Merry as a bird and playful as a kitten, the young girl was singing, singing the livelong day, and dancing with the utmost grace and freedom.  She greatly astonished her parents by her musical gifts and by her talent as an improvvisatrice.  She composed, when only ten years of age, some really excellent canzone and, more than this, she set them to her own tunes for the lute and pipe, and arranged a very graceful ballet.

At Court, Isabella was now known as “Bianca la Seconda,” her attainments and her person recalling those of Bianca, “the tall daughter” of Piero and Lucrezia de’ Medici.  She had, as well, a remarkable taste for languages:  she rivalled her sister Maria in Latin, which she wrote and spoke with ease.  Spanish seemed to come to her naturally, greatly to the delight of her mother the Duchess, and French she acquired with similar success.

With her facile pen she could design and draw what she willed, with as great freedom as she applied to musical notation.  Indeed, there seemed to be no art in which she could not distinguish herself, and she received encouragement from all the most famous artists of her father’s Court.  One of her panegyrists has written thus of Princess Isabella:  “Suffice it to say, that she was esteemed by all—­strangers as well as those about her—­a perfect casket of virtue and knowledge.  She was greatly beloved, not only by her parents, but by the whole of the people of Florence.”

Added to her mental accomplishments, which developed with her physical growth, the Princess exhibited all the charm of a beautiful face and graceful figure, and, when she reached the ripe age,—­for Florence,—­of twelve, she was the most lovely and attractive young girl in Italy.  Reports of her beauty and talent were current in all the Courts of Europe, and many princely fathers of eligible sons made inquiries about her fortune; whilst many an amorous young Prince found his way to Florence, to judge for himself of the charms of the fair young girl.

Duke Cosimo was not the man to give his comely daughter away at random:  indeed he cherished the thought of keeping her in Florence and by his side, so courtly refusals of proffered hands, and hearts, and crowns, were dealt out to one and all the suitors.  Pope Paul IV., who was on the best of terms with Duke Cosimo, and never forgot what he owed in his elevation to the Papal throne to his friend’s influence, conceived a matrimonial project for youthful Isabella.  At his Court was a young man of illustrious descent, good attainments, the heir to vast possessions, and a devoted adherent of the Holy See—­Paolo Giordano d’Orsini.

The Orsini were split up into many branches, but the family was one of the most ancient and honourable in Rome.  Signore Girolamo d’Orsini, father of Paolo Giordano, was lord of Bracciano and Anguillaria, and of the country around Civita Vecchia.  When only twelve years old, he had been named by Pope Leo X. to the honorary command of a Papal regiment of cavalry.  When still in his teens the youth served with distinction in France and in the Neapolitan war; and, on attaining his majority, he was sent with a detachment of troops to the assistance of the Emperor Charles V., in the devastating war against the Turks in Hungary.