A History of Milan Under the Sforza

by Cecilia Mary Ady

A HISTORY of Milan, under the House of Sforza, can hardly incur the charge of being superfluous. While Rome, Florence and Venice have each found English historians, and while fresh books on Renaissance Italy appear every day, no English writer has told the story of the Sforza as a whole. The scant attention which has been given to the history of Milan may be compared with the brief visit which the traveller pays to the capital of Lombardy before he presses on to other Italian cities. Yet those who pause to look will find, hidden under the bustle of a modern commercial town, numerous relics of an age when the Duchy of Milan was deemed the first State in Italy. To the student of history the rule of the Sforza presents one of the most characteristic examples of an Italian tyranny at the time of the Renaissance...

Genres: History, Renaissance, Italy

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Cecilia Mary Ady was an English writer, academic and historian. She worked at the University of Oxford, and – like her mother – became known as an authority on the Italian Renaissance. She came to wider public attention after she was dismissed by a former friend from her college, and her colleagues supported her reinstatement.

Reviews

[Daniel Villines · Rating 5 out of 5]

While planning a future trip to Northern Italy, I realized that I knew virtually nothing about the history of the area. With other locations, say London, there is some underlying knowledge given how relevant the history of the Untied Kingdom is to that of America. But with Italy that was not the case.

I chose to start with the Sforzas partly by random and partly due to a previous but brief trip through Milan. The Castle in Milan bears the Sforza name and it is the predominate feature of the City. While the Duomo is beautiful, the Castle is a massive structure of stone that resonates a historical past.

The book is well written and well organized. It focuses on Northern Italy and from there it touches on that region’s interactions with the balance of Italy as well as the rest of Europe. The timespan of the book progresses through a period of just over one hundred years. The narrative goes into detail, and those like me, who are not familiar with the smaller cities and castles of Italy, should be prepared to have Google available while reading. From this perspective, the book is challenging.

The history itself is captivating. I was caught off guard by how chaotic Italy was during a period when renaissance art is mostly all that remains. The country was comprised of city-states that viewed the surrounding villages as little more than sources of income for the regional despot. Mercenary armies and frequent wars were the norm and they were all predicated on the desires of rulers, kings, and the Pope. And yet, there were still traces of human kindness expressed by rulers towards their subjects and Leonardo da Vinci appears in Milan bringing with him artistic and engineering talents.

I was hoping that A History of Milan Under the Sforza would serve as a foundation upon which other histories and other historical fictions could rest. Now that I have completed it, I am certain that that will be the case.

[Andrew Reece · Rating 5 out of 5]

English Historian Cecilia M. Ady Studies Over A Century Of Milanese Political & Military Affairs During The Reign Of The Sforza.

The reigns of the six rulers comprising the Sforza dynasty encompassed in total a sum of eighty-five years, from 1450-1535, & during this period the citizens of Milan were exposed to a diverse array of character archetypes & styles of governance which were the hallmarks of the colorfully charismatic Sforza potentates & became their most prominent enduring legacies. Francesco I Sforza, the founder of the dynasty, learned the trade of the mercenary condottiere, the soldier-for-hire, from his father, Muzio Attendolo Sforza, & through a masterful series of political & military victories, found himself at the helm of a vast Italian city-state, perhaps the country's largest, with an unprecedented amount of manpower & resources at his ready disposal. He proved himself to be as effective a ruler as he had a battle commander, trading in his soldier's arms & armor for a diplomat's pen & parchment while he smoothly phased out his condottiere past & assumed the ducal mantle to forge valuable alliances with Cosimo de'Medici of Florence & the cunning French king Louis XI, the 'Universal Spider' of western Europe. Francesco's son & heir, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was the quintessential storybook despot of the Italian Renaissance, & neither his epicurean lifestyle nor his unparalleled depravity knew limits or boundaries of any sort, until he met his end in 1476 at the hands of disgruntled & idealistic former associates who believed they were following the precepts of the Greek philosophers by ridding the world of a tyrant. Galeazzo's younger brother, the consummate intriguer Ludovico 'il Moro' Sforza, was content to rule the kingdom from behind the scenes as regent for his young nephew Giangaleazzo Sforza, before stepping over him to seize the reins of the Duchy of Milan for himself. Ludovico's two sons, Massimiliano & Francesco II Sforza, both reigned during the final waning of the dynasty's power base & held their positions only through considerable Swiss & Spanish intervention, their periods of rule plagued with popular revolts & failed conspiracy plots.

