Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Keywords: Keywords: Borgia family, Disease, Historical fiction, Identities, War.

When representing the Borgias, a part of the most recent historical fiction tends to avoid the black legend that has accompanied the surname over the centuries. In this article we review the mechanisms through which a television series presents the family as active protagonists of the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern period, as promoters of the Renaissance, not only with regard to artistic and intellectual interests, but also to the evolution of diseases and therapies or in the management of military conflicts. We also check how the creators of the series project their preconceptions on the ethnolinguistic identities of the characters.