Murder, poison, corruption and incest: all perfect ingredients for sensational popular culture. But in an age known for its brutality and church corruption were the Borgias really so bad? This lecture reveals the real family that dominated the Papacy and Italian politics during the last decade of the 15th century: the wily, charismatic, womaniser, Pope Alexander VI, living inside his sumptuously decorated apartments, his sociopathic son, Cesare, cardinal, general, employer of Da Vinci and the model for Machiavelli’s The Prince, and his adored daughter, Lucrezia, who moves from “the greatest whore in Rome” to a devout and treasured duchess of the city of Ferrara. Sometimes truth is more intoxicating than myth!

About the Lecturer

Sarah Dunant,  novelist, broadcaster and critic, read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves/Free thinking (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis and lectured around the world at festivals and conferences. Her last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance. In the Name of the Family completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s A POINT OF VIEW and these talks, alongside her series on history for Radio 4, When Greeks Flew Kites are available on podcast or BBC sounds