The Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere by Caroline P. Murphy; Faber & Faber, 2006, $26.95. This  elegant and accessible book knows its limits, never strays beyond its ken, or risks becoming hostage to fortune. It’s about an important but little-known subject. Its use of source material is astute and comprehensive, and where there’s no source material its assumptions are measured, as the author, Caroline Murphy, introduces her readers to historical characters who lived in Italy during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Their world was dominated by the politics of patronage, the imperatives of agrarian…