Even today, many still wonder whether Lucrezia Borgia was as beautiful as Pietro Bembo claimed. He kept a golden lock of her hair among his papers. The portraits of the time do not seem to dispel this doubt, but we must also take into account that the parameters of beauty vary from one era to the next. However, being blond and blue-eyed at that time had its value, and perhaps this is still the case today.
Her reputation as a wicked and immoral woman capable of murder has arrived intact in present day to the point that her name is sometimes associated with women who have distinguished themselves for their casual attitude toward homicide.
Her probable date of birth seems to be April 18, 1480. Lucrezia was born in Subiaco (in the province of Rome) and received an education appropriate to her rank. At the age of 12, she was engaged by proxy to a Spanish nobleman but did not marry him.
The story of her life is interwoven with the lives of powerful people of the time: from Giovanni Sforza to Ludovico il Moro, Pope Alexander VI, Cesare Borgia and Alfonso d’Aragona. A series of names that meant changes to the course of her life that she seemed to be able to deal with.
She was appointed to important positions such as the Governor of Spoleto and later Nepi, which provoked the indignation of the prelates. Both appointments, diligently executed, were assigned to her in order to console her over the sad personal events that had left her an abandoned wife and then a widow.
Her life was certainly always dominated by a thirst for the power of those closest to her, such as her father and brother, with whom she had very strong bonds and perhaps doubts. Her life ended at age 39 in the city of Ferrara where she died of septicaemia after childbirth.
Part of her life is tied to Sermoneta, after Pope Alexander VI expropriated the Caetani in the late fifteenth century, and for a short time she settled in the Caetani Castle that seems to have been bought along with other fiefs belonging to the powerful family, for the sum of 80,000 gold ducats.
Much has been written and said about this emblematic female character to whom numerous international film and TV productions have been dedicated, turning the city of Sermoneta into a unique and exceptional set for a whole week.
The influence of this female presence in the Caetani places has contributed significantly to preserving their charm and prestige through the centuries. In the twentieth century, the Garden of Ninfa was a silent witness to extraordinary creative energy in the field of literature, thanks to the presence of some of the most prestigious international writers such as Truman Capote, Virginia Wolf, Karen Blixen, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Eliot, Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Giorgio Bassani, who Marguerite Chapin, wife of Roffredo Caetani, hosted in the Garden that gave them inspiration.
Several months ago, a Literary Park named after her was inaugurated in the garden.