Raphael

1928 · Best.-Nr. FB4502 /24 — Brown cloth binding with gilt title on the spine. Gilt Borgia heraldic emblem on the front board. A quality collector's copy Most people consider Cesare Borgia one of history's villains - there are foul rumours that fly around the man's history despicable tales of despicable acts: there is little he has not been accused of in fact. Rafael Sabatini - famed novelist author of such deservedly renowned classics as Scaramouche and Captain Blood - had a very different idea of who Cesare Borgia was. Sabatini may be right: Borgia may have been one of history's great men consigned to villainy because his enemies wrote the histories. Cesare Borgia; 13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507 was an Italian ex-cardinal and condottiero mercenary leader of Aragonese Spanish origin whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. He was an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and member of the Spanish-Aragonese House of Borgia. After initially entering the Church and becoming a cardinal on his father's election to the Papacy he became after the death of his brother in 1498 the first person to resign a cardinalate. He served as a condottiero for King Louis XII of France around 1500 and occupied Milan and Naples during the Italian Wars. At the same time he carved out a state for himself in Central Italy but after his father's death he was unable to retain power for long. According to Machiavelli this was not due to a lack of foresight but his error in creating a new pope. Stanley Paul & Co. hardcover