{{short description|Italian noblewoman (1492-1530)}} {{Infobox noble | name = Laura Orsini | title = Lady of Carbognano | image = | caption = | CoA = 100px | reign = 31 July 1500-1530 | tenure = | birth_date = 30 November 1492 | birth_place = Rome | death_date = {{death date and age|1530|1492|df=yes}} | death_place = Rome | place of burial = | spouse = {{marriage|Nicola Franciotti della Rovere|1505|}} | issue = Giulio della Rovere<br/>Lavinia della Rovere<br/>Elena della Rovere | noble family = Orsini (legal fatherhood)<br/>Farnese (motherhood)<br/>Della Rovere (marriage)<br/>Borgia (supposed natural fatherhood) | father = Orsino Orsini (legal father)<br/>Pope Alexander VI Borgia (supposed natural father) | mother = Giulia Farnese | predecessor = Orsino Orsini | successor = Giulio della Rovere }} '''Laura Orsini, Lady of Carbognano''' (Rome, 30 November 1492 - Rome, 1530) was an Italian noblewoman, daughter of Giulia Farnese and, presumably, of her lover Pope Alexander VI Borgia.
== Biography == Laura Orsini was born in Rome, Italy, on 30 November 1492. She was the only child of Giulia Farnese (Pope Paul III's sister). Her paternity is instead controversial: the baby girl was declared daughter of Giulia's legitimate husband, Orsino Orsini, however, at the time of her birth, Giulia was notoriously the lover of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, and later she declared that her daughter was born from this relationship, although Borgia never recognized or cared for Laura, unlike what he did for his other children. The question is currently being debated.<ref>Pompeo Litta, ''Celebrity families of Italy. Improved of Sulmona'', Turin, 1880.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=FARNESE, Giulia in "Dizionario Biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giulia-farnese_(Dizionario-Biografico) |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref>
On 2 April 1499 at Palazzo Farnese, Laura was promised in marriage to Federico Farnese, son of Raimondo Farnese and nephew of Pier Paolo Farnese. The engagement was later dissolved.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ferdinand Gregorovius |url=http://archive.org/details/lucreziaborgias00greggoog |title=Lucrezia Borgia: secondo documenti e carteggi del tempo |date=1874 |publisher=Le Monnier |others=unknown library |language=Italian}}</ref>
On 16 November 1505, she married Nicola Franciotti della Rovere, with a dowry of 300,000 ducats. The marriage had been organized by Pope Julius II della Rovere, the groom's uncle and successor and enemy of Alexander VI, who wished to ally himself with the Farnese and Orsini families.<ref name=":0" /> The couple had three children: Giulio (died {{circa}} 1550); Lavinia ({{circa}} 1521 - 26 July 1601), who married Paolo Orsini di Mentana; and Elena, who married Stefano Colonna, prince of Palestrina.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FRANCIOTTI DELLA ROVERE, Nicola in "Dizionario Biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/franciotti-della-rovere-nicola_(Dizionario-Biografico) |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=DELLA ROVERE, Lavinia in "Dizionario Biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lavinia-della-rovere_(Dizionario-Biografico) |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref>
From her legal father, Orsino, Laura received the Carbognano fiefdom as gift, which was then inherited by her son, and when Giulio died without issue, it was inherited by her daughter Lavinia. Laura died in Rome in 1530, at around thirty-eight years of age.<ref>{{Cite web |title=DELLA ROVERE, Lavinia in "Dizionario Biografico" |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lavinia-della-rovere_(Dizionario-Biografico) |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=www.treccani.it |language=it-IT}}</ref>
== References == <references /> Category:1492 births Category:1530 deaths Category:16th-century Italian nobility Category:Nobility from Rome Category:16th-century Italian women Category:Renaissance women Category:Orsini family Category:House of Farnese Category:House of Borgia Category:Illegitimate children of Pope Alexander VI Category:Historical figures with disputed parentage