BORGHESI, BARTOLOMEO. 



BORGIA, LUCREZIA. 



830 



half of the last century, was well known as a, patron of the fine arts, 

 and a great collector of statues and other antiquities, with which he 

 enriched his fine villa on the Pincian Hill He left two eons, the 

 eldest Don Camillo, who early embraced the part of the French, and 

 went to Paris, where he married in 1803 Marie Pauline Bonaparte, 

 Napoleon's sister, and widow of General Leclerc. He was made iu 

 1805 prince of the French empire, afterwards duke of Guastalla. and 

 lastly governor-general of the departments beyond the Alps, which 

 included the former states of Piedmont and Genoa, then annexed to 

 France. In his new capacity, Prince Borghese fixed his residence at 

 Turin, where he held a sort of court, and seems to have behaved so 

 as to conciliate the inhabitants. He sold to Napoleon his fine museum 

 of the vil'a Borghese, at Rome, for thirteen millions of francs, the 

 amount of which he received in demesnial estates situated iu Piedmont. 

 On the fall of Napoleon, Prince Borghese returned to Rome, and after- 

 wards fixed his residence at Florence, where he built a magnificent 

 palac, and lived in great splendour. At the same time he did not 

 neglect his Roman residence, and he replaced in great measure by 

 fresh acquisitions of statues and rilievi for his villa, the former collec- 

 tion which is in the museum of the Louvre. Prince Don Camillo died 

 in 1882; his wife Pauline had died in 1825. The House of Borgheso 

 had immense estates in the papal territory, and others in the kingdom 

 of Naples, and in Tuscany. The vast town palace Borghese at Rome 

 has a rich gallery of paintings. Besides the celebrated villa on the 

 Pincian Mount, the family has the fine villa Aldobrandiai, called also 

 Belvedere, at Frescati, and other mansions on their various estates. 

 The villa Borghese or Pinciana at Rome has been described in several 

 works : Montelatici, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana, con gli 

 ornamenti, figure, <kc., Roma, 1700; Lamberti, Sculture del Palazzo 

 illla Villa Borgheie, and by Visconti, Rome, 1821. There have been 

 several cardinals of the Borghese family. 



BORGHESI, BARTOLOMEO, was born July 11, 1781, atSavignano, 

 near Rimini, in the Papal States. His father, Pietro Borghesi, was a 

 man of learning, who was fond of archaeological inquiries, and had 

 accumulated a considerable collection of coins and medals. Bartolomeo 

 at an early age manifested a partiality for pursuits similar to those of 

 his father, who however died in 1795. The son then removed to 

 Hnlngna, where he pursued his studies till the year 1800, when he 

 returned to Savignano, and soon aft-rwards founded the Acadernia 

 Havignanese, and prosecuted bis antiquarian investigations with great 

 industry. He afterwards reside,! in Rome, Milan, and other cities of 

 Itily, where he occupied much of his time in the examination and 

 copying of ancient Roman inscriptions, besides augmenting the collec- 

 tion of coins and medals left by his father, till it has become one of 

 the richest in Italy. He has contributed largely to tlie periodical 

 publications of his time, but his most important work is the ' Nuovi 

 Frammenti di Fasti Consolari Capitolini,' 2 vols. 4to, 1820, &c. In 

 1821 he retired to the small republic of San Marino, where he has 

 since continued to reside, with occasional visits to Rome and other 

 Italian cities, chiefly occupied in augmenting his collection of docu- 

 ments for the series of consular and triumphal fasti, to winch the 

 greater part of his time has been devoted. He is an associate and 

 corresponding member of most of the learned societies of Europe. 

 (.Vovvelle Biographic Ifnivertelle.) 



BO'RGIA, or BORJA, a family originally from Valencia in Spain. 

