Editing Cesare Borgia (section)

==Early life==
{{See also|House of Borgia}}
[[File:Cesare Borgia as child (by Bernardino di Betto Pinturicchio).jpg|thumb|left|upright|A purported depiction of Cesare as a young boy, painted by Bernardino di [[Pinturicchio]].]]
Like many aspects of Cesare Borgia's life, the date of his birth is a subject of dispute. He was born in [[Subiaco, Lazio|Subiaco]], [[Papal States]] (now in [[Lazio, Italy]]).<ref name="birth" /><ref name="Sacerdote1950" /> in either 1475 or 1476, the illegitimate son of Cardinal Roderic Llançol i de Borja, usually known as "Rodrigo Borgia", later [[Pope Alexander VI]], and his Italian mistress [[Vannozza dei Cattanei]], about whom information is sparse. The [[Borgia]] family originally came from the [[Kingdom of Valencia]], and rose to prominence during the mid-15th century. Cesare's great-uncle Alphonso Borgia (1378–1458), bishop of Valencia, was elected [[Pope Callixtus III]] in 1455.<ref name="xvfywc">Herfried Münkler and Marina Münkler, ''Lexikon der Renaissance'', Munich: Beck, 2000, pp. 43ff.{{in lang|de}}</ref> Cesare's father, Pope Alexander VI, was the first pope who openly recognized his children born out of wedlock.

The Italian historian [[Stefano Infessura]] writes that Cardinal Borgia falsely claimed Cesare to be the legitimate son of another man—Domenico d'Arignano, the nominal husband of Vannozza dei Cattanei. More likely, [[Pope Sixtus IV]] granted Cesare a release from the necessity of proving his birth in a [[papal bull]] of 1 October 1480.<ref>Sabatini (pp. 45, 48), citing the supplement to the Appendix of Thuasne's edition of Burchard's ''Diarium''</ref>