One of the most powerful women of the Italian Renaissance, she was born in Rome around 1483 to Lucrezia Normanni and Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later Pope Julius II).

In particular, she negotiated peace between Julius II and the Queen of France, and held the position of Orsini Signora for over a decade following the death of her husband in 1517.

Felice gave birth to two surviving sons, Francesco and Girolamo, choosing the second as the heir to the Orsini fortune (and thus ensuring a rivalry with her stepson, Napoleone), as well as two daughters, Giulia and Clarice; another child died during infancy.

Felice's legacy lasts to this day, as the scholar Caroline Murphy has identified her in two artworks: Raphael's The Mass at Bolsena, and a portrait of an unknown woman by Sebastiano del Piombo.

[9] Felice grew up alongside two siblings, a half-brother named Gian Domenico and a half-sister, Francesca, both of whom were born after her mother's marriage to Bernardino de Cupis.

[12] Growing up in the Palazzo de Cupis in the Piazza Navona, a lively societal centre of Rome, meant that Felice was likely surrounded by important businessmen, merchants, lawyers, and apostolic secretaries who often visited her home.

[13] As she grew older, Felice was genuinely interested in humanist scholarship and formed friendships with scholars and poets who visited the Vatican.

Giovanni Filoteo Achillini, an Italian philosopher and poet, described Felice in his poem Viridario, calling her honourable and worthy of praise.

[14] She also became close with Scipione Carteromacho, a humanist scholar whose ties to a well-known publisher allowed Felice to acquire many books in both Latin and Italian.

[15] It is speculated that she used her interests in education and humanism to gain acceptance into the close courtly circles of the wealthy and powerful Medici and Gonzaga families.

[17] Not much information is available about this brief marriage (denied by some historians), except that the man died in early 1502 due to unknown circumstances, and the experience probably caused Felice to be hesitant to remarry.

[12] This was a difficult task because Felice was not a popular choice for marriage: she was the illegitimate daughter of a pope and did not appear to be beloved by him, and she was 20, rendering her an unappealing match due to her older age.

[32] When Pope Julius II refused to attend the wedding he arranged for his daughter and Gian Giordano, it is believed that Felice interpreted this as a lack of respect on the part of her father and was resentful towards him.

[33] In an effort to reconcile, Julius II invited Felice and her new husband to the Vatican in late June 1506 and held a lavish banquet in their honour.

[34] Following this reconciliation, Julius II frequently made Felice the guest of honour at various parties in Rome, where oftentimes she was the only woman present.

In addition, the Pope gifted Felice with extravagant jewellery and significant sums of money, including an item that would become one of her most prized possessions: a diamond cross originally given to her father from the Republic of Venice.

[38] He agreed to pay for the necessary repairs and upgrades the castle would need to turn it into a luxury property, and in exchange, Felice allowed Leo X to stay at Palo for free.

The fields on her Palo property were well-suited for growing grain, and could produce a significant amount of wheat, as attested to by the entries written by Felice's servants in the account books for the estate.

[40] As Felice's property was located close to Rome itself, she mainly sold her grain directly to people in and around the city and was therefore affected by the bad harvest.

[44] In order to accomplish this, the Pope dissolved the League of Cambrai, originally established in 1508 as an anti-Venetian alliance between France and the Papal States.

[44] Julius II sent Felice to accompany Gian Giordano to France in July 1511 where she was involved in negotiations with Queen Anne of Brittany for two years.

[48][49] Felice was a very involved mother: she named her children, a task typically given to the godparents at baptism, hired their wetnurses, and managed their financial affairs.

[67][49] Gian Giordano became ill in September 1517 and made a living will bestowing the authority to act as Orsini regent to Felice after his death while their sons were still minors.

[69] Gian Giordano died on 11 October at his castle in Vicovaro and left all of his worldly possessions to his sons Francesco, Girolamo, and Napoleone.

[71] Pope Leo X ratified this position by writing a bull stating that Felice would be the guardian and caretaker of Gian Giordano Orsini's children as long as she remained a widow.

Some members of the Orsini household rallied behind the 17-year-old Napoleone as the rightful leader, but this did not gain power as Leo X had proclaimed his support for Felice, and there was no additional proof of any suspicious activity surrounding Gian Giordano's death.

[81] Felice feared that Napoleone might use the chaos of the sack as an opportunity to kill his half-siblings and reclaim what he believed to be his rightful inheritance of the Orsini lordship.

She was acquainted with other 16th-century figures such as Catherine de' Medici and Pope Leo X, and it is clear that despite the lack of documentation on her life, she was corresponding with various important people.

[39] Her reputation is also apparent in Francesco Sansovini's History of the House of Orsini, which states that Felice's granddaughter shared both her grandmother's name and good manners.