Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy (19 page)

She had ordered more than fifty underdresses of the richest materials: gold brocade lined with turquoise taffeta, and sleeves in the French style lined with crimson satin; one of cloth of gold striped with violet satin and lined with half-turquoise and half-green taffeta, the wide French-style sleeves again lined with violet (satin); another was made of black velvet sewn with golden toggles linked by gold cords with lining and sleeves of turquoise damask; others were made of ‘
tabi
’ – watered silk – of black velvet striped with grey satin. Then there were basques, underskirts, robes, tabards, capes, among which two were particularly notable for their magnificence – one of violet satin, lined with ermine and adorned with 84 balas rubies, 29 diamonds and 115 pearls, the other of crimson satin, also lined with ermine and embroidered with 61 rubies, 55 diamonds, 5 large pearls, 412 medium-sized pearls and 114 small ones. There were trunks of enamelled gold ornaments, elaborate bed hangings, valances and canopies, richly embroidered tablecloths, bedcovers of crimson satin, cloth of gold, azure velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread,
dozieri
(cushioned backrests), wall hangings, tapestries and door curtains depicting biblical scenes, great cushions in valuable materials for seating, and tapestries of flowers and trees. Harness for horses and mules included elaborate cloths of velvet and caparisons of silver and gold, including one with twenty-two little hanging bells, fans – one of which contained one hundred ostrich feathers – elaborate coffers and chests, shoes in velvet and satin, including twenty-seven pairs imported from Valencia in gilded leather, emblazoned crystal cups with gold feet and covers, huge quantities of silver and silver gilt (some of it bearing Ascanio Sforza’s arms), flasks, dishes, candlesticks and candelabra, sweetmeat dishes, a salt with the arms of Aragon (presumably from her marriage to Alfonso Bisceglie). There were lavish furnishings for her private chapel, including a great crucifix in crystal with the figures of the Virgin and St John, mounted on silver, porphyry reliquaries, golden chalices, pyxes, ampoules and bowls; altar cloths, cushions, two missals on vellum in velvet covers with silver and gold clasps and holy paintings.

Lucrezia took with her a small private library. This included a Spanish manuscript with gilded miniatures, covered in crimson velvet, with silver corners and clasps, in a case of red chamois leather; a printed volume of the letters of St Catherine of Siena bound in azure leather with brass corners and clasps; a printed book of letters and gospels in Italian; a book in the Valencian language entitled ‘the twelve [principles] of the Christian’; a manuscript volume of Spanish songs by various authors, beginning with the proverbs by Diondigi Lopes, bound in red leather with brass trimmings; a printed romance of chivalry entitled
L’Aquila Volante,
by Leonardo Bruni; a world history, the
Supplementum Chronicarum
, by Jacobus Philippus de Bergamo; a book in Italian entitled
The Mirror of Faith
; a volume of Dante with commentary bound in violet leather; a book of philosophy in Italian; a book of the legends of the saints in Italian; a copy of St Bonaventure; a Latin school book, the
Donatus
; a Life of Christ in Spanish by Ludolphus de Saxonia; and a small manuscript Petrarch on vellum, bound in red leather. These were her own treasured books: at the Vatican and at Ferrara, where the Este library was celebrated for its size, range and magnificence, she would never be short of reading matter. And, as we know, she took with her significant family documents, including the Giordano letters.

The Florentine envoy Pepi was, or pretended to be, shocked by the Borgias’ extravagance: ‘The things that are ordered here for these festivities are unheard of: and for a minor feast the shoes of the Duke’s staff-bearers are made of gold brocade, and the same for the Pope’s grooms: and he and the Duke vie with each other in producing the most magnificent, the latest, and the most expensive things . . .’ When Cesare rode out to meet the Ferrarese procession headed by Alfonso’s brothers Ippolito, Ferrante and Sigismondo, he put on a show of armed power with four thousand immaculately equipped men, horse and foot. He rode a ‘most beautiful strong horse, which seemed as if it had wings . . . and [its] trappings were estimated at 10,000 ducats because one could see nothing but gold, pearls and other jewels’.
¹⁹
The Ferrarese noted that Cesare’s horsemen indulged in a good deal of showing off, caracoling and sidling sideways and backwards. Cesare greeted Ippolito, whom he knew as a fellow cardinal, then the other two Este brothers; after a two-hour ceremony of welcome with the orations considered necessary for Renaissance ceremony (which must have been exceedingly tedious in the cold), the procession, swollen by the retinues of nineteen cardinals and the ambassadors of France, Spain and Venice, marched across Rome to the deafening sound of oboes, drums and trumpets. At the bridge of Sant’Angelo leading to the Vatican the noise of bombards from the castle was such that it frightened the horses. After being welcomed by Alexander in the Vatican, Cesare led the Este brothers across the piazza to Lucrezia’s house.