This digitally printed 2017 version of Cecilia M. Ady's original 1909 edition of A History of Milan Under the Sforza is published by Didactic Press, & its 216 pages are divided into 10 chapters, each focusing on a single ruler, with the exceptions being Francesco Sforza, who has three chapters devoted to both his political & military exploits, & Lodovico Sforza, who also has a trio of chapters focusing on his particularly long & complex reign, which lasted from 1480-1499, followed by a short period in 1500 when he briefly regained his power with Swiss military assistance. Wikipedia's entry for Cecilia Ady states that she was a British historian who lived from 28 November 1881–27 March 1958 & was employed at Oxford University, as well as being the author of eight books, including Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini): The Humanist Pope in 1913, The English Church & How it Works in 1940, in addition to a 1934 English translation of the Italian scholar Benedetto Croce's Italian Studies which is entitled A History of Modern Italy, 1871–1915. After years of research Ady was awarded the honor of receiving her degree of Doctor of Letters, also known as a Doctor of Literature, in 1938 for her scholarly written work The Bentivoglio of Bologna: A Study in Despotism, which had been published the previous year.

The primary focus of Chapter 1, Sforza & His Son, Soldiers of Fortune - (1369-1433) is Muzio Attendolo, Francesco I Sforza's father, who, while not reaching the heights of becoming a lord or potentate such as his son was to attain, was nonetheless a renowned condottiere who established his reputation fighting in the Company of Saint George under Alberico da Barbiano, alongside such famous names as Facino Cane, Braccio Montone, & Jacopo dal Verme. There was a local legend regarding Muzio's origins that a group of hired soldiers riding in the vicinity of Cotignola had chanced upon the future mercenary captain as a young man, who happened at that time to be chopping wood. Noticing the youth's formidable stature, they asked him if he would be interested in joining their company, & the lad replied by throwing his axe into a nearby oak tree, proudly declaring that if it stuck in the tree, he would become one of them -- "If it stays, I will go." And the axe remained firmly lodged in the old oak, & thus (according to the legend) began the legendary career of Muzio Attendolo, who quickly distinguished himself by fighting with strength & courage under the banner of Alberico da Barbiano for fifteen years, who, once he had seen what the youth was capable of, gave him the enduring sobriquet 'Sforza', Italian for 'force', which Muzio eventually took to become his surname. The actual truth of Muzio's origins is more likely to be found in the fact that his father, Giovanni Attendolo, married a woman from an affluent middle-class family, Elisa Petrocini, & thus the conclusion can be reasonably made that his sire came from a well-to-do family himself. Each chapter of this one-of-a-kind study is extremely organized & well-presented -- the reviewer found the content in this book to be quite ahead of its time, especially considering the fact that it was originally written over a hundred years ago. It measures up surprisingly well against current scholarly written works & prospective readers should know that it does not require a great deal of background knowledge prior to jumping into the study, as Cecilia Ady has done a superlative job of explaining the people & events of this exciting period in Milan's wonderfully fascinating history.

Ady narrates Francesco Sforza's historic conquest of the region of Italy known as the March of Ancona, a feat that he stunningly achieved in three weeks, in the study's second chapter, which is entitled, Francesco Sforza, Lord of the March - (1433-1447). While the March was technically under the dominion of the papacy, the rise of a cadre of petty despots & the presence of a Papal Legate, Giovanni Vitelleschi, who was vehemently reviled across the entire area created turmoil & unrest in this area of the Papal States, & Sforza took advantage of this situation by spreading opportunistic propaganda which communicated that those citizens of the March who continued to pay their taxes to the Catholic Church would soon be paying them a second time, to him, & this was sufficient to dissuade many papal loyalists from resisting Francesco's relentless advance. The author's eloquent writing describes of the result of Sforza's ingenuity in the following passage: "The effect of this proclamation was instantaneous, & on 10th December Sforza began what was rather a triumphal progress than a conquest. On his march from Jesi ambassadors from the chief cities came to offer him their keys. The few places that dared to resist were plundered. Montolmo, Macerata, Fermo, Rencanati, Osimo, one after the other, acknowledged Sforza as their lord. On Christmas Day his triumph was made complete by the submission of Ascoli, which brought the conqueror to the southern frontiers of the province." In all, there are three chapters which, when viewed together, demonstrate Francesco Sforza's startling transformation from the battle-tested mercenary condottiere to the intelligent, resourceful, & above all, shrewd, master of statecraft who managed to successfully become the legitimate heir to the Duchy of Milan by securing a betrothal to Bianca Maria Visconti, the daughter of its reigning Duke, Filippo Maria Visconti. The founder of the Sforza dynasty possessed the rare personality that was as equally suited to matters of state as it was to warcraft, & his reign was on the whole very peaceful & free of conflict, making him popular among the influential citizens of other cities such as Cosimo de'Medici of Florence, with whom he masterminded that triumph of diplomatic entente that became known as the Peace of Lodi in 1454.

