In 1866 Marquis G.Campori, of Modena, printed an essay entitled _Una vittima della storia Lucrezia Borgia_, in the _Nuova Antologia_ of August 31st of that year.

A year later Monsignor Antonelli, of Ferrara, published _Lucrezia Borgia in Ferrara, Sposa a Don Alfonso d'Este, Memorie storiche_, Ferrara, 1867.

Giovanni Zucchetti, of Mantua, immediately followed with a similar opuscule: _Lucrezia Borgia Duchessa di Ferrara_, Milano, 1869.

All these writers endeavored, with the aid of history, to clear up the Lucretia legend, and to rehabilitate the honor of the unfortunate woman.
Other writers, not Italians, among them certain French and English authors, also took part in this effort.

M.Armand Baschet, to whom we are indebted for several valuable publications in the field of diplomacy, announced in his work, _Aldo Manuzio, Lettres et Documents, 1494-1515_, Venice, 1867, that he had been engaged for years on a biography of Madonna Lucretia Borgia, and had collected for the purpose a large mass of original documents.
In the meantime, in 1869, there was published in London the first exhaustive work on the subject: _Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, a Biography, illustrated by rare and unpublished documents_, by William Gilbert.