LUCRETIA'S MOTHER About 1466 or 1467 Cardinal Rodrigo's magnetism attracted a woman of Rome, Vannozza Catanei.

We know that she was born in July, 1442, but of her family we are wholly ignorant.

Writers of that day also call her Rosa and Catarina, although she named herself, in well authenticated documents, Vannozza Catanei.

Paolo Giovio states that Vanotti was her patronymic, and although there was a clan of that name in Rome, he is wrong.

Vannozza was probably the nickname for Giovanna--thus we find in the early records of that age: Vannozza di Nardis, Vannozza di Zanobeis, di Pontianis, and others.
There was a Catanei family in Rome, as there was in Ferrara, Genoa, and elsewhere.