Although he is rightly considered a Renaissance tyrant by most modern scholars, in Chapter 5, Galeazzo Maria Sforza - (1466-1476) Ady chooses to emphasize the not-inconsiderable political & economic accomplishments of Duke Francesco Sforza's eldest son & heir, which stand as noticeable contradictions to his famous reputation for wanton decadence & frivolous prodigality, as she speaks to in this well-worded excerpt that appraises the young duke's financial abilities & juxtaposes them against his ill repute: "Vast as were the sums which the Duke spent on luxury, his was no reckless extravagance. He showed himself surprisingly scrupulous with regard to the payment of his debts, & the ducal balance-sheet for the year 1476 shows a careful supervision of finance on his part. The fact that the balance is on the right side, in spite of some forty thousand ducats spent on jewels, bears witness both to Galeazzo's financial ability & to the wealth of Milan." Galeazzo also instituted various programs to stimulate economic growth in certain industries, such as silk manufacture & rice cultivation, in addition to undertaking an extension of Milan's Grand Canal which, when completed, provided speedy transportation between Binasco & Pavia, a municipal project that proved to be a great asset to the Duchy. However, some of the practices utilized by Duke Galeazzo in order to raise revenue for his own hedonistic lifestyle were far from acceptable, as evinced by Ady's short anecdote which revolves around a certain tax known as the 'inquinto' which he introduced during that period: "Still more unpopular was the levy of the inquinto, that is, of an additional fifth upon the already existing taxes on meat, wine, bread & other necessities of life. So great was the discontent aroused that Galeazzo resolved to abolish the inquinto, & in 1474 the Council of Nine Hundred met to give its consent to a decree framed for this purpose. Yet it could have been little more than the name of inquinto that was abolished. The Duke stipulated that his Exchequer should not be made a penny the poorer by the concession, & the tax, apparently, continued until it was removed by Simonetta after Galeazzo's death." Readers interested in learning more about Galeazzo are encouraged to try Professor Gregory Lubkin's 1994 study, A Renaissance Court: Milan Under Galeazzo Maria Sforza.

In Chapter 6, Gian Galeazzo, Duke - Lodovico Sforza's Rise to Power - (1476-1492), the author discusses the ascent to authority of the shrewd Lodovico 'il Moro', & the elaborate game of diplomatic chess he waged against Cecco Simonetta, his father's old councilor, his brother Galeazzo Sforza's widow, Bona of Savoy, & the Milanese nobility in his efforts to gain control of the duchy by taking into his charge the person of the young duke, Giangaleazzo Sforza, who was twelve years of age at that time. There was ill will that had developed between Lodovico & Cecco, who had sided with the deceased Galeazzo in an earlier power struggle between the brothers, & when Bona of Savoy went behind Simonetta's back & allowed Lodovico & his partisans into the all-but-impregnable Castello of Milan, Cecco, who had been entrenched inside for some time, knew that his fall from grace would be both swift & extremely unpleasant, & he was correct on both accounts, as Ady illustrates for the reader in the following excerpt: "Once the deed was done, Cecco Simonetta could only make the best of the situation by welcoming Lodovico with every mark of favor. Yet he knew that his fall was at hand. 'Most illustrious Duchess,' he said to Bona, 'I shall lose my head, & you, ere long, will lose the State.' The prophesy was all too literally fulfilled." Having gained control of Milan against seemingly impossible odds, Lodovico then swiftly neutralized all threats to his power, including his own brother, Ascanio Sforza, at that time Archbishop of Milan & papal legate, by relegating him to nearby Ferrara. Lodovico's reign was a complicated affair when compared to the other Sforza dukes, & as such Ady has devoted three entire chapters to his life & political career as it first endured a period of regency over Giangaleazzo Sforza, who was at that time in his minority, followed by a tenure as lord of Milan but not yet legitimate duke, as he was necessitated to purchase ducal investiture rights from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I Habsburg for the hefty price of 100,000 ducats, in addition to the 400,000 he had to pay as the dowry for the emperor's marriage to his niece, Bianca Maria Sforza, to seal their pact of alliance. While there are Italian biographies of Ludovico Sforza none as of yet have been published in English on this intriguing historical figure.

