Continuing our Renaissance theme…a NYT book review of a biography, not of Lucrezia Borgia, as you might expect, but of Felice Della Rovere, daughter of Julius II.

In more than one sense Lucrezia Borgia and her father, Alexander VI, had a decisive impact on Felice’s relationship with Julius II. Alexander’s besotted devotion to his beautiful daughter gave rise to whispers of unnatural practices, and Rome was scandalized by Alexander’s leaving Lucrezia in charge of the Vatican while he toured papal fortifications. Consequently, Julius came to the throne determined not to repeat his predecessor’s mistakes. So he kept his teenage daughter at a distance; he never dined with her in public and did not attend her marriage to the powerful Roman baron Gian Giordano Orsini. Marriage was the one role in which a papal bastard could excel, as Lucrezia Borgia’s multiple vows attest, and Felice showed a glint of steel that distinguished her: she proved she was her headstrong father’s daughter by refusing several eligible suitors, and she made clear that she preferred to be left alone to marrying a man she did not respect.