Customer Reviews

The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For the general reader, Italian history is difficult. British history, like American history, is about one country tied by one language. While these histories have religious and political strife they are very unlike the situation where city states and a religious superstructure vie for power. The many narratives and subnarratives, inclusive of the monumental art created at this time, make it hard for the general reader. A focused work like this is most appreciated.

I particularly liked that Hibbert brings us to Rodrigo Borgia within 10 pages. (I put down Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience because she was not yet born after the first 70 pages.) Another quality I liked was that the quotes from primary souces are translated using modern English.

The content is striking. It's hard not to marvel at how bad the Borgias were and how much they got away with. The Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, is 2 popes away from the Medici heir whose reign will have to deal with Martin Luther and his theses. It is clear that the Protestant movement was not the result of (only) Leo X, but found its roots in the extreme corruption, violence and perversion of faith in the Borgia period.

Another thing that is striking is the serenity and virtue ascribed to Lucretia, who seems to be unaware of the murderous qualities of her family, particularly Cesare. How can this child, most likely a product of incest by father and brother, twice a widow (once perhaps at the hand of her brother) and married off against her will and later a mother who burried children be the accepting, spirited and gracious person history records? Perhaps a forensic psychologist will someday read the records and explain Lucretia's true essence. She "takes to her bed" many times in stress, perhaps this is a clue.

The common people were vulnerable to terrorism from within and without. I exect most of the victims, who lost if not their life - their lives, in the wars and plots knew little of why their towns were being attacked. Whole towns, of presumably Christian people, were killed, maimed, raped and/or looted by the army of the Pope.

I highly recommend this book for the general reader. The material is interesting and well presented.

The Borgias are one of the fun families of the Renaissance. While probably not as bad as suggested in the original material, there is sufficient smoke to suggest some fire was going on at the Papal Palace. While the family produced two popes Calixstus III and Alexander VI, this book mainly focuses on the later as its central force. What we have is the unique situation of a pope with a family (highly irregular considering he was supposed to be celibate) whose interests he is all too eager to promote. This he did by playing off the powers of Naples, Milan, and France off against each other in order to get the best deal possible, sometimes with mixed results. Were this happening in the 21st century, one can imagine the premise for a good situation comedy or at least a bad nighttime soap opera (which it was in the 1980s).

The family consists of Pope Alexander VI, his son Cesare, his daughter Lucrezia, Juan, the favorite son. There is also Gulia Farnese, who managed to secure an appointment for her brother to be a cardinal because she happened to be the pope's "main squeeze," although that is another story involving yet another dynastic family in Renaissance Italy. During his somewhat short reign as pope (1492-1503) Alexander VI employed every delightfully despicable feature of Renaissance diplomacy to advance the fate of his family. The Borgias probably were unique in the history of the world to feature a relatively high body count at family reunions. Unlike the Medici, the Farnese, the Doria Pamphilior the Della Rovere, the Alexander's family did not stay long as high flying players in the game that was Italian 16th century power politics. While Machiavelli speaks glowingly of Cesare in `The Prince," he clearly did not have the abilities to sustain his family's standing once his father died. This is a feature of dynastic politics as the American electorate can well appreciate given recent events, the subsequent generations of a dynasty lack the edge and ability of the founder.

Upon the death of his father Cesare proved to be too cleaver by half (a mistake Alexander VI never would have done) by throwing the family's support in College of Cardinals to Giuliano Della Rovere (later Pope Julius II). Rather than attempt to further the ambitions of the Borgias, Julius typically moved to squash them. Julius II (my favorite pope, just as Cardinal Richelieu is my favorite cardinal) was the patron of Raphael, Bramante, and, most famously, Michelangelo was nobody's fool. Although subsequent generations of Borgias managed to find places in aristocratic and ecclesiastical spheres in France and Spain, the family was never to be what it was when Alexander VI was alive. Julius even when out of power was always a dangerous foe.

