# Recommend a good book on the Borgias? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-book-on-the-borgias/751468 "2016-04-07T18:35:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-book-on-the-borgias/751468/1 "2016-04-07T18:35:51Z")
I’m almost done with Showtime’s series “The Borgias” (I’m behind the times). I’ve done some very cursory online reading on the Borgia pope Alexander VI and family; opinions seem to be rather polarized. Can anyone recommend a good, even-handed book? Scholarly or popular? ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-book-on-the-borgias/751468/2 "2016-04-10T19:20:46Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I’m almost done with Showtime’s series “The Borgias” (I’m behind the times). > > I’ve done some very cursory online reading on the Borgia pope Alexander VI and family; opinions seem to be rather polarized. > > Can anyone recommend a good, even-handed book? Scholarly or popular? I recommend: \* Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy\* by Sarah Bradford I bought a copy of this two years ago and like it very much. Sarah Bradford, who has one foot in the scholarly camp and one foot in the popular, is a well-regarded biographer in the UK known for being fair and even handed. She paints a well-researched portrait of Lucretzia and dispels the canard of her as an incestuous whore and a poisoner. Here’s a review from _The Guardian_: [The bad girl of Rome | Books | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/oct/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview4) There’s another book, _The Borgias_ by Christopher Hibbert, that I haven’t read yet, though I’ve been meaning to get to it. Hibbert is a first-rate biographer. Like Bradford, he pens well-researched and entertaining works. I admire several other biographies he’s written, especially his life of Queen Victoria, and have every reason to expect his _Borgias_ to be excellent. > **[The Borgias: Christopher Hibbert: 9781849019941: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Borgias-Christopher-Hibbert/dp/1849019940)** > > The Borgias \[Christopher Hibbert\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Borgias ---
**Author:** ![Paegan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/258eb7/32.png) [@Paegan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paegan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-book-on-the-borgias/751468/3 "2016-04-10T20:01:00Z")
This one was mentioned in the above post. I’ve read it and its very interesting: The Borgias and Their Enemies: 1431-1519 by Christopher Hibbert Borgia’s: The Hidden History by G J Meyer The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped by Paul Strathern The Borgias by Ivan Cloulas These are all classified as non-fiction. There are many fiction books written about the Borgias in particular Lucretzia Borgia. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-book-on-the-borgias/751468/4 "2016-04-10T20:02:30Z")
Whatever you do, don’t buy the cookbook.