To make profit for the house of Borgia by fraud, sacrilege, and the dismemberment of nations, was the Papal policy.
[1] See Chapter VI.
[2] Their father, Galeotto Manfredi, had been murdered in 1488 by their mother, Francesca Bentivogli.

Of Astorre's death Guicciardini writes: 'Astorre, che era minore di diciotto anni e di forma eccellente ...

condotto a Roma, saziata prima (secondo che si disse) la libidine di qualcuno, fu occultamente insieme con un suo fratello naturale privato della vita.' Nardi (_Storie Florentine_, lib.iv.

13) credits Cesare with the violation and murder of the boy.

How far, we may ask, were these dark crimes of violence actuated by astrological superstition?
This question is raised by Burckhardt (p.