Magdalene of Canossa was born on 1 March 1774 in Verona to the Marquis Ottavio di Canossa (1740 - 1 October 1779) and Teresa Szluha (3 January 1753 - 19 May 1807; a Hungarian countess). Her parents married in August 1770 in Odenburg. Their first two children Carlo Vincenzo (1771) died soon after his birth and therefore she was the third-born after Laura Maria (1772; an arrival poorly appreciated). Her mother later gave birth to another son who died right after the birth. But in 1776 the male heir that her parents desired was born - Boniface - and after him two other girls (Rosa in 1777 and Leonora in 1779). In 1779 her father died in an accident while at a villa on vacation in Grezzano. In 1781 her mother left their palace and married the widower Marquis Odoardo Zanetti from Mantua on 25 August with the permission of her father-in-law. The children were placed under the guardianship of their uncle Girolamo. An ancestor was the Countess Matilda Canossa who helped facilitate the meeting between Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV.