SOCIAL LIFE OF THE BORGIAS
Lucretia certainly must have been pleased by her brother's long absence;
the Vatican was less turbulent. Besides herself only Don Giuffrè and
Donna Sancia, who had effected her return, maintained a court there.
We might avail ourselves of this period of quiet to depict Lucretia's
private life, her court, and the people about her; but it is impossible
to do this, none of her contemporaries having left any description of
it. Even Burchard shows us Lucretia but rarely, and when he does it is
always in connection with affairs in the Vatican. Only once does he give
us a fleeting view of her palace--on February 27, 1496--when Giovanni
Borgia, Juan de Castro, and the recently created Cardinal Martinus of
Segovia were calling upon her.
None of the foreign diplomatists of that time, so far as we may learn
from their despatches, made any reports regarding Lucretia's private
life. We have only a few letters written by her during her residence in
Rome, and there is not a single poem dedicated to her or which mentions
her; therefore it is due to the malicious epigrams of Sannazzaro and
Pontanus that she has been branded as the most depraved of courtesans.
If there ever was a young woman, however, likely to excite the
imagination of the poet, Lucretia Borgia in the bloom of her youth and
beauty was that woman. Her connection with the Vatican, the mystery
which surrounded her, and the fate she suffered, make her one of the
most fascinating women of her age. Doubtless there are buried in various
libraries numerous verses dedicated to her by the Roman poets who must
have swarmed at the court of the Pope's daughter to render homage to her
beauty and to seek her patronage.
In Rome, Lucretia had an opportunity to enjoy, if she were so disposed,
the society of many brilliant men, for even during the sovereignty of
the Borgias the Muses were banished neither from the Vatican nor from
Rome. It can not be denied, however, that the daughters of princely
houses were allowed to devote themselves to the cultivation of the
intellect more freely at the secular courts of Italy than they were at
the papal court. Not until Lucretia went to Ferrara to live was she able
to endeavor to emulate the example of the princesses of Mantua and
Urbino. While living in Rome she was too young and her environment too
narrow for her to have had any influence upon the literary and æsthetic
circles of that city, although, owing to her position, she must have
been acquainted with them.
Her father was not incapable of intellectual pleasures; he had his court
minstrels and poets. The famous Aurelio Brandolini, who died in 1497,
was wont to improvise to the strains of the lute during banquets in the
Vatican and in Lucretia's palace. Cæsar's favorite, Serafino of Aquila,
the Petrarch of his age, who died in Rome in the year 1500, still a
young man, aspired to the same honor.
Cæsar himself was interested in poetry and the arts, just as were all
the cultivated men and tyrants of the Renaissance. His court poet was
Francesco Sperulo, who served under his standard, and who sang his
campaigns in Romagna and in the neighborhood of Camerino.[69] A number
of Roman poets who subsequently became famous recited their verses in
the presence of Lucretia, among them Emilio Voccabella and Evangelista
Fausto Maddaleni. Even at that time the three brothers Mario, Girolamo,
and Celso Mellini enjoyed great renown as poets and orators, while the
brothers of the house of Porcaro--Camillo, Valerio, and Antonio--were
equally famous. We have already noted that Antonio was one of the
witnesses at the marriage of Girolama Borgia in the year 1482, and that
he subsequently was Lucretia's proxy when she was betrothed to Centelles
in 1491. These facts show how closely and how long the Porcaro were
allied to the Borgias.
This Roman family had been made famous in the history of the city by the
fate of Stefano, Cola di Rienzi's successor. The Porcaro claimed descent
from the Catos, and for this reason many of them adopted the name
Porcius. Enjoying friendly relations with the Borgias, they claimed them
as kinsmen, stating that Isabella, the mother of Alexander VI, was
descended from the Roman Porcaro, who somehow had passed to Spain. The
similarity of sound in the Latin names Borgius and Porcius gave some
appearance of truth to this pretension.
Next to Antonio, Hieronymus Porcius was one of the most brilliant
retainers of the house of Borgia. Alexander, upon his election to the
papal throne, made him auditor of the Ruota (the Papal Court of
Appeals). He was the author of a work printed in Rome in September,
1493, under the title _Commentarius Porcius_, which was dedicated to the
King and Queen of Spain. In it he describes the election and coronation
of Alexander VI, and quotes portions of the declarations of loyalty
which the Italian envoys addressed to the Pope. Court flattery could not
be carried further than it was in this case by Hieronymus, an affected
pedant, an empty-headed braggart, a fanatical papist. Alexander made him
Bishop of Andria and Governor of the Romagna. In 1497 Hieronymus, then
in Cesena, composed a dialogue on Savonarola and his "heresy concerning
the power of the Pope." The kernel of the whole thing was the
fundamental doctrine of the infallibilists; namely, that only those who
blindly obey the Pope are good Christians.[70]
Porcius also essayed poetry, celebrating the magnificence of the Pope
and Cardinal Cæsar, whom, in his verses on the Borgia Steer, he
described as his greatest benefactor. Apparently he was also the author
of the elegy on the death of the Duke of Gandia, which is still
preserved.
