vanni Borgia, the younger.

[3] Raynaldus, 1460. No. 31.

[4] Statura procerus, colore medio, nigris oculis, ore paululum
pleniore. Hieron. Portius, Commentarius, a rare publication of 1493, in
the Casanatense in Rome.

CHAPTER II

LUCRETIA'S MOTHER

About 1466 or 1467 Cardinal Rodrigo's magnetism attracted a woman of
Rome, Vannozza Catanei. We know that she was born in July, 1442, but of
her family we are wholly ignorant. Writers of that day also call her
Rosa and Catarina, although she named herself, in well authenticated
documents, Vannozza Catanei. Paolo Giovio states that Vanotti was her
patronymic, and although there was a clan of that name in Rome, he is
wrong. Vannozza was probably the nickname for Giovanna--thus we find in
the early records of that age: Vannozza di Nardis, Vannozza di Zanobeis,
di Pontianis, and others.

There was a Catanei family in Rome, as there was in Ferrara, Genoa, and
elsewhere. The name was derived from the title, _capitaneus_. In a
notarial document of 1502 the name of Alexander's mistress is given in
its ancient form, Vanotia de Captaneis.

Litta, to whom Italy is indebted for the great work on her
illustrious families--a wonderful work in spite of its errors and
omissions--ventures the opinion that Vannozza was a member of the
Farnese family and a daughter of Ranuccio. There is, however, no ground
for this theory. In written instruments of that time she is explicitly
called Madonna Vannozza de casa Catanei.

None of Vannozza's contemporaries have stated what were the
characteristics which enabled her to hold the pleasure-loving cardinal
so surely and to secure her recognition as the mother of several of his
acknowledged children. We may imagine her to have been a strong and
voluptuous woman like those still seen about the streets of Rome. They
possess none of the grace of the ideal woman of the Umbrian school, but
they have something of the magnificence of the Imperial City--Juno and
Venus are united in them. They would resemble the ideals of Titian and
Paul Veronese but for their black hair and dark complexion,--blond and
red hair have always been rare among the Romans.

Vannozza doubtless was of great beauty and ardent passions; for if not,
how could she have inflamed a Rodrigo Borgia? Her intellect too,
although uncultivated, must have been vigorous; for if not, how could
she have maintained her relations with the cardinal?

The date given above was the beginn