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The Borgias

Power and Depravity in Renaissance Italy

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The Borgias

By: Paul Strathern
Narrated by: Julian Elfer
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About this listen

The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice, and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. And yet, paradoxically, this family lived when the Renaissance was coming into its full flowering in Italy. 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. For the family which produced corrupt popes, depraved princes, and poisoners, would also produce a saint. These paradoxes which so characterize the Borgias have seldom been examined in great detail. Previously history has tended to condemn, or attempt in part to exonerate, this remarkable family. Yet in order to understand the Borgias, much more is needed than evidence for and against. The Borgias must be related to their time, together with the world which enabled them to flourish. Within this context the Renaissance itself takes on a very different aspect. Was the corruption part of the creation, or vice versa?

The primitive psychological forces which first played out in the amphitheaters of ancient Greece are all here. Along with the final, tragic downfall.

©2019 Paul Strathern (P)2019 Tantor Europe Historical Italy Renaissance Royalty Middle Ages
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A fascinating look into the lives of the very models of avarice and treachery who inspired Machiavelli to codify the unconscionable ethos that gave rise to the byword derived of his name.
Thoroughly entertaining even if this is not your usual go to.
Excellently told and read.

The Trumps of the renaissance period

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I was hoping for a more in-depth look into Rodrigo. a very thorough look at a couple of barbarous incidents however which gave a great insight into how the life of a pleb was worth nothing. I would like a second volume please...

excellent, however!

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The antics of this lot of Borgias would have set the benchmark for various criminal disciplines.

What Lovely People

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this book was informative and was a good introduction to the systemic corruption of the church during the renaissance

really good high level introduction to the corruption of the church

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