There is a certain image of Caesar Borgia. Many portraits, including famous artists, are identified with Caesar but these powers incerte.Se one hand the painters of the Renaissance (Pinturicchio, Signorelli, Altobello Meloni, Palmezzano, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian) have handed portraits that only later were identified by Cesare Borgia, on the other hand, the painters of the Romantic era and the first half of the twentieth century, without worrying about the reliability of historical events, have painted in poses grim and cruel or lascivious behavior. a discourse in itself deserves a portrait of Tobias Stimmer published in the commends the collection of the illustrious men of arms of Paul Jupiter, in which Valentino is presented profile with a pointed beard, but in this case we are not faced with a woodcut and some coeva.Controversa is also the date of the birth of Cesare Borgia, and that confusion is due to some contradictory papal bulls of the time. There are also various assumptions about the birthplace of Valentino in general is believed to have originated in Italy, while some scholars (such as Pedro De Roo) would show that Cesare Borgia was not the son of Cardinal Rodrigo and was born in Spain. true that even then not everyone had the audacity to speak officially for the children of the Pope, because "presbyterorum nepotes vocantur filii" (the sons of the priests are called grandchildren), but in case the Valentino his relations with Alexander VI show that they were father and son. As regards the date of birth, despite the uncertainty caused by the bulls who wanted to dispense Cesare from proving the legitimacy of his birth, to allow it to hold ecclesiastical offices, most of it is believed that he was born in September of 1475 , so the day of death, fighting with great courage when he fell March 12, 1507 in the land of Navarra, near Viana, Valentino had to have a little more than thirty anni.La history of Caesar is bound inextricably to the family circle of which was a party. Letters, chronicles, the writings of the period of power Borgiano be read and interpreted with great caution as they were dictated by mixed feelings, on one side of hatred, fear and resentment and other feelings of adulation and exaltation cortigianesca.Uno History Borgia, merged, wrote: "The civilization has never experienced weapon venal pen , and no century was more venal pens at the time of the Renaissance. " We neglect what today we can say the use of computers, to reiterate once again that the conduct of Callistus III, Pope Alexander VI and Cesare were not different from those of princes, generals and rulers of their time. The "modern" morality you would like to apply at that time in those behaviors, it is totally illogical in relation to changing lifestyles, interpersonal relations, customs, management potere.Sugli years that straddle between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century as evidenced by recent studies (with due recognition to the work done by Gustavo Priest in 1951), there is still the possibility of excavate and examine the authenticity of documents used by so-called historical or literary figures and famous artists with little caution and with manifest partiality. As for me I do not mean here collate appreciated or questionable products, I would instead, with the whim of an irregular for years has tried to explore these topics, to mention individual aspects of a life was so dense as that of the legends Valentino.Nonostante that have arisen in over five hundred years, the life of Caesar is not a novel but is a great adventure with a protagonist for his character and his open-mindedness, and above all a strong inner conviction of being destined for a magnum fate, he showed great aptitude and huge resources deployed to achieve the result has been a history finale.Certamente red blood, ruthlessness, treachery of savages, however, even with high aspirations and a high goal, which was to be a state that would include most Italy. If the idea of \u200b\u200bhaving to make Cesare a cardinal and ecclesiastical career had come to Pope Alexander VI, who had they imposed, certainly Caesar thought and wished other destinies, others were his plans for the future. A project of vital historical criticism often uses architecture, epigraphy, numismatics, art objects, because we sometimes speak more eloquently documents writings, they make us better understand the personality of those who wanted to achieve and those who have eseguiti.Su those conditions I would like to focus not on a detail but a symbol of Caesar's life, because of its ornamentation is a symbol that remarkable masterpiece of art and jewelry, still tells us much more about him than they do all the painting of his image. It is a sword. A sword fighting but parade, built when he was still Cardinal Cesare Borgia, and it is a reflection on the time it was made reveals what could be his aspirations, his ambizione.Probabilmente Caesar forge the sword in 1497 when he went to Naples as papal legate to crown the new king, Frederick of Aragon. The emblems, mottos, the war enterprises which have earned us show that the weapon was not a parade but a cardinal regni.La conqueror of sword is now preserved in Rome at the Fondazione Caetani, while the covers - exposed on display - is kept at the Albert Museum in London. The research conducted by Charles Yriarte sword at the end of the nineteenth century still retains its validity science combined with a remarkable freshness letteraria.