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LUCRETIA BORGIA
[Illustration: LUCRETIA BORGIA.
From a portrait attributed to Dosso Dossi, in the possession of
Mr. Henry Doetsch, London.]
FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS
LUCRETIA BORGIA
ACCORDING TO ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HER DAY
TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION
BY JOHN LESLIE GARNER
BENJAMIN BLOM New York/London
TO
DON MICHELANGELO GAETANI
DUKE OF SERMONETA
First published New York 1904
Reissued 1968 by
Benjamin Blom, Inc. 10452
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-20226
Manufactured in the United States of America
TO DON MICHELANGELO GAETANI DUKE OF SERMONETA
MY HONORED DUKE: I am induced to dedicate this work to you by
the historical circumstances of which it treats and also by personal
considerations.
In it you will behold the founders of your ancient and illustrious
family. The Borgias were mortal enemies of the Gaetani, who narrowly
escaped the fate prepared for them by Alexander VI and his terrible son.
Beautiful Sermoneta and all the great fiefs in the Maremma fell into the
maw of the Borgias, and your ancestors either found death at their hands
or were driven into exile. Donna Lucretia became mistress of Sermoneta,
and eventually her son, Rodrigo of Aragon, inherited the estates of the
Gaetani.
Centuries have passed, and a beautiful and unfortunate woman may be
forgiven for this confiscation of the appanages of your house. Moreover,
it was not long before your family was reinstated in its rights by a
bull of Julius II, which is now preserved--a precious jewel--in your
family archives. To your house has descended the fame of its founders,
but to yourself is due the position which the Gaetani now again enjoy.
The survival of historical tradition in things and men exercises an
indescribable charm on every student of civilization. To recognize in
the ancient and still nourishing families of modern Rome the descendants
of the great personalities of other times, and to enjoy daily
intercourse with them, made a profound impression on me. The Colonna,
the Orsini, and the Gaetani are my friends, and all afforded me the
greatest assistance. These families long ago vanished from the stage of
Roman history, but the day came, illustrious Duke, when you were to make
a place again for your ancient race in the history of the Imperial City;
the day when--the temporal power of the popes having passed away, a
power which had endured a thousand years--you carried to King Victor
Emmanuel in Florence the declaration of allegiance of the Roman
populace. This episode, marking the beginning of a new era for the city,
will live, together with your name, in the annals of the Gaetani, and
will preserve it forever in the memory of the Romans.
GREGOROVIUS.
ROME, _March 9, 1874_.
CONTENTS
BOOK THE FIRST--LUCRETIA BORGIA IN ROME
CHAPTER I PAGE
LUCRETIA'S FATHER 3
CHAPTER II
LUCRETIA'S MOTHER 10
CHAPTER III
LUCRETIA'S FIRST HOME 15
CHAPTER IV
LUCRETIA'S EDUCATION 20
CHAPTER V
NEPOTISM--GIULIA FARNESE--LUCRETIA'S BETROTHALS 34
CHAPTER VI
HER FATHER BECOMES POPE--GIOVANNI SFORZA 44
CHAPTER VII
LUCRETIA'S FIRST MARRIAGE 53
CHAPTER VIII
FAMILY AFFAIRS 62
CHAPTER IX
LUCRETIA LEAVES ROME 71
CHAPTER X
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF PESARO 76
CHAPTER XI
THE INVASION OF ITALY--THE PROFLIGATE WORLD 87
CHAPTER XII
THE DIVORCE AND SECOND MARRIAGE 102
CHAPTER XIII
A REGENT AND A MOTHER 113
CHAPTER XIV
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE BORGIAS 125
CHAPTER XV
MISFORTUNES OF CATARINA SFORZA 137
CHAPTER XVI
MURDER OF ALFONSO OF ARAGON 145
CHAPTER XVII
LUCRETIA AT NEPI 152
CHAPTER XVIII
CÆSAR AT PESARO 159
CHAPTER XIX
ANOTHER MARRIAGE PLANNED FOR LUCRETIA 167
CHAPTER XX
NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE HOUSE OF ESTE 182
CHAPTER XXI
THE EVE OF THE WEDDING 196
CHAPTER XXII
ARRIVAL AND RETURN OF THE BRIDAL ESCORT 207
BOOK THE SECOND--LUCRETIA IN FERRARA
CHAPTER I
LUCRETIA'S JOURNEY TO FERRARA 229
CHAPTER II
FORMAL ENTRY INTO FERRARA 239
CHAPTER III
FÊTES GIVEN IN LUCRETIA'S HONOR 250
CHAPTER IV
THE ESTE DYNASTY--DESCRIPTION OF FERRARA 266
CHAPTER V
DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI 279
CHAPTER VI
