The Brief of the Lord Xystus P.P. IV[85] dated the first of October 1480, which dispenses Messer Cesare from the necessity of proving his legitimacy, calls him “son of a cardinal bishop and a married woman,” _de episcopo cardinali genitus et coniugata_. The Brief of the Same, dated the sixteenth of August 1482, which makes Cardinal Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja administrator of Messer Cesare’s estate, calls the boy “son of a cardinal bishop and a married woman,” _de episcopo cardinali genitus et coniugata_. The name of this “cardinal bishop” is not given in either Brief. Most of the scribblers, diarists, chroniclers, orators, speak of Don Cesare, Cardinal Cesare, and Duke Cesare, as the son of Cardinal Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja (the Lord Alexander P.P. VI). Some, like Peter Martyr and Fioramondo Brugnolo call him “nephew of a brother of our Lord the Pope.” In his autograph letter to the Pope, dated the sixteenth of January 1500, he himself speaks of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia (detto Giuniore), (who was the son of Don Pedro Luis de Lançol y Borja, own brother of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI) as “my brother.” In no official document is he named as the son of Cardinal Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja (the Lord Alexander P.P. VI): but the Venetian Senate, in conferring on him the patriciate of that Republic in 1500, styled him “nephew of Pope Alexander.” The Lord Alexander P.P. VI never called him “son”: but, in an autograph Brief of recommendation addressed to the Christian King Louis XII, He introduced Duke Cesare as His “heart.” Duke Cesare’s subscription of a letter, which he wrote to the Pope on the twenty-eighth of January 1503, at the time of the Orsini revolt, is very curious. He signed himself “The most humble servant and most faithful handiwork of Your Holiness.” _Vestrae Sanctitatis humillimus servus et devotissima factura._ As cardinal he might, and did, call himself the Pope’s “creature,” _creatura_: that is the form. A son, however, is not “handiwork” in any sense of the word: but a duke, who is made by his sovereign’s signature of his patent, precisely is. The authorities, who call Duke Cesare “nephew,” may be dismissed. Popes, like other human beings, generally have nephews _stricte dicte vel late_. His own appellation of Cardinal Giovanni Giuniore is susceptible of the meaning “comrade.” And “factura” will bear reference to his duchy, gonfalonierate, castellanship, etc. Who then was the father of Duke Cesare?