This section is from the book "The Life Of Cesare Borgia", by Rafael Sabatini. Also available from Amazon: The Life of Cesare Borgia.
In its proper place shall be considered what else Macchiavelli had to say of Cesare Borgia and what to report of events that he witnessed connected with Cesare Borgia's career.
Meanwhile, the above summary of Macchiavelli's judgement is put forward as a justification for the writing of this book, which has for scope to present to you the Cesare Borgia who served as the model for The Prince.
Before doing so, however, there is the rise of the House of Borgia to be traced, and in the first two of the four books into which this history will be divided it is Alexander VI, rather than his son, who will hold the centre of the stage.
If the author has a mercy to crave of his critics, | it is that they will not impute it to him that he has set out with the express aim of " whitewashing " as the term goes the family of Borgia. To whitewash is to overlay, to mask the original fabric under a superadded surface. Too much superadding has there been here already. By your leave, all shall be stripped away. The grime shall be removed and the foulness of inference, of surmise, of deliberate and cold blooded malice, with which centuries of scribblers, idle, fantastic, sensational, or venal, have coated the substance of known facts.
But the grime shall be preserved and analysed side by side with the actual substance, that you may judge if out of zeal to remove the former any of the latter shall have been included in the scraping.
The author expresses his indebtedness to the following works which, amongst others, have been studied for the purposes of the present history :
Alvisi, Odoardo, Cesare Borgia, Duca di Romagna. Imola, 1878. Auton, Jean d', Chroniques de Louis XII (Soc. de VHist. de France). Paris, 1889.
Baldi, Bernardino, Delia Vita e Fatti di Quidobaldo. Milano, 1821. Barthelemy, Charles, Erreurs et Mensonges Historiques. Paris, 1873. Bernardi, Andrea, Cronache Forlivese, 1476-1517. Bologna, 1897. Bonnaffe, Edmond, Inventaire de la Duchesse de Valentinois, Paris, 1878.
Bonoli, Paolo, Istorie delta Cittd di Forli. Forli, 1661. Bourdeilles, Pierre, Vie des Hommes Illustres. Leyde, 1666. Brown, Rawdon, Ragguagli Sulla V ita e sulle Of ere di Marino Sanuto.
Venezia, 1837. Buonaccorsi, Biagio, Diario. Firenze, 1568.
Burchard, Joannes, Diarium, sive Rerum Urbanarum Commentarii.
(Edited by L. Thuasne.) Paris, 1885. Burckhardt, Jacob, Der Cultur der Renaissance in Italien. Basel, i860. Castiglione, Baldassare, Il Cortigiano. Firenze, 1885. Chapelles, Grillon des, Esquisses Biographiques. Paris, 1862. Cerri, Domenico, Borgia. Torino, 1857.
Clementini, Cesare, Raccolto Istorico delle Fondatione di Rimino.
Rimini, 1617. Corio, Bernardino, Storia di Milano. Milano, 1885. Corvo, Baron, Chronicles of the House of Borgia. London, 1901. Espinois, Henri de P, Le Pape Alexandre VI (in the Revue des
Questions Historiques, Vol. XXIX). Paris, 1881. Giovio, Paolo, La Vita di Dicenove Uomini Illustri. Venetia, 1561. Giovio, Paolo, Delle Istorie del Suo Tempo. Venetia, 1608. Giustiniani, Antonio, Dispacci, 1502-1505. (Edited by Pasquale
Villari.) Firenze, 1876. Granata, F., Storia Civile di Capua. 1752.
Gregorovius, Ferdinand, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter. Stuttgart, 1889.
Gregorovius, Ferdinand, Lucrezia Borgia (Italian translation). Firenze, l855 .
Guicciardini, Francesco, Istoria d? Italia. Milan, 1803. Guingene, P. L., Histoire Litter aire d'ltalie. Milano, 1820. Infessura, Stefano, Diarum Rerum Romanum. (Edited by O. Tommassini.) Roma, 1887. Leonetti, A., Papa Alessandro VI. Bologna, 1880. Leti, Gregorio (" Tommaso Tommasi"), Vita di Cesare Borgia.
Milano, 1851.
Lucaire, Achille, Alain le Grand, Sire d^Albret. Paris, 1877.
Macchiavelli, Niccolo, 77 Principe. Torino, 1853.
Macchiavelli, Niccolo, Le Istorie Fiorentine. Firenze, 1848.
Macchiavelli, Niccolo, Opere Minori. Firenze, 1852.
Matarazzo, Francesco, Cronaca delta Cittd di Perugia, 1492-1503.
(Edited by F. Bonaini and F. Polidori.) In Archivio Storico Italiano, Firenze, 1851. Panvinio, Onofrio, Le Vite dei Pontefici. Venezia, 1730. Pascale, Aq., Racconto del Sacco di Capova. Napoli, 1632. Righi, B., Annali di Faenza. Faenza, 1841. Sanazzaro, Opere. Padua, 1723.
Sanuto Marino, Diarii, Vols. I to V. (Edited by F. Stefani.) Venice, 1879.
Tartt, W. M., Pandolfo Collenuccio ; Memoirs connected with his life. 1868.
" Tommaso Tommasi " (Gregorio Leti), Vita di Cesare Borgia. 1789. Varchi, Benedetto, Storia Fiorentina. Florence, 1858. Vasari, Gustavo, Vita degli Artefici.
Villari, Pasquale, La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola, etc. Florence, 1861.
Villari, Pasquale, Niccolo Machiavelli e i suoi Tempi. Milano, 1895. Yriarte, Charles, La Vie de Cesar Borgia. Paris, 1889. Yriarte, Charles, Autour des Borgia. Paris, 1891. Zurita, Geronimo, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catolico (in Anales). (paragoca, 1610.
 
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