How Is Technology Transforming the Public Sphere? 198
Conclusions 204
Questions for Critical Thought 205
Suggested Readings 205
Online Resources 206
Interactive Activities 206
Technology-Mediated Social Relationships 208
Learning Objectives 208
Introduction 208
Early Beginnings of Mediated Communication 208
North America Calling: The Impact of the Telephone on Social Relationships 210
Penetration Rates: The Impact of Digital and Mobile Media on Social Relationships 210
How Has Technology Affected Our Relationships? 213
Cyberbullying 225
Conclusions 232
Questions for Critical Thought 232
Suggested Readings 233
Online Resources 233
Interactive Activities 234
11
The Surveillance Society 235
Learning Objectives 235
Introduction 235
Defining and Understanding Surveillance 235
Foucault’s Analysis of Power Relations in Society 241
Technology’s Role in the New Surveillance 243 Is Privacy Dead? 246
Resistance to Privacy Threats and Surveillance Practices 248
Conclusions 254
Questions for Critical Thought 254
Suggested Readings 255
Online Resources 255
Interactive Activities 256
12 Ethical Dimensions of Technology 257
Learning Objectives 257
Introduction 257
The Book’s Three Central Themes 258
Ethical Dimensions of Our Technological Society 262
Energy Production and Consumption 268
Energy Generation and Inequality 268
Indigenous Rights 270
Electronic Waste 272
A Society of Overload 274
Conclusions 278
Questions for Critical Thought 279
Suggested Readings 279
Online Resources 280
Interactive Activities 280
Glossary 282 Notes 306
References 307 Index 334
Preface
A key motivation for writing Technology and Society was a mixed sense of euphoria and concern. As I continued to adopt various technologies and test new applications, I felt excited to be witnessing a time of rapid technological transformation—the era of digital tools, artificial intelligence, algorithms, robotics, and apps. News stories on Reddit and HuffPost featured stories on new apps and technological developments in health care, education, and agriculture, and my Twitter feed seemed to increase in volume daily. I often had the sense that things were happening faster and that if I was not tethered to my various devices, I could miss out on important events, news, or opportunities. This anxiety has been referred to as FOMO, the fear of missing out. How could I best organize my day and my technology habits to keep up with this ever-increasing flow of information? Harvey referred to this fundamental change in lifestyle as a time–space compression in his 1989 book The Condition of Postmodernity, which describes, among other things, an acceleration of social and capitalist dynamics resulting from digital communication. Key questions that emerged for me included: What does the time–space compression consist of? What are its social and health implications? And how can I keep up with transformative changes resulting in an increase of messages, the speedy circulation of news stories, and new social norms around communication?
There is no doubt that we have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of technology in everyday life. For example, most Canadians have a smartphone and access information on the go. Newer household technologies like Amazon’s Alexa are being adopted at rapid pace and are becoming seamlessly integrated with more traditional technologies like fridges, heating, and entertainment systems to create the Internet of Things (IoT), a networked system that supports daily activity. This opens up many questions around the role of virtual assistants like Alexa in the home. Is she another family member? Or is she simply an algorithm that follows instructions? And what about the risk that private information is transmitted outside the boundaries of the home via Alexa? Can I trust her?
The purpose of this book, then, is to slow down and step back for a moment to make technology the object of sociological inquiry and to try to uncover the intricacies of our socio-technical existence. The book makes readers aware of the pervasiveness of technology in our everyday lives and encourages an understanding of how technology interacts with and is embodied in society. Technology is both the driving force behind societal change at micro- and macro-levels as well as the output of our technological imagination. It is this dichotomy that we want to present. The focus of the book is on the high dependence on all things technological, combined with the problems, social issues, and socio-political realm in which these technologies are embedded. As Canadian scholar McLuhan so eloquently pointed out, technology is not neutral. It affects our society and we need to be able to discuss and
behind job losses and deskilling. Can we actually step back as critical observers? It is hard to imagine a world without technology. Indeed, technology has been a part of human existence since the Stone Age, when humans used stones, bones, and sticks as tools for survival. But studying technology can help us become more aware of its role in our personal lives, in the lives of other social groups and their struggles, and in our society as a whole. Moreover, systematic analysis of design, implementation, and use allow us to develop theories of the intersection of technology and society, what we call the socio-technical. This type of analysis provides us with the necessary background knowledge and methods to embark on social, socio-political, and cultural studies of our own socio-technical existence. As a result, this book provides a solid understanding of technology’s role in society and gives students the tools they need to embark on a critical and in-depth inquiry of our technological society.