È known as the "queen of swords" while on the inventor has been made several names. This was attributed to Antonio del Pollaiuolo, or young Raphael, Michelangelo others. The most reliable hypothesis is that the work of Pinturicchio as the inventor of the compositions, while the execution was made by a goldsmith who had worked at the court of the Duke of Ferrara, whose name was Solomon by sex, but who worked under the name of Ercole de Fideli.La sword, which after the fall of Caesar had been brought to Spain, was reported in Italy in 1734, and ended up in possession of the illustrious philosopher and economist Ferdinando Galiani, who knows that the Duke Onorato Caetani aspired to it - as a sign of revenge against those who violently struck his family - made sure to arrive at the Roman nobleman testamentaria.L by establishing a 'handle of the sword is silver gilt encrusted with enamel of various colors. In the center where the thumb rests on the one hand there is the shield with the business of property: an ox red and three black stripes, on the other party written in silver letters, "Ces.Borg.Car. Valen (Cesare Cardinal Borgia Valentino). The blade has five fingers wide, grooved, is 102.5 cm long and the handle measure 83 cm. For one third of its length the sword is golden on both sides of the blade is divided into four compartments, each of which certainly contains the compositions that inspired the future first Duke Valentino.La composition on one side of the sword is an invocation to the glorification of the Roman Caesar and is also a prophecy: "cum. numina Cesaris. omen." Then down from the handle on the blade there is a sacred celebration of style for free. There is an altar on which it is stated: "DOM Host" (sacrifices to God Most High), and the bull on the altar stands a symbol of the Borgias, while around the altar there is a riot of naked priestesses who burn incense and maintain the sacred fire and left a Roman warrior with his helmet. Below is a monogram entwined with the letters forming the name of Caesar, with branches and leaves and the ox borgiano.Successivamente the inscription "Jacta alea est", with a squadron of cavalry and infantry with naked waving signs on which stands a C, which rose to ford a river. At the sides of a boy sitting on the riverbank with a flute playing near the ox borgiano.Su this side of the blade in the final composition is a statue of Cupid with a blindfold with the arrow and quiver, and with more women nude homage to him: all this is a reference to the god of love. Then on the base of the statue tqisag letters, then again amorNessuno so far has managed to decipher what the letters indicate that tqisag There is to be hoped that at the upcoming restoration of the sword someone dissolve the riddle. On the face of 'weapon set composizioni.La first four also represents the triumph of Caesar, with the engraving: "D. Ces." (Divus Caesar) with a Roman-style chariot drawn by four horses. The victor in the chariot holding a laurel branch, in front, carried by soldiers naked, signs with the inscription SPQR, below the graphic reads the word "merit" (for the deserving), and below that again, "Opus Herc . (Ie the name of the performer). The second composition expresses the peaceful life after the triumph. In an oval, with the ox village, there is a network of branches and two winged figures hold up the rod of Mercury, symbol of peace and prosperità.Poi Below is an inscription: "Prevalet Armis Fides (Faith prevails Weapons), and there is also a statue that represents the good faith which makes the usual characters naked omaggio.Infine last composition depicts a world of harmony of artistic life, of joy and happiness is the result of warlike victories and then the realm of harmony. The compositional framework is a broken column on which is placed a globe with an eagle spreads its wings. At the base of the monument rests peacefully, and a deer running around naked men and women dancing and playing instruments musicali.L 'creator and performer of the "Queen of Swords" and as such will be discussed with their client? In the preparation of compositions certainly Cesare Borgia, having studied at universities Perugia and Pisa, has been influenced by his classical studies. But what seems equally certain is that those images and those written, as well as reminiscences of Rome, are a testimony intimate, essential to understanding the biography of Caesar. How Gregorovius wrote: enrollment, so full of allusions, they understand what ideas bubble in the thoughts of cardinale.Siamo thus faced with a weapon for the style of the work, to the grandeur of the imagination of the figures, expresses a state mood: the mood of a cardinal who wants to leave the prince of the church to become a prince of terra.E time was ripe for the company in the soul of Caesar decisively. On 17 August 1498 Burchard wrote, there was a secret