From the moment the Ferrarese delegation met Lucrezia we have minute descriptions of her dress and behaviour, demanded by Isabella d’Este of her brothers and of her particular spy, known as El Prete, a gentleman in the retinue of the poet and courtier Niccolò da Correggio who was part of the Este contingent. According to Ferrante, whose descriptions tended to be shorter and sketchier than those of El Prete (who had promised Isabella that he would follow Lucrezia ‘like the shadow does the body’), Lucrezia came to meet them at the foot of the stairs leading to her apartments. She was wearing a dress in her favourite colour, mulberry
(morello),
with tight sleeves slashed in the Spanish mode – in the fashion of ten years ago,’ sneered El Prete—with a mantle of gold brocade lined with sable over her shoulders, her blonde hair covered with a little cap of green netting bound with a fillet of gold and two strings of pearls, and others decorating her cap.
²⁰
Round her neck she wore a string of large pearls with a pendant balas ruby (‘not very big and not a very fine colour’, commented El Prete). For greater effect and to set off her dress and jewels, she leaned on the arm of an elderly gentleman dressed in black velvet lined with sable and wearing a gold chain. ‘She is a sweet and graceful lady,’ El Prete admitted. Lucrezia then offered them what Burchard described as a ‘beautiful collation and many presents’.
²¹
Wearing a long Turkish-style robe of gold brocade she attended Christmas mass in St Peter’s with the Este brothers, at which time the sword and biretta destined for Alfonso were blessed by the Pope.

Lucrezia’s last Roman carnival began the day after Christmas, on Alexander’s orders. Cesare and the Este rode about the streets masked where, according to El Prete, ‘one sees nothing but courtesans wearing masks’. Rome was known politely as
‘la terra da donne’
, ‘the City of Women’, although in
I Ragionamenti
Pietro Aretino put it more bluntly: ‘Rome always has been and ever will be . . . the town of whores’. The rich courtesans, splendidly equipped at their lovers’ expense, often dressed as boys and rode through the streets throwing gilded eggs filled with rose water at the passers-by and indulging in every kind of prank until the twenty-fourth hour when, by law, they were forced to retire. Courtesans’ lives were precarious: they risked revenge mutilation by the
sfregia,
or face slashing, which destroyed their beauty and their livelihood. Equally horrible, if not more so, was revenge by multiple rape—the
Trentuno—
carried out by thirty-one men, and the
Trentuno reale
, involving seventy-nine.

On the 26th, Lucrezia gave an informal ball at her palace, closely observed by the dutiful El Prete:

A nobleman from Valencia and a lady of the court, Niccola, led the dance. They were followed by Don Ferrante and Madonna [Lucrezia], who danced with extreme grace and animation. She wore a
camorra
[robe] of black velvet with gold borders . . . Her breast was covered up to the neck with a veil of gold thread. About her neck she wore a string of pearls, and on her head a green net and a chain of rubies . . . Two or three of her women are very pretty . . . one, Angela [Borgia, an illegitimate cousin of Lucrezia] . . . I picked out as my favourite.

Over the following days there were the traditional races in various categories – for wild boar, buffalo, prostitutes, Jews, young men, old men and boys. Then there were races for three different breeds of horses – Barbary horses imported from Morocco via Naples, much prized for their speed, light ‘Spanish’ horses and the heavy
corsieri
, cavalry chargers. As usual there was a good deal of violence and cheating, notably by Cesare’s stable.