 Alfonso Borja was raised to the pontificate in 1445 by the name of 

 Calixtus III. One of his sisters married Geoffroy Lenzoli, who assumed 

 the name and arms of Borja. Geoffroy had two sons, one of whom 

 became Prefect of Rome, and the other, Rodriguez, was afterwards 

 Popo Alexander VI. Before his exaltation to the pontificate Alex- 

 ander had four sons and a daughter by Vanozia, a woman whose parent- 

 age is not exactly known. The eldest son John was made Duke of 

 Oandia in Spain by King Ferdinand of Aragon ; the second son, Cesare 

 Borgia, and a daughter, Lucrezia Borgia, are famous in Italian history. 



CKSAKB BORGIA was a student at Pisa when his father was elected 

 pope in 1492. He immediately went to Rome, where he was soon 

 after made Archbishop of Valenza iu Italy, and afterwards cardinal. 

 Cesare was early noted for his profligacy as well as for his abilities and 

 deep cunning. His younger brother Geoffroy having married in 1494 

 Sancia, natural daughter of Alfonso II., king of Naples, was mada 

 Duke of Squillace. The arrival of the French under Charles VIII. at 

 Home in 1495 obliged Alexander VI. to forsake Alfonso, and apparently 

 to countenance Charles's invasion of the kingdom of Naples. Charles 

 even required Cardinal Cesare Borgia to accompany him to Naples as 

 hostage for his father's fidelity. Cesare however had not gone farther 

 than Velletri, on his flight from the French camp and return to Rome, 

 when both he and his father turned against the French, after whose 

 retreat from Italy they renewed their connection with the Aragonese 

 dynasty at Naples. Cesare joined his father and brother (the Duke of 

 f iandia) in waging a war of extermination against the Orsini, Colouna, 

 Savelli, and other baronial families of the Roman state, whose castles 

 and lands they seized. In June 1497 Jhn Borgia duke of Gandiawas 

 murdered in the night, and his body thrown into the Tiber, by unknown 

 assassins. Hi brother Cosare was strongly suspected of the murder. 

 The charge rests on mere suspicion, but his character was so bad, that 

 he was considered capable of any deed, however atrocious. Soon after- 

 wards Ce*are resigned his cardinalat", an 1 in 1498 wai sent by the 

 pope to France witli the bull of divorce between Louis XII. and his 



wife Jeanne, daughter of Louis XI., after which Louis XII. married 

 Anne of Brittany. On this occasion Louis made Cesare duke of Valeu- 

 tinois in Dauphiny, a title by which he is generally mentioned by 

 Italian historians. In May 1499 Cesare married Charlotte, sister of 

 Jean D^Albret, king of Navarre. With the assistance of the French 

 he carried on war against the putty lords of the towns of Romagna, 

 who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the court of Rome. 

 He began by taking Imola, and afterwards besieged the castle of Forli, 

 which was bravely defended by Caterina Sforza ; but the place wag 

 stormed, the garrison massacred, and Cateriua sent prisoner to Rome, 

 where she was liberated through D'Alegre's intercession. The French 

 being recalled tt> Lombardy, Cesare returned to Rome, which he entered 

 in triumph in February 1500, when the pope created him Duke of 

 Romagna and Gonfalionere of the Holy See. He then turned his arms 

 against Giovanni Sforza, whom he drove out of Pesaro ; he likewise 

 took Rimini from the Malatesti. The people of Faeuza defended 

 themselves bravely for nearly a year on behalf of their young prince 

 Astorre Manfredi, then fifteen years of age ; at last they surrendered 

 on condition that both Astorre and his brother Evangelista should be 

 free. Borgia however sent them both prisoners to Rome, where they 

 were cruelly put to death in 1501. He then attacked Bologna, but 

 was stoutly resisted by Giovanni Bentivoglio, with whom he concluded 

 a truce. In the same year he marched against Florence, but waa 

 obliged to desist by peremptory orders from the pope. He accom- 

 panied the French army in its invasion of Naples, under d'Anbigny, 

 and was present at the taking of Capua, where the greatest atrocities 

 were committed by the invaders. Borgia seized upon a number of 

 women whom he sent to his palace at Rome ; others were publicly 

 sold. In 1502 he took Urbino and Cameriuo, where he put to death 

 Giulio da Varano and his sons. 



