The Life of Cesare Borgia by Rafael Sabatini is a spirited biography of the most notorious prince of the Italian Renaissance, son of Pope Alexander VI and the model for Machiavelli’s ideal ruler. Sabatini, the master storyteller of historical fiction, brings his narrative gifts to a scrupulous defence and reassessment of Cesare’s reputation.
The book moves through the violent, brilliant world of papal Rome and the Italian courts, separating documented fact from the legend of poison and treachery that has clung to the Borgia name. It is a gripping study of ambition and statecraft in an age of dynastic warfare. This free EPUB download offers Sabatini’s complete biography.