While Maddalena Moretti is a fictional character (as are most of her fellow servants, with the notable exceptions of Perotto Calderon and Pantasilea), the Borgia family, and most of the figures mentioned in connection with them—from those within the Vatican to political players in the other Italian city-states—are very real. In addition, the historical events described in this novel all really happened: Cesare Borgia’s rise through Church ranks and eventual departure from the Church altogether, the French invasion and Pope Alexander VI’s handling of it, Lucrezia Borgia’s marriages and divorce, the arrival of Sancia of Aragon and her relationships with both Cesare and Juan Borgia, the military campaigns against the Orsini and the French, Juan Borgia’s murder, and Pope Alexander’s involvement in removing Girolamo Savonarola from power in Florence being the main ones. I have tried to depict the varied politics and personalities of this era as accurately as possible based on my research. Some of Pope Alexander’s speeches in conclave, as well as the sermon Savonarola preaches in the Duomo when Maddalena attends, are all factual. This being a novel, however, I have of course taken some artistic liberties in my portrayal of the people and events involved.
The Holy League created in 1495 to drive the French from Italy is also known as the League of Venice, as it was in fact signed and sealed in Venice. As Cesare Borgia did take part in those negotiations, I simply moved the whole process to Rome, for both my own convenience and that of the reader in having all the main players stay in the same place.
The murder of Juan Borgia remains unsolved to this day, though suspects abound. Intriguingly enough, Pope Alexander did abruptly call off the search for the assassins with no explanation, leading many to assume that Cesare was in fact the culprit—a popular theory at the time, and one of which a figure no less than Queen Isabella of Spain was apparently convinced. The most likely culprit, or so many historians seem to feel, was the Orsini family, out for revenge after Pope Alexander’s military campaigns against them and the death of Virginio Orsini in a Neapolitan prison, held on the pope’s orders. How better to exact their revenge than by murdering the pope’s favorite son and leader of the ill-fated expedition against them? For dramatic purposes, however, I have made Jofre Borgia the mastermind of the assassination, and indeed he was considered as a possible suspect at the time, due to Juan’s relationship with Sancia.
While Girolamo Savonarola’s rise and fall happened much as described here, I did take some liberties with both the events and timeline leading to his arrest. As Maddalena is herself fictional, so is her involvement in the entire affair, though certainly Pope Alexander had informants in Florence keeping him abreast of events as they unfolded. The siege of San Marco really happened, although for purposes of length I have left out the event that sparked it: a proposed trial by fire in which both Savonarola and a friar from the Franciscan order, who challenged the Dominican’s teachings, were to physically walk through a bed of flames, the idea being that God would protect whoever held the most righteous beliefs. Both parties—and most of Florence—turned out for the event, but after much dispute as to the terms of how the ordeal could proceed it never, in fact, happened, leaving Florentines on both sides of the argument frustrated, disgruntled, and primed for a fight. I have also shifted forward the dates of Savonarola’s arrest and execution: in reality, he was arrested at the siege of San Marco in April of 1498 and executed, after torture and trial, in May of that year. I moved these events to the summer of 1497 in order to be able to focus on the other events that took place in spring of 1498 in the Borgia world: the murders of Perotto and Pantasilea, and the negotiations for Lucrezia’s second marriage. In addition, Cesare actually went to Naples as papal legate in August of 1497 (where he reportedly contracted the syphilis that would plague him the rest of his life), but I have moved that event back to the fall of that same year.
One of the most infamous charges laid against the Borgia family is that of incest—that Lucrezia Borgia had a sexual relationship with her father and brother Cesare (and, as some versions of the story have it, with Juan as well). However, the general consensus among historians is that there is no truth to this. The incest rumor was started by a comment attributed to Giovanni Sforza to the effect that the pope and Cesare wanted Lucrezia all to themselves, as I’ve described in the novel. The rumor was fueled by the fact that the Borgias—especially Cesare and Lucrezia—were extremely close. However, there is no evidence whatsoever of an actual incestuous relationship between Lucrezia and her father or brother, and given that Giovanni Sforza absolutely had an ax to grind with the Borgia family—for forcing him into a divorce in the first place, and then essentially declaring him impotent before all of Europe on top of it—his words should very much be taken with a rather large grain of salt.
