House of Borgia

The Borgias or Borjas were an Italian noble family of Spanish origin remembered today for their corrupt rule of the Papacy during the Renaissance. They are in fact thought to be "history's first criminal family", and a forerunner to the Italian Mafia. [http://royalwomen.tripod.com/id30.html Lucrezia Borgia] ] The patriarch of the family, Rodrigo Borgia (1431-1503), "became a bishop, cardinal and vice-chancellor of the church." [ [http://www.reformation.org/borgia-preface.html In the Pillory Preface] ] He was later elected Pope, taking the name Alexander VI and kept that position for at least eleven years. Other members of the Borgia family were Lucrezia Borgia and Cesare Borgia, daughter and son of Rodrigo Borgia, respectively. Among the many accusations against the Borgia family, some are of incest, adultery, murder, and scandal.

Members of the family

*Alfonso de Borja (Pope Calixtus III)
*Cesare Borgia
*St. Francis Borgia
*Gioffre Borgia
*Giovanni Borgia (1474)
*Giovanni Borgia (1498)
*Lucrezia Borgia
*Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI)

In popular culture

Film, TV and Comics

*In the classic 1926 film "Don Juan", John Barrymore, as Don Juan, fights the Borgias.
*Neil Jordan's proposed film "Borgia" and the Spanish-Italian 2006 film _es. "Los Borgia" depict the life of the family. The family were also the subject of the critically-derided BBC series "The Borgias".
*Alan Moore's comic book "Promethea" makes mention of a restaurant named Borgia's, in which five courses are served, followed by an antidote.
*The character of Pope Julius II in the film "The Agony and the Ecstasy" states that he is not a Borgia when presenting his plans to rebuild Saint Peter's Basilica.
*"The Godfather Part III" refers to the Borgias when Michael Corleone is in the Vatican attempting to receive a ratification from the Pope on a business deal owned by the Catholic church.
*"The Third Man" (1949) offers a famous quote, penned by Orson Welles for his character Harry Lime, in which he says: "Remember what the fella said: in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
*The 1949 "Prince of Foxes" is Welles' vehicle more directly related to the Borgias; it is an adaptation of 1947 novel "Prince of Foxes" by Samuel Shellabarger. Orson Welles plays Cesare Borgia as the villain to Tyrone Power's hero, an artist-politico called Andrea Orsini. While Orsini's character is fictional and the film adheres to a romantic swashbuckling formula, the action's setting in the Borgia conquest of the Romagna region and the political machinations behind Lucrezia Borgia's marriage into the powerful d'Este family give the film a modicum of historical legitimacy.
*"The Borgia", a graphic novel by Milo Manara and Jodorowsky, depicts the story of Borgia and his family. The book was intended to be published in three volumes but only two were published and the story remained inconclusive.
*"Canterella", a graphic novel by You Higuri, depicts through historical fiction the drama within the family. The series is currently ongoing.
*The long-running NBC drama series "Law & Order" included a character named Alexandra Borgia.
*An episode of Star Trek, "The Man Trap," took place on a planet whose native flora included the highly toxic "Borgia plant."
*In the John Ford movie "The Quiet Man", Michaleen Flynn (played by Barry Fitzgerald) said to Red Will Danaher's offer of buttermilk, "The Borgias would do better".
*In the film "Serpico" Frank Serpico jokes that the history of sheep dogs in his family goes all the way back to the Borgias.
*In the horror comic "Hellblazer" #243, it is stated that Alexander VI created a room in which anything done would not be considered a sin in the eyes of God, no matter how vile, for the purpose of raping young men. It absorbs so much negative energy from years of corrupt church officials using it to indulge in their every temptation that it becomes part of hell.
*From the popular Vocaloid series, Vocaloid Kaito and Miku Hatsune sing an original song called 'Canterella' which is based on this family.

Novels

* "Prince of Foxes" by Samuel Shellabarger
* "The Family" by Mario Puzo
* "Mirror, Mirror" by Gregory Maguire
* "De scharlaken stad (The scarlet city)" by Hella Haasse
* "Borgia" by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Milo Manara
* "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, père
* In Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind", Ashley Wilkes states to Charles Hamilton and Scarlett O'Hara that Rhett Butler looks like one of the Borgias.
* "Cantarella" by You Higuri- manga version with Cesare as the main character.
* Milo Manara, an Italian comic book creator, drew a comic book divided in three parts depicting the story of the Borgia family. The texts were written by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
* "Borgia, the novel of a family" by Klabund
* "The Borgia Bride" by Jeanne Kalogridis
* "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson has a chapter entitled, "Beyond the Dreams of the Borgias"
* [http://www.robinedwards.info/The_Borgia_Fraud.html The Borgia Fraud] by [http://www.robinedwards.info Robin Edwards]
* "The Antipope" by Robert Rankin.
* "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli.
* "The Medici Seal" by Theresa Breslin.
* "De scharlaken stad - The scarlet city" by Hella S. Haasse.
* In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, Sherlock Holmes recovers "the famous black pearl of the Borgias."
* "Borja Papa" (in Catalan), by Joan Francesc Mira, is a fictional autobiography of Alexander VI.
* "Summer of Night" by Dan Simmons revolves around a bell, which belonged to the Borgia family during the Renaissance period.
* "Time Enough for Love" by Robert A. Heinlein makes a humorous mention of the Borias family's customs and historical relevance in the chapter appropriately titled "Baccanalia".The Dutchess of Malfi by John Webster is possibly based on this family

Businesses

Munster, Indiana has a [http://www.cafeborgia.com/memory.html Cafe Borgia] .

ee also

*The Black Legend, a corpus of books and rumors spreading a bad image of Spain.
*Rappacini's Daughter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

References