The army of Borgia was composed chiefly of mercenaries ; and he 

 had several condottieri under him, such as Vitellozzo Vitelli of Citta 

 di Castello and Baglioni of Perugia, Oliverottoof Fermo, Paolo Orsiuo, 

 and others. These men, either jealous of his power or afraid of his 

 ambition and treachery, deserted his cause while he had gone to Lom- 

 bardy to mest king Louis XII. On his return to Romagna, Borgia 

 affected a reconciliation with the revolted coudottieri, and induced 

 them to repair to Siuigaglia, where he went himself, accompanied by 

 a troop of men. He there seized upon their persons, except Petrucoi 

 of Siena and Bagliouo of Perugia, who were fortunate enough to 

 escape, and put them to death, together with many of their followers. 

 Siniga^lia was plundered on that occasion. Machiavelli, who was with 

 Borgia as envoy of the Florentine republic, gives a graphic account 

 of the whole tragedy in his characteristic cool and conciss style. 

 When Alexander VI. received the news, he arrested Cardinal Orsini 

 and other members of the same family, and ordered them to bo put 

 to death in prison. Borgia at this time was the terror of all Central 

 Italy, from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean ; he aimed at making 

 himself, with the countenance of the pope, independent sovereign of 

 Romagna, the Marches, and Umbria. On the 18th of August 1503 

 Alexander IV. died, after a great supper, at which Cesare was present, 

 who felt himself dangerously ill at the same time, and it has been 

 said, though without sufficient evidence, that they both drank by 

 mistake some poisoned wine which they intended for Cardinal di 

 Corneto. The death of the pope ruined Liorgia's fortunes. His troops 

 were defeated, and he was himself arrested and sent prisoner to Spain, 

 where he was confined by King Ferdinand iu the fortress of Medida 

 del Campo for about two years. Having found means to escape, he 

 went to his brother-in-law, the king of Navarre, and served in tho 

 Navarrese army as a volunteer. Ho was killed in 1507 by a musket- 

 shot at the siege of the small town of Viaua near the Ebro. 



(Tomasi, Vita di Cesare Borgia.) 



LUCREZIA BOBOIA, sister to Cesare, was betrothed while yet a child 

 to a Spanish nobleman, but her father having become pope, married 

 her in 1493 to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, with whom she 

 remained four years, when her father dissolved the marriage, and gave 

 her in 1498 to Alfonso duke of Bisceglia, natural son of Alfonso II., 

 king of Naples. On this occasion she was created Duchess of Spoleto 

 and of Sermoneta. She had by Alfonso a son, Rodrigo, who was 

 brought up at the papal court, but died young. lu June 1500 Alfonso 

 was attacked on the steps of St. Peter's church by a party of assassins, 

 and stabbed in several places; he was carried to the pontifical palace, 

 where he died two months after. Ces:ire Borgia, as usual, was sus- 

 pected of the crime. Lucrezia then retired for some time to Nepi, 

 but was afterwards recalled to Rome by her father, and, according to 

 Burchard, intrusted with the affairs of the government during his 

 absence : but the correctness of this is doubted. (Roscoe, ' Disser- 

 tation on Lucrezia Borgia,' in the first volume of his ' Life of Leo X.,' 

 and also Bosn's 'Notes' to the Italian translation of that work.) 

 Towards the end of 1501 she married Alfonso d'Ksto, sou of Ercole 

 duke of Ferrnra, and made her entrance into Ferrara with great pomp 

 on the 2nd of February 1502. 



At Ferrara Lucrezia appeared as the patroness of literature. Bembo, 

 who was then at that court, conceived an attachment for her which 

 appears to have been of a platouio nature. (Mazzuchelli, art. Bembo 

 and Lucrezia Borgia.) Ten autograph letters of Lucressia to Bembo are 

 preserved in the Ambrosian Library, together with a lock of her hair 

 which she sent him in one of them, and some Spanish verses addressed 