Christopher Hibbert is the author of numerous books dealing with British and Italian historical and biographical subjects. While this book does not add any new understanding of the Borgia family, it is a wonderful synthesis of the available material. This is well worth reading.

Christopher Hibbert (1924-2008) was one of England's foremost historians and clearly an expert in this realm of study. Among his numerous other works, he also wrote The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall.

I was looking for a well-written biography of the infamous Borgias and Hibbert has provided it. Over the 328 pages he describes, in colorful prose, how the Borgia Family (in what is now Italy) came to power through the Catholic Church, their sexual antics, their propensity to murder even their own family members to either gain or maintain power, and their ultimate demise.

Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, the father of Lucrezia) was the chief instrument of the Borgias and he never hesitated to engage in simony by selling red caps (Cardinal status) to bolster his support or even to simply expand his own personal notable coffers of treasure. He also had sired sons: Juan, Joffre, and Cesare, the latter of whom never ceased to invade fiefdoms throughout Italy, thus expanding the Borgia Empire.

Pope Alexander VI, at various points, took to arresting and executing cardinals, poisoning some of them, all to loot and pillage their homes of treasure. The "vacated" positions were then sold by the Pope to the highest bidder, "...men of dubious reputation...," being no barrier to his actions. Disappointed applicants who spoke out later were rewarded by strangulation using a garrote. Much of this wealth was used to fund Cesare's endless military campaigns.

The author pulls no punches on the details of the depravity and the gruesomeness of this demented but powerful family. The story becomes complex at times, as Hibbert successfully maintains a reasonable perspective of who is who's enemy at any given moment.

This book would have rated five stars with me had it even a few art illustrations of the principals. A simplified genealogy chart would have been equally helpful. Still, the story is well-told and I highly recommend the book.

Fans of this book would also surely enjoy the recently published: Murder of a Medici Princess.

I would refer prospective buyers to the review by A. Waterhouse . All I want to add is that Hibbert , not for the first time , violates the first rule of studying history . Historical characters must be judged in the context of their time and place . Rodrigo & Cesare would not be men you would want to hang around with but the worst things their enemies accused them of were not true ; their enemies had the same ambitions , flaws and ruthlessness ; but for the most part not the same talent. For the best , most balanced and truly well researched book on the subject go to Rafael Sabatini's " Life of Cesare Borgia " . Though occasionally Mr. Sabatini goes a bit easy on these men , he was a true scholar and linguist who does go to primary sources ( which he lists ) and exposes not only the lies that lazy historians have perpetuated but their origins , where ever possible .

Overall I enjoyed the book. It is a very fast read and is highly enjoyable. It is a great intro to the Borgia's and there time. I did think the book's title is a misnomer. The main enemies seem just to be those that Cesare Borgia fought with. Otherwise it is the same back and forth that seemed so pervasive during this time. A political tug of war if you will. I would have liked to see the book spend more time talking about Alexander and Lucrazia and less about Cesare. But as I said, this is a very solid book, one that I would recommend for the newcomer to this topic. It will open up some doors for further intellectual persuit.

This book gets 5 stars just for the continuous flow of material and the eloquent writing style. This is my first book by Hibbert and I think he did a great job. This is a wonderful tome of information concerning the Borgias in the illustrious Renaissance era.

I will mention two books in the same time-frame:

1. `The Cardinal's Hat', by Mary Hollingsworth - very slow detailed account of Renaissance life that mainly discussed food, and the cost of every detail imaginable
2. `The Pope's Daughter', by Caroline P. Murphy - riveting account of Pope Julius II and his daughter which read like a suspense thriller. I'm subsequently going to read her 2nd book as well.

I put Hibbert's book right up there with Caroline P. Murphy. I think he's done a marvelous job as far including all the facts in a well document timeline of events. You don't lose interest for a minute and even more so, this paperback mentions all the juicy stuff you've been waiting for... Even after reading both of the books previously mentioned, `The Borgias' is still able to bring some interesting points, events and accounts to life concerning Cardinal Ippolito, and Pope Julius II to which I was pleasantly surprised and satisfied. This is a great, insightful, and easy read to learn about the most famous time in the history of the Catholic Church. *There really are some wild, unbelievable stories in here...

