Tolleranza religiosa in Polonia e Lituania al tempo di Bona Sforza d'Aragona : un caso di pragmatismo politico agli albori delle riforme protestante e cattolica?

This paper analyzes the role that Italian-born Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania Bona Sforza had in the penetration of the Protestant Reformation in the two countries. The importance of Bona is underlined by the coincidence of her rulership with the very first decades of Protestantism. As part of the intra-Christian confrontation between Catholics and Protestants in this key period in European history, the paper pays special attention to Bona's relation with two fellow countrymen: Giovanni Giorgio Biandrata and Francesco Lismanini, the Queen's physician and confessor, respectively. After Bona's return to Italy, they will have a role in the debates that precede the foundation of the early Minor Reformed Church of Poland. [Publisher's text]