The Description

A Description of the methods adopted by the Duke Valentino when murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini^[1] often abbreviated as The Description for reasons of brevity, is a work by Italian Renaissance political scientist and historian Niccolò Machiavelli. The work describes the methods used by Cesare Borgia to capture and murder members of the Orsini family, a princely family of Renaissance Rome. Both Vitellozzo Vitelli and Oliverotto da Fermo were strangled on the night of their capture on 31 December 1502.^[2]