The author of this unusual work was one of the most enigmatic,
eccentric of English writers. He lived and died in poverty, and was
as unscrupulous in grasping for money as were the Borgias he wrote
about in their grasping for power. He spent his adult life eluding
bill collectors and landlords, begging money from friends or
strangers, composing fanatically belligerent notes to publishers
demanding funds they had allegedly promised him, and extorting
money from hapless benefactors whose faith in him proved most often
to be unfounded. Nevertheless, he produced several books of
superior quality which are sui generis in their vitality, color,
and individuality. The present work is an example. It is by no
means a work of objective, rigorously documented scholarship; it
teems with Corvo's personal hypotheses, prejudices, and grudges. It
steadfastly examines every accusation that has ever been made
against the Borgias. Yet it conjures up a picture of Renaissance
Italy which may not be historically accurate in every detail, but
which vibrates with the spirit of the age. The book is broad in
scope, relating to the movements of the Borgia Family during the
whole of its career as the ruling house of Italy. In a style that
is by turn lyric, dramatic, humorous, sonorous and epigrammatic,
Corvo traces the lives of Alonso Borgia (who became Pope Calixtus
III), Roderigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI), the redoubtable
Cesare Borgia and his heralded sister Lucrezia, and other lesser
known but equally interesting figures of the Borgia clan. The
narrative is spiced with illuminating anecdotes, curious lore, and
little-known sidelights in connection with the people and events of
that incomparable era.Some of the most absorbing passages are those
in which Corvo interrupts the narrative to reflect on such matters
as calumny (all charges against the Borgias come under this
heading), the loneliness of the popes, the classic learning of the
Renaissance, the superiority of the 16th-century methods and mores
to 20th-century ones, and many other subjects he feels constrained
to remark upon. Perhaps the most engrossing chapter of all is the
one which examines the matter of poisoning in the light of the
superstitions that were still alive during the Borgia era.
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