22-02-2026, 06:18 PM
(22-02-2026, 06:06 PM)Bernd wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Well, Barbara was known for practicing astrology and alchemy, and allegedly had orgies with naked women. So it fits her much better than her daughter.
I still struggle about a context where someone had acccess to a royal library, yet wrote clumsy marginalia in provincial German, grossly misinterpreted source imagery - and depicted the (former) queen naked. If we accept the Taccola-Sigismund connection, it must have been someone from or close to the court, yet of lesser education. Probably young.
What do they say? Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear? All the bad stuff about her was a smear campaign...The primary architect of Barbara’s reputation was a guy called Aenea Silvio Piccolomini, the man who would eventually become Pope Pius II. Piccolomini served as the chancellor to Frederick III of Habsburg, the successor and rival to the Luxembourg dynasty. The Habsburgs and the Cillis were long-standing enemies, competing for influence and territory in the southeastern reaches of the Empire. Piccolomini’s writings, particularly his descriptions of Barbara as the "German Messalina," were designed to delegitimize her and, by extension, the Luxembourg claim to the various crowns she held.

