Lucretia Borgia is the most unfortunate woman in modern history. Is this because she was guilty of the most hideous crimes, or is it simply because she has been unjustly condemned by the world to bear its curse? The question has never been answered. Mankind is ever ready to discover the personification of human virtues and human vices in certain typical characters found in history and fable. The Borgias will never cease to fascinate the historian and the psychologist. They are a satire on a great form or phase of religion, debasing and destroying it. They stand on high pedestals, and from their presence radiates the light of the Christian ideal. In this form we behold and recognize them. We view their acts through a medium which is permeated with religious ideas. Without this, and placed on a purely secular stage, the Borgias would have fallen into a position much less conspicuous than that of many other men, and would soon have ceased to be anything more than representatives of a large species. This is the first translation from the German of this important work of Gregorovius, in which a vast supply of information is furnished about the family of this famous and interesting woman and about herself. The book is illustrated with portraits and views, and offers valuable knowledge upon the times and character of a woman about whose nature a conflict of opinions has raged for centuries. About her beauty and talents there are no two voices; on the question of her vices the world has become divided. A patron of art and letters, as to her private life the most hideous stories gained circulation, making her name the most notorious of her renowned house, not excepting that of her brother, the infamous Cesare Borgia.
In this translation English readers are offered the best known account of this celebrated woman, written by the author of that monumental and illuminating work, “The History of Rome in the Middle Ages.”
“The story is far more exciting than most romances, and treats of Italian history and life about which comparatively little that is authoritative can be found in English.”—The Sun, New York.
REMINISCENCES OF A SCIENTIST
The Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte.
With portrait. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25 net.
Professor Le Conte was widely known as a man of science, and notably as a geologist. His later years were spent at the University of California. But his early life was passed in the South; there he was born and spent his youth; there he was living when the civil war brought ruin to his home and his inherited estate. His reminiscences deal with phases of life in the South that have unfailing interest to all students of American history. His account of the war as he saw it has permanent value. He was in Georgia when Sherman marched across it. Professor Le Conte knew Agassiz, and writes charmingly of his associations with him.
“Attractive because of its unaffected simplicity and directness.”—Chicago Chronicle.
“Attractive by virtue of its frank simplicity.”—New York Evening Post.
“Well worth reading even if the reader be not particularly interested in geology.”—New York American.