Phædra Inghirami, the famous student of Cicero, whom Erasmus admired and
whom Raphael rendered immortal by his portrait, doubtless made the
acquaintance of the Borgias and of Lucretia through the Porcaro. Even as
early as this he was attracting the attention of Rome. Inghirami
delivered an oration at the mass which the Spanish ambassador had said
for the Infante Don Juan, January 16, 1498, in S. Jacopo in Navona,
which was greatly admired. He also made a reputation as an actor in
Cardinal Rafael Riario's theater.
The drama was then putting forth its first fruits, not only at the
courts of the Este and Gonzaga families, but also in Rome. Alexander
himself, owing to his sensuous nature, was especially fond of it, and
had comedies and ballets performed at all the family festivities in the
Vatican. The actors were young students from the Academy of Pomponius
Laetus, and we have every reason to believe that Inghirami, the Mellini,
and the Porcaro took part in these performances whenever the
opportunity was offered. Carlo Canale, Vannozza's consort, must also
have lent valuable assistance, for he had been familiar with the stage
in Mantua; and no less important was the aid of Pandolfo Collenuccio,
who had repeatedly been Ferrara's ambassador in Rome, where he enjoyed
daily intercourse with the Borgias.
The celebrated Pomponius, to whom Rome was indebted for the revival of
the theater, spent his last years, during the reign of Alexander, in the
enjoyment of the highest popular esteem. Alexander himself may have been
one of his pupils, as Cardinal Farnese certainly was. Pomponius died
June 6, 1498, and the same pope who had sent Savonarola to the stake had
his court attend the obsequies of the great representative of classic
paganism, which were held in the Church of Aracoeli, a fact which lends
additional support to the belief that he was personally known to the
Borgias. Moreover, one of his most devoted pupils, Michele Ferno, had
for a long time been a firm adherent of Alexander. Although the Pope in
1501 issued the first edict of censorship, he was not an enemy of the
sciences. He fostered the University of Rome, several of whose chairs
were at that time held by men of note; for example, Petrus Sabinus and
John Argyropulos. One of the greatest geniuses--one whose light has
blessed all mankind--was for a year an ornament of this university and
of the reign of Alexander; Copernicus came to Rome from far away Prussia
in the jubilee year 1500, and lectured on mathematics and astronomy.
Among Alexander's courtiers there were many brilliant men whose society
Lucretia must have had an opportunity to enjoy. Burchard, the master of
ceremonies, laid down the rules for all the functions in which the
Pope's daughter took part. He must have called upon her frequently, but
she could scarcely have foreseen that, centuries later, this Alsatian's
notes would constitute the mirror in which posterity would see the
reflections of the Borgias. His diary, however, gives no details
concerning Lucretia's private life--this did not come within his duties.
Never did any other chronicler describe the things about him so clearly
and so concisely, so dryly, and with so little feeling--things which
were worthy of the pen of a Tacitus. That Burchard was not friendly to
the Borgias is proved by the way his diary is written; it, however, is
absolutely truthful. This man well knew how to conceal his feelings--if
the dull routine of his office had left him any. He went through the
daily ceremonial of the Vatican mechanically, and kept his place there
under five popes. Burchard must have seemed to the Borgias a harmless
pedant; for if not, would they have permitted him to behold and describe
their doings and yet live? Even the little which he did write in his
diary concerning events of the day would have cost him his head had it
come to the knowledge of Alexander or Cæsar. It appears, however, that
the diaries of the masters of ceremony were not subjected to official
censorship. Cæsar would have spared him no more than he did his father's
favorite, Pedro Calderon Perotto, whom he stabbed, and Cervillon, whom
he had killed--both of whom frequently performed important parts in the
ceremonies in the Vatican.
Nor did he spare the private secretary, Francesco Troche, whom Alexander
VI had often employed in diplomatic affairs. Troche, according to a
Venetian report a Spaniard, was, like Canale, a cultivated humanist, and
like him, he was also on friendly terms with the house of Gonzaga. There
are still in existence letters of his to the Marchioness Gonzaga, in
which he asks her to send him certain sonnets she had composed. She
likewise writes to him regarding family matters, and also asks him to
find her an antique cupid in Rome. There is no doubt but that he was one
of Lucretia's most intimate acquaintances. In June, 1503, Cæsar had also
this favorite of his father strangled.
