Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy (2 page)

12. Ferrara: Castello Estense, also known as the Castel or Castello Vecchio, the moated castle in which Lucrezia spent most of her married life in Ferrara. She occupied rooms in the Torre Marchesana, on the right, connected to Alfonso’s celebrated
Camerini
in the ravelin on the extreme right of the picture. In Lucrezia’s day the space immediately to the north of the castle, now occupied by relatively modern buildings, was a huge garden and beyond it stretched Ercole’s new quarter of Ferrara.

13. Alfonso I d’Este, Fourth Duke of Ferrara, Lucrezia’s last husband. He is shown, typically in armour against a battle scene. His military skills, particularly in the field of artillery saved Ferrara. By Dosso Dossi.

14. Ippolito d’Este. The cleverest and most ruthless of Alfonso’s brothers, a cardinal who liked nothing better than to wear armour and fight his brother’s enemies.

15. Courtly pastimes. Ladies embroidering, weaving and gossiping. One of a series of fifteenth-century frescoes of
The Months
by Francesco del Cossa and others.

16. Ferrara as it looked at the time of Lucrezia’s arrival in 1502. The River Po is in the foreground. The Palazzo del Corte is on the left of the broad street in the centre of the picture with, beyond it, the four towers of the Castel. Opposite the Corte is the Duomo. Late fifteenth-century woodcut.

17.
Left
: Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua. Alfonso’s only legitimate sister and the wife of Lucrezia’s lover, Francesco Gonzaga. Famous for her culture and patronage of the arts, sycophantic admirers called her ‘the first lady of the world’. By Leonardo da Vinci.

18.
Right
: Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. Husband of Isabella d’Este and lover of Lucrezia. Contemporary portrait bust by Gian Cristoforo Romano.

19.
Left
: Pietro Bembo. The famous poet at the time of his love affair with Lucrezia, painted by Raphael in 1504 – 6.

20.
Right
: Ercole Strozzi. The poet and friend of Lucrezia who not only eulogized her but acted as go-between in her romances, a role which probably cost him his life.

21. Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere). Portrait of the Borgias’ old enemy by Raphael.

22. Pope Leo X (Giovanni de’Medici) with cardinals Luigi de’Rossi and Giulio de’Medici. By Raphael, 1518.

23. Engraved silver plaque showing the thirty-two-year-old Lucrezia presenting her son and heir, Ercole (b. 1508), to San Maurelio, protector of Ferrara. Note that Lucrezia and one of her ladies carry the latest fashion accessory, a sable or ermine pelt. The plaque was executed by Giannantonio da Foligno to commemorate the victory of the French and Ferrarese forces over the papal and Spanish armies at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.

Praise for
Lucrezia Borgia

“Ms. Bradford has done an excellent job of keeping Lucrezia in the forefront of the bloodstained Italian history of the period.”

—
The Dallas Morning News

“An engrossing new biography of the enchantress with flowing blond hair, largely debunking the legend of Lucrezia-the-licentious to paint a new, infinitely rosier portrait of the woman Bradford suspects has been long misunderstood. What makes this biography read like a novel is Bradford’s unflinching attention to the sumptuous details of Lucrezia’s lifestyle. The sheer magnitude of new research that went into this lush new biography renders it an impressive achievement; Bradford logged countless hours perusing private letters, diaries and even long-secret Vatican files in Italy, lending the book a tone far more credible than the sensationalized work of her predecessors.
Lucrezia Borgia
is sure to hold readers in its thrall all the way up to the moment the duchess, finally rendered a heroine, meets her own untimely end.”

—
The Denver Post

“Bradford’s is not the first biography of Lucrezia, but it is one that reveals its subject instead of imposing an interpretation on her. And that subject is a three-dimensional one.”

—
St. Petersburg Times

“Turbulent, colorful, murderous, lyrical—the people who lived in Renaissance Italy were all of these. Is it possible to transport a modern reader back to their time, and see and hear—even smell them? Sarah Bradford [does just that] for the princely courts. If you want a brilliant and erudite study of the continually changing balances of power in the Italian princely and ducal states, and the power of the Vatican, this book could not be bettered. . . . fascinating.”

—
History Today

“Sarah Bradford does a good job of putting this fascinating personality in perspective . . . anyone with more than a passing interest in the era will find it a worthy read.”

—
The Washington Times

“The facts of Lucrezia’s case are sorted out from fiction by Bradford’s humanizing biography, which presents Lucrezia as an intelligent noblewoman, powerless to defy her family’s patriarchal order, yet an enlightened ruler in her own right as Duchess of Ferrara. As a project designed to distinguish the historical Lucrezia Borgia from the legend, Bradford’s readable biography resoundingly succeeds.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Bradford lavishly describes the opulent particulars of Lucrezia’s life—clothing, food, dwellings, parties, bling-bling—but always keeps her focus on this most astonishing woman. A thoroughly researched, gracefully written revision of the most beguiling Borgia.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“Sarah Bradford has fulfilled her aim of letting Lucrezia Borgia speak for herself and allowing the world in which she lived to come alive for the reader.”

—
Telegraph
(London)

“This biography tells a story more complex than the legend, but in many ways no less colorful. Sarah Bradford gives every indication of how exciting it must have been immersing herself in the Borgia papers. Despite a vast cast of characters, Bradford keeps the thread of her narrative untangled and provides a portrait of a woman who, while not exactly likeable, emerges as an impressive figure full of human contradictions.”

—
The Independent
(London)