Customer Reviews

The Life of Cesare Borgia

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The Life of Cesare Borgia Mr. Sabatini was a highly educated , multi lingual historian ( although most of his writing was historical fiction ). In this biography , he shames all of the lazy inept " historians " of hundreds of years who merely repeated the nonsense of their predecessors. He went to original source material and provides a well reasoned, balanced and believable account of ,primarily , Cesare but also his family and the world in which they lived . Sabatini clears away most of the preposterous infamies the Borgias have become " known " for ; incest , poisonings , et al . He does not present pure images of Roderigo and Cesare ; but he does show that in their actions they were , at least , no worse than their contemporaries . He presents evidence of their superior abilities and of how the stories of their supposed sins came about and convincingly refutes most of them . In particular , he completely clears the reputation of poor Lucrezia ( one of the 3 most defamed women in history , along with Cleopatra and Mary Magdalene ). She was , as was the custom of the times , a pawn in the political alliances of powerful men . In fact , it's impossible not to pity her once Sabatini exposes the truth behind centuries of lies . She had a rather sad life . Cesare and Roderigo were ambitious , at times ruthless , power players in their world . Mr. Sabatini gives us a picture of two men whom you might not care to spend your vacation with but who had many admirable qualities and were hardly the monsters they have been painted as by laggardly , foolish pseudo- historians who lacked Sabatini's breadth of knowledge and commitment to historical accuracy .People must be judged in the context of their time and place . There is no room in historical research for the imposition of late 20th /early 21st century mores or biases. Highly recommended !

Being a Borgia buff, it was interesting to read a book that focused mostly on Cesare's life. I learned quite a bit more than I already knew and it also reinforced some of my ideas about the family and general politics of the time. A fascinating read in general.