X, became
famous as an academician. Even in Alexander's time the cultivated world
of Rome was in the habit of meeting at Goritz's house in Trajan's Forum
for the purpose of engaging in academic discussions. All the Germans who
came to Rome sought him out, and he must have received Reuchlin, who
visited that city in 1498, and subsequently Copernicus, Erasmus, and
Ulrich von Hutten, who remembered him with gratitude; it is also
probable that Luther visited his hospitable home. Goritz was _supplicant
referent_, and as such he must have known Lucretia personally, because
the influential daughter of the Pope was the constant recipient of
petitions of various sorts. He had ample opportunity to observe events
in the Vatican, but of his experiences he recorded nothing; or, if he
did, his diary was destroyed in the sack of Rome in 1527, when he lost
all his belongings.

Among Lucretia's personal acquaintances was still another man, one who
was in a better position than any one else to write the history of the
Borgias. This was the Nestor of Roman notaries, old Camillo Beneimbene,
the trusted legal adviser of Alexander and of most of the cardinals and
grandees of Rome. He knew the Borgias in their private as well as in
their public character; he had been acquainted with Lucretia from her
childhood; he drew up all her marriage contracts. His office was on the
Lombard Piazza, now known as S. Luigi dei Francesi. Here he worked,
drawing up legal documents until the year 1505, as is shown by
instruments in his handwriting.[71] A man who had been the official
witness and legal adviser in the most important family affairs of the
Borgias for so long a time, and who, therefore, was familiar with all
their secrets, must have occupied, so far as their house, and especially
Lucretia, were concerned, the position of a close friend. Beneimbene
records none of his personal experiences, but his protocol-book is still
preserved in the archives of the notary of the Capitol.

Adriano Castelli of Corneto, a highly cultivated humanist, and
privy-secretary to Alexander, who subsequently made him a cardinal, was
very close to the Borgias. As the Pope's secretary he must have
frequently come in contact with Lucretia. Among her intimate
acquaintances were also the famous Latinist, Cortesi; the youthful
Sardoleto, the familiar of Cardinal Cibo; young Aldo Manuzio; the
intellectual brothers Rafael and Mario Maffei of Volterra; and Egidio of
Viterbo, who