Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of House of Borgia: A Captivating Guide to the Borgias and Their Feuds with the Medici Family, Sforza Dynasty, and Girolamo Savonarola

jjares avatar reviewed on + 3405 more book reviews


As soon as this was available from Captivating History, I downloaded it and started reading. Generations of rumors, whoppers, and some facts surround the Borgias. It is difficult to know what is true because their enemies were intent on ruining their names. Besides that, their enemies were in great positions to severely damage them. Nevertheless, Medieval historians did not spend time clearing up the terrible tales, so we are left with innuendo and maybes.

It is unreasonable to explain the Borgias in ninety pages. The author soft-pedaled the over-the-top crimes and questioned many of the stranger events. We may never know the real story of the Borgias. I've been reading an author trying to clarify the era of the Borgias, and he assumes that Lucretia was a woman of her times, no more and no less.

The author packed much history in fewer than one hundred pages. I was relieved when the author stopped and looked around at Europe. There was almost too much information, and occasionally stopping gave the reader time to assimilate the facts. Overall score = 4.5 stars.