Every Chapter, In Order

Rome, 1492–1503 — a papal dynasty's ruthless rise, poison, murder, and the ambitions of Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, in a prologue and sixteen chapters.

The prologue and sixteen chapters follow the family's rise from Rodrigo Borgia's election as Pope Alexander VI through Cesare's methodical military conquest of the Romagna, closing with the family's rapid political collapse following the pope's death. See the full overview page for more context, or this site's piece on Cesare Borgia and Machiavelli for how the same conduct these chapters depict as villainous was read very differently by one of the Renaissance's sharpest political minds.