t of day.

In 1482 he did not occupy his house in the Ponte quarter, perhaps
because he was having it enlarged. He spent more of his time in the
palace which Stefano Nardini had finished in 1475 in the Parione
quarter, which is now known as the Palazzo del Governo Vecchio. Rodrigo
was living here in January, 1482, as we learn from an instrument of the
notary Beneimbene,--the marriage contract of Gianandrea Cesarini and
Girolama Borgia, a natural daughter of the same Cardinal Rodrigo. This
marriage was performed in the presence of the bride's father, Cardinals
Stefano Nardini and Gianbattista Savelli, and the Roman nobles Virginius
Orsini, Giuliano Cesarini, and Antonio Porcaro.

The instrument of January, 1482, is the earliest authentic document we
possess regarding the family life of Cardinal Borgia. In it he
acknowledges himself to be the father of the "noble demoiselle
Hieronyma," and she is described as the sister of the "noble youth
Petrus Lodovicus de Borgia, and of the infant Johannes de Borgia." As
these two, plainly mentioned as the eldest sons, were natural children,
it would have been improper to name their mother. Caesar also was passed
by, as he was a child of only six years.

Girolama was still a minor, being only thirteen years of age, and her
betrothed, Giovanni Andrea, had scarcely reached manhood. He was a son
of Gabriello Cesarini and Godina Colonna. By this marriage the noble
house of Cesarini was brought into close relations with the Borgia, and
later it derived great profit from the alliance. Their mutual friendship
dated from the time of Calixtus, for it was the prothonotary Giorgio
Cesarini who, on the death of that pope, had helped Rodrigo's brother
Don Pedro Luis when he was forced to flee from Rome. Both Girolama and
her youthful spouse died in 1483. Was she also a child of the mother of
Lucretia and Caesar? We know not, but it is regarded as unlikely. Let us
anticipate by saying that there is only a single authentic record which
mentions Rodrigo's children and their mother together. This is the
inscription on Vannozza's tomb in S. Maria del Popolo in Rome, in which
she is named as the mother of Caesar, Giovanni, Giuffre, and Lucretia,
while no mention is made of their older brother, Don Pedro Luis, nor of
their sister Girolama.

Rodrigo, moreover, had a third daughter, named Isabella, who could not
have been a child of Vannozza. April 1, 1483, he married her to a Roman
nobleman, Piergiova