. Paris, 1891.
Zurita, Geronimo, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catolico (in Anales).
Caragoca, 1610.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE HOUSE OF THE BULL

CHAPTER

I. THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA

II. THE REIGNS OF SIXTUS IV AND INNOCENT VIII

III. ALEXANDER VI

IV. BORGIA ALLIANCES

BOOK II

THE BULL PASCANT

I. THE FRENCH INVASION

II. THE POPE AND THE SUPERNATURAL

III. THE ROMAN BARONS

IV. THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF GANDIA

V. THE RENUNCIATION OF THE PURPLE

BOOK III

THE BULL RAMPANT

I. THE DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS

II. THE KNELL OF THE TYRANTS

III. IMOLA AND FORLI

IV. GONFALONIER OF THE CHURCH

V. THE MURDER OF ALFONSO OF ARAGON

VI. RIMINI AND PESARO

VII. THE SIEGE OF FAENZA

VIII. ASTORRE MANFREDI

IX. CASTEL BOLOGNESE AND PIOMBINO

X. THE END OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON

XI. THE LETTER TO SILVIO SAVELLI

XII. LUCREZIA'S THIRD MARRIAGE

XIII. URBINO AND CAMERINO

XIV. THE REVOLT OF THE CONDOTTIERI

XV. MACCHIAVELLI'S LEGATION

XVI. RAMIRO DE LORQUA

XVII. "THE BEAUTIFUL STRATAGEM"

VIII. THE ZENITH

BOOK IV

THE BULL CADENT

I. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER VI

II. PIUS III

III. JULIUS II

IV. ATROPOS

BOOK I

THE HOUSE OF THE BULL

"Borgia stirps: BOS: atque Ceres transcendit Olympo, Cantabat nomen
saecula cuncta suum."

Michele Ferno

CHAPTER I. THE RISE OF THE HOUSE OF BORGIA

Although the House of Borgia, which gave to the Church of Rome two popes
and at least one saint,(1) is to be traced back to the eleventh century,
claiming as it does to have its source in the Kings of Aragon, we shall
take up its history for our purposes with the birth at the city of
Xativa, in the kingdom of Valencia, on December 30, 1378, of Alonso de
Borja, the son of Don Juan Domingo de Borja and his wife Dona Francisca.

1 St. Francisco Borgia, S.J.--great-grandson of Pope
Alexander VI, born at Gandia, in Spain, in 1510.

To this Don Alonso de Borja is due the rise of his family to its
stupendous eminence. An able, upright, vigorous-minded man, he became a
Professor and Doctor of Jurisprudence at the University of Lerida,
and afterwards served Alfonso I of Aragon, King of Naples and the Two
Sicilies, in the capacity of secretary. This office he filled with the
distinction that was to be expected from on