Janet Ann Ross (née Duff Gordon; 1842–1927) was an English historian, biographer, and Tuscan cookbook author.

[1] Her father held a number of government positions, including Commissioner of Inland Revenue and her mother wrote the classic Letters from Egypt.

[5] She remembers her fifth birthday party, sitting on the knee of Thackeray while he drew a sketch on the frontispiece of her copy of his novel Pendennis.

[6] Charles Babbage, the inventor of the difference engine, a precursor to the modern computer, invited her to his office to show her his newest calculator.

[7] She likewise befriended Sir Austen Henry Layard and began an adolescent correspondence with him that continued through her life.

Henry and Janet eventually moved to Florence, Italy, leaving their only child, Alexander (Alick) to be educated in England.

[23] They ultimately rented Villa Castagnolo seven miles west of Florence in Lastra a Signa from its owner: Marchese Lotteringo della Stufa.

In turn, Janet also began implementing more modern agricultural methods at the villa especially in the areas of viticulture and cheese-making.

[26] While at Castagnolo, Janet had a falling out with the British novelist Marie Louise Rame, who wrote under the pseudonym Ouida.

In 1884, the Rosses travelled to Apulia in Southern Italy, where they stayed with Sir James Lacaita at his estate (Villa Leucàspide) near Taranto.

[31] It came with three attached farms (poderes) and operated under the mezzadria system whereby the tenant farmers (contadini) paid rent to the padrona consisting of half their production.

Janet Ross was a capable businesswoman who managed the estate well and sold its produce at an adequate profit.

She imported fortified white wine from Sicily, added sugar and a number of herbs, producing a vermouth that was in considerable demand in England.

[33] She purchased a drawing by early Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto that was a study for his painting Deposition From the Cross.

[34] She also acquired a painting that Bernard Berenson identified as being Madonna and Child by the Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti.

Janet conducted a salon of sorts on Sundays at the villa, entertaining numerous writers and artists including: Edward Hutton, George Meredith,[36] John Addington Symonds,[37][38] Augustus Hare, Marie Corelli,[39] Alfred Austin,[40] and Norman Douglas.

In 1892 she located the nearby Villa Viviano for Mark Twain and his wife to rent for a year, during which time they became good friends.

[44] The British writer Violet May, who wrote under the pseudonym Vernon Lee, lived at the neighbouring Villa Palmerino, and shared many acquaintances with Janet.

Lina ultimately married the painter Aubrey Waterfield, and they moved to Aulla, Italy, where they purchased a castle – the Fortezza Brunella.

[49] Janet also helped art historian and writer Bernard Berenson find and purchase a neighbouring villa, I Tatti.

She followed that book with Early Days Recalled (1891), and her memoir Three Generations of English Women (1888), which dealt with her grandmother and mother, as well as her great-grandmother, Susannah Cook Taylor.

Lina and her husband Aubrey thereafter operated an English girls' boarding school in the villa to help defray expenses.

During World War II, the villa was requisitioned by a prominent fascist leader and later occupied by American troops.

[59] The developer split off the three podere and sold the villa to a religious order, Istituto Antoniano which has since operated an orphanage there.