Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy (3 page)

PENGUIN BOOKS

LUCREZIA BORGIA

Sarah Bradford is the bestselling author of
America’s Queen
:
The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Disraeli
(a
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year),
George VI, Princess Grace
, and
Elizabeth
. She has published two previous accounts of the Borgia family, including a biography of Cesare Borgia. Married to the Viscount Bangor, she makes her home in London.

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2004

Published in Penguin Books 2005

Copyright © Sarah Bradford, 2004 All rights reserved

Bradford, Sarah.

Lucrezia Borgia: life, love and death in Renaissance Italy / Sarah Bradford.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-52534-0

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Author’s
Note

Money Values

Economic historians now regard equating the value of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century coinage with today’s money as unrealistic owing to the number of factors involved in the calculation. However, a rough rule of thumb would be to multiply each currency (gold coins such as ducats, francs, florins and scudi were all much the same) by one hundred to arrive at a modern sterling equivalent.

Time Calculations

In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy there were twenty-four hours in the day (like ours) but, instead of starting the day at midnight as we do, the Italians began the day half an hour after sunset: thus the twenty-fourth hour was the last hour of daytime.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologize in advance for any unintentional omission. We would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent editions.

Italy in 1494

The Estense territories

The Descendants of Alexander VI

The House of Este

The Neapolitan House of Aragon (d’Aragona)

Acknowledgements

My husband, William Bangor, has been my co-author in the sense that only someone with his knowledge of late fifteenth-and early sixteenth-century Italy could have helped me transcribe the thousands of pages of manuscript material which have formed the basis for this book. Without his help, it would have taken far longer to complete. The admiration which he developed for Lucrezia in the course of his work has been a sustaining inspiration.

So many people with great knowledge of this subject have been generous with their help. I would like to distinguish for particular gratitude Raffaele Tamalio,
the
expert on the archives at Mantua and the Gonzaga family, and his wife Lynn. In Ferrara, Dott. Giuseppe Muscardini, Bibliotecario presso i Musei Civici di Arte Antica di Ferrara, went out of his way to guide us round the city and archives and to provide me with every possible information and help.

I am also grateful to the following: Philip Attwood, Dr Silke Ackermann; the Reverend Father Miquel Batllori, S.J., Dott. Maria Barbara Bertini, Director of the Archivio di Stato di Milano, Dott. Mario Bertoni, Archivist of the Archivio di Stato di Modena, Harriet Bridgeman, Dr R. J. Bridgeman, Jose Maria Burrieza, departmental head of References at the Archivio General de Simancas; Dr Ann G. Carmichael, Edward Chaney, Dr Cecil H. Clough, Dr Barrie Cook, Margaret Critchley; Dott. Alessandra Farinelli, Responsabile Fondi Antichi, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea di Ferrara; Dott. Daniela Ferrari, Director of the Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Simonetta Fraquelli, Antonia Fraser; Nicole Garnier, conservateur, the Musée Condé at Chantilly; Alberto Govi, Professor Guido Guerzoni; Mary Hollingsworth, Dr Charles Hope; Professor Douglas Johnson; Professor Robert J. Knecht; Dr Jilly Kray, Librarian of the Warburg Institute; Dott. Laura Laureati; Sarah Lawson; Carmelo Lison; Alvaro Maccioni; Dr Michael Mallett; Philip Mansel; Professor Joan Francesc Mira; Kenneth Montgomery; Dr Ornella Moscucci; Professor Reinhold Mueller; Dott. Andrea Nascimbeni of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara; Jette Nielsen and Vivian Nutton of the Wellcome Library; the Reverendissimo Padre Prefetto Sergio Pagano of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano; Lucia Panini; Dr Stephen Parkin, Curator Italian Printed Books 1501 – 1850 at the British Library; Milo Parmoor; Dott. Paola Pelliccia of the Biblioteca Comunale in Subiaco; Guy Penman of the London Library, Antonio Pettini; Luciana Pignatelli; Dr Dennis Rhodes; Padre Nazzareno Romagnollo; the late Professor Nicolai Rubinstein; Maude Sallansonet, archivist, the Musée Condé at Chantilly; Diana Scarisbrick; Jane and Tony Scheuregger of the Minstrels Gallery; Eva Soos, photoservices, the Pierpont Morgan Library; Dott. Angelo Spaggiari, Director of the Archivio di Stato di Modena; Dr David Starkey; Julien Stock; Simon Stock; Baron Berti von Stohrer; Professor Roy Strong; Hugh Thomas; Priscilla Thomas; Peter Thornton; Dr Dora Thornton; Albert Torra, Vic-Director, Archivio de la Corona de Aragon; Dott. Francesca Trebbi of the Biblioteca dei Musei Civici in Pesaro; Dr Thomas Tuohy; Anna Uguccioni of the Prefettura in the Palazzo Ducale in Pesaro; Dott. Gianna Vancini; Professor Laurent Vissiere; Maureen Waller; John Wells, Assistant Under Librarian, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, University Library, Cambridge; Roger S. Wieck, Curator, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the Pierpont Morgan Library.

On the publishing side grateful thanks are due to the following for their contribution: Andrea Cane of Mondadori; Helen Fraser, Juliet Annan and Carly Cook of Viking, London; Lynda Marshall, picture research; Antonia Till for her kindness in reading the typescript; Richard Collins for his skilful editing; Douglas Matthews for his compiling of the index; Camilla Eadie, for all her help and technical expertise; Wendy Wolf and Clifford J. Corcoran, Viking, New York; Gillon Aitken, Sally Riley and Ayesha Karim Khan of Gillon Aitken Associates. Finally, I would like to thank Keith Taylor, Elisabeth Merriman and Sarah Day for their invaluable help in the production of this book.