Her teachers included Italian humanists Crisostomo Colonna and Antonio de Ferraris, who taught her mathematics, natural science, geography, history, law, Latin, classical literature, theology, and how to play several musical instruments.

Therefore, the Emperor acted quickly and selected three suitable candidates for Sigismund: his granddaughter Eleanor of Austria, widowed Queen Joanna of Castile, and Bona Sforza.

Although 36-year-old Joanna was eliminated because of her age, and Eleanor's older brother instead selected King Manuel I of Portugal for her husband, Polish nobles suggested Anna Radziwiłł, the widow of Konrad III of Masovia.

In exchange, Sigismund granted his future wife the towns of Nowy Korczyn, Wiślica, Żarnów, Radomsko, Jedlnia, Kozienice, Chęciny, and Inowrocław.

Almost from the beginning of her life in Poland, the energetic queen tried to gain a strong political position and began forming a circle of supporters.

On 23 January 1519, Pope Leo X, whom Bona had friendly relationship with from her Italian days, granted her the privilege of awarding eight benefices in five Polish cathedrals (Kraków, Gniezno, Poznań, Włocławek, and Frombork).

She became openly involved in various state affairs, which did not agree with the traditional ideal of a royal wife to use discreet manipulation in government.

Believing that one of the most important things needed for strengthening royal authority was appropriate revenue, Bona sought to assemble as much dynastic wealth as possible, which would give her husband's financial independence to defend the kingdom from external threats without the Parliament's slow support.

Worried about the growing ties between the Habsburgs and Russia by 1524, Sigismund signed a Franco-Polish alliance with King Francis I of France to avoid a possible two-front war.

She advocated attaching Silesia to the Polish crown in return for her hereditary principalities of Bari and Rossano, but Sigismund the Old did not fully support this idea.

Alongside her husband's profound interest in the revival of classical antiquity, Bona was instrumental in developing the Polish Renaissance.

Her most known artistic involvement were the expansion of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius[2] and the construction of Ujazdów Castle, which included a large park and a menagerie.

However, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, the viceroy of Naples, feared a French attack and raised money for troops.

Perhaps having ambitions of becoming a viceroy of Naples herself, Bona agreed to lend the Duke of Alba a huge sum of 430,000 ducats at 10% annual interest.

On 17 November, as she was losing consciousness, her trusted courtier Gian Lorenzo Pappacoda brought to her the notary Marco Vincenzo de Baldis, who wrote her last will.

It left Bari, Rossano, Ostuni and Grottaglie to Philip II of Spain and large sums to Pappacoda's family.

Her only son, King Sigismund II Augustus, was named as the main beneficiary, but in the end, he would inherit only cash, jewelry, and other personal property.

[3] She was buried in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, where her daughter, Anna, had a tomb erected for her in Renaissance style.

[4] Bona was considered from her youth a very ugly woman, so much so that the proposal (advanced by Naples) of a marriage between her and the fourteen-year-old Federico Gonzaga was not even taken into consideration by his mother Isabella d'Este, nor by the archdeacon Alessandro di Gabbioneta, who considered it a sin to sacrifice the flourishing beauty of the young Federico to a "mature and ugly" woman like Bona.