Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/100

This page needs to be proofread.

BOBGHESI BORGIA the former states of Piedmont and Genoa. At the request of Napoleon he sold to the French nation, for the sum of 8,000,000 francs, over 800 of the works of art which ornamented the palace of his ancestors at Rome. After the abdication of the emperor he broke off all con- nection with the Bonapartes, and fixed his resi- dence in Florence, where he lived in great splendor till his death. He was reconciled to his wife shortly before her death in 1825. Be- sides the famous villa near the Pincian hill, his family had large estates in Tuscany, Naples, and the papal territories. BORGHESI, Bartolommeo, count, an Italian numismatist, born at Savignano, near Rimini, July 11, 1781, died at San Marino, April 10, 1860. His father was a man of considerable learning, and had made a large collection of coins, to which the son made valuable addi- tions. He pursued the study of numismatics as a branch of historical research, published in 1820 the "New Fragments of the Consular Fasti of the Capitol " (Nuovi frammenti dei Fasti comolari capitolini illwtrati), and in- tended to publish a Corpus Universale Imcrip- tionum Latinarum. This he never accom- plished, but his correspondence and contribu- tions to various Italian journals form an im- mense mass of material, and after his death Napoleon III. appointed a commission to col- lect and publish his complete works. In 1864 appeared vols. i. and ii. of (Euvres numuma- tiques, and vol. i. of (Euvres epiyraphistes. Two additional volumes were published in 1872. BORGHI-JUAMO, Adelaide, an Italian opera singer, born in Bologna, Aug. 9, 1830. She made her debut at Bologna in December, 1846, and has since sung in the leading cities of Europe with great success. Her voice is a contralto of remarkable compass and power. BOKGI, Giovanni, the founder of ragged schools, born in Rome about 1736, died about 1802. He was a poor mechanic, but was in the habit of taking home the vagrant chil- dren of the streets, clothing them, and ap- prenticing them to various trades. His 2eal interested others in the work, and he obtained means to rent a suitable building and to pay the expense of teaching and providing for a large number of poor children. The institu- tion outlived Borgi, and was greatly extended, Pius VII. becoming its principal protector. BORGIA. I. Cesare, an Italian prelate and sol- dier, born about 1457, died March 12, 1507. His family was of Spanish origin, but attained considerable prominence at Rome after the elevation of Alfonso Borgia to the papal throne in 1455 as Calixtus III. His father was Pope Alexander VI., and his mother a woman called Rosa Vanozza (Giulia Farnese). He was bishop of Pampeluna when a mere youth, and soon after his father's accession was made arch- bishop of Valencia, and in 1493 a cardinal. He began a war of extermination against the feudal barons and small princes in the Papal States and its vicinity, having persuaded his father to take the lead in this movement. They dispossessed most of the feudatories, seizing their strongholds, castles, and estates. He is believed to have poisoned Zizim, the brother of Bajazet II., who sought refuge in Rome about this time. He also poisoned Giovanni Battista Ferrata, the richest and most influential dignitary in the papal court, and seized the treasures he had accumulated. Soon afterward he was suspected of procuring the murder of his own brother, Giovanni Borgia, duke of Gnndia, who was found in the Tiber pierced with nine stiletto strokes by unknown hands. At all events he obtained his duchy and other possessions. In 1497 the pope re- leased him from his clerical vows, and endeav- ored to make him marry Charlotte, daughter of Frederick of Aragon, king of Naples. This scheme, however, was unsuccessful, but a car- dinal who participated in the intrigue was poisoned and his fortune seized by Borgia. Cesare was sent to France the next year with the bull divorcing Louis XII. from his wife Jeanne, and was rewarded by Louis with the dukedom of Valentinois and a command in the French army. While in the French service he obtained possession of Forli, Cesena, Imola, Rimini, Piombino, the island of Elba, Faenza, and Camerino, and murdered their sovereigns. He married Charlotte, daughter of Jean d'Al- bret, king of Navarre, in 1499, and in 1501 he was made duke of Romagna and gonfaloniere of the holy see. He continued his onslaught on the petty sovereigns of central Italy, and aimed at making himself king of Romagna, Umbria, and the Marches; but Louis XII. arrested these ambitious machinations, and many whom Ce- sare had already deprived of their possessions recovered them. His most bloody military action was the storming of Sinigaglia, toward the close of 1502, at the head of his Swiss mercenaries, and the slaughter of his prison- ers, including several princes, as described by Machiavelli. Finally, as many historians al- lege, in conjunction with his father, in August, 1503, he concocted the plan of poisoning four of the wealthiest cardinals at an evening party in the villa Corneto ; but by mistake the poi- son, which was mixed in wine, was adminis- tered to Alexander VI. and to Cesare. The pope died about a week after. Cesare was saved, having taken but little of the drugged wine. He seized upon the papal treasures in the Vatican, and with about 12,000 mercenaries still kept Rome, although those whom ho had despoiled in central Italy revolted and recov- ered their lost property. Finally his troops abandoned him, and the pope, Julius II., ar- rested and expelled him from the Papal States. He took refuge with Gonsalvo de Cordova, the commander of Naples, who sent him to Spain, where he was imprisoned by Ferdinand of Aragon. After two years he escaped and found an asylum, in 1506, at the court of Jean d'Albret, his father-in-law. Finally he was slain before the castle of Viana, while in the