Overview of the Book
Technology and Society: Social Networks, Power, and Inequality is aimed at students in undergraduate courses on technology in a range of disciplines in the social sciences (in particular, sociology and anthropology), arts and humanities, communication studies, and information science. This book is set up also for complementing the curriculum in engineering, natural sciences, and law. This book is also appropriate for management or business classes because of its focus on technology design, innovation, and labour in digital contexts. The book does not require any previous knowledge of technology or statistics. Theories and concepts are explained in great depth, and the glossary provides definitions of new and specific terminology. Technology and Society relies on current interdisciplinary work from sociology, the history of technology, science and technology studies (STS), communications, and related fields.
The chapters are organized to help students understand and learn the material. Each chapter starts with a set of learning goals, continues with a general overview or introduction to guide the readers through the material, and ends with a conclusion, a set of study questions, and further readings. This new edition also includes interactive activities that help students link the theories and case studies to their own everyday lives. What distinguishes the book from other similar works is its focus on contemporary examples and case studies. The book brings concepts and theories to life by showing how they relate to current discussions in the media and in academia with regard to policy, changes in the law, and pressing critical issues of our digital age. Through its comprehensive list of further readings and additional/supplemental Web content, the book encourages readers to seek out further resources, to obtain additional current information, to deepen their knowledge of topics, and to explore new topics of their own interest. Next, we present a short overview of each chapter to give readers an idea of some of the topics covered.
Chapter 1: The Technological Society
Chapter 1 investigates the contentious question of how to best define technology. The chapter outlines and critically discusses several approaches. Considering the depth and pervasiveness of technology in our society, this introductory chapter stresses the relevance of studying the intersection of technology and society—what is often referred to as the socio-technical perspective. The chapter includes a discussion of how technologies lead to large-scale, widespread social change and issues, such as social and economic inequality. The key argument is that social change occurs not as a result of technology alone, but as a blending of micro-, meso-, and macrolevel processes. In addition to established approaches to understanding technology, the chapter also covers three of the main contemporary perspectives surrounding the use of technology in modern society. The first is simulation, which is geared
toward the development of tools that can resemble or outperform human faculties. The second perspective is augmentation, which attempts to integrate machines and humans into new hybrid actors with added capabilities. The third perspective is automation, the use of AI and robotics to support, substitute, and supplement all human activities. These perspectives highlight the many points of intersection of the human and the technological, raising important questions about the ethical, moral, and societal implications of such endeavours.
Chapter 2: Technology in Society: A Historical Overview
To comprehend fully how technology and society intersect in our modern society, we first need to take a look at the history of technology. The aim of Chapter 2 is to provide a broad overview of this history by tracing the roots of technological development, discussing key periods of technological innovation, and outlining our present-day high-tech society. Technology is the strongest force of change in society and, as such, its development, transformation, and diffusion directly shape many aspects of society, such as work, community, and social relationships. We examine these technological transformations over time and demonstrate the impacts they have had on past societies. This chapter further attempts to link technologies, inventors, and historical moments to provide an in-depth examination of the socio-political context in which technologies emerge. Chapter 2 shows how technology is ingrained in society, affecting all aspects of our lives, and outlines the merits of taking a sociological perspective when studying the history of technology.
Chapter 3: Theoretical Perspectives on Technology
Chapter 3 covers a plurality of theoretical perspectives, which seek to shed light on the nature of the relationship between technology and society, as well as on those elements of society most affected by technology. First, the chapter contrasts the utopian and dystopian approaches, which each highlight a different side of how technology transforms society. Second, Chapter 3 also reviews the key premises underlying the theories of technological determinism and social determinism and discusses their strengths and weaknesses. Third, the chapter introduces the field of Science and Technology Studies STS as an alternative framework, which stresses that artifacts are socially constructed, mirroring the society that produces them. Then the chapter reviews three prominent approaches: social construction of technology (SCOT), actor network theory (ANT), and technological affordances.