EVENTS FOLLOWING THE POPE'S DEATH 293
CHAPTER VII
COURT POETS--GIULIA BELLA AND JULIUS II--THE ESTE DYNASTY
ENDANGERED 303
CHAPTER VIII
ESCAPE AND DEATH OF CÆSAR 317
CHAPTER IX
MURDER OF ERCOLE STROZZI--DEATH OF GIOVANNI SFORZA AND
OF LUCRETIA'S ELDEST SON 326
CHAPTER X
EFFECTS OF THE WAR--THE ROMAN INFANTE 338
CHAPTER XI
LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF VANNOZZA 345
CHAPTER XII
DEATH OF LUCRETIA BORGIA--CONCLUSION 355
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Lucretia Borgia, from a portrait attributed to Dosso Dossi
_Frontispiece_
Trajan's Forum, Rome 16
Church of S. Maria del Popolo, Rome 20
Vittoria Colonna 30
The Farnese Palace, Rome 36
Alexander VI 44
Church of Ara Coeli, Rome 58
Tasso 82
Charles VIII 88
Savonarola 94
Macchiavelli 100
Cæsar Borgia 148
Guicciardini 176
Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara 206
Castle of S. Angelo, Rome 210
Ariosto 248
Castle Vecchio, Ferrara 270
Benvenuto Garofalo 278
Facsimile of a letter from Alexander VI to Lucretia 281
Cardinal Bembo 290
Julius II 298
Facsimile of a letter from Lucretia to Marquis Gonzaga 301
Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara 304
Aldo Manuzio 328
Leo X 338
Lucretia Borgia, after a painting in the Musée de
Nîmes 360
INTRODUCTION
Lucretia Borgia is the most unfortunate woman in modern history. Is this
because she was guilty of the most hideous crimes, or is it simply
because she has been unjustly condemned by the world to bear its curse?
The question has never been answered. Mankind is ever ready to discover
the personification of human virtues and human vices in certain typical
characters found in history and fable.
The Borgias will never cease to fascinate the historian and the
psychologist. An intelligent friend of mine once asked me why it was
that everything about Alexander VI, Cæsar, and Lucretia Borgia, every
little fact regarding their lives, every newly discovered letter of any
of them, aroused our interest much more than did anything similar
concerning other and vastly more important historic characters. I know
of no better explanation than the following: the Borgias had for
background the Christian Church; they made their first appearance
issuing from it; they used it for their advancement; and the sharp
contrast of their conduct with the holy state makes them appear
altogether fiendish. The Borgias are a satire on a great form or phase
of religion, debasing and destroying it. They stand on high pedestals,
and from their presence radiates the light of the Christian ideal. In
this form we behold and recognize them. We view their acts through a
medium which is permeated with religious ideas. Without this, and
placed on a purely secular stage, the Borgias would have fallen into a
position much less conspicuous than that of many other men, and would
soon have ceased to be anything more than representatives of a large
species.
We possess the history of Alexander VI and Cæsar, but of Lucretia Borgia
we have little more than a legend, according to which she is a fury, the
poison in one hand, the poignard in the other; and yet this baneful
personality possessed all the charms and graces.
Victor Hugo painted her as a moral monster, in which form she still
treads the operatic stage, and this is the conception which mankind in
general have of her. The lover of real poetry regards this romanticist's
terrible drama of Lucretia Borgia as a grotesque manifestation of the
art, while the historian laughs at it; the poet, however, may excuse
himself on the ground of his ignorance, and of his belief in a myth
which had been current since the publication of Guicciardini's history.
Roscoe, doubting the truth of this legend, endeavored to disprove it,
and his apology for Lucretia was highly gratifying to the patriotic
Italians. To it is due the reaction which has recently set in against
this conception of her. The Lucretia legend may be analyzed most
satisfactorily and scientifically where documents and mementos of her
are most numerous; namely, in Rome, Ferrara, and Modena, where the
archives of the Este family are kept, and in Mantua, where those of the
Gonzaga are preserved. Occasional publications show that the interesting
question still lives and remains unanswered.
