ABSTRACT
The white beard, furrowed cheeks and firm mouth, turned down at the corners, suggest age and spent passions. But nothing suggests the monstrous egomania—the furious will to dominate and the ruthless determination which made Julius II the greatest of Renaissance popes and the wonder of his time—which made men call him with a mixture of fear and admiration the Terrible Pope. Giuliano della Rovere was bom near Savona on December 5, 1443. He was the ablest of the three brothers Della Rovere and the two brothers Riario whom Pope Sixtus IV raised from obscurity with avuncular benevolence. In the election of 1484, which made the amiable, foolish and ineffectual Gianbattista Cibo Pope Innocent VIII, Giuliano acted as Cibo’s political manager, making large promises and the necessary bribes. The election of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI was a terrible blow to Cardinal Giuliano because he had wanted to be elected pope himself.
