The Borgia family have become a byword for evil.
Was the corruption part of the creation, or vice versa? Would one have been possible without the other?.
Within this context the Renaissance itself takes on a very different aspect.
The Borgias must be related to their time, together with the world which enabled them to flourish.
Yet in order to understand the Borgias, much more is needed than evidence for and against.
Previously history has tended to condemn, or attempt in part to exonerate, this remarkable family.
These paradoxes which so characterize the Borgias have seldom been examined in great detail.
For the family which produced corrupt popes, depraved princes and poisoners, would also produce a saint.
Examples of infamy flourished alongside some of the finest art produced in western history.
This is but one of several paradoxes associated with the Borgia family.
And yet, paradoxically, this family lived when the Renaissance was coming into its full flowering in Italy.
Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice and vicious cruelty?all have been associated with their name.
The Borgia family have become a byword for evil
