Lost History – The Banquet of Chestnuts
If you could travel back through time to any party, which would it be? They say Alexander the Great threw extravagant post-battle shindigs. Others say that the Sun King elevated the standards of leisure and luxury at Versaille. Or was it the disconcerting urgency of Napoleon’s coming that gave the Duchess of Richmond’s ball a particular electric atmosphere?
But imagine a Borgia-hosted banquet in St Peter’s, an occasion so decadent that it has been described as one of the most notorious feasts in European history; a fete so racy that it besmirched the social standing of a papal dynasty. That’s the sort of soiree that commands curiosity.
The Borgias were a unique papal family. Before the election of Alexander VI, previous popes had enriched their relations, protected and empowered their bastard children and promoted the closest of their kin to cardinal roles. Alexander was the second Borgia to sit on the throne of St Peter, but unlike his dry and unremarkable uncle who preceded him, he led a colourful and arguably uncouth private life. Not only did he father numerous children – a common enough occurrence among the cardinal class – but he proffered unprecedented patronage upon his darling progeny, giving them real political and martial authority.
The Borgia style of governance was wholly distinct from previous papacies too. They used bloody assassinations and Machiavellian machinations to overcome their enemies and establish their dominance. One of the Borgia brothers is even reported to have been murdered by another, though this is unlikely to be conclusively confirmed or disproved. Dangerous chicanery and lethal legerdemain were formidable weapons in their political arsenal, and, as such, much of what happened remains mired in alluring mystery.
We do know, however, a few details of that egregious event. The allegedly stern, fastidious and sober master of papal ceremonies, Johann Burchard, noted the lavish proceedings in his Latin diary, Liber Notarum. According to the cleric, the orgy was hosted in Cesare Borgia’s apartments. In his brief yet tumultuous career as a papal prince, Cesare exemplified the style of play appropriate to the power games of the day.
Attractive, intelligent and ruthless, he seduced his rivals and betrayed his friends with playful ease. Along with his father and sister Lucretia, Cesare is said to have overseen the opulent party. In his diary, Burchard wrote:
“On the evening of the last day of October 1501, Cesare Borgia arranged a banquet in his chambers in the Vatican with ‘fifty honest prostitutes’, called courtesans, who danced after dinner with the attendants and others who were present, at first in their garments, then naked. After dinner the candelabra with the burning candles were taken from the tables and placed on the floor, and chestnuts were strewn around, which the naked courtesans picked up, creeping on hands and knees between the chandeliers, while the Pope, Cesare, and his sister Lucretia looked on. Finally, prizes were announced for those who could perform the act most often with the courtesans, such as tunics of silk, shoes, barrettes, and other things.”
Some historians have asserted that records of this affair were attempts to tarnish the family by their adversaries. Still, Burchard’s long and honest tenure at the Vatican, and the arduous inventories he composed on the institution’s behalf, have rebuffed numerous counter-claims that the feast never occurred. If it did transpire, that reception would rank as an exceptional moment in the history of Italian hedonism, perhaps on par with Caligula’s licentious jollies. Whether it happened or not, a sumptuous Borgias banquet attended by fifty beautiful Roman concubines and many of the most interesting characters of the era is an invitation I would find very hard to refuse.