Caroline P. Murphy

Caroline P. Murphy is a historian of Renaissance Italy whose work brings women, households, and political networks into view. The Pope’s Daughter reconstructs the life of Felice della Rovere, the daughter of Pope Julius II, who became a powerful member of the Orsini family and acted as a regent. Faber and Faber first published the biography in 2004, while Oxford University Press issued an American edition in 2005. Murphy works from correspondence, financial records, and the visual culture of High Renaissance Rome to show Felice managing estates, servants, marriages, and alliances rather than standing at the edge of papal history. The book also places her alongside the artistic and architectural changes associated with Julius II's Rome. Murphy's broader scholarship includes a biography of Isabella de' Medici, continuing her interest in women whose authority has often been obscured by famous male relatives. The Pope’s Daughter is therefore both an individual life and a study of how family strategy shaped Renaissance power.