Life and work

Isabella was the daughter of Luisa Brancaccio and Giovan Michele Morra, baron of Favale

Favale

Favale is a frazione in the Province of Teramo in the Abruzzo region of Italy.-References:...

, part of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

. Isabella, her mother and her seven siblings were abandoned by Giovan when he went to live at court in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Her older brother Marcantonio then took over power in Favale.

Isabella studied Latin and poetry. She became friends with her learned neighbors, Antonia and Saldoval di Castro, but her younger brothers suspected an affair. They murdered Isabella, her tutor and finally Sandoval.

Her poems were published six years after her death. There are ten sonnets and three canzoni. In it she mentioned the strain she felt at being isolated in Favale from other literary people and her missing her father.