze_di_Pellina_Spinola_-_Giovanni_Carlone_1622-1625.jpg