Caroline P. Murphy is a cultural historian and biographer. She is the author of Lavinia Fontana: A Painter and Her Patrons in Sixteenth-century Bologna, praised by Sarah Bradford in the Literary Review for 'shed[ding] new light on the ground-breaking career of a brave and talented woman.' Her second book, The Pope's Daughter, was described as a "remarkable biography" by the Daily Telegraph. Her most recent book is Isabella de'Medici. She grew up in Reading, studied art history at University College London, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.