L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY,NOVEMBER 2, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE SIMONE SCHIAVINATO I n spite of its centuries-long history, the Borgia family remains indelibly tied with three names : thos e of Rodrigo and tw o of his children, Cesare and Lucretia. As it often happens in history, discerning between facts and legend gets hard with people this influential, who played such crucial roles in the political and social panorama of a country like Italy, in a pivotal period such as the Renaissance. We must keep it in mind, especially when it comes to Rodrigo, Pope Alexader VI: in those centuries, papal power was real and didn't only invest the spiritual and liturgical, it was political and military. Rodrigo, we learned, became cardinal in 1456 thanks to the support of his uncle, Pope Cal- lixtus III. In 1492, the year A merica w as dis covered, he became Pope, adopting the name of Alexander VI. A lot has been written and said about Alexander V I's papacy; politically, he never took a clear pos ition, swinging between sides - some- times the Sforzas, sometimes the Aragonas, sometimes the French - often trying to favor his own family in the proces s . Then again, nepotism was a fairly common affair in those times, making of Rodrigo's behavior nothing out of the ordinary. Some historical merits should be recognized to Pope Alexander VI: he was a defender of ortho- dox doctrine, the purity of which he alw ays endors ed agains t heresy and spurious interpreta- tions of the Scriptures, and a patron of the arts. Among the many artists he sponsored, also Pinturicchio and Sangallo. L e t ' s n o t f o o l o u r s e l v e s , though: the reason old Rodrigo is best remembered in history and popular imagination is his penchant for sex and extrava- g a n c e , i n s p i t e o f b e i n g t h e Pope. Is there anything true in it? Certainly yes, but probably a lot of it was artfully created by coeval and later literature: in the end, yesterday as today, the pen is mightier than the sword. A name for them all, that of Ger- man historian Ferdinand Gre- gorovius who, in spite of his pristine professional reputation, c o n c e i v e d o n e o f t h e m o s t damning and a-historical pam- phlets on the Borgias, Lucretia Borgia (still published to this day). Even Mario Puzo, of The Godfather fame concocted a tell-all biography of the Borgias that did nothing to dispel some of the misconceptions centuries of bad press created around the family. This is not to say Rodrigo and his offspring were saints, but there was certainly much more depth to them than what we may be inclined to believe. L e t ' s g o b a c k t o t h e m , s o . Alexander VI had four known children with his long lasting partner, Vannozza dei Cattanei: Cesare, Giovanni, Lucrezia and Gioffre. Vannozza was known in Rome as the landlady of sev- eral inns around the city and her relationship with Rodrigo start- ed sometimes between the end of the 1460s and the beginning of the 1470s; even though their passion had subsided by the time he was elected to the papal throne, Vannozza remained the p a r t n e r w i t h w h o m R o d r i g o shared the most years. Let's start with Cesare, the eldest of Rodrigo and Vannoz- z a ' s k i d s . B o r n i n 1 4 7 5 , h i s father initiated him to the eccle- s i a s t i c a l c a r e e r m a k i n g h i m archbishop of Valencia the year he became Pope, and cardinal only 12 months later. Cesare, however, had other things in mind: he wanted to be a "con- dottiero," a prince. Power was his aim, but temporal, not spiri- tual and his father supported him unconditionally. With his help and the protection of the K i n g o f F r a n c e , L o u i s X I I , Cesare began a blistering fast military career, which saw him winner of numerous military campaigns aiming at subjecting large areas of Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Marche to form what was to be his very own kingdom. The death of his father in 1503, however, put an end to his dreams. If Rodrigo's direct suc- cessor, Pius III, was magnani- mous and recognized to Cesare the right to rule on all conquered territories, things changed when Giuliano della Rovere became Pope only a handful of months later. Della Rovere hated the Borgias and had Cesare impris- oned in Castel Sant'Angelo first a n d i n t h e L a M o t a f o r t , i n Spain, after. Cesare's name is often used as a synonym of ruthlessness and evil - and I won't even start a b o u t t h e s t o r i e s a b o u t h i s rumored but untrue sexual rela- tionship with sister Lucretia - yet he's been inspiration to one of the seminal texts of modern political thought, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Machiavelli w a s n ' t o n e t o t h r o w n a m e s around without reason. During the brief time span he ruled over his conquered territories, he demonstrated political acumen and intelligence, factors high- lighted in The Prince by the m i g h t y N i c c o l ò h i m s e l f : Cesare's only mistake was, alas, that of having obtained power also through his family's politi- cal influence. Once that came to an end, so did his glory. When Cesare died, in Spain i n 1 5 0 7 , h i s y o u n g e r s i s t e r Lucretia had been already mar- ried three times. At the young age of 27, the only daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannoz- za had served a great deal to reinforce the political stability and power of her family. Lucre- tia's fame as a beautiful but merciless man eater may come from the fact she did, indeed, have a pretty eventful love life, but we shouldn't forget her mar- r i a g e s w e r e a r r a n g e d - a n d ended - by her father and broth- er's thirst for political domina- tion. Bride to Giovanni Sforza, nephew of Ludovico il Moro, at 1 3 i n 1 4 9 3 , s h e w a s a l r e a d y married to another man, Alfonso d'Aragona, in 1498, her previ- ous liaison annulled to allow a union that strengthened the ties between the Borgias and the Kingdom of Naples. Alfonso and Lucretia were together only two years when a contract killer paid by her brother got rid of husband number two. Why, you may ask: well, Cesare was just in the midst of his conquering spree in Romagna and wanted to get some easy support in the area by marrying his sister to another Alfonso, Alfonso I, heir to the Duchy of Ferrara. In Ferrara, finally, Lucretia found some peace and her per- sonality, refined and cultivated, shone. A generous and inspired supporter of the arts, her figure is remembered positively by poets like Pietro Bembo and A r i o s t o , w i t n e s s t o t h e r e a l nature of a woman for too long mistreated by history. Today we k n o w t h e i m a g e o f a c r u e l , power-hungry Lucretia had been c o n s t r u c t e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e decades by the enemies of her family, who artfully left out from their tales her art inclined and pious nature (she became, while in Ferrara, involved in charitable work along with the Franciscans), as well as the fact she had been used as a political pawn by her father and brother Cesare for most of her life. She died in 1519, aged 39, after a miscarriage. The Borgias, Italy's most infamous family. Part two: Rodrigo, Lucrezia and Cesare Cesare Borgia: inspiration to Machiavelli, his powerful father supported his hunger to dominate

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