The history of the Borgias was taken up again by Domenico Cerri in his
work, _Borgia ossia Alessandro VI, Papa e suoi contemporanei_, Turin,
1858. The following year Bernardo Gatti, of Milan, published Lucretia's
letters to Bembo. In 1866 Marquis G. Campori, of Modena, printed an
essay entitled _Una vittima della storia Lucrezia Borgia_, in the _Nuova
Antologia_ of August 31st of that year. A year later Monsignor
Antonelli, of Ferrara, published _Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, Sposa a
Don Alfonso d'Este, Memorie storiche_, Ferrara, 1867. Giovanni
Zucchetti, of Mantua, immediately followed with a similar opuscule:
_Lucrezia Borgia Duchessa di Ferrara_, Milano, 1869. All these writers
endeavored, with the aid of history, to clear up the Lucretia legend,
and to rehabilitate the honor of the unfortunate woman.
Other writers, not Italians, among them certain French and English
authors, also took part in this effort. M. Armand Baschet, to whom we
are indebted for several valuable publications in the field of
diplomacy, announced in his work, _Aldo Manuzio, Lettres et Documents,
1494-1515_, Venice, 1867, that he had been engaged for years on a
biography of Madonna Lucretia Borgia, and had collected for the purpose
a large mass of original documents.
In the meantime, in 1869, there was published in London the first
exhaustive work on the subject: _Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, a
Biography, illustrated by rare and unpublished documents_, by William
Gilbert. The absence of scientific method, unfortunately, detracts from
the value of this otherwise excellent production, which, as a sequel to
Roscoe's works, attracted no little attention.
The swarm of apologies for the Borgias called forth in France one of the
most wonderful books to which history has ever given birth. Ollivier, a
Dominican, published, in 1870, the first part of a work entitled _Le
Pape Alexandre VI et les Borgia_. This production is the fantastic
antithesis of Victor Hugo's drama. For, while the latter distorted
history for the purpose of producing a moral monster for stage effect,
the former did exactly the same thing, intending to create the very
opposite. Monks, however, now are no longer able to compel the world to
accept their fables as history, and Ollivier's absurd romance was
renounced even by the strongest organs of the Church; first by Matagne,
in the _Revue des questions historiques_, Paris, April, 1871, and
January, 1872, and subsequently by the _Civiltà Cattolica_, the organ of
the Jesuits, in an article dated March 15, 1873, whose author made no
effort to defend Alexander's character, simply because, in the light of
absolutely authentic historical documents, it was no longer possible to
save it.
This article was based upon the _Saggio di Albero Genealogico e di
Memorie su la familia Borgia specialmente in relazione a Ferrara_, by L.
N. Cittadella, director of the public library of that city, published in
Turin in 1872. The work, although not free from errors, is a
conscientious effort to clear up the family history of the Borgias.
At the close of 1872 I likewise entered into the discussion by
publishing a note on the history of the Borgias. This followed the
appearance of the volume of the _Geschichte der Stadt Rom im
Mittelalter_, which embraced the epoch of Alexander VI. My researches in
the archives of Italy had placed me in possession of a large amount of
original information concerning the Borgias, and as it was impossible
for me to avail myself of this mass of valuable details in that work, I
decided to use it for a monograph to be devoted either to Cæsar Borgia
or to his sister, as protagonist.
I decided on Madonna Lucretia for various reasons, among which was the
following: in the spring of 1872 I found in the archives of the notary
of the Capitol in Rome the protocol-book of Camillo Beneimbene, who for
years was the trusted legal adviser of Alexander VI. This great
manuscript proved to be an unexpected treasure; it furnished me with a
long series of authentic and hitherto unknown documents. It contained
all the marriage contracts of Donna Lucretia as well as numerous other
legal records relating to the most intimate affairs of the Borgias. In
November, 1872, I delivered a lecture on the subject before the class in
history at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, which was
published in the account of the proceedings. These records cast new
light on the history of the Borgias, whose genealogy had only just been
published by Cittadella.
There were other reasons which induced me to write a book on Donna
Lucretia. I had treated the political history of Alexander VI and Cæsar
at length, and had elucidated some of its obscure phases, but to
Lucretia Borgia I had devoted no special attention. Her personality
appeared to me to be something full of mystery, made up of
contradictions which remained to be deciphered, and I was fascinated by
it.
