Borgias

Historical family.

The House of Borgia was a noble family of Spanish origins, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Xàtiva, Kingdom of Valencia, the surname being a toponymic from the town of Borja, then in the Crown of Aragon, in Spain. The Borgias became prominent in ecclesiastical and political affairs in the 15th and 16th centuries, producing two popes: Alfons de Borja, who ruled as Pope Callixtus III during 1455–1458, and his nephew Rodrigo Lanzol Borgia, as Pope Alexander VI, during 1492–1503. Especially during the reign of Alexander VI, they were suspected of many crimes, including adultery, incest, simony, theft, bribery, and murder (especially murder by arsenic poisoning). Because of their grasping for power, they made enemies of the Medici, the Sforza, and the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, among others. They were also patrons of the arts who contributed to the development of Renaissance art. The Borgia family stands out in history as being infamously steeped in sin and immorality, yet there is evidence to suggest that this one-dimensional characterization is a result of undeserved contemporary critiques.

In the Sherlock Holmes stories

• Sherlock Holmes called the stolen pearl as the "famous black pearl of the Borgias" (SIXN 463).

Adaptations

In 1944, the movie The Pearl of Death (with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes), based on The Six Napoleons, was then titled "La Perle des Borgia" (in France) and "Die Perle der Borgia" (in Germany).

• 
  Die Perle der Borgia (Germany)

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