The first major biography of the Borgias in thirty years, Christopher Hibbert's latest history brings to life the family and the world they lived in: the glittering Rome of the Italian Renaissance.
The name Borgia is synonymous with the corruption, nepotism, and greed that were rife in Renaissance Italy. The powerful, voracious Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI, was the central figure of the dynasty. Two of his seven papal offspring also rose to power and fame—his daughter Lucrezia and her brother Cesare, who murdered Lucrezia's husband and served as the model for Machiavelli's The Prince. The Borgias were notorious for seizing power, wealth, land, and titles through bribery, marriage, and murder. The story of the family's dramatic rise from its Spanish roots to the highest position in Italian society is an absorbing tale.
Download and start listening now!
"A rather straightforward and unsensational history of one of history's most scandalous families, this work provides a good if basic overview of the careers of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and his children, particularly Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia. The infamous reputations of the former two are largely confirmed, with devious deal-making, murder, theft, simony and licentiousness aplenty. Nevertheless, the Borgia Pope did prove a wily navigator of the tricky terrain of Italian politics, successfully maintaining the Church's lands and power amidst the dangerous military tug of war between France/Milan and Spanish-ruled Naples. And after his son Cesare left his nepotistic position of Cardinal, he proved to be something of a military genius, bringing the family's enemies to heel and briefly establishing one of Italy's greatest domains in the Duchy of the Romagna, of which he was made Duke. The chief surprise here is Hibbert's account of Lucrezia, who comes across much more sympathetically than I might have expected, based on her reputation. There is no hint of her being complicit in any poisonings, and her worst crime -- putting aside the unsubstantiated rumors of incest with her brothers, and even her father the Pope(!) -- seems to have been her sexual affairs and a resulting child out of wedlock, evidently fathered by one of the Pope's grooms. Otherwise, she seems very much the model Renaissance woman, intelligent, well-educated and capable, both gracious and graceful, and quite beautiful besides. Such were her talents that she would govern in the stead of her father the Pope when he was absent from Rome, and would later do likewise for her last husband, the Duke of Ferrara. This portrayal is a bit hard to reconcile with the 'Lucrezia Borgia' of legend, and I wonder if Donizetti's opera (with which I'm admittedly unfamiliar) did for her reputation what Shakespeare's "Richard III" did, creating a legendary monster of its subject, perhaps unfairly.
I picked this up after watching the first two seasons of Showtime's "The Borgias", curious to see how many of the teleplay's extraordinary events had a basis in fact. The answer is: apparently, not a great deal. The show plays very fast and loose with the chronology, invents many episodes altogether, substitutes one historical character for another or subsumes several into one, and while its portrayal of the principals is generally true to their character, it appears the scriptwriters feel free to invent much. It's a wildly entertaining soap opera set in a fascinating place and time, but don't mistake it for history. To a lesser degree, "The Tudors" was guilty of taking the same license.
For those interested in the true story, this is a good place to start."
—
Rob (4 out of 5 stars)