Besides Burchard and Lorenz Behaim, there was another German who was
familiar with the family affairs of the Borgias, Goritz of Luxemburg,
who subsequently, during the reigns of Julius II and Leo X, became
famous as an academician. Even in Alexander's time the cultivated world
of Rome was in the habit of meeting at Goritz's house in Trajan's Forum
for the purpose of engaging in academic discussions. All the Germans who
came to Rome sought him out, and he must have received Reuchlin, who
visited that city in 1498, and subsequently Copernicus, Erasmus, and
Ulrich von Hutten, who remembered him with gratitude; it is also
probable that Luther visited his hospitable home. Goritz was _supplicant
referent_, and as such he must have known Lucretia personally, because
the influential daughter of the Pope was the constant recipient of
petitions of various sorts. He had ample opportunity to observe events
in the Vatican, but of his experiences he recorded nothing; or, if he
did, his diary was destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527, when he lost
all his belongings.
Among Lucretia's personal acquaintances was still another man, one who
was in a better position than any one else to write the history of the
Borgias. This was the Nestor of Roman notaries, old Camillo Beneimbene,
the trusted legal adviser of Alexander and of most of the cardinals and
grandees of Rome. He knew the Borgias in their private as well as in
their public character; he had been acquainted with Lucretia from her
childhood; he drew up all her marriage contracts. His office was on the
Lombard Piazza, now known as S. Luigi dei Francesi. Here he worked,
drawing up legal documents until the year 1505, as is shown by
instruments in his handwriting.[71] A man who had been the official
witness and legal adviser in the most important family affairs of the
Borgias for so long a time, and who, therefore, was familiar with all
their secrets, must have occupied, so far as their house, and especially
Lucretia, were concerned, the position of a close friend. Beneimbene
records none of his personal experiences, but his protocol-book is still
preserved in the archives of the notary of the Capitol.
Adriano Castelli of Corneto, a highly cultivated humanist, and
privy-secretary to Alexander, who subsequently made him a cardinal, was
very close to the Borgias. As the Pope's secretary he must have
frequently come in contact with Lucretia. Among her intimate
acquaintances were also the famous Latinist, Cortesi; the youthful
Sardoleto, the familiar of Cardinal Cibò; young Aldo Manuzio; the
intellectual brothers Rafael and Mario Maffei of Volterra; and Egidio of
Viterbo, who subsequently became famous as a pulpit orator and was made
a cardinal. The last maintained his connection with Lucretia while she
was Duchess of Ferrara. He exercised a deep influence upon the religious
turn which her nature took during this the second period of her life.
The youthful Duchess of Biselli certainly enjoyed the lively society of
the cultured and gallant ecclesiastics about her--Cardinals Medici,
Riario, Orsini, Cesarini, and Farnese--not to mention the Borgias and
the Spanish prelates. We may look for her, too, at the banquets in the
palaces of Rome's great families, the Massimi and Orsini, the Santa
Croce, Altieri, and Valle, and in the homes of the wealthy bankers
Altoviti, Spanocchi, and Mariano Chigi, whose sons Lorenzo and
Agostino--the latter eventually became famous--enjoyed the confidence of
the Borgias.
Lucretia was able in Rome to gratify a taste for the fine arts.
Alexander found employment for the great artists of the day in the
Vatican, where Perugino executed some paintings for him, and where,
under the picture of the holy Virgin, Pinturicchio, who was his court
artist, painted the portrait of the adulteress, Giulia Farnese. He also
painted portraits of several members of the Borgia family in the castle
of S. Angelo.
"In the castle of S. Angelo," says Vasari, "he painted many of the rooms
_a grotesche_; but in the tower below, in the garden, he depicted scenes
from the life of Alexander VI. There he painted the Catholic Queen
Isabella; Niccolò Orsini, Count of Pitigliano; Giangiacomo Trivulzio;
and many other kinsmen and friends of the Pope, and especially Cæsar
Borgia and his brother and sisters, as well as numerous great men of the
age." Lorenz Behaim copied the epigrams which were placed under six of
these paintings in the "castle of S. Angelo, below in the papal
gardens." All represented scenes from the critical period of the
invasion of Italy by Charles VIII, and they were painted in such a way
as to make Alexander appear as having been victorious. One showed the
king prostrating himself at the Pope's feet in this same garden of the
castle of S. Angelo; another represented Charles declaring his loyalty
before the consistory; another, Philip of Sens and Guillaume of S. Malo
receiving the cardinal's hat; another, the mass in S. Peter's at which
Charles VIII assisted; the subject of another was the passage to S.
