Plautilla was Alessandra's mother. She was a typical woman of her time, living her life in anticipation of the moment she would be married and spending her days looking forward to having children. After the birth of her first child, Plautilla sent the infant to the country with a wet nurse, making it obvious that she was more interested in making babies than raising them. Plautilla, however, was devastated when her daughter died of the plague. Alessandra found Plautilla to be annoying and representative of everything she didn't want to be. When she learned that her sister died in childbirth, however, she immediately named her own daughter Plautilla.
The Birth of Venus: A Novel