TRANSLATION:
Most Serene Lady, My Beloved Daughter, […] Having heard about Your Highness's fainting spells and kidney pains, I am ordering that a jar of that oil which a gentlewoman of the Capponi family makes be sent to you from Florence. This oil is very efficacious for such troubles and if you experience them often, Your Highness should use it liberally, according to the prescription that will accompany it. Otherwise, you should look after yourself as attentively as your health requires, since your health is equally momentous to this house [of Medici] as it is to that house [of Gonzaga.] I kiss your hands with all my heart. From Pisa, the 13th of April 1617.

I particularly warn you against traveling in a carriage for another month; you should instead travel in a sedan-chair, as I did. I am sending you a waist-band made from an animal that comes from Poland; this has helped many women who suffer from disorders achieve delivery and it should be worn directly on the flesh. The Archduchess [Maria Magdalena von Habsburg-de'Medici] is sending you a pregnant stone that helped me with all of my children and later helped her with all of hers. You need send it back only when she [Maria Magdalena] is ready to give birth, since she is already pregnant. Your Highness could have Signora Laura write me regarding how far along she believes you to be in your pregancy and you should remember that the first births set the pattern for all the others. The Grand Duke [Cosimo II de' Medici] and the Archduchess [Maria Magdalena] kiss your hands.

Your most loving mother,

Chrestina Grand Duchess

TRANSCRIPTION:
Ser.ma Sig.ra mia figliuola amatissima

[…] Havendo io sentito lo svenimento et dolor di reni che V.A. ha havuto, spedisco in questo punto a Firenze acciò di là le sia portato un vasetto d'olio che suol fare una gentildonna de' Capponi molto buono per tal male come se ne veggono spesse esperienze, sichè usilo V.A. liberamente nel modo che dirà la ricetta che insieme con esso le sarà mandata, et aiutisi nel resto con quella maggior cura che richiede la salute sua, che altretanto preme a questa quanto importa a cotesta casa, et le bacio di cuore le mani. Di Pisa li 13 di Aprile 1617

Avvertisca particolarmente di non andare in carrozza finchè non ha passato quell'altro mese, ma vada in seggiola, come ho fatto io. Le mando una cintura d'un animale che viene di Pollonia, la quale ha fatto condurre il parto a molte donne che si erano prima di sconcia, et si porta cinta sopra la carne. Et l'Arciduchessa [Maria Magdalena von Habsburg-de' Medici] le manda una pietra pregna, la quale haveva servito a me per tutti i miei figlioli, et poi anche a lei per tutti i suoi, et basterà che V.A. glie ne rimandi quando ella haverà da partorire, che digià è gravida. Mi potrà V.A. fare scrivere dalla Sig.ra Laura di quanto ella creda di esser gravida, et ricordisi che i primi parti danno regola a tutti gli altri. Il Gran Duca [Cosimo II de' Medici] et l'Arciduchessa [Maria Magdalena] le baciano le mani.

Amorissima Madre

Chrestina Gran Duchessa

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
Caterina de' Medici (1593-1629), daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de'Medici, had been Duchess of Mantua and wife of Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga for barely two months when she received this letter from her mother, Christine de Lorraine (known in Italy as Cristina di Lorena.) Caterina and her husband were eager to produce a male child, in order to secure both the Gonzaga succession and the political stability of the precarious Dukedom of Mantua.

Caterina could call on a seemingly boundless wealth of pregnancy lore among her Medici relatives. Her mother Christine had successfully produced nine offspring and her sister-in-law Maria Magdalena von Habsburg (wife of the reigning Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici; known in Italy as Maria Maddalena d'Austria) was currently pregnant with her eighth. Indeed, we see Christine move to close her letter ("From Pisa, the 13th of April 1617"), but then enthusiastically launch a further discussion of sedan chairs, "pregnant stones" and animal skin waist-bands. Popular folklore of the period recommended that pregnant women wear special waist-bands, often bearing inscriptions, as charms, although it is not clear whether the one sent to Caterina bore any text. The "pregnant stone" [pietra pregna] mentioned by Cristine was likely to have been an aetite, or hollow geode, containing small loose pieces that rattled when shaken; during the early modern period such stones were associated with childbirth on account of their exceptional physical characteristics. [For the custom of waist-bands and "pregnant stones" for pregnant women, see Jacqueline Musacchio, The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy, New Haven & London, 1999, pp. 140-42].

In conclusion, Christine reminds her daughter that a woman's first childbirths set the pattern for all the rest. Though undoubtedly good advice, the sad fact is that Caterina de' Medici and Ferdinando Gonzaga's nearly ten-year marriage proved childless, setting the stage for a particularly disastrous phase of Mantuan history. Christine's motherly counsel continued without avail during the months and years that followed. On 28 April 1617, she emphatically warned her daughter "not to create disorder with her husband" during the first stage of pregnancy ("sopra tutto è pericoloso il fare disordine col marito almeno in questo principio et sin tanto che siate sicurissima d'essere gravida", MdP 6110, f.343, database entry 7037.) By 22 September 1617, it had become apparent that Caterina's previous diagnoses were unwontedly optimistic. Christine, undaunted, redoubled her efforts, sending two "pregnant stones" to Mantua, with the suggestion that her daughter bind them to her arm (MdP 6110, f.43, database entry 6883.)

The "gentlewoman of the Capponi family" in Florence who prepared the medicinal oil remains to be identified. "Signora Laura" is probably Laura Guerrieri Gonzaga, a Mantuan noblewoman who was evidently assigned to Caterina de' Medici as lady-in-waiting.