LUCREZIA BORGIA - Penguin

The name Lucrezia Borgia conjures up all that was sinister and corrupt about the Renaissance-incest, political assassination, papal sexual abuse, poisonous intrige. Yet, as sarah Breadford reveals in this new portrait, the truth is more facinating tahn the myth. Neither a vicious monster nor a seductive pawn, Lucrezia Borgia was a shrewd, determined woman who used her beauty and intelligence to secure a key role in the struggles of her day. Drawing from historical documents and first-hand accounts Bradford brings to lofe the art, pageantry, and dangerous politics of the Renaissance world Lucrezia Borgia helped to create.