Chapter 4: Techno-Social Designing
The topic of Chapter 4 is the impact of social factors on the design of technology. Users of technology are often oblivious to the complexity underlying technological design because not much knowledge is available on how this process unfolds. The aim of this chapter, then, is to uncover these often hidden creative processes by
replaced skilled workers, creating social upheaval, dissatisfaction, and unrest. We use this historical context to help readers better grasp current trends regarding how digital technologies facilitate new forms of production that are based on principles of collaboration, sharing, and open source. We discuss key concepts of the Web 2.0 mode of work, including prosumer, produsage, and perpetual beta. Instagram is used as an example to illustrate current trends in how users become producers of content. Most users would not consider this work; rather, they view it as art, pleasure, fun, or leisure time. But these new forms of work do have consequences for the new economy and for labour relations. The chapter ends with a discussion of the platform economy and its many promises and challenges. The main point of this chapter is that technology is not neutral, but rather becomes an active force that changes the nature of work itself, working conditions, and the structure of society as a whole.
Chapter 8: Genders and Technology
The book would not be complete without a critical engagement with the topic of gender and technology. Often gender is ignored in the design, adoption, and use of tools and apps, despite the fact that an analysis of gender provides rich insights into fundamental differences between how people approach technology. The chapter looks at historical and contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to the study and critique of gendered technologies. Of particular interest is the relation between household technologies and physical and mental labour. The chapter aims to discern the similarities and differences in how people of different genders adopt and use digital technologies. This analysis reveals that there is a gap in terms of digital skills, perceptions of competency, and uptake of digital tools. Based on these differences, the chapter goes on to examine the role of women in the IT industry and provides an overview of current interventions, such as Ladies Learning Code, aimed at increasing gender equality in this field. Finally, the chapter investigates how the gendered body becomes reintegrated into the digital world in the form of images, discourse, media depictions, and user-generated content.
Chapter 9: Community in the Network Society
Chapter 9 examines how the notion of community has changed as a result of the introduction of new technologies in society. The chapter starts with a brief overview of Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft as two of the most central concepts in the study of the structure of society. What follows is a critical examination of the debate about how industrialization, urbanization, and globalization have affected community. The community-lost, community-saved, and community-liberated perspectives are reviewed to contrast competing theories on the nature of these changes. The chapter also considers the recent concerns expressed about the impact of the Internet on the patterning of social relationships and presents various competing
perspectives. Chapter 9 concludes with a discussion of how information and communication technologies have affected the public sphere and the opportunities and constraints for real participation.
Chapter 10: Technology-Mediated Social Relationships
In Chapter 10, we briefly outline the early beginnings of mediated communication and address how they impact society. Then, we review recent trends in how people form and maintain personal connections via digital media. While most discourse focuses on the benefits of mediated communication, scholars have also warned about the potential negative effects on people’s social life. Can personal relations maintained online provide as much social support as those maintained in person? The chapter then focuses on how social media have redefined our notion of friendship and the implications of these changes for community and social networking. What follows is an analysis of the breakup 2.0, investigating how people form and terminate romantic relations by using social media. The chapter ends with an exploration of the concept of virtual mourning and how people renegotiate online the meaning of death.
Chapter 11: The Surveillance Society
The topic of Chapter 11 is surveillance and how it has become a central concern of our digital age. The goal of this chapter is to define the multifaceted term by contrasting different perspectives available in the literature. The chapter then provides an overview of the concept and architecture of the Panopticon and its means of exerting control and imposing disciplinary action. The chapter discusses the new modes of surveillance made possible by recent technological developments, which show how technologies have changed not only the practices of surveillance, but also the very nature of surveillance, reducing individuals’ privacy rights to a large extent. We end the chapter with a review of innovative methods of countersurveillance that aim at increasing awareness of the pervasiveness of surveillance in our society and provide means for personal resistance.
Chapter 12: Ethical Dimensions of Technology
The goal of the final chapter is to summarize the three key themes that run through the book. The first theme stresses the need to take a socio-technical perspective that allows for an in-depth examination of the social context of technology design, use, and implementation. The second theme demonstrates how innovation is associated with economics and as a result has consequences for our understanding of inequality and power relations. The last theme shows the many ways in which technological developments lead toward social change, impacting community, social networks, and social relations. The final chapter also embarks on a critical
examination of the ethical and moral dimensions of humans’ engagement with technology. The following themes are explored: the neutrality of technology, technology as human destiny, and technology as progress. Through this discussion, the chapter emphasizes the unexpected consequences of technology with which society must, ultimately, come to terms.
