E-text prepared by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 57132-h.htm or 57132-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57132/57132-h/57132-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57132/57132-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/caesarborgiastud00garnuoft CAESAR BORGIA [Illustration: 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._) PREFACE Although much has been written regarding the Borgias, no monograph devoted to Caesar--the most interesting member of the family as a psychological study--has hitherto appeared in English. With the passing of the “great man theory,” biography and history have become completely separated, and a personality such as Caesar Borgia is interesting now chiefly as a product of the egoism of the age. Vast, unrestrained selfishness was the predominant characteristic of the men of the Italian Renaissance. The Peninsula was in the grasp of a number of petty tyrants who, to advance their own interests and those of their families, hesitated at no crime. Never before was love of power so general and carried to such extremes. Men and women were mere pawns in a stupendous political game. In the governing families the women especially were regarded as assets to be used in establishing alliances to increase the power of the clan. Men of iron played fast and loose with states and principalities; to them the lives of a city’s population were nothing except so far as their own projects and power were concerned. Of this world the Borgias were part, although they were interlopers in the affairs of the Peninsula; they saw other upstarts securing vast wealth and dominion, and why should not they? The thing were easy with Rodrigo Borgia on the throne of St. Peter. Money in unlimited amounts was at their command and the spiritual weapons of the Church had not yet been cast on the rubbish-heap--there were still kings and princes that quaked at the threat of excommunication.