13 h 45 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What separates a ruthless prince from a monster made by gossip?
In The Life of Cesare Borgia, Rafael Sabatini follows a pope’s son from church office into the struggle for power in Renaissance Italy. Cesare becomes a cardinal while still in his teens. His father, Pope Alexander the Sixth, places family ambition at the heart of papal politics.
France gives Cesare a title and an army; the cities of the Romagna become his targets. Sabatini draws on Italian chronicles, Roman diaries, and ambassadors’ dispatches to examine his career. Alongside the campaigns runs a second struggle: the effort to separate evidence from whispers, and the man from his fearsome reputation.
What you’ll discover
- A family pursuing power Explore how Cesare’s place in the Borgia family shapes his path through church and politics.
- Italy city by city Follow the struggle for the Romagna, where ambition meets rulers unwilling to yield.
- Resistance at Forlì Meet Caterina Sforza, who holds out in her fortress against Cesare’s campaign.
- Evidence against rumor Weigh Sabatini’s case against a monstrous reputation he believes rests on gossip.
- History with narrative drive Read a biography that brings an adventure storyteller’s pace to chronicles and political dispatches.
Who will love it
For readers who love Renaissance Italy, papal politics, and biography written with a storyteller's pace, and anyone curious about Machiavelli's model prince.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A pope's son in a world of cities
- A reluctant cardinal and a dead brother
- France gives him a title and an army
- The conquest of the Romagna
- Treachery at Sinigaglia
- Sabatini's verdict and the sudden fall
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La vita di Cesare Borgia
by Rafael Sabatini · 1912
Cesare Borgia gives up the church for conquest, building power that rests on his father's life.
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In short
Cesare Borgia becomes a cardinal at eighteen and a duke at twenty-four. Rafael Sabatini, the English novelist best known for adventure stories, wrote his life in 1912.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A pope's son in a world of cities
Cesare is born in the middle of the 1470s, the son of Rodrigo Borgia, a Spanish cardinal who rises through the church by talent and by his uncle's favor. Italy at that time was a patchwork. Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples and the Papal States all pursued their own interests, and small lords ruled many towns in the Pope's own territory without paying him much respect. Foreign kings, especially in France and Spain, watched the peninsula with hungry eyes.
Sabatini begins with this setting because Cesare cannot be understood without it. Power then belonged to those who could pay soldiers, make alliances, and move faster than their rivals. Sabatini does not excuse the corruption of the age, but he insists it was general, not a Borgia invention.
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What is The Life of Cesare Borgia about?
It is a biography of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander the Sixth. It follows his years as a cardinal, his conquest of the Romagna, his use of cunning and force, and his decline after his father's death.
Is Sabatini's Cesare Borgia a true story and when was it written?
Yes, it is a work of history, first published in 1912. Sabatini used chronicles, diaries and ambassadors' letters. Later historians have revised some of his judgments, but the main events are real.
Did Cesare Borgia really murder his brother?
The charge was made against him months after Giovanni, Duke of Gandia, was found in the Tiber in 1497. Sabatini argues the charge is unproven and points to other suspects. Historians still debate it today.
The author
Rafael Sabatini
1875–1950 · Italian-English historical novelist
Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) was an Italian-born writer who wrote in English. He was born in Jesi, Italy, and settled in England in 1892. His novels include The Sea-Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), and Captain Blood (1922). He also wrote biographies and short stories. He died in Adelboden, Switzerland.
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