MMIWG Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
MMOs or MMOGs massively multiplayer online games
MTurk Mechanical Turk
NGO non-governmental organization
NN net neutrality
NPOV neutral point of view
NSA National Security Agency
NYPD New York Police Department
NYSE New York Stock Exchange
NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OFFSET OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics
OLPC One Laptop per Child
OMG oh my God
PC personal computer
PEOU perceived ease of use
PKR protein kinase RNA-activate
PU perceived usefulness
R&D research and development
RAM random-access memory
RIM Research in Motion
ROI return on investment
SCOT social construction of technology
STEM science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
STS science and technology studies
TAM Technology Acceptance Model
TB terabyte
TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
TV television
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
VOD video on-demand services
VR virtual reality
VSD value-sensitive design
WELL Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link
WSIS World Summit on the Information Society
UAV unmanned aerial vehicles
UI user interface
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
USB universal serial bus
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
WEEE waste of electric and electronic equipment
WHO World Health Organization
WWW World Wide Web
in a complex web of relations. The developing story around the role of Facebook in influencing users’ opinions and in propagating fake news is an example of an ethical dilemma not only for users, but also for Facebook (which owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus VR). In fact, the company has struggled following the controversy, and many now talk about an ethical crisis that Mark Zuckerberg did not foresee and affects the entire computer science community (Zunger, 2018; Scola, 2019).
The aim of this initial chapter is to introduce readers to the topic of technology by critically discussing and comparing its various definitions. In addition, the chapter introduces and contrasts three approaches to technology that define our current times. The first is simulation, which is geared toward the development of tools that can resemble or outperform human faculties. The second perspective is augmentation, which attempts to integrate machines and humans into new hybrid actors with added capabilities. Finally, automation is the move toward employing technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence to fully automate many processes and activities previously performed by humans. These perspectives highlight the many points of intersection between the human and the technological, including full substitution, raising important questions about the ethical, moral, and societal implications of endeavours such as augmentation, simulation, and automation. It also raises questions about the need for more intense public debate and scrutiny around ethics and for the teaching of technological literacy across the lifespan. The average citizen tends to dismiss debates around technology because it is often viewed as a black box, intransparent and impenetrable; however, technological decisions deeply affect all of us. This makes it increasingly necessary to remove the fear around opening the black box and asking the hard and important questions around the ethics of technology.
The Social and Ethical Dimensions of Studying Technology
The study of technology has typically been approached from a material standpoint, consisting of the examination of tools and tool use. Early scholars paid little attention to the social and ethical implications of technology, as illustrated in the definition of technology as material substance, discussed later in this chapter. The focus on how the social, ethical, and technological come together and influence one another became an object of academic study in the Marxist tradition around 1850 with its focus on inequality, which spurred interest in understanding how machines affect labour. For instance, the textile industry introduced machines to simplify and speed up work processes, resulting in the employment of non-skilled workers at lower wages (Berg, 1994). Marxist scholars examined how the growing use of machinery was a central factor in deskilling –i.e., the elimination, reduction, or downgrading of skilled labour because of the introduction of technologies within the workplace– and how it increased tensions in labour relationships. At this time, then, a transition occurred, away from the study of technology itself— as merely an object—toward an interest in how technology changes social structure and brings about social change. Now, examining the social side is essential as our
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own safety. He therefore arranged for the occupation of the Regno, leaving a considerable force in the conquered territory, and decided to return to France. He determined to endeavour to detach Alexander from the league, and with this end in view he set out for Rome. The Pope was his nearest and most dangerous enemy; the King therefore was anxious to win him over and obtain from him the investiture of the Kingdom of Naples.
