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The Visconti-Sforza Regime of Milan: Recently Published Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Vincent Ilardi
Vincent Ilardi*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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Extract

Professor Caterina Santoro's latest edition of Lombard documents, La politica finanziaria dei Visconti. Documenti. Vol. I, Settembre 1329 - Agosto 1385 (Milan, 1976), offers a convenient opportunity to look back over the last three decades and attempt a brief assessment of similar editions pertaining to the political and administrative history of Lombardy under the Visconti and the Sforza. With the possible exception of Naples, Milan is the one of the five principal Renaissance states that has attracted the least attention outside Italy, particularly in the United States where one seldom encounters even a review of a book devoted to Lombard history. Yet Milan is not only far more ancient but has been more consistently on the forefront of Italian history than both Florence and Venice on whom non-Italian scholars have concentrated their research efforts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1978 , pp. 331 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1978

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References

1 A comprehensive historiographical survey of the Communal period was recently published by Mazzi, M. S., ‘Milano dei secoli IX-XII in contributi dell'ultimo trentennio,’ Archivio storico italiano, 132 (1974), 371–415 Google Scholar.

2 The following inventories were published: Manaresi, C., I Registri viscontei (Milan, 1915)Google Scholar; Vittani, G., Gli Atti cancellereschi viscontei. Parte prima. Decreti e carteggio interno. Parte seconda. Carteggio extra Dominium, 2 vols. (Milan, 1920-1929)Google Scholar; Ferorelli, N., I Registri dell'Ufficio degli Statuti (Milan, 1926)Google Scholar. The index to the last volume was never published, but it is available in typescript at the Archives. All these inventories were reprinted in 1971. The remarkable activity in the Archivio di Stato under Fumi's direction is fully recorded in the Annuario dell'Archivio di Stato di Milano (1910-1919) and has been recently treated by Raponi, N., ‘Per la storia dell'Archivio di Stato di Milano. Erudizione e cultura nelT “Annuario” del Fumi (1909-1919),’ Rassegna degli Archivi di Stato, 31 (1971), 313–332 Google Scholar.

3 For a list of Santoro's writings up to 1969, see her book, Scritti rari e inediti (Milan, 1969), pp. xxi-xxx, which includes eleven previously unpublished papers.

4 The administrative machinery of the earlier Commune had been admirably described by Manaresi in the introduction to his edition of the Atti del Comune di Milano fino al MCCXVI (Milan, 1919). Manaresi's work is now being continued by one of Santoro's former students, Baroni, M. F., who has just published the first of a projected five-volume edition, Gli Atti del Comune di Milano nel secolo XIII, vol. I, 1217-1250 (Milan, 1976)Google Scholar.

5 See Chabod's article, ‘Y a-t-il un État de la Renaissance?,’ in Actes du Colloque sur la Renaissance (Paris, 1958), pp. 57-74; also available in English in The Development of the Modern State, ed. H. Lubasz (New York and London, 1964), pp. 26-42.

6 Santoro's books cited above contain full bibliographies on the subject.

7 The following studies are illustrative of the work done to date: Bueno de Mesquita, D. M., ‘Ludovico Sforza and his Vassals,’ in Italian Renaissance Studies, ed. E. F. Jacob (London, 1960), pp. 184–216 Google Scholar, and ‘The Place of Despotism in Italian Politics,’ in Europe in the Late Middle Ages, ed. J. R. Hale, J. R. L. Highfield, and B. Smalley (Evanston, 1965), pp. 316£F.; F. Fossati, ‘Nuove spigolature d'archivio,’ Archivio storico lombardo, ser. VIII, 7 (1957), 357-391; Peyronnet, G., ‘Il Ducato diMilano sotto Francesco Sforza (1450-1466): politica interna, vita economica e sociale,’ Archivio storico italiano, 116 (1958), 36–53 Google Scholar; and Chittolini, G., ‘Infeudazioni e politica feudale nel Ducato visconteo-sforzesco,’ Quademi Storici, 19 (1972), 57–130 Google Scholar.

8 These registers are deposited in the Archivio Storico Civico of Milan. Earlier Santoro had published the summaries of other ducal letters and of the deliberations of the Ufficio di Provvisione from the same archives, I Registri dell'Ufficio di Provvisione e dell’ Ufficio del sindaci sotto la dominazione viscontea (Milan, 1929).