I began my task without any preconceived intention. I purposed to write,
not an apology, but a history of Lucretia, broadly sketched, the
materials for which, in so far as the most important period of her life,
her residence in Rome, was concerned, were already in my possession. I
desired to ascertain what manner of personality would be discovered by
treating Lucretia Borgia in a way entirely different from that in which
she had hitherto been examined, but at the same time scientifically, and
in accordance with the original records.
I completed my data; I visited the places where she had lived. I
repeatedly went to Modena and Mantua, whose archives are inexhaustible
sources of information regarding the Renaissance, and from them I
obtained most of my material. My friends there, as usual, were of great
help to me, especially Signor Zucchetti, of Mantua, late keeper of the
Gonzaga archives, and Signor Stefano Davari, the secretary.
The state archives of the Este family of Modena, however, yielded me the
greatest store of information. The custodian was Signor Cesare Foucard.
As might have been expected of Muratori's successor, this distinguished
gentleman displayed the greatest willingness to assist me in my task. In
every way he lightened my labors; he had one of his young assistants,
Signor Ognibene, arrange a great mass of letters and despatches which
promised to be of use to me, lent me the index, and supplied me with
copies. Therefore, if this work has any merit, no small part of it is
due to Signor Foucard's obligingness.
I also met with unfailing courtesy and assistance in other places--Nepi,
Pesaro, and Ferrara. To Signor Cesare Guasti, of the state archives of
Florence, I am indebted for careful copies of important letters of
Lorenzo Pucci, which he had made for me.
The material of which I finally found myself in possession is not
complete, but it is abundant and new.
The original records will serve as defense against those who endeavor to
discover a malicious motive in this work. No such interpretation is
worthy of further notice, because the book itself will make my intention
perfectly clear, which was simply that of the conscientious writer of
history. I have substituted history for romance.
In the work I have attached more importance to the period during which
Lucretia lived in Rome than to the time she spent in Ferrara, because
the latter has already been described, though not in detail, while the
former has remained purely legendary. As I had to base my work entirely
on original information, I endeavored to treat the subject in such a way
as to present a picture truly characteristic of the age, and animated by
concrete descriptions of its striking personalities.
BOOK THE FIRST
LUCRETIA BORGIA IN ROME
CHAPTER I
LUCRETIA'S FATHER
The Spanish house of Borja (or Borgia as the name is generally written)
was rich in extraordinary men. Nature endowed them generously; they were
distinguished by sensuous beauty, physical strength, intellect, and that
force of will which compels success, and which was the source of the
greatness of Cortez and Pizarro, and of the other Spanish adventurers.
Like the Aragonese, the Borgias also played the part of conquerors in
Italy, winning for themselves honors and power, and deeply affecting the
destiny of the whole peninsula, where they extended the influence of
Spain and established numerous branches of their family. From the old
kings of Aragon they claimed descent, but so little is known of their
origin that their history begins with the real founder of the house,
Alfonso Borgia, whose father's name is stated by some to have been Juan,
and by others Domenico; while the family name of his mother, Francesca,
is not even known.
Alfonso Borgia was born in the year 1378 at Xativa, near Valencia. He
served King Alfonso of Aragon as privy secretary, and was made Bishop of
Valencia. He came to Naples with this genial prince when he ascended its
throne, and in the year 1444 he was made a cardinal.
Spain, owing to her religious wars, was advancing toward national unity,
and was fast assuming a position of European importance. She now, by
taking a hand in the affairs of Italy, endeavored to grasp what she had
hitherto let slip by,--namely, the opportunity of becoming the head of
the Latin world and, above all, the center of gravity of European
politics and civilization. She soon forced herself into the Papacy and
into the Empire. From Spain the Borgias first came to the Holy See, and
from there later came Charles V to ascend the imperial throne. From
Spain came also Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the most powerful
politico-religious order history has ever known.
Alfonso Borgia, one of the most active opponents of the Council of Basle
and of the Reformation in Germany, was elected pope in 1455, assuming
the name Calixtus III. Innumerable were his kinsmen, many of whom he had
found settled in Rome when he, as cardinal, had taken up his residence
there. His nearest kin were members of the three connected Valencian
families of Borgia, Mila (or Mella), and Lanzol. One of the sisters of
Calixtus, Catarina Borgia, was married to Juan Mila, Baron of Mazalanes,
and was the mother of the youthful Juan Luis. Isabella, the wife of
Jofrè Lanzol, a wealthy nobleman of Xativa, was the mother of Pedro Luis
and Rodrigo, and of several daughters. The uncle adopted these two
nephews and gave them his family name,--thus the Lanzols became Borgias.
