Giovanni Borgia

Who was Giovanni Borgia?

Giovanni Borgia, the Infans Romanus, was a child born into the Borgia family in secret and is of unclear parentage. All speculations of the child's parentage name either Lucrezia Borgia as his mother, or either Cesare Borgia, or Pope Alexander VI as his father. Some believe Lucrezia conceived Giovanni with her alleged lover, Perotto Calderon, while others believe that either Cesare or Rodrigo fathered the boy with a lover. Another theory that is even more shocking is that perhaps Lucrezia was his mother and either Cesare or Rodrigo was the father. Pope Alexander VI issued two papal bulls, both dated 1 September 1501, in each of which a different father is assigned to Giovanni Borgia. The second bull appears to supplement and correct the first.

The first of these Bulls, addressed to "Dilecto Filio Nobili Joanni de Borgia, Infanti Romano," declares Giovanni Borgia to be a child of three years of age, the illegitimate son of Cesare Borgia, unmarried, and of a woman, also unmarried.

The second declares Giovanni Borgia instead to be the son of Pope Alexander VI himself and runs: "Since you bear this deficiency not from the said duke, but from us and the said woman, which we for good reasons did not desire to express in the preceding writing." The pope was forbidden by canon law to publicly recognize children and did not wish that Giovanni Borgia should suffer in his inheritance as a consequence. Precisely at the same date, the final arrangements were made for Lucrezia Borgia's betrothal to Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara.