Bettie's Books

Read from January 27 to February 07, 2014

From the description: Forget everything you think you know about the most infamous family of the Italian Renaissance-here in every colorful detail is the real story of the Borgias and their indelible, tumultuous world, written by the gifted author of the acclaimed A World Undone and The Tudors and timed to coincide with the upcoming new season of the celebrated Showtime series, The Borgias.

Meet Rodrigo Borgia-Pope Alexander VI; Cesare Borgia-the reputed model for Machiavelli's The Prince; Lucrezia; and Juan-the members of one of the most notorious families in European history. Epic in scope and set against the beautifully rendered backdrop of Renaissance Italy, The Borgias is a thrilling new depiction of these celebrated personalities and an era unsurpassed in beauty, terror, and intrigue.

The taunt is on right from the introduction: 'If you feel that I have gone too far then let that lead to a discussion.' So one gleans from this that The Hidden History plans to be revisionist in nature. I hope that I am not going to have to swallow the Borgias as lily-white saints!

On with the show...

Part One Alfonso: From out of nowhere.

Pope Callixtus III wasin office 1455 - 1458. From wiki: He is viewed by historians as being extremely pious, a firm believer in the authority of the Holy See and, like the second Borgia pope, he went to great lengths to advance his immediate family.

@25% 'History is a trickster, though, it mocks the best laid plans'

Okay - that introduction, which reads as if a 'common, if you think you're hard enough' taunt, is followed up through the main body with nothing more than pointing out the lack of concrete evidence of any of the misdemeanors applied to the clan. Meyer posits that the slurs are a case of 'history is written by the winners'.

However, this was also the case for Richard III and Richardians thought they had such a hold on the 'true' nature of the maligned person that they have, over the years, not even shown him on the silver screen with a limp or hump (I'm looking at you, The Cousins' War). How wonderful that his bones were found to vindicate Holinshed's depiction of the physical Richard at least.

Is this a compelling read? Very much so. IMHO, the best yet on the Borgias and he doesn't try to sway you one way or another, just points out the lack of evidence as and when appropriate, so we are not fed a whitewash, just given places to stop and mull, and investigate further on our own.