Novelist Amélie de Bourbon Parme published Ambition (L’ambition, Gallimard, 2023), the first volume of her trilogy The Eternity Traffickers (Les trafiquants d’éternité), set in Renaissance Rome. It is a fictionalized biography of Alessandro Farnese (1468–1549), who became Pope Paul III in 1534—a figure of major importance to both Christianity and the author’s own family history. Ambition ends in 1503, at the close of the papacy of Alexander VI, who had named Farnese a cardinal.
Ascension (L’ascension, Gallimard, 2024), the second volume, follows Farnese’s brilliant rise: as advisor to Julius II—an opponent of the Borgia clan—and close friend of Leo X, he fails to influence Clement VII, whose missteps lead to the Sack of Rome. At the time, the capital of Christendom is above all a seat of power, where the clergy is more concerned with its own ambitions and desires than with the salvation of the faithful—a corruption that Martin Luther would famously condemn.
In French.