Alexander, knowing that Charles was offended by Caesar’s flight and by his own activity in the formation of the league, decided to avoid him. Therefore, accompanied by Caesar and nineteen other cardinals, he left Rome for Orvieto, where he arrived May 28th. In notifying the people of Orvieto of his intended visit the Pope stated that he was going thither to meet the King of France. When his Holiness left Rome he placed Palavicini, Cardinal of Sta Anastasia, in charge of the city, and directed him not to oppose the King in any way, and to show him all honour and respect. The Pontiff’s escort numbered more than five thousand men, including Greek mercenaries, archers, mounted and on foot, courtiers, and servants.14 The Pope sent to Montefiascone and Viterbo for all the artillery, mortars, siege guns, and small cannon, which he placed in the castle, together with the munitions of war brought from Rome.
June 3rd an ambassador arrived from the Emperor Maximilian with a retinue of thirty horsemen, and was escorted into the town by a number of cardinals with a guard of a thousand men, horse and foot. The following day an envoy also arrived from the King of France. It is believed that the purpose of Maximilian’s embassy was to prevent the Pope and the French monarch—who was persisting in his efforts to see his Holiness—from coming to any agreement. While the diplomatists were endeavouring to hoodwink each other Caesar was busily engaged in putting the strongholds and castles in a condition for defence. The evening of June 4th the Pope held a consistory, at which it was decided to send Juan Lopez, Datory and Bishop of Perugia, to that city, whither the Pope had determined to go, and direct the officials to make proper preparations for the
reception of his Holiness. It was said at the time that it was the Pope’s intention to go from Perugia to Ancona and thence to Venice to ask the aid of the Republic, rather than have an interview with Charles.
June 5th the entire Pontifical Court set out for Perugia, and they had no sooner left the town of Orvieto than a royal envoy arrived with instructions to follow the Pope and see him at any cost. As soon as the messenger learned of Alexander’s departure he left for Perugia. At Toscanella his people were refused lodging, a fight ensued, and blood was shed. At Santa Fiora the French learned that Guido Sforza was in command of the citadel and they immediately took him prisoner, an act due to their hatred of his kinsmen Ludovico il Moro, who had betrayed their sovereign. In the meantime the Pope and Caesar had arrived at Perugia, and thus avoided the meeting they feared.
Charles had entered Rome—June 1st—and had remained there only over night. On the 5th he was in Viterbo, and thence he advanced into Lombardy; he avoided Florence and refused to give up Pisa. He reached Pontremoli and crossed the Apennines without encountering any resistance, but found the armies of Milan and Venice, under the command of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, lying in wait for him on the other side of the mountains. After a brief struggle at Fornovo, on the Taro, the King with his army of 10,000 men broke through the allied forces of 35,000—who lost about 3,500—and escaped to Turin and thence to France, where he apparently forgot all about his conquest of Naples, for he left his Viceroy, Gilbert de Montpensier, to look after himself as best he might. Immediately after the battle of Fornovo, Ferdinand II. with a few Spanish troops surprised Naples and captured Montpensier, and the French dominion in the Regno came to an end as quickly as it had been established. Before leaving Italy Charles had made peace with Ludovico independently of the Moor’s allies.
The danger passed, the inhabitants of Orvieto, anxious for the Pope to return to their city, sent a delegation to request him to do
to appoint our beloved son, Caesar, Cardinal of Valencia, to be your protector and governor; and knowing that on account of his high character and especially his sound judgment, you can expect much from him; and being exceedingly anxious to comply with your wishes in order that you may know how great is our love for you we have decided to make him your governor for life and do so appoint him as you will see by the proper document under our seal. We do this the more willingly as, owing to the great love and affection he bears you, we are confident that you will be well governed and also protected; and that your affairs will prosper in all ways. On account of other matters which concern us he is not able to go to you immediately, consequently he sends in his place our beloved son, Giacomo Dracaz, etc. Given in Rome, in St. Peter’s under the Pontifical seal xxii July MCCCCLXXXXV, the third year of our pontificate.
“B.
FLORIDUS.
”
The reader may well wonder whether any one was ever deceived by such an epistle.
Caesar’s first act was to make certain appointments to office which were beyond his authority, and when the fact was brought to his attention he withdrew them, and apologised with a tact and courtesy which proved the maturity of his judgment and character and at once endeared him to the people of Orvieto.
Caesar concludes his letter:—
“In view of the tricks and shrewdness of certain men who have no regard for the truth nothing is more difficult for those who are animated by just intentions than to distinguish the true from the false. If in future I should ever do anything contrary to your customs, statutes, or privileges, know that I have been led into error by some designing person, for I am only human and as such am liable to be tricked and deceived.”
