veling about in the
territory of the Church and in her interest." The ambassador, however,
never mentions the name of this man, which, however, Infessura says was
Domenico d'Arignano.

Ippolito d'Este and Alessandro Farnese were made cardinals the same day.
To his sister's adultery this young libertine owed his advancement in
the Church, a fact so notorious that the wits of the Roman populace
called him the "petticoat cardinal." The jubilant kinsmen of Giulia
Farnese saw in her only the instrument of their advancement. Girolama
Farnese, Giulia 's sister, wrote to her husband, Puccio, from Casignano,
October 21, 1493, "You will have received letters from Florence before
mine reaches you and have learned what benefices have fallen to Lorenzo,
and all that Giulia has secured for him, and you will be greatly
pleased."[28]

Even the Republic of Florence sought to profit by Alexander's relations
with Giulia; for Puccio, her brother-in-law, was sent to Rome as
plenipotentiary. The Florentines had despatched this famous jurist to
the papal city immediately after Alexander's accession to the throne, to
swear allegiance, and later he was her agent for a year in Faenza, where
he conducted the government for Astorre Manfredi, who was a minor. At
the beginning of the year 1494 he went as ambassador to Rome, where he
died in August.[29]

His brother, Lorenzo Pucci, subsequently attained to eminence in the
Church under Leo X, becoming a powerful cardinal.

The Farnese and their numerous kin were now in high favor with the Pope
and all the Borgias. In October, 1493, they invited Alexander and Caesar
to a family reunion at the castle of Capodimonte, where Madonna
Giovanella, Giulia's mother, was to prepare a banquet. Whether or not
this really took place we are ignorant, although we do know that
Alexander was in Viterbo the last of October.

In 1492 Giulia gave birth to a daughter, who was named Laura. The child
officially passed as that of her husband, Orsini, although in reality
the Pope was its father. The Farnese and the Pucci knew the secret and
shamelessly endeavored to profit by it. Giulia cared so little for the
world's opinion that she occupied the palace of S. Maria in Portico, as
if she were a blood relation of Lucretia. Alexander himself had put her
there as a lady of honor to his daughter. Her husband, Orsini,
preferred, or was compelled, to live in his castle of Bassanello, or to
stay on one of the estates which the