consistory at which Cardinal Valentino said "he was always with a full heart inclined secular state ... and since this was still his desire and his inclination he had begged the Blessed our sir, why are worthy, with a special clemency, to give him dispensation, that placed the robe and ecclesiastical dignity, he was allowed to return to the century and into marriage. " And all the cardinals "resumed the decision on the waiver to the will and whim of the Blessed Lord, our father." In this way, the Cardinal Valentino began his journey to become a leader, to make this program outlined on sword, to become the Duke Valentino, whose motto was: Aut Caesar aut nihil (or Caesar or nothing). The sequence of events had a strong acceleration on the basis of an agreement between Alexander and the King of France Louis XII, with a sumptuous, on 1 October 1498 Caesar left Rome to travel to France where he was received with great festivities and honor in all French cities in which it passed. In Avignon, the papal legate of that city, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, future Pope Julius II, former arch-enemy of the Borgias received him with great zeal and gave him great cortesie.Luigi XII Valentinois and county and lordship of Diois Issoudun, and encouraged the marriage with his cousin, the French princess Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarre, and May 10, 1499 lavish nuptials were celebrated in the royal castle of Blois.Il French king, after his army was driven out of Milan, Ludovico il Moro, 6 October 1499 made a solemn Having entered the city in its wake Cesare Borgia. The Valentino exactly a year after his departure for France made the big comeback, a return that was the premise the conquest of the Romagna with the help of the military made its disposizione.Momenti troubled from then on there was for the lords of Romagna , where Caesar was able to basically stand as a liberator because, as Machiavelli wrote: "The Romagna, in the first fussero off by Pope Alexander VI commanded that those gentlemen, was an example of every iniquitous life, for there to be seen to follow every slight cause huge killings and robberies. The sadness that came from those principles, not the sad nature of men as they said. "The first goal of the Valentine was the conquest of the city of Imola and Forlì, who were under the rule of Catherine Sforza.Cesare shares from the Milan November 9, 1499, reached most of the goals it had set itself and on 26 February 1500 he made his triumphal entry into Roma.Nell 'in October of 1500 he began his second expedition with an army of twelve thousand men. Most of them were soldiers enrolled in Romagna, dressed in a red jacket and yellow marked with C. Pesaro, Rimini, Faenza and other smaller cities were at the center of that campaign, during which the village he lived most of his time at Cesena as rather 'the capital of his ducato.La War III actually began in June 1502 and were conquered the Duchy of Camerino and Urbino, but after these achievements, other important cities felt threatened or at least tried a accordo.E was then, in October 1502, that its powerful leaders, as Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, Paolo Orsini, Paolo Baglioni, the Duke of Gravina, with others gathered in the Castle of the Magione, near Perugia, in order to take up arms against Valentino also to prevent them not to be one "devoured by the dragon." One witness of eccezioneCercando to continue the exhibition that I set for some concluding remarks I would like to quote Machiavelli wrote in the extraordinary letter sent to the lordship of Florence during its legation at duca.Già in the first letter of 25 June 1502, when he accompanied the bishop of Urbino Francesco Soderini at that, he wrote: "This gentleman is very beautiful and magnificent, et in arms is so spirited, that is not so great that they do not paja small et et for glory to purchase was never rests, he knows trouble or danger. June before in a place that he can understand the game from where it slightly. Fassi liking his soldiers, he has the hood is the best men of Italy, [here the reference is to Leonardo da Vinci, who became the engineer and the architect of the general Valentino] these things do Victor et formidable adgiunto with a perpetual luck. "However, after the conspiracy of his captains Cesare Borgia spent several months of considerable difficulty. But Valentino, the great" dissembling "as he was, sought accommodation with the conspirators who came to divide and signed an agreement in the chapters" finally to the little boys if they debbin laugh. "On December 31 at the gates of Senigallia Caesar met with the captains of the conspiracy of the Mansion, greeted them warmly and then, immediately afterwards, imprisoned them and had them strangled. And with that fact that was appreciated by the then rulers of the Italian states and the King of France, and made history with the definition of "great deception" and that there is a beautifully told by Machiavelli in his description of the way by taking Duke Valentino in killing Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto from Fermo, Mr. Pagolo and the Duke of Gravina Orsini ended the third campaign