However, the Roman public—and later much of Europe—took the rumor and ran with it, which is why it has been passed down to us to this day. It is worth noting that the evil reputation of the Borgia family has been rather overblown—especially in the case of Lucrezia, who simply was not the villainess she is often portrayed as being in different media. While Pope Alexander VI and Cesare were both certainly guilty of a multitude of sins—from corruption to murder and a great deal in between—none of their actions were truly out of character for powerful families of the Italian Renaissance. This does not excuse their deeds, of course, but it does raise the question of why the Borgia family has long stuck out as being the most notorious. My personal opinion is that much of it has to do with the fact that they were Spanish in a city which was accustomed to seeing power primarily in the hands of Italians. To this day, of the 266 men who have been elected to the papacy in total, 196 have been Italian. Rodrigo Borgia was in fact a brilliant politician and administrator, yet many opposed his rise to power simply on the basis of his nationality. In our own era, where xenophobic rhetoric sadly continues to appear in our political discourse, it does not take too much of a leap to imagine that a foreign family who rose to power on the Italian peninsula in a very turbulent political time would be especially denigrated.
A brief note on names: I have generally tried to stick to the Italian spellings of names in this book. There are a few exceptions to this, this most notable being Juan Borgia. He is most often referred to in sources I consulted as “Juan” as opposed to “Giovanni,” which is the Italian version of the name, so I chose the Spanish spelling. I also wanted to avoid any confusion between him and Giovanni Sforza. Jofre, too, is a commonly used spelling of the name of the youngest Borgia, as opposed to Goffredo, which would be the Italian spelling. In addition, King Federigo of Naples is sometimes referred to as King Federico (Italian) or King Frederick (English), but I chose to use Federigo as the novel already had a Federico, and an English spelling would have seemed out of place.
When researching the lives of domestic servants in Renaissance Italy I found—perhaps not surprisingly, given power structures and who was able to leave written records—that little information is available about the lives of the people who formed one of the largest industries in Rome at the time. Specifically, one thing I was never able to confirm for certain is whether or not women were employed as servants in the Vatican Palace, as Maddalena is in the early chapters. I am inclined to think so—one source I consulted outlined a task in the papal household that was performed specifically by a male servant, which would suggest that there were also female servants, hence the need for differentiation. However, in the absence of solid proof (that I could find in English, anyway) I thought it not out of the question that Maddalena’s initial place of employment could have been the Vatican.
Cesare Borgia has always been the member of the Borgia family who most fascinated me, the undisputed bad guy in a notorious family. I’ve long wanted to write his villain origin story, so to speak, and am thrilled that you now hold that very book in your hands. The addition of Maddalena’s point of view seemed like a no-brainer as well. What better way to explore questions of power and politics than through the eyes of both one of the powerful and one of the powerless? These questions of power, corruption, and complicity with which the novel grapples made it a challenge to write, but a worthy challenge. My favorite kinds of novels are those that entertain, teach, and provoke thought. I hope I have done all of those things in this book.
As to what happened to Cesare after he left the Church, well, that information is out there, if you’re interested in seeking it out. Maybe someday I will get the chance to write that story as well.
For further reading on the Borgias and Renaissance Italy, below is a selection of sources I consulted while writing this novel.
Bradford, Sarah. Cesare Borgia: His Life and Times. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1976.
——Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
Brown, Meg Lota, and McBride, Kari Boyd. Women’s Roles in the Renaissance. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Cloulas, Ivan. The Borgias. Trans. Gilda Roberts. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1989.
Cohen, Elizabeth, and Cohen, Thomas. Daily Life in Renaissance Italy. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Frieda, Leonie. The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.
Hibbert, Christopher. The Borgias and Their Enemies, 1431–1519. Boston: Mariner Books, 2008.
Meyer, G. J. The Borgias: The Hidden History. New York: Bantam Books, 2013.
Partner, Peter. Renaissance Rome 1500–1559: A Portrait of a Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Sabatini, Rafael. The Life of Cesare Borgia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1924.
Strathern, Paul. Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City. New York: Pegasus Books, 2015.