Mario Puzo - The Family

A novel set in a fifteenth-century Italy populated by corrupt popes and despotic families introduces the first of the mafia families–Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, and his children Jofre, Juan, Lucrezia, and Cesare.

"We are a family," Alexander told his children. "And the loyalty of the family must come before everything and everyone else. For if we honor that commitment, we will never be vanquished – but if we falter in that loyalty, we will all be condemned."