On 30 December, to the sound of trumpets and other musical instruments, Lucrezia, dressed in a long robe of golden brocade with a train carried by her damsels, and accompanied by Ferrante and Sigismondo, walked across to the Vatican for the ceremony of the giving of the ring, performed by Ferrante, ‘with the greatest reverence and elegance’, followed by a tedious oration by the Bishop of Adria which Alexander ordered to be cut short. Then Ippolito ordered a table to be brought forward for presentation of the jewels to Lucrezia: ‘Our Reverend Cardinal,’ wrote Pozzi and Saraceni, reporting the ceremony to Ercole, made the presentation of the jewels with the greatest grace so that the aforesaid Holiness said the present was fine, but that His Reverend Lordship had made it most beautiful, and in that presentation His Lordship was very well assisted by Zoanne Ziliolo, treasurer, who in all that was necessary used singular expertise and diligence and it was done very well [in order to] enjoy the preciousness and greatness of the gift. Thus by His Holiness Our Lord and the Most Reverend Cardinals and also by the Most Illustrious Madonna Lucrezia it was praised, and was estimated at some 70,000 ducats according to the Most Reverend Cardinal of Santa Praxede, and also the Most Illustrious Don Ferrante took the utmost trouble to demonstrate the presentation and goodness of the Jewels, and above all the Most Illustrious Madonna Lucretia commended the ornaments and the work surrounding the Jewels, there not being such good masters of the art here . . .

According to Burchard, Ippolito presented Lucrezia with ‘four rings of great value, a diamond, a ruby, an emerald and a turquoise’. He then took out of a box a cap or head ornament studded with fourteen diamonds, as many rubies and about a hundred and fifty large pearls, four collars similarly decorated with jewels and pearls, many bracelets, four of which were of very great value, a pendant for the breast or head made of larger jewels, four long strings of large pearls, four beautiful crosses made of diamonds and other jewels, and finally another cap similar to the first.

All was not as it seemed, however. Ippolito had received previous instructions from his father to the effect that he should use a certain form of words which Gian Luca Pozzi would provide for him, so that in case Lucrezia was unfaithful to Alfonso the jewels would remain with the Este. In the envoy’s long report of the ceremony on the 30th it was stressed ‘concerning the said
deponatione
[handing over] there has been made an instrument in which it is said that the wedding ring is given and no mention is made of anything else which may be given: and for this the affair has passed off . . . according to the intention of Your Excellency that it should not be written nor that there should be any idea of a donation, and there is no need for Your Excellency to be suspicious of it’ .
²²

After the presentation of the jewels, in which Alexander had gleefully participated, passing the jewels through his hands and showing them off to his daughter, he and Lucrezia withdrew to the window to watch the games in the piazza beneath; these included the mock siege of a castle defended by eight gentlemen against a similar number of combatants, during which five of them were wounded. Afterwards the company went up to the Sala del Pappagallo for a party which lasted until five in the morning. Lucrezia was splendidly dressed in a robe (
veste
) of curled cloth of gold in the French style with wide sleeves down to the ground, a cloak of crimson satin lined with ermine slashed deep on the left-hand side showing a rich fringe and jewel-studded embroidery. Round her neck she wore a string of pearls with a pendant comprising an emerald, a ruby and a pendant pearl and on her head she wore a cap worked in gold, her floor-length plait bound with a black cord and a covering of gold-striped silk.
²³
At the Pope’s request, Lucrezia danced with Cesare and then her damsels danced in pairs. Two eclogues were recited, ‘one very boring’ and the other more lavish, ordered by Cesare with woods, fountains and hills, animals and shepherds and featuring two young men who represented Alfonso and Cesare, each dominating their lands on different sides of the Po. There was a ballet —a ‘
moresca
’ – and general dancing.

The Roman carnival that year, the Ferrarese reported, was more splendid than the usual celebrations. There was a parade of armed and mounted Romans and thirteen triumphal cars with representations of Caesar, Hercules and Scipio Africanus. The piazza was barricaded off for the next two days for bullfights and at night the Borgias, the Este and their guests danced and feasted in the Vatican.

Behind the gracious smiles and words and splendid ceremony, the business dealings went on. The Bull of Remission of the Census was ‘very fine’, drawn up with all of Ercole’s suggestions, sealed with the papal seal and undersigned by all the cardinals present at the consistory ready to be taken to Ferrara by Lucrezia. The dowry was also all in order, the Ferrarese reported, ‘except the 8,000 ducats and because they are lacking that sum here, there is some difference over the payment, which will be made without doubt; and if it is not we will not leave here’. The fault, they considered, lay not with the Pope but with his ministers. They were still wrangling at the beginning of January as to how the dowry should be paid. The Pope got his way with a sweetener for the Este in the form of the promise of a bishopric for Don Giulio and the archbishopric of Bologna for Ippolito.
²⁴
All was now sweetness and light between Ercole and the Borgias—for the moment.