aid of history, to clear up the Lucretia legend,
and to rehabilitate the honor of the unfortunate woman.

Other writers, not Italians, among them certain French and English
authors, also took part in this effort. M. Armand Baschet, to whom we
are indebted for several valuable publications in the field of
diplomacy, announced in his work, _Aldo Manuzio, Lettres et Documents,
1494-1515_, Venice, 1867, that he had been engaged for years on a
biography of Madonna Lucretia Borgia, and had collected for the purpose
a large mass of original documents.

In the meantime, in 1869, there was published in London the first
exhaustive work on the subject: _Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, a
Biography, illustrated by rare and unpublished documents_, by William
Gilbert. The absence of scientific method, unfortunately, detracts from
the value of this otherwise excellent production, which, as a sequel to
Roscoe's works, attracted no little attention.

The swarm of apologies for the Borgias called forth in France one of the
most wonderful books to which history has ever given birth. Ollivier, a
Dominican, published, in 1870, the first part of a work entitled _Le
Pape Alexandre VI et les Borgia_. This production is the fantastic
antithesis of Victor Hugo's drama. For, while the latter distorted
history for the purpose of producing a moral monster for stage effect,
the former did exactly the same thing, intending to create the very
opposite. Monks, however, now are no longer able to compel the world to
accept their fables as history, and Ollivier's absurd romance was
renounced even by the strongest organs of the Church; first by Matagne,
in the _Revue des questions historiques_, Paris, April, 1871, and
January, 1872, and subsequently by the _Civilta Cattolica_, the organ of
the Jesuits, in an article dated March 15, 1873, whose author made no
effort to defend Alexander's character, simply because, in the light of
absolutely authentic historical documents, it was no longer possible to
save it.

This article was based upon the _Saggio di Albero Genealogico e di
Memorie su la familia Borgia specialmente in relazione a Ferrara_, by L.
N. Cittadella, director of the public library of that city, published in
Turin in 1872. The work, although not free from errors, is a
conscientious effort to clear up the family history of the Borgias.

At the close of 1872 I likewise entered into the discussion by
publishing a note on the history of the