Book of Hours of Alexander VI.
Created by Gerard David, Horenbout, and others.

·Commissioned by Rodrigo de Borgia, “Pope Borgia.”
·Contains numerous images decorated with floral, animal, fruit, and architectural motifs as well as medallions, all in vivid colors on a gold background, forming an impressive polychromatic group.
·Conserved in the Bibliothèque Royale, Belgium [Ms. IV 480].
15th century
·420 parchment pages illuminated in gold and silver
·Dimensions: 18.5 x 13.5 cm
·Contains 84 large miniatures
·Bound in leather over wooden boards with bronze hinges and clasps.
·Unique edition of 999 numbered examples with notarized certificate of authenticity.

·The Borgias: History and Legend
·The more than 100-year history of the Borgia family is, without exaggeration, an odyssey difficult to imagine if it were not all true: a family of minor Valencian aristocracy that in less than half a century provided the Roman Catholic Church with two popes, Calixto III and Alexander VI, and a dozen cardinals, establishing a power base there for many years. Its children married into royal families and the Borgias became protagonists in Italy’s power struggles, inciting a series of infamous acts never again witnessed by the papacy. It finally closed this incredible circle by producing a great saint, Francis of Borgia, General of the Company of Jesus, at the height of the Counter-Reformation.