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CAESAR BORGIA
CESAR BORGIA
From an early engraving.
Frontispiece.
CAESAR BORGIA
A STUDY OF THE
RENAISSANCE
BY
JOHN LESLIE GARNER
WITH 17 ILLUSTRATIONS
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON: 1 ADELPHI TERRACE
LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20
1912
(All rights reserved.)
5
PREFACE
Although much has been written regarding theBorgias, no monograph devoted to Caesar—themost interesting member of the family as apsychological study—has hitherto appeared inEnglish.
With the passing of the “great man theory,”biography and history have become completelyseparated, and a personality such as Caesar Borgiais interesting now chiefly as a product of the egoismof the age. Vast, unrestrained selfishness was thepredominant characteristic of the men of the ItalianRenaissance. The Peninsula was in the grasp ofa number of petty tyrants who, to advance theirown interests and those of their families, hesitatedat no crime.
Never before was love of power so general andcarried to such extremes. Men and women weremere pawns in a stupendous political game. Inthe governing families the women especially wereregarded as assets to be used in establishingalliances to increase the power of the clan.
Men of iron played fast and loose with states6and principalities; to them the lives of a city’spopulation were nothing except so far as theirown projects and power were concerned.
Of this world the Borgias were part, althoughthey were interlopers in the affairs of the Peninsula;they saw other upstarts securing vast wealthand dominion, and why should not they? The thingwere easy with Rodrigo Borgia on the throne ofSt. Peter. Money in unlimited amounts was attheir command and the spiritual weapons of theChurch had not yet been cast on the rubbish-heap—therewere still kings and princes that quakedat the threat of excommunication.
Other men, other families, have played a muchmore important part than the Borgias in the dramaof history; others have committed as great crimes;others have surpassed them in every field of humanactivity—in fact, no member