The Borgias: Power and Depravity in Renaissance Italy
Paul Strathern
Aug 2019 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Julian Elfer
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11 hr 12 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
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.
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About the author
Paul Strathern's narrative nonfiction includes The Other Renaissance, The Venetians, Death in Florence, The Medici, Mendeleyev's Dream, The Florentines, Empire, and The Borgias, all available from Pegasus Books. He is also a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novelist. Paul lives in London.
British-born Julian Elfer is an award-winning New York City-based actor and audiobook narrator. With over 100 titles to his credit, Julian brings a unique facility for characterization in fiction and an empathy for the personalities and events of the past.
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