of war that brought Cesare Borgia are indeed the Duke of Romagna.Nel course of about two years were the many triumphal moments: the appointment of Gonfaloniere and Captain General of the Roman Church, the contribution of the "Golden Rose", was appointed Gentleman of Venice was a series of steps ... from triumph to triumph and great apotheosis at the same time of great hatred and accusations have done to kill anyone who cluttered the strada.Ma with the death of Alexander VI, August 18, 1503, and the serious illness that in the same Valentino period struck his destiny turned upside down: vanished fortune, bad luck struck by falling quickly saw his hopes, and also the ill-advised decision to support the election to the pontificate of Giuliano della Rovere, hastened his tramonto.Cesare isolated, suffered imprisonment and deceit first by Pope Julius II and then the Great Captain Gonzalvo of Cordova, and little they could do in his favor Romagna fortifications that have long remained fedeli.Portato prisoner in Spain was first imprisoned in the fortress of Chinchilla; attempted to flee and then was transferred to the Medina of Campo, in the fortress de la Mota. But Valentine could not surrender to bad luck and managed to escape in spectacular fashion 25 October 1506. While coming down with the help of a rope from a high tower was given the warning and the rope was cut, though seriously wounded with the help of accomplices who were waiting for him, managed to escape and stay hidden for several days to heal from the wounds, then, with an adventurous journey, despite being highly sought overcame all dangers and December 3 came in Pamplona, \u200b\u200bwhere his brother reigned, Giovanni di Cesare would Navarra.Per should be the beginning of a new career while his former enemies were very worried when they learned of his escape: his legend spread and troubadours were writing material for their canzoni.Ancora once luck was not on his side. His was a lonely death approached with great intrepidity when fighting on behalf of his brother, who was recklessly block away from his soldiers was killed in an ambush. Niccolo Machiavelli, who met as Florentine ambassador in many circumstances Cesare Borgia and had memorable conversations with him and picked up a lot of information directly, it was undoubtedly the man who has understood better quality, limitations, hardships, fierce and defects in the field of action and thought. And just to illustrate how the Florentine secretary for the construction of a new principle in regard to Borg says: "I then Stock all shares of Duke, I could not take it back, and indeed it seems to me, as I did preporlo to imitate anyone which, fortunately, and with the arms of others have ascended to the Empire. Because he, having the great courage and his high intention, it could not rule otherwise, and only opposed to 'the brevity of his drawings of Alexander's life and his illness "and again:" But Alexander died five years after she had begun to draw out the sword [in reality were not] left him with only the state of Romagna assolidato, with all the others air, between two powerful hostile armies, and sick to death. And the Duke was so fierce and so much ability, and knew so well how men have to gain or lose, and they were so compelling that in so little time we had made, that if he had not had those armies on him, or him he had been healthy, he would have governed in every difficulty. And that is key to its fussino good, he saw it: that the Romagna waited more than a month ... and he told me, it 'the day that Julius II was created, who had thought about what could come el father dying, and all had found the cure, except that we ever thought, upon his death he was still him to die. "So: we have some pictures Cesare Borgia, but we have an extraordinary document, which is his sword, on which were foretold the future intentions of the Duke Valentino, and we have a Niccolo Machiavelli is a great actor and a witness who placed himself in front of Caesar's life with reviews pragmatici.Ribadisco scientifically that these notes I had no intention to present a biography but rather to give a sense of history but written several times about which there is still much to be scrivere.Il name of Cesare Borgia in about five centuries after his death occurs is still surrounded by a prestigious reputation and terrible. And remember this, not to mention the whole history of the Borgia family, that is, around which people historiography not always very rigorous often created a gloomy atmosphere where you will breathe incest, lust and crimine.Vorrei instead conclude by recalling the "lamentations" popular, who reported that poetically benign image of Caesar Borgia had his subjects or at least the common people. Finally I wish to report the Romancero Espanol published in 1557, the epitaph in the church of Viana was placed on the grave of the Duke Valentino
Yace Aqui en que toda Pocaterra
At the temia:
el que la paz y la guerraen hand on the tapeworm .
Ho! Tu vas a buscar that
Cosas de dignas Loar! Si tu
Joash the mas Aqui
you seem decent fireplace
no cures de mas go
Learco Andalò
http://www.palazzoruspoli.it/nuovo_sito/ita/precedenti/mostra_21/saggio3.html 
