Reviews

• Very interesting!

  I'm not quite done with the book yet, but I just have to say... I've known many historians to write biographies with such a dry style that it leaves you dozing off before the end of the first chapter. Maria Bellonci is something all-together different. She makes it interesting. The history itself, which goes in depth into the life of Lucrezia Borgia, along with her family (which is one of the most notorious in history) is fascinating. It can feel more like you're reading because you have to and not because you want to if the book is written poorly! Not the case with this book! Bellonci makes an interesting piece of history even more enjoyable! You won't regret this biography! Also, if this doesn't satisfy your Borgia fix, try watching Neil Jordan's "The Borgias" on Showtime. It is highly enjoyable, although not as historically accurate as director Tom Fontana's version, titled simply "Borgia," which you can find streaming on Netflix. Try them out!....... Gotta love the Borgia!

• Unexpectedly letdown....

  Unlike a family saga based on historical facts, this book is a cut and dried lesson in history about Borgia family's dalliance with power and the petty politics among the various Italian houses. The tone of the book is pedantic and resembles a treatise replete with historical sources from which the facts were taken. The book is neither engaging nor does justice to Lucrezia Borgia on which it's apparently based on. She features as a footnote in this book with more precedence given to her father's machinations and her brother's ruthless ambition. The only recurring theme is that of nepotism, power grabbing and peccadilloes of the Borgia clan.

• A prisoner behind the golden bars of her dignity (p.284)

  This book is about Renaissance politics; Renaissance politics is impenetrable; so is this book. And you could end there. But if you do, you will deny yourself two things: first, a foundation for understanding the roots of modern European political and cultural history; second, a sense of wonder about a fascinating historical era. The easiest way to begin is with the year 1492, when Florence's Lorenzo de Medici died and when Roderigo Borgia, Lucrezia's father, became Pope. Lorenzo's death removed stable politics from the Italian peninsula and Roderigo's appointment riled everyone. A land grab (of as much of northern Italy as you could conquer) combined with a status grab (of as much religious influence as you could get) captured the interest of everyone. Both forces were combined in Giuliano della Rovere, the Cardinal who should have been Pope but lost to Roderigo, who invited the French King, Charles VIII, into Italy to grab land. The French were masters of warfare, probably thanks to the Hundred Years War with England which ended in 1453, and brought their irresistable cannon with them. They wanted only Naples, even if they would be happy to occupy anything in between Geneva/Savoy and Naples. Hold that thought. Meanwhile, back in Florence, Savonarola had returned in 1490 and exploited the 1492 upheaval in two ways. He roused a popular reaction against the Church's corruption, exemplified by Roderigo's bribery, nepotism and political cruelty, and manipulated this groundswell of religious indignation into a Florentine revolution. He forecast an Apocalypse which would punish this immorality, which arrived in 1494 with the French guns. Lorenzo's son Piero II de Medici was overthrown and a Republic was established, run by Savonarola, Soderini and Macchiavelli. Silent French support for these three Florentines disturbed the Italian balance of power, since unparalleled French military might was running Italian affairs. A kind of Republican democracy had displaced a Medici feudal system in Florence; might it do the same in Milan, Ferrara and every other Italian city state? This question spurred Roderigo into action, marrying Lucrezia to a sequence of politically influential families. Her first husband, Giuliano Sforza, was a member of the Milanese family of "kings". Her second husband, Alfonso, Duke of Bisceglie, belonged to the Spanish House of Aragon which had dominated Naples since Alfonso I had displaced at least a century of French reign in 1442. Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia's brother, murdered him. So she married Alfonso d'Este, whose power base lay in the north-east, at Ferrara, near the all-powerful Venice. Naples. French, Spanish or Italian? And why so important? Look at a map and see how close it is to Tunisia, the Ottoman power base, mastered by the Barbarossa seamen sponsored by the Turks, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453 and persistently threatened to invade Europe in the early 1500s. Their threat forced Charles V to accommodate Lutheran sponsors in Germany, such as Frederick III (the Wise) of Saxony, because Charles, the Defender of the Catholic Faith, needed German soldiers. Meanwhile, Luther and Calvin made mischief and began to get their way with the 1521 Diet of Worms. But this was a couple of decades later. So, this book. It is unashamedly detailed and therefore difficult if you are not familiar with at least some of the characters, but it weaves this detail beautifully. And Lucrezia's life flirted with preamble to the entire European experiment, just as it was beginning. Perhaps begin with easier biographies, such as Il Magnifico, but if you can work your way towards reading this one - even if you have to patiently study parts of it with the help of Wikipedia - you will enrich your understanding of everything European immeasurably. And I haven't mentionned a single artist. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Albrecht Durer, Rubens, Van Eyck.....their stories begin here too. Nor have I mentioned America, 1492 and all that jazz. But I could have. That's how pivotal this book is. If you've read this far, I owe you a gift. Jeremy Irons in the brilliant Borgias TV series covers much of this subject, so you can always start there.

• Great book!

  Since I'm mad about the series The Borgias with Jeremy Irons, I bought this book. So far, haven't even finished half of it yet, I'm loving it! It's an interesting read, without being boring! Wish it had pics though!

• The book I like to read the most

  Why Ilike to read these book so much, because it tells the story of very impresive papa and his lovely doughter.

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