The study's final two sections, Chapter 9, Massimiliano Sforza & the Swiss Confederation - (1508-1515), & Chapter 10, Francesco II, Last of the Sforza -- (1515-1535), chronicle the reigns of the Sforza dynasty's final two ruling lords. After the capture & imprisonment of Lodovico Sforza following his brief return to power in April 1500, Milan entered a period of French occupation where the French administration installed a makeshift regime, called a palimpsest, which effectually functioned over the ruins of the previous government. The circumstances which brought Massimiliano Sforza to the throne were predicated upon the fact that the Swiss needed to control the passes through the Alps which allowed passage to & from Italy, as trade with Milan drove so much of their commerce that it was considered a matter of national importance, according to the author. With Milan suffering under the oppression of French occupation during the reign of King Louis XII, it was vital for the cantons, or provinces, of Switzerland, that the Confederation possess the two principal towns, namely Bellinzona & Domodossola, that held jurisdiction over these mountain routes. After a series of unsuccessful military efforts to drive the French out of Milan, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Sion, Matthias Schinner, the Swiss eventually make common cause with the Holy League of Pope Julius II with the ultimate goal of placing Massimiliano Sforza on the throne. Readers searching for a more specialized monograph dedicated to this particular period in Milanese history would be well served by picking up John Gagnè's entry in the I Tatti Studies in Renaissance History series, entitled Milan Undone: Contested Sovereignties in the Italian Wars. Gagnè's book focuses on the palimpsest governments in place during the eras of French & Imperial periods of occupation in Milan, as well as the short-lived regimes of Massimiliano & Francesco II as the once-mighty Sforza lineage saw its final, dying years in the first half of the sixteenth century.

Overall, Cecilia M. Ady's A History of Milan Under the Sforza is an underrated & often-overlooked written work from the turn of the twentieth century which holds up in remarkable fashion when compared with modern scholarship. It is composed in a straightforward, direct style of writing that requires practically no prior knowledge of the early Renaissance period in which the chronicled events occur. The study is extremely well-organized & upon completion should provide the reader with a more thorough understanding of both the era & the remarkable Sforza clan who governed one of the most colorful & vibrant of the Italian city-states for close to a century. Readers who are curious to peruse a pair of contemporary, Suetonian-style biographies on Francesco I Sforza & his predecessor, Filippo Maria Visconti, would likely enjoy Gary Ianziti's translations of Pier Candido Decembrio's Lives of the Milanese Tyrants, published by Harvard University Press & part of the I Tatti Renaissance Library. Finally, for more on the French kings appearing in this book's narrative, Paul Murray Kendall's Louis XI: The Universal Spider & Frederic J. Baumgartner's Louis XII both are excellent, well-written sources of information that do much to explain why the French had such a vested interest in Italy during that time. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the review!

[Lorina Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a comprehensive, albeit dry, history of the Sforza, this is the book to study. Every minute detail of their lives, their rise to power, the cultural and political surround has been painstakingly researched, if not particularly engagingly written. Certainly a book one reads because one should.

[Elizabeth Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provided everything I wanted to know about the Sforza family. However, I don't think it would be a good starting place for beginners. I believe you need at least a little background knowledge of Renaissance Italy before diving into this book. Even as someone who has been interested in the Sforza for 10 years, there were some names of other nobility or mistresses of the Dukes that I was not familiar with, and it felt like I was expected to know who those people were.

The book covers the rise of the Sforza family, from their days as peasants all the way to their downfall, and it highlights their contributions to society, whether in architecture, art, or literature. We even learn about who ruled Milan after the Sforza, which were all topics I wasn't too familiar with regarding the start of the family, their downfall, and what happened to the city afterward.

"A History of Milan Under the Sforza" is a very straightforward book. It's quick to read and doesn't weigh you down with excessive details, providing a basic understanding without delving into the nitty-gritty of these events. I think this makes it a good middle-of-the-road pick if you already know something about Renaissance Italy but still want to be introduced to more topics. Overall, this book did everything I wanted it to do.

[Jo Walton]

Ady was an early twentieth century academic, and this is an impeccable book for the date it was written, though naturally inherently out of date now. But are any modern people writing me books about Milan under the Sforza? They are not. Full of detail of dates and places, a good solid work. Wouldn't have plugged on if it wasn't research though, so can't really recommend as general reading.

[Trudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good content, too many typos

The book is a good scholarly summary of Milan under the Sforza family. A bit dry, but thorough information. The number of typos, however, is absurd and detracts from the book. This is not the author's fault, it's the editor's and publisher's fault.

[John F · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's not really a history of Milan at all under the Sforza, but instead a rambling regurgitation of facts with some literary color thrown in once in a while. This is the kind of tome that once formed the basis of history lessons in Lycees and other schools, where history was memorized and then repeated in class as a boring series of dates and I remember my sister practicing at home. Not only is it dry, it's boring. The English translation appears to have no paragraphs whatsoever and just goes on an on. Not recommended for reading, unless you need it to fall asleep.

[Matthew Barraclough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good accessible and interesting history

as above enjoyed it. couldn't find any other books on the subject. informs ant person who intends to travel to Milan well.

[Liz Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear and informative, especially given its age.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential Read

An essential read for the study of Italian history or politics in the 15th and 16th centuries. Helpful to understanding European politics and military motives, as well.