In 1456 Calixtus III bestowed the purple upon two members of the Mila
family: the Bishop Juan of Zamora, who died in 1467, in Rome, where his
tomb may still be seen in S. Maria di Monserrato, and on the youthful
Juan Luis. Rodrigo Borgia also received the purple in the same year.
Among other members of the house of Mila settled in Rome was Don Pedro,
whose daughter, Adriana Mila, we shall later find in most intimate
relations with the family of her uncle Rodrigo.
Of the sisters of this same Rodrigo, Beatrice was married to Don Ximenez
Perez de Arenos, Tecla to Don Vidal de Villanova, and Juana to Don Pedro
Guillen Lanzol.[1] All these remained in Spain. There is a letter
extant, written by Beatrice from Valencia to her brother shortly after
he became pope.
Rodrigo Borgia was twenty-six when the dignity of cardinal was conferred
upon him, and to this honor, a year later, was added the great office of
vice-chancellor of the Church of Rome. His brother, Don Pedro Luis, was
only one year older; and Calixtus bestowed upon this young Valencian the
highest honors which can fall to the lot of a prince's favorite. Later
we behold in him a papal nepot-prince in whom the Pope endeavored to
embody all mundane power and honor; he made him his condottiere, his
warder, his body-guard, and, finally, his worldly heir. Calixtus allowed
him to usurp every position of authority in the Church domain and, like
a destroying angel, to overrun and devastate the republics and the
tyrannies, for the purpose of founding a family dynasty, the Papacy
being of only momentary tenure, and not transmittable to an heir.
Calixtus made Pedro Luis generalissimo of the Church, prefect of the
city, Duke of Spoleto, and finally, vicar of Terracina and Benevento.
Thus in this first Spanish nepot was foreshadowed the career which Cæsar
Borgia later followed.
During the life of Calixtus the Spaniards were all-powerful in Rome. In
great numbers they poured into Italy from the kingdom of Valencia to
make their fortune at the papal court as monsignori and clerks, as
captains and castellans, and in any other way that suggested itself.
Calixtus III died on the sixth of August, 1458, and a few days later Don
Pedro Luis was driven from Rome by the oppressed nobility of the
country, the Colonna and the Orsini, who rose against the hated
foreigner. Soon afterwards, in December the same year, death suddenly
terminated the career of this young and brilliant upstart, then in
Civitavecchia. It is not known whether Don Pedro Luis Borgia was married
or whether he left any descendants.[2]
Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia lamented the loss of his beloved and, probably,
only brother, and inherited his property, while his own high position in
the Curia was not affected by the change in the papacy. As
vice-chancellor, he occupied a house in the Ponte quarter, which had
formerly been the Mint, and which he converted into one of the most
showy of the palaces of Rome. The building encloses two courts, where
may still be seen the original open colonnades of the lower story; it
was constructed as a stronghold, like the Palazzo di Venizia, which was
almost contemporaneous with it. The Borgia palace, however, does not
compare in architectural beauty or size with that built by Paul II. In
the course of the years it has undergone many changes, and for a long
time has belonged to the Sforza-Cesarini.
Nothing is known of Rodrigo's private life during the pontificate of the
four popes who followed Calixtus--Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV, and
Innocent VIII--for the records of that period are very incomplete.
Insatiable sensuality ruled this Borgia, a man of unusual beauty and
strength, until his last years. Never was he able to cast out this
demon. He angered Pius II by his excesses, and the first ray of light
thrown upon Rodrigo's private life is an admonitory letter written by
that pope, the eleventh of June, 1460, from the baths of Petriolo.
Borgia was then twenty-nine years old. He was in beautiful and
captivating Siena, where Piccolomini had passed his unholy youth. There
he had arranged a bacchanalian orgy of which the Pope's letter gives a
picture.
