βRodrigo Borgiaβs ambitions for his children were mostly centred in Spain. Juan, who possessed the classical perfection of a young Narcissus, was barely ten when, in the spring of 1486, he was sent to the Spanish Court (he would later inherit not only the dukedom of Gandia but a royal bride in 1493), while Cesare, whose frustrated ambitions had not yet warped his character and whom the chroniclers describe as βmodest with princely bearing,β remained in Italy to study canon law at the universities of Perugia and Pisa. Lucrezia, at the time of her familyβs rise to power, was a golden-haired, high-spirited girl, her fatherβs favourite and, like him, both sensuous and gay.β β Lucrezia Borgia: A Study (1953) by Joan Haslip