9 It may simply be noted here that economic and social historians may find additional sources pertaining to the private sector in the edition of notarial documents for the Communal period begun by Manaresi, and Vittani, , Gli Atti privati milanesi e comaschi del sec. XI (a. 1001-1023) (Milan, 1933)Google Scholar, continued and completed by Santoro: vol. n (1026-1050) (Milan, 1960); III (1051-1074) (Milan, 1965); IV (1075-1100) (Milan, 1969).

10 The Diari were originally published by Natale without the Introduction and the Excursus in the Archivio storico lombardo, ser. VIII, 1 (1948-49), 80-114; 2 (1950), 157-180; 3 (1951-52), 154-187; 4 (1953). 186-217; 5 (1954-55), 292-318; 6 (1956), 58-125; 7 (1957), 277-288.

11 The deliberations of the Consiglio Segreto for other years are scattered among the volumes of the Registri delle Missive.

12 Il Museo Diplomatico dell'Archivio di Stato di Milano, 2 vols. (Milan, 1969). This edition publishes in facsimile with accompanying transcriptions the first 163 documents from the seventh to the ninth century that form the initial part of the oldest series at the Archives.

13 Vittani's course-lectures on diplomatics delivered at the Archivio di Stato were only published recently in photocopy: Diplomatica (Milan, 1972).

14 Gingins-la-Sarra, F., Dépéches des ambassadeurs milanais sur les campagnes de Charles-Le-Hardi, due de Bourgogne de 1474 à 1477, 2 vols. (Paris and Geneva, 1858)Google Scholar; de Mandrot, B., Dépêches des ambassadeurs milanais en France sous Louis XI et Francois Sforza, 1461-1466, 4 vols. (Paris, 1916-1923)Google Scholar. The fourth volume was edited by Samaran, C.. L. Osio's edition, Documenti diplomatici tratti dagli Archivj milanesi, 3 vols. (Milan, 1864-1872)Google Scholar, publishes documents only for the period 1265-1447.

15 Tranchedino, Francesco, Diplomatische Geheimschriften. Codex vindobonensis 2398 der osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek Faksimile ausgabe (Graz, 1970)Google Scholar, and La diplomazia sforzesca nella seconda metà del Quattrocento e i suoi cifrari segreti, 2 vols. (Rome, 1970). The second volume contains the plates.

16 For possible influences of Visconti diplomatic practices on later Milanese diplomacy, see Soldi Rondinini, G., ‘Ambasciatori e ambascerie al tempo di Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1426),’ Nuova rivista storica, 49 (1965), 313–344 Google Scholar.

17 Most of these reprints, which include works by L. Osio, G. Giulini, M. Daverio, A. Fumagalli, C. Morbio, and many others, have been published by the Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino of Milan. For a partial list, see Barni, G. L., ‘Un'iniziativa editoriale per la Storia Lombarda,’ Archivio storico lombardo, ser. IX, 10 (1971-1973), 398–400 Google Scholar. Also active in the publication of Lombard sources pertaining to public administration has been the Fondazione Italiana per la Storia Amministrativa (FISA) with headquarters in Milan, but having a national scope. Its Annali publish a most useful bibliography of books and articles devoted to public administration worldwide. The Archivio Storico Civico of Milan has also been very active. On the other hand, the Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri per la Storia di Milano, which published Santoro's Uffici, the gigantic seventeen-volume Storia di Milano, and several other books on Lombard history and culture, ceased its activity about a decade ago.

18 A History of Milan under the Sforza (London, 1907), p. v, where Ady wrote: ‘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.’

19 For a general description of the collections microfilmed, see my article, ‘Fifteenth-Century Diplomatic Documents in Western European Archives and Libraries (1450-1494),’ Studies in the Renaissance, 9 (1962), 64-112. Following the completion of the microfilm project next year, I plan to publish a detailed guide to the entire collection.

20 To cite a most recent example of the kind of unexpected information contained in diplomatic dispatches, I note that the development of concave lenses to correct myopia was definitely established through the correspondence of the dukes of Milan with their ambassador in Florence in the middle of the fifteenth century. This discovery has definite implications for the invention of the telescope at the end of the sixteenth century. See my article, ‘Eyeglasses and Concave Lenses in Fifteenth-Century Florence and Milan: New Documents,’ RQ, 29 (1976), 341-360.

21 The basic monograph on the subject was written by Vitale, M., La lingua volgare delta Cancelleria visconteo-sforzesca nel Quattrocento (Milan, 1953).Google Scholar