Although the history of the Borgia can be traced over a century and a half, this family acquired almost all its brilliance and great fame in an insignificant period by historical standards (1492–1503), when the names of Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander the Sixth, and his illegitimate children Cesare and Lucrezia thundered throughout Europe. Their voluptuousness and cruelty became a legend, the whole of Rome gossiped about their scandalous adventures - and this was in the most dissolute and bloody era, when no one was surprised by debauchery, incest, or contract killings, more corpses floated in the Tiber than fish, and Italian sovereigns, being connoisseurs of the arts and experts in Antiquity, did not consider it shameful to bury enemies alive or make stuffed animals of them for their own museums. But even in these times, when Genius and Villainy were quite “together”, Pope Alexander Borgia was called a “monster of depravity”, “the apothecary of Satan” (as a skilled poisoner) and even the “Antichrist”, his son Cesare was called a “demon”, and Lucrezia - “The Whore of Babylon,” who supposedly was the father’s daughter, wife, and daughter-in-law at the same time. At the same time, even their enemies did not deny their political gift, calling them “geniuses of Evil” who ruled according to the principle: “The end justifies the means,” and their goal was the unification of Italy... A NEW book from the author of the bestseller “The Great Churchill” traces the entire history of the legendary family, in which included not only the “Antichrist” Alexander the Sixth, but also another Pope, two dozen cardinals and the general of the Jesuit Order Francisco Borgia, canonized by the Church...