ing of this liaison, if we may
believe the Spanish historian Mariana, who says that Vannozza was the
mother of Don Pedro Luis, Rodrigo's eldest son. In a notarial instrument
of 1482 this son of the cardinal is called a youth (_adolescens_), which
signified a person fourteen or fifteen years of age. In what
circumstances Vannozza was living when Cardinal Borgia made her
acquaintance we do not know. It is not likely that she was one of the
innumerable courtesans who, thanks to the liberality of their retainers,
led most brilliant lives in Rome at that period; for had she been, the
novelists and epigrammatists of the day would have made her famous.

The chronicler Infessura, who must have been acquainted with Vannozza,
relates that Alexander VI, wishing to make his natural son Caesar a
cardinal, caused it to appear, by false testimony, that he was the
legitimate son of a certain Domenico of Arignano, and he adds that he
had even married Vannozza to this man. The testimony of a contemporary
and a Roman should have weight; but no other writer, except Mariana--who
evidently bases his statement on Infessura--mentions this Domenico, and
we shall soon see that there could have been no legal, acknowledged
marriage of Vannozza and this unknown man. She was the cardinal's
mistress for a much longer time before he himself, for the purpose of
cloaking his relations with her and for lightening his burden, gave her
a husband. His relations with her continued for a long time after she
had a recognized consort.

The first acknowledged husband of Vannozza was Giorgio di Croce, a
Milanese, for whom Cardinal Rodrigo had obtained from Sixtus IV a
position as apostolic secretary. It is uncertain at just what time she
allied herself with this man, but she was living with him as his wife in
1480 in a house on the Piazzo Pizzo di Merlo, which is now called
Sforza-Cesarini, near which was Cardinal Borgia's palace.

Even as early as this, Vannozza was the mother of several children
acknowledged by the cardinal: Giovanni, Caesar, and Lucretia. There is no
doubt whatever about these, although the descent of the eldest of the
children, Pedro Luis, from the same mother, is only highly probable.
Thus far the date of the birth of this Borgia bastard has not been
established, and authorities differ. In absolutely authentic records I
discovered the dates of birth of Caesar and Lucretia, which clear up
forever many errors regarding the genealogy and even