It is a historical work portraying the Renaissance-era Italian aristocrat Lucrezia Borgia.
The play (along with Angelo, Tyrant of Padua) is believed to have been a major influence on Oscar Wilde's The Duchess of Padua (1891).
[1] The opera Lucrezia Borgia composed by Gaetano Donizetti had a libretto by Felice Romani which was based on Hugo's play.
Several films about Borgia and her family have drawn partly on the plot of the play.
Media related to Lucrèce Borgia at Wikimedia Commons