The Family - Mario Puzo [0]
A Novel
Mario Puzo
Completed by Carol Gino
Let me be vile and base, only let me kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. Though I may be following the devil, I am Thy son, O Lord, and I love Thee, and I feel the joy without which the world cannot stand.
—FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY,
The Brothers Karamazov
FOR BERT FIELDS
WHO SNATCHED VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT AND WHO COULD BE THE GREATEST CONSIGLIERE OF THEM ALL
WITH ADMIRATION
MARIO PUZO
Contents
Epigraph
Prologue As the Black Death swept through Europe, devastating half the population…
Part I
1The golden rays of the summer sun warmed the cobblestone streets of Rome…
2 Hidden in the foothills of the Apennines, a day’s ride from Rome, was a vast tract…
3 When cardinal Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, he knew…
4 Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere’s desire for vengeance grew toward obsession.
5 On the day that Lucrezia’s husband-to-be, Giovanni Sforza, duke of Pesaro…
6 Ludovico Sforza, the man known as Il Moro, was the power in the great city-state…
7 The Pope’s physician rushed to the vatican with an urgent report of an outbreak…
8 Cesare, riding with the French cavalry, watched the well-disciplined troops…
9 Now that Rome was temporarily quiet, the Pope traveled to Silverlake…
10 Pope Alexander had been betrayed at the moment of his greatest need…
11 Lucrezia had come to join her father and brothers for the Easter festivities…
12 Vanozza Cattanei’s guests sat at the gaily colored banquet tables…
Part II
13 Alexander was still in mourning for Juan, and so it was that Duarte came to Cesare Borgia…
14 On the day Cesare Borgia crowned the king of Naples, he received an urgent message…
15 The moment Alexander entered the comfortable country home of Vanozza Catanei…
16 Francis Saluti, Interrogator for the Florentine Council of Ten, knew…
17 Cesare awoke that morning with mounting excitement.
18 Cesare spent the following weeks dressed in solemn black, pacing the halls…
19 Alexander could not bear Lucrezia’s tears. And while she wore a brave face in public…
Part III
20 Cesare Borgia, dressed in black armor and mounted on a magnificent white charger…
21 Cesare entered Rome a conquering hero. the grand procession celebrating his victory…
22 Prince Alfonso of Aragon, the proud son of kings, carried himself regally…
23 In Rome again, Cesare readied his army, and this time most of his soldiers were Italian…
24 As Cesare moved his army northward up the Rimini-Bologna road toward Bologna itself…
25 Cardinal Della Rovere and Cardinal Ascanio Sforza met in secret over a lunch…
26 Silverlake was beautiful that spring. Cesare and Lucrezia made a handsome couple…
27 Jofre and Sancia lay sound asleep in their apartments in the Vatican…
28 Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere paced around his apartments in Ostia, raging…
29 The very night of Alexander’ss death, armed mobs surged through the streets of Rome…
30 Alert to the danger of being recaptured by Spanish militia combing the countryside…
Epilogue Cesare Borgia, who had been a Cardinal, a Duke, and a Gonfaloniere…
Afterword
About the Author
Other Books by Mario Puzo
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
AS THE BLACK death swept through Europe, devastating half the population, many citizens in desperation turned their eyes from the Heavens to Earth. There, in order to master the physical world, the more philosophically inclined tried to uncover the secrets of existence and to unravel Life’s great mysteries, while the poor hoped only to overcome their suffering.
And so it was that God fell to Earth as Man, and the rigid religious doctrine of the Middle Ages lost its power and was replaced by the study of the great ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece, and Egypt. As the thirst for the Crusades began to fade, Olympian heroes were reborn and Olympian battles were fought anew. Man pitted his mind against the heart of God, and Reason reigned.
This was the time of great accomplishments in philosophy, the arts, medicine, and music. Culture