sir, in another life you were a fangirl

[bedlamsbard]

My relationship with The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior is so mixed, y'all. I'm going through it decently quickly because I want it to be over so I can move on to bigger and better things and I still want to check it off on my books read in 2011 list (ten so far). The author does not like Cesare Borgia, and I keep getting the sense that he only dedicated a third of the book to him because he's the connecting link to Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli, who are the author's OTP.

No, seriously. There's a bit in there where he argues that because Machiavelli never mentions da Vinci in his letters to Florence, it is a clear indication that they met and were pals, and then he dedicates three-quarters of a page to talking about how da Vinci must have taken care of Machiavelli in his sickness. It's very slashy. Then he talks about Cesare Borgia's syphilis some more, and how Cesare was sexually jealous of his sister Lucrezia and went around killing men that looked at her funny. (He had her second husband killed. I will be absolutely shocked if Showtime does not give us that.)

As already mentioned, Machiavelli's regular and extensive dispatches made no mention of Leonardo. Ironically, this very lack of evidence would seem to confirm that they did meet, and get to know each other closely, at this time.

...Borgia's ccourt was no great affair, making it certain that Machiavelli would soon have come into contact with his fellow Florentine. More, he would probably have sought Leondardo out, as they had almost certainly have met previously -- when Machiavelli returned to Florence from Urbino carrying Borgia's first instructions to Leonardo. For Machiavelli, Leonardo would have been a good source of information about what the secretive Borgia had in mind, what was happening around him, who was coming and going, and so forth. Yet for Machiavelli to have mentioned such a source by name would have placed Leonardo in some danger when his dispatches to Florence were intercepted and opened.

[...]

Machiavelli was ill, and certainly did not have enough money to hire a servant to look after him. Such assistance would have been in short supply in Imola, where many of the inhabitants would have been pressed into attendance on the army, or put to work for Borgia. We can only speculate, but there is a strong possiblity that during Machiavelli's illness Leonardo would have looked after him. As fellow Florentines in a foreign court amdist foreign soldiers, they would surely have been drawn together, and as fellow intellectuals they would have been a rarity at Imola. ...we can only imagine what Machiavelli and Leonardo might have talked aobut as they sat together on rickety chairs of an autumn evening before a fire in some drafty corner of Borgia's court, dining off scraps and nuts, washed down with watered wine. As winter came on, they would have wrapped themselves in their cloaks against the whining wind that rattled the windows and penetrated the corridors of Borgia's palazzo residence, much as it does today.

Clearly a da Vinci/Machiavelli shipper, yay/nay? THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THEY EVER MET = DA VINCI NURSED MACHIAVELLI THROUGH HIS ILLNESS. Sir, in another life you were a fangirl.

ETA: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS GODDAMN POPULAR AUTHOR WHAT THE FUCK SCREAMS OF ENDLESS RAGE. Oh, yeah, not a good military commander because he used FUCKING STRATEGY INSTEAD OF BRUTE FORCE JESUS CHRIST HAVE YOU EVER STUDIED MILITARY HISTORY IN YOUR LIFE DID YOU EVER EVEN READ GODDAMN MACHIAVELLI YOU ASS. The point is to kill all the other guys and/or force them into a surrender, not do something dramatic in the field and get all your own men killed, not a good military commander my ass; I can't believe this fucking author wrote that and in the same fucking sentence went on to say "he sought wherever possible to achieve his aims through shrewd strategy, sudden unexpected moves, or ruthless treachery." SIR I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. Sure, winning battles is fun and dandy, but you know what's an even better military strategy? NOT HAVING TO FIGHT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH THE SAME ENDS BY OTHER MEANS. ASS. YOU FUCKING ASS okay I'm done now.

Comments

[aella_irene]

(He had her second husband killed. I will be absolutely shocked if Showtime does not give us that.)

I'm just waiting to see how they handle the Baby Borgia of Debateable Parentage. (Is he Alexander's? Cesare's? Lucrezia's? Cesare and Lucrezia's? Alexander and Lucrezia's? Alexander and Ces-- well, maybe not, but the contradictory Papal Bulls aren't helping. He is...a Mysterious Infant!)

[bedlamsbard]

The Infans Romanus! If I had to put money on it, they will either make little Giovanni Borgia Cesare and Lucrezia's baby, or they're going to cut him entirely. (I am amusing myself by guessing what history they're going to keep and what they're going to change, based on what I would do if I was writing the show.)

[aella_irene]

I hope they keep him!


(Have you read the Sarah Bradford biography of Lucrezia? In the first chapter, you get a mention of a contemporary Italian nobleman who used to recieve Ambassadors while in bed with his sister.)

[bedlamsbard]

Or possibly Lucrezia's and another man's -- in the trailer there's a shot of Lucrezia and a guy who is neither her first husband nor one of her brothers in bed. (I have, uh, watched all the clips associated with this show way too many times.)

(Yep! It's on my bookshelf now; I just picked up her biography of Cesare Borgia from Loyola's library. Also another Falco book and a book on the Renaissance popes, from Tilton.)

[resolute]

Ahahahahhahahhaha huddling for warmth! Protecting his spy-lover! This is hilarious.

[bedlamsbard]

"A strong possibility" is historian-code for "I HAVE NO PROOF BUT IT IS TOTALLY MY HEAD CANON." Sometimes reading history is a lot like reading fic! (Especially with this lot! Lots of contradictory characterization based on a handful of mysterious scenes in canon.)