by: GRJ Callanta

--Due to the splendor of the Italian Renaissance, we often overlook the turmoil Italy was actually undergoing. Such was because this country, as we know it, is not as it was during this period. Italy, in fact, was fragmented into five large city-states: Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, & the Vatican. Because of this, Italy was in constant disarray from civil wars and shifts in power. The papacy was not exempt from this corruption especially factoring in the notion that cardinalships, and being pope, was more an aristocratic rank rather than a position of true calling from God.

--Mario Puzo captures this period as he wrote about the rise and eventual demise of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who according to Puzo, of The Godfather fame, was the first true "organized family" Don.

--The book, entitled The Family, enumerated many of the sins, with artistic license of course (and to what degree is unknown), Rodrigo Borgia committed in order to secure his position as Pope Alexander of the Holy Roman Catholic church. He placed his sons (yes, Renaissance priests flaunted their illegitimate children without remorse as they saw themselves above reproach as flawless instruments from God) in high office through bribery and underhanded dealings. He even arranged numerous lucrative marriages for his only daughter to secure alliances with neighboring states and countries. He, however, disposed of the husbands as the arrangements went sour in true Puzo, Mafioso-like fashion, via the God-fearing, albeit, cold-blooded enforcer, Don Michelotto.

--One of the more notoriously notable events in this book was when Rodrigo Borgia (now Pope Alexander), in order to steal the loyalty of his daughter away from her soon to be husband, had her sleep with her older brother Ceasare. This, according to the patriarch of the Borgia family, would ensure the unceasing loyalty within the siblings. Ceasare, however, became obsessed with his sister thus leading him into conflict with his brothers, meeting the historic notables of the Italian Renaissance (ie. Senore daVinci, Machiavelli, etc.), and perhaps even causing the downfall of the Borgia Dynasty.