The cardinal of nineteen years signs himself C. cardinalis Valentinus,quivosexcordeamat.
Although the letter does not sound like that of a boy of nineteen we must remember that children were precocious in those days and that his training and constant association with astute men much older than himself, who were concerned with the great interests of the age, probably made him wise beyond his years.
The letter to the conservators is dated August 7, 1495; consequently the Pope and Caesar had returned to Rome as soon as they knew that the French army was engaged with the forces of the league.
It was about this time that Alexander conceived the great idea of his reign—namely, to secure the definitive submission of the Romagnol barons who had greatly troubled the earlier years of his Pontificate. Caesar was only twenty years of age, and it is hardly probable that he was of much help in this project, although he could not have been indifferent to events about him—the collecting of men to strengthen the papal army, the repairing and provisioning of the castles about Rome, movements undoubtedly directed against the barons of the Romagna now deprived of the support of both France and Naples, the latter the victim of another war, caused by the determination of the Catholic sovereigns to restore the throne of Aragon in the Regno.
At this juncture the Pope decided to strengthen the Spanish party in the Sacred College; he accordingly at one creation— February 19, 1496—bestowed the cardinalate on four Castillians: the Bishop of Segovia, the Bishop of Agrigentum, the Bishop of Perugia, and on Francesco Borgia. The number of Spanish votes in the Sacred College was thereby raised to nine, and a great protest was made in Rome.
Romagna, the Marches, and Umbria nominally belonged to the Papacy, but in reality they were governed by certain powerful families: the Orsini and Colonna near Rome, the Verano in Camerino,
the Freducci in Fermo, the Trinci in Foligno, the Della Rovere in Sinigaglia and Urbino, the Baglioni in Perugia, the Vitelli in Città di Castella, the Sforza in Pesaro, the Malatesta in Rimini, the Manfredi in Faenza, the Bentivoglio in Bologna, and the Este in Ferrara. These families Alexander determined to destroy, ostensibly to recover the territory for the Church, but actually to build up a great principality for his family.
To carry out his design, however, the Pope had to find a reasonable pretext, and this he readily did, for when the King of France came to Italy the Orsini had entered into a treaty by which they were to help him, although they had hitherto supported the House of Aragon. Alexander could not have had a better excuse for crushing them; accordingly June 1, 1496, in public consistory he had a bull read declaring Virginio, Gian Giordano, Paolo and Carlo Orsini, and Bartolomeo d’Alviano rebels and deprived of their estates for having sided with the French and borne arms against the Church. Their ruin was hastened by the surrender of Aversa, July 23rd, when Virginio, the head of the family, was taken prisoner.
To carry out his plan the Pope summoned his son Giovanni, Duke of Gandia, to Rome, intending to confer on him the office of Gonfalonier of the papal forces, a position his elder brother, Pier Luigi, had previously held. Giovanni was born in 1474; he was therefore two years older than Caesar. In 1492 he had married Doña Maria Enriquez, a niece of the Catholic Sovereigns, and he seemed destined for a great career.
When Giovanni reached Rome, August 10, 1496, the Cardinal of Valencia, accompanied by the entire Court on horseback, went to meet him at the Porta Pertusa, and escorted him in great state to the papal palace.
Giovanni found his sister Lucretia and his brother Giuffre married into two of the great families of the peninsula and his brother Caesar an enormously wealthy Prince of the Church.
of Pesaro, were selected to meet Gonsalvo de Cordova when he came to Rome, March 15th, after the capture of Ostia, which Minaldo da Guevra had endeavoured to hold for Giuliano della Rovere. The Holy Father, however, continued to look after the interests of Lucretia, and especially of those of Caesar, who was given a share of the spoils wrested from the Roman barons. Next to Estouteville, Caesar was the wealthiest of the cardinals, and it now began to be whispered about that he intended to relinquish the purple.