Paul's, with the king holding the Pope's stirrup; and, lastly, a scene
depicting the departure of Charles for Naples, accompanied by Cæsar
Borgia and the Sultan Djem.[72]
These paintings are now lost, and with them the portraits of the members
of the Borgia family. Pinturicchio doubtless painted several likenesses
of the beautiful Lucretia. Probably many of the figures in the paintings
of this master resemble the Borgias, but of this we are not certain. In
the collections of antiquaries, and among the innumerable old portraits
which may be seen hanging in rows on the discolored walls in the palaces
of Rome and in the castles in Romagna, there doubtless are likenesses of
Lucretia, of Cæsar, and of his brothers, which the beholder never
suspects as such. It is well known that there was a faithful portrait of
Alexander VI and his children above the altar of S. Lucia in the Church
of S. Maria del Popolo, the work of Pinturicchio. Later, when Alexander
restored this church, the painting was removed to the court of the
cloister, and eventually it was lost.[73]
Of the famous artists of the day, Lucretia must likewise have known
Antonio di Sangallo, her father's architect, and also Antonio
Pollajuolo, the most renowned sculptor of the Florentine school in Rome
during the last decades of the fifteenth century. He died there in 1498.
But the most famous of all the artists then in Rome was Michael Angelo.
He appeared there first in 1498, an ambitious young man of three and
twenty. At that time the city of Rome was an enchanting environment for
an artistic nature. The boundless immorality of her great past, speaking
so eloquently from innumerable monuments of the pagan and Christian
worlds; her majesty and holy calm; the sudden breaking loose of furious
passions--all this is beyond the imaginative power of modern men, just
as is the wickedly secular nature of the papacy and the spirit of the
Renaissance which swept over these ruins. We are unable to comprehend in
their entirety the soul-activities of this great race, which was both
creative and destructive. For to the same feeling which impelled men to
commit great crimes do we owe the great works of art of the Renaissance.
In those days evil, as well as good, was in the _grand style_. Alexander
VI displayed himself to the world, for whose opinion he had supreme
contempt, as shamelessly and fearlessly as did Nero.
The Renaissance, owing to the violent contrasts which it presents, now
naïvely and now in full consciousness of their incongruity, and also on
account of the fiendish traits by which it is characterized, will always
constitute one of the greatest psychologic problems in the history of
civilization.
All virtues, all crimes, all forces were set in motion by a feverish
yearning for immaterial pleasures, beauty, power, and immortality. The
Renaissance has been called an intellectual bacchanalia, and when we
examine the features of the bacchantes they become distorted like those
of the suitors in Homer, who anticipated their fall; for this society,
this Church, these cities and states--in fine, this culture in its
entirety--toppled over into the abyss which was yawning for it. The
reflection that men like Copernicus, Michael Angelo, and Bramante,
Alexander VI and Cæsar Borgia could live in Rome at one and the same
time is well nigh overpowering.
Did Lucretia ever see the youthful artist, subsequently the friend of
the noble lady, Vittoria Colonna, whose portrait he painted? We know
not; but there is no reason to doubt that she did. The curiosity of the
artist and of the man would have induced Michael Angelo to endeavor to
gain a glimpse of the most charming woman in Rome. Although only a
beginner, he was already recognized as an artist of great talent. As he
had just been taken up by Gallo the Roman and Cardinal La Grolaye, it is
altogether probable that he would have been the subject also of
Lucretia's curiosity.
Affected by the recent tragedies in the house of Borgia--for example,
the murder of the Duke of Gandia--Michael Angelo was engaged upon the
great work which was the first to attract the attention of the city, the
Pietà, which Cardinal La Grolaye had commissioned him to paint. This
work he completed in 1499, about the time the great Bramante came to
Rome. The group should be studied with the epoch of the Borgias for
background; the Pietà rises supreme in ethical significance, and in the
moral darkness about her she seems a pure sacrificial fire lighted by a
great and earnest spirit in the dishonored realm of the Church. Lucretia
stood before the Pietà, and the masterpiece must have affected this
unhappy daughter of a sinful pope more powerfully than the words of her
confessor or than the admonitions of the abbesses of S. Sisto.
FOOTNOTES:
[69] Manuscript in the Vatican, No. 5205.
[70] Collocutores itinerantes Tuscus et Remus, Romæ in Campo Floræ,
1497.
[71] See the author's essay, Das Archiv der Notare des Capitols in Rom,
and the protocol-book of the Notary Camillus de Beneimbene, 1457 to
1505. Proceedings of k. bayr. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München,
1872. Part iv.
[72] In the Codex Hartmann Schedel in the state library of Munich.
[73] Piazza (Gerarchia Cardinalizia) states that he saw it as late as
1712.