The Borgia family of Renaissance Italy has become a byword for pride, lust, cruelty, avarice, splendour and venomous intrigue. It has inspired abomination and fascination in almost equal measure, perhaps best epitomised by Lucrezia Borgia, a woman vilified down the centuries as the embodiment of the scheming femme fatale.

We continue to be mesmerized by the more scandalous elements of the Borgia legend: the unscrupulous means by which Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope Alexander VI and then exploited his position to advance his children, notably Cesare and Lucrezia, and his wider family; the pope’s extortionate greed; the unparalleled corruption at the heart of Alexander’s pontificate; the brutal elimination of rivals by assassination, execution and poison; the incestuous relationships between father and daughter, and between brother and sister. Not surprisingly, there was even talk of supernatural pacts with the Devil. The Borgia tale has not only spawned numerous historical accounts of the family, but also inspired writers of romantic fiction, poets, dramatists, painters and musicians.

Carefully sifting fact from fiction, The Borgias is a compelling year-by-year account of their scandalous and tumultuous reign. Each year is covered by a concise, informative and accessible narrative, amplified by extensive quotation from contemporary sources and accompanied by stunning images of the period – including illuminations, portraits, maps, seals, tapestries and original artefacts.

This sumptuous and lavishly produced book is popular history at its best, written by a master historian.