The Borgia Family - Dissertation

Research Review

This project stems from firstly researching the family from 1455-1503 (focussing on mainly the latter portion of this period where Alexander VI, the second Borgia Pope, was in power) and then focussing upon the subject of 'morality' with regards to key events or themes. The analysis comes from a mixture of secondary and primary sources, to increase its reliability and ensure a reduction of inaccuracy. Here it is focused more intimately upon the characters involved and their own morality, rather than analysis of the whole reign, only certain arguments are focused upon; those which were deemed most relevant and fruitful to help answer the question.

My dissertation mainly focuses on the family between 1455-1503, especially Alexander vi's reign, between August 1492 - August 1503, however in some areas it was important to look at the Borgia Pope prior to Rodrigo, Callixtus iii (1455-1458) whom gave Rodrigo his position as cardinal - this was important as it presented the argument that The Borgia family practiced nepotism and it allowed for a strong comparative argument between the two Popes. It was important to base the weight of the argument of the Second Borgia Pope as his papacy is where many of the myths I wish to examine stem from.

Due to the nature of the question it was important to analyse the whole time of Alexander's reign, and then focus on events necessary for answering the question, this thus means that there are no specific dates which my essay focuses on; it rather highlights specific occurrences that relevantly provide support for the arguments here presented.

One key event is the execution of the Dominican Friar Savonarola which was of paramount importance to review due to the possibility that Savonarola was tortured till he confessed to his crimes of heresy. He preached against the immorality and corruption in the Holy Church and was quickly excommunicated by Alexander for preaching of visions from God which was heresy if these did not favour the view of the papacy. What he was accused of is also extremely important to review due to how this affects the end judgment.

Another event vital to the essay is the murder of Juan Borgia, whom was 'was brutally hacked about as many as eight times' (Lewis, n.d.) and so represents an immorality in Italy. When research this event it was extremely clear that Juan himself was also a very immoral character and this was the reason for his demise, as was the equal immorality of those in power of Italy.

The essay also focuses on certain figures important during Alexander VI's reign - mainly his family, see appendix 1. The key family members whose actions will be analysed are Juan, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, their mother Vannozza Dei Cattanei and their father's mistress Giulia Farnese. Included also in the essay are those who, through their action or the actions of the Borgia family create an argument of significance to the question, these figures are: Dominican Friar Savonarola, Ascanio Sforza and Giovanni Sforza.

During my research for the project which began over the summer and continued till the dissertations completion, explored many types of sources – both secondary and primary, and from all manner of available resources such as books, websites, articles, blogs, journal articles and TV shows. Two books in particular are used extensively throughout the dissertation: 'The Borgias' by Christopher Hibbert and a book of the same name, by Mary Hollingsworth. Both books give a very in-depth narrative, following The Borgia family from Callixtus to Lucrezia as Duchess of Ferrara.

Hollingsworth, narrates through the Borgia timeline with very little input, she recounts the events – selecting appropriate primary sources to add depth and context to the story she outlines. Her writing is in no way subjective, not once does she theorise; her writing is very much, that of others drawn together to create a long, accurate and extremely useful, as the source – though secondary, through its selection of primary sources within allowed me to gather opinions from original first-hand sources that I wouldn't have been able to acquire access to. As for Hollingsworth herself, she is a reliable author, having written many books on the renaissance era, and her in-depth knowledge of the period is very evident in the book. Her very thorough approach to her writing is extremely helpful when writing a dissertation which needs depth and accuracy, her writing enabled me to increase the strength of certain arguments as due to her depth she could provide evidence that could support some of the more isolated sources that I chose to use, based upon only a specific argument in the whole essay, whereas Hibbert and Hollingsworth look over the whole period.

Hibbert is somewhat more subjective, giving his own opinions on events and speculating somewhat on what may have occurred, however this does not detract from the usefulness of this source. Like Hollingsworth it's a secondary source that presents primary sources within it – Johann Burchard, Alexander VI's master of ceremonies is a numerously quoted source in both books and thus with both books, one receives a very clear and thorough impression of the time period and the personal, political and papal struggles and triumphs during the era – not to mention the corruption.

As with Hollingsworth, Hibbert is a seasoned historical author and very well acclaimed, in fact so renowned that in The Guardian it is written that he 'was the best loved and most widely read popular historian of the latter part of the last century' (Sheppard, 2009). This extremely positive reaction to Hibbert lead to a certain faith in his book and this is why when exploring arguments one often compares the information given to what's written by Hibbert. As with Hollingsworth, Hibbert covers the whole of the Borgia influence in Rome, again ending with Lucrezia as the Duchess – this makes a lot of the content of the books slightly redundant due to the specificity of the question and the arguments which arise with it, however the context one achieves from reading both allows for a greater understanding of the era and thus the question.

Despite having faith in these two sources, others had to be read and used with caution. One such source, from a website called 'Tripod' gave a very detailed biography of the life of Lucrezia Borgia, yet being unable to find an author or date for the information; one had to take care when using its evidence to support arguments. In order to use the evidence presented I thought it important to ensure that some evidence from other sources provided support for the information. During writing the dissertation one would use excerpts from several sources when drawing conclusions to ensure that the overall strength of the argument was not decrease by the lack of reliable sources used. After using this technique I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of certain sources which at first I felt lacked reliability.

It was very important throughout the research to always relate what I was reading to the time period this was significantly important as the world today is far removed from renaissance Italy; our values are very different and so much more culturally diverse to assess the question with regards to society today wouldn't give an accurate viewpoint on the family.