A typical patron of extraordinary means: Isabella Feltria della Rovere and the Society of Jesus.

In 1598, Isabella Feltria della Rovere, princess of Bisignano, offered her financial support to construct the Neapolitan Gesù Nuovo, in exchange for a sepulchre for her only child and heir, Francesco Teodoro. Concurrent with her gift to the Gesù Nuovo, Isabella endowed the Jesuit novitiate of San Vitale in Rome with the extraordinary sum of 90,000 Roman scudi offered in her name and that of her deceased son. In Isabella, the Society found an exceptional patron. This paper explores the reasons behind Isabella's financial support for the Jesuits, her role in formulating the decorative and iconographic programs of the churches she endowed in Rome and Naples, the extraordinary funding available to her, and her complex relationship with the Society. Although Isabella's level of patronage and her motives may have been extraordinary, she is typical of the type of female patron cultivated by the Jesuits: widowed, childless and affluent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]