DEAR SON: We have learned that your Worthiness, forgetful
of the high office with which you are invested, was present from
the seventeenth to the twenty-second hour, four days ago, in the
gardens of John de Bichis, where there were several women of Siena,
women wholly given over to worldly vanities. Your companion was one
of your colleagues whom his years, if not the dignity of his
office, ought to have reminded of his duty. We have heard that the
dance was indulged in in all wantonness; none of the allurements of
love were lacking, and you conducted yourself in a wholly worldly
manner. Shame forbids mention of all that took place, for not only
the things themselves but their very names are unworthy of your
rank. In order that your lust might be all the more unrestrained,
the husbands, fathers, brothers, and kinsmen of the young women and
girls were not invited to be present. You and a few servants were
the leaders and inspirers of this orgy. It is said that nothing is
now talked of in Siena but your vanity, which is the subject of
universal ridicule. Certain it is that here at the baths, where
Churchmen and the laity are very numerous, your name is on every
one's tongue. Our displeasure is beyond words, for your conduct has
brought the holy state and office into disgrace; the people will
say that they make us rich and great, not that we may live a
blameless life, but that we may have means to gratify our passions.
This is the reason the princes and the powers despise us and the
laity mock us; this is why our own mode of living is thrown in our
face when we reprove others. Contempt is the lot of Christ's vicar
because he seems to tolerate these actions. You, dear son, have
charge of the bishopric of Valencia, the most important in Spain;
you are a chancellor of the Church, and what renders your conduct
all the more reprehensible is the fact that you have a seat among
the cardinals, with the Pope, as advisors of the Holy See. We leave
it to you whether it is becoming to your dignity to court young
women, and to send those whom you love fruits and wine, and during
the whole day to give no thought to anything but sensual pleasures.
People blame us on your account, and the memory of your blessed
uncle, Calixtus, likewise suffers, and many say he did wrong in
heaping honors upon you. If you try to excuse yourself on the
ground of your youth, I say to you: you are no longer so young as
not to see what duties your offices impose upon you. A cardinal
should be above reproach and an example of right living before the
eyes of all men, and then we should have just grounds for anger
when temporal princes bestow uncomplimentary epithets upon us; when
they dispute with us the possession of our property and force us to
submit ourselves to their will. Of a truth we inflict these wounds
upon ourselves, and we ourselves are the cause of these troubles,
since we by our conduct are daily diminishing the authority of the
Church. Our punishment for it in this world is dishonor, and in the
world to come well deserved torment. May, therefore, your good
sense place a restraint on these frivolities, and may you never
lose sight of your dignity; then people will not call you a vain
gallant among men. If this occurs again we shall be compelled to
show that it was contrary to our exhortation, and that it caused us
great pain; and our censure will not pass over you without causing
you to blush. We have always loved you and thought you worthy of
our protection as a man of an earnest and modest character.
Therefore, conduct yourself henceforth so that we may retain this
our opinion of you, and may behold in you only the example of a
well ordered life. Your years, which are not such as to preclude
improvement, permit us to admonish you paternally.
PETRIOLO, _June 11, 1460_.[3]
A few years later, when Paul II occupied the papal throne, the historian
Gasparino of Verona described Cardinal Borgia as follows: "He is
handsome; of a most glad countenance and joyous aspect, gifted with
honeyed and choice eloquence. The beautiful women on whom his eyes are
cast he lures to love him, and moves them in a wondrous way, more
powerfully than the magnet influences iron."
There are such organizations as Gasparino describes; they are men of the
physical and moral nature of Casanova and the Regent of Orleans.
Rodrigo's beauty was noted by many of his contemporaries even when he
was pope. In 1493 Hieronymus Portius described him as follows:
"Alexander is tall and neither light nor dark; his eyes are black and
his lips somewhat full. His health is robust, and he is able to bear any
pain or fatigue; he is wonderfully eloquent and a thorough man of the
world."[4]
The force of this happy organization lay, apparently, in the perfect
balance of all its powers. From it radiated the serene brightness of his
being, for nothing is more incorrect than the picture usually drawn of
this Borgia, showing him as a sinister monster. The celebrated Jason
Mainus, of Milan, calls attention to his "elegance of figure, his serene
brow, his kingly forehead, his countenance with its expression of
generosity and majesty, his genius, and the heroic beauty of his whole
presence."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Zurita, Anales de Aragon, v. 36.
[2] Zurita (iv, 55) says he died _sin dexar ninguna sucesion_.
Notwithstanding this, Cittadella, in his _Saggio di Albero Genealogico e
di memorie su la Familia Borgia_ (Turin, 1872), ascribes two children to
this Pedro Luis, Silvia and Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, the younger.
[3] Raynaldus, 1460. No. 31.
[4] Statura procerus, colore medio, nigris oculis, ore paululum
pleniore. Hieron. Portius, Commentarius, a rare publication of 1493, in
the Casanatense in Rome.