Picture Leo as Leonardo, nervous over Machiavelli’s negotiations. Simon and Schuster in the book’s press release has disclosed that Leonardo DiCaprio optioned the film rights. After some seasoning of gory proof, the author adds: “His only sliver of historical redemption, which is undeserved, came when Machiavelli used him as a model of cunning in The Prince and taught that his ruthlessness was a tool for power.” He had a brutal tyrant’s hunger for power combined with a sociopath’s thirst for blood,” writes Isaacson. “Name any odious activity and Borgia was the master of it: murder, treachery, incest, debauchery, wanton cruelty, and corruption. Meanwhile, leaders of Florence, an artistic and commercial power, paid Borgia 36,000 florins in protection money, bribing him not to attack the city. He went back to Florence, where he was from, for new opportunities and commissions. Milan had given Leonardo his launch, stability and continuing work. Leonardo at this point is fifty-three, handsome, a success, with a keen eye for elegant form, and happily coupled with a younger man. Midway through Walter Isaacson’s luminous new biography, Leonardo Da Vinci, the artist of rising reputation moves from Milan to Florence, and in 1502 agrees to meet the warlord Cesare Borgia.
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