Informative. ( )

Rod Borgiů v renesanční Itálii se stal synonymem pro pýchu, rozkošnictví, krutost, hrabivost, okázalost a intrikaření. Borgiové vždy vzbuzovali ve stejné míře znechucení a obdiv, podobně jako klan sicilských Corleonů, zpodobněný v románu Kmotr Maria Puza. Borgiové pocházeli ze Španělska a jejich vzestup se odehrál v Itálii v 15. století, v době, kdy světský sekularismus renesance pomalu vytlačoval středověký pohled na svět reprezentovaný všemocnou katolickou církví. Ačkoli Borgiové prosluli bezostyšnou a krutou touhou po moci, zapsali se do dějin také jako podporovatelé a mecenáši umění. ( )

TL;DR: Avoid this book: it merely presents an unstructured sequence of historical facts sorted by year, and is unwilling to engage in the kinds of selecting, telling, interpreting and presenting of information that I expect from a history book written by an expert.

I thought this book was disappointing, and a waste of money. Every section covers a single year or so, listing the things that happened around the scions of the Borgia family and what they did in those years. But that is as far as it goes: There is hardly any attempt at highlighting red threads or trends or anything else that would impose some structure on the lists of facts that Hollingsworth presents here. Which things are going to be important later? How do they impact each other? Which seemingly unrelated items would naturally go together in a culture that, to me, is both foreign and in the past? Figuring all that out is the kind of work that non-specialists are unable to do, work that a historian can rightly be expected to do for their readers. But Hollingsworth seems uninterested in structuring and presenting historical facts from a perspective that is a little wider than a yearly play-by-play. ( )

A very dry, annalistic account of this period.

I much preferred Meyer's account: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15798316-the-borgias ( )

I love this book. I got it in hardback and it's going on my reference shelf. The pictures were stunning, the writing was engaging and interesting, and I honestly feel as though I've learned a lot. Plus it's given me a lot of inspiration for my next series.

Though I bought it at discount from Barnes & Noble, it would be worth the cover price. ( )