ABSTRACT
From historian Francesco Guicciardini until the beginning of the nineteenth century, virtually all historians included Lucrezia Borgia in the list of depraved, potentially murderous Renaissance women. In the last two centuries several historians partially or fully rehabilitated the duchess of Ferrara’s reputation, even while promoters of popular culture such as Victor Hugo fixed on her as a poisoner and lascivious woman. Wherein lies the truth, and how did a woman recognized by many scholars today to have been a serious, intelligent, pious and enterprising woman acquire such a vile reputation? This chapter argues that since the prevailing notion of family honor was dependent upon the virtue of its women, Lucrezia became a convenient target for Guicciardini and others to vilify, in part as a way of attacking her father and brother and indeed, the entire family. This chapter explores other instances of women as bearers of family honor as well as the accusations of incest with her father and brothers. Such charges darkened her reputation more than they did those of the men, for whom sexual escapades constituted proof of virile manhood. Her presumed lasciviousness, on the other hand, called into question their capacity to govern their woman or women, and therefore their manhood.
