'Lucrezia Borgia' by Hugo, 19th-century illustration. This scene is set at the Barbarigo Palace in Venice. This 1833 play was written by French poet, novelist and dramatist Victor Hugo (1802-1885). The title character Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia. The daughter of Pope Alexander VI, she married three times. Later rumours associated with her of incest and murder were popularised in works such as this play by Hugo. Artwork published in Paris in 1860, in an edition of the works of Hugo by Alexandre Houssiaux.