In entering the Church he had merely yielded to his father’s wishes and he had only the first tonsure. The ambassadors noted his dislike for the Church; his instincts were those of a soldier; he was always armed; he was attracted by war and greedy for power. Had he been the eldest son he undoubtedly would have been made Captain-General of the papal forces, for he had more energy, a stronger will, a livelier imagination, and what is perhaps of even greater importance in the egotistical scramble for wealth and honours, he had absolutely no moral sense. In the great drama that was preparing he undoubtedly would have promptly found his fitting part. He was as violent and overbearing as his father, who had not dared to punish him when he fled from the French camp.
Giuffre, Prince of Squillace, and his wife, Doña Sancia of Naples, entered Rome in great state, May 20, 1496, by the Lateran Gate. The Prince was then fourteen and his wife two years older. They were escorted to the principal entrance of the Lateran Church by Caesar and Lucretia, with a company of two hundred persons, including the orators of all the powers, the cardinals and their suites, and numerous citizens; here Giuffre, Sancia, and Lucretia dismounted and entered the edifice; thence, after a short stay, they proceeded to the Apostolic Palace, where from a window the Pope eagerly watched their approach. His Holiness, attended by eleven cardinals—Caesar having now joined him—received them in a great hall. Before the Pope’s footstool was a low bench, on which was a brocaded cushion, and before this on the floor, in the form of a cross, were four large cushions of crimson velvet. Giuffre knelt
before the Pope, who took the Prince’s head between his hands, but did not kiss him. Sancia and Lucretia followed, and were received in the same manner. Thereupon the Prince and his consort kissed the hands of all the cardinals. This done, Giuffre took his place between his brother, the Cardinal of Valencia, and Cardinal Sanseverino, while Lucretia and Sancia seated themselves on the Pope’s left-hand, and “all conversed for some time pleasantly and wittily,” after which they took their departure. The next day Sancia and Lucretia and a number of other women, to the great scandal of Rome, crowded into and about the marble pulpit in St. Peter’s, from which the priests were accustomed to read the gospel.
Sancia, brought up in the corrupt Court of Naples, was a bold and perverse woman, who later became Caesar’s most determined and fearless enemy; she was the only person who dared brave him. Older than her husband, she despised and dominated him. It is said that she was the mistress of both her brothers-in-law, the Cardinal of Valencia and the Duke of Gandia, and also later of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este.
In a consistory held June 8, 1497, Caesar Borgia was appointed legate to anoint and crown Frederic of Aragon King of Naples. Alexander had consented to invest him with the Regno and remit the annual tribute to the Church if he would make Benevento an independent principality for his son, the Duke of Gandia, without feudal obligations. In secret consistory the Pope secured the cardinals’ consent to the investiture of the Duke of Gandia with Terracina and Pontecorvo.
Caesar was making extravagant preparations for his departure and Gandia was completing arrangements to go with him to receive the investiture of his new domains when an event occurred which changed the whole order of things, and one which has continued to baffle historians—the murder of the Duke of Gandia the night of June 14, 1497.
the mysterious person on the crupper, rode away from the servant to some place—I know not where—and was killed and thrown into the river.”
The servant left in the Piazza degli Ebrei was found there mortally wounded and unable to give any information.
The morning of the fifteenth day, the Duke having failed to return to the Apostolic Palace, the Pope became uneasy, but, assuming that his son had gone to see some mistress and that he did not wish to be observed coming away in the daytime, the father concluded he would return that night; but Gandia failing to put in an appearance, the Holy Father became alarmed and caused a thorough investigation to be made.
Among those examined was a certain Giorgio Sclavus, who made a business of gathering driftwood along the banks of the river and who stated that on the night the Duke disappeared he was guarding his wood when, about the fifth hour, he saw two men on foot come from the Hospital Sclavorum, along the public highway close to the river. After looking about in every direction and seeing no one, they returned the way they had come. Soon after two others appeared from precisely the same place and did as the former couple had done, and, discovering no one, they made a signal to their comrades. Immediately a man rode forth on a white charger with a dead body behind him.
The corpse was taken from the horse and cast into the stream, whereupon the rider asked, “Did it sink?” To which the others replied, “Signor, si.” Then all disappeared whence they had come.
When the man was asked why he had not reported the crime to the Governor of the city, he replied that in his time he had seen a hundred bodies cast into the Tiber at this very place and no questions had been asked.
Men were secured in the city to drag the river; a large reward was offered for the recovery of the body, and about nightfall it was found, fully clothed; even his purse, containing thirty ducats, was
