f Oliva.

The nuptial contract was drawn up in the Valencian dialect in Rome,
February 26 and June 16, 1491. The youthful groom was in Valencia, the
young bride in Rome, and her father had appointed the Roman nobleman
Antonio Porcaro her proxy. In the marriage contract it was specified
that Lucretia's portion should be three hundred thousand timbres or sous
in Valencian money, which she was to bring Don Cherubino as dowry, part
in coin and part in jewels and other valuables. It was specially stated
that of this sum eleven thousand timbres should consist of the amount
bequeathed by the will of the deceased Don Pedro Luis de Borgia, Duke of
Gandia, to his sister for her marriage portion, while eight thousand
were given her by her other brothers, Caesar and Giuffre, for the same
purpose, presumably also from the estate left by the brother. It was
provided that Donna Lucretia should be taken to Valencia at the
cardinal's expense within one year from the signing of the contract, and
that the church ceremony should be performed within six months after
her arrival in Spain.[16]

Thus Lucretia, when only a child eleven years of age, found her hand and
life happiness subjected to the will of another, and from that time she
was no longer the shaper of her own destiny. This was the usual fate of
the daughters of the great houses, and even of the lesser ones. Shortly
before her father became pope it seemed as if her life was to be spent
in Spain, and she would have found no place in the history of the papacy
and of Italy if she and Don Cherubino had been married. However, the
marriage was never performed. Obstacles of which we are ignorant, or
changes in the plans of her father, caused the betrothal of Lucretia to
Don Cherubino to be annulled. At the very moment this was being done for
her by proxy, her father was planning another alliance for his daughter.

The husband he had selected, Don Gasparo, was also a young Spaniard, son
of Don Juan Francesco of Procida, Count of Aversa. This family had
probably removed to Naples with the house of Aragon. Don Juan
Francesco's mother was Donna Leonora de Procida y Castelleta, Countess
of Aversa. Gasparo's father lived in Aversa, but in 1491 the son was in
Valencia, where, probably, he was being educated under the care of some
of his kinsmen, for he was still a boy of less than fifteen years. In an
instrument drawn by the notary Beneimbene, dated November 9, 1492, it is
explicitly stated t