Who's to say the Catholic Church wasn't the first mob? When you hear stories about Cardinals traveling with entourages, numerous sexual affairs, jealousy to the extent of putting `murder contract's on other men, eyes being stabbed from their sockets, men being fished out of the Tiber River etc.... Don't believe me - read the book. There's much graphic / eye-opening material within these pages. Like I've always said, every organization, fraternity, government etc - they've all had their corrupt beginnings, some more than others....

Great book if you're even remotely interested in this genre...

It was a good, concise history of the times and the family. It provided good references with which to continue my study. Well written, easy to follow despite the incredible cast of characters.

The reviews of this book are very mixed, so I will try to address what others have said.

First, it has a large font and no notes, so reads easily; however, if you want to look up a reference, good luck finding it.

The book brings the Renaissance to life, giving a great sense of the time, nicely changing focus from grand details to small details (like goats nibbling at weeds in a piazza). It almost reads like a novel.

The prose itself is clean and colourful. A few sentences are hard to follow but not so much because of the prose--because the cast of characters can be large and confusing.

We're first introduced to the Borgia family on page 11 with Alfonso Borgia who became Pope Calixtus III in 1455.

From there on, it's a colourful and amazing story of unbelievable hypocrisy and corruption. If this were not a history, I would think it too implausible and ridiculous to be true. It becomes painfully apparent why the Reformation had to happen. Power corrupts...

I compared Hibbert's book with Fusero's Borgias and Cloulas's Borgias. For the most part, all three books rely on the same sources, but Fusero interprets the data in the best possible light and Cloulas in a bad light. It is also surprising how many small differences there are in even the basic facts in these three different histories. I would say there is still room for a larger, more definitive, and evenhanded history because the deeper political maneuvering only emerges by comparing the different works. Hibbert doesn't go very deeply into the political strategy; still, his does seem the best introduction since he tells the story well and even-handedly. He leaves some of the big questions open, like who killed Cesare's brother, merely reporting the different opinions at the time. That seems like a good strategy because when other historians give their opinion as a definitive judgment it is really just one more opinion and even further removed in time. For example, without giving any reason Fusero says it is a closed question that Cesare was not involved, while Cloulas suggests that only Cesare had the cunning to pull it off.

He spends almost equal time on Alexander, Cesare, and Lucrezia, but, as another review points out, not so much time on the Borgias' enemies. Rather, he goes into much detail about weddings and festivals--they sound like good times, with dwarfs, clowns, and prostitutes often being included in the opulent festivities.

I gave it five stars since it is so interesting and well told but sentence Hibbert to the gaol in the Castel Sant'Angelo for so poorly citing his source (for example, he will say a quote comes from Machiavelli but not even which work).

I have a bookshelf full of research on the Borgias and the Renaissance. Whenever a new Borgia book comes out, I rush to own it. This one is a nice introduction to the subject, but with little new material. It's well-written, and even-handed. I prefer Hibbert's book on the Medici family, but this one is well worth reading.

David Wisehart
Author of Devil's Lair and Valentino: a Play in Verse

A sad chronicle of Pope Alexander VI and his children that reads more like a juicy expose than a traditional history book. Alexander's avarice and depravity may have been extreme, but he was a creature of his time, when very few leaders were nice people. Alexander VI was preceded and followed by popes, kings and counselors who were no better, differing in degree but not in kind. It is unfortunate that the book doesn't examine anything other than depravity, missing an excellent opportunity in developing the reasons for the rise of Protestantism, and the resulting religious wars that laid waste much of Europe before the Enlightenment. This raw example of moral depravity makes it easy to see the wisdom of separating the church and state. The book's main fault is its focus on one man, ignoring the larger cultural background of the dawn of the age of exploration.