.

The papacy was at that time changing to a political despotism, and
nepotism was assuming the character which later was to give Caesar Borgia
all his ferocity. Sixtus IV, a mighty being and a character of a much
more powerful cast than even Alexander VI, was at war with Florence,
where he had countenanced the Pazzi conspiracy for the murder of the
Medici. He had made Girolamo Riario a great prince in Romagna, and later
Alexander VI planned a similar career for his son Caesar.

Lucretia was indeed born at a terrible period in the world's history;
the papacy was stripped of all holiness, religion was altogether
material, and immorality was boundless. The bitterest family feuds raged
in the city, in the Ponte, Parione, and Regola quarters, where kinsmen
incited by murder daily met in deadly combat. In this very year, 1480,
there was a new uprising of the old factions of Guelph and Ghibbeline in
Rome; there the Savelli and Colonna were against the Pope, and here the
Orsini for him; while the Valle, Margana, and Santa Croce families,
inflamed by a desire for revenge for blood which had been shed, allied
themselves with one or the other faction.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Gianandrea Boccaccio to the duke, Rome, February 25 and March 11,
1493. State archives of Modena.

[6] Sanuto, Diar. v. i, 258.

CHAPTER III

LUCRETIA'S FIRST HOME

Lucretia passed the first years of her childhood in her mother's house,
which was on the Piazza Pizzo di Merlo, only a few steps from the
cardinal's palace. The Ponte quarter, to which it belonged, was one of
the most populous of Rome, since it led to the Bridge of S. Angelo and
the Vatican. In it were to be found many merchants and the bankers from
Florence, Genoa, and Siena, while numerous papal office-holders, as well
as the most famous courtesans dwelt there. On the other hand, the number
of old, noble families in Ponte was not large, perhaps because the
Orsini faction did not permit them to thrive there. These powerful
barons had resided in this quarter for a long time in their vast palace
on Monte Giordano. Not far distant stood their old castle, the Torre di
Nona, which had originally been part of the city walls on the Tiber. At
this time it was a dungeon for prisoners of state and other
unfortunates.

It is not difficult to imagine what Vannozza's house was, for the Roman
dwelling of the Renaissance did not greatly differ from the ordinary
house of the present day, which gen