at revival of art and learning which is Lodovico's lasting title
to fame. Chief among these was the reform and extension of the
University of Pavia. During the troubled times that followed Galeazzo
Sforza's death, this ancient University had sunk to a very low ebb. The
professors remained unpaid, and in many cases ceased to lecture, the
buildings were small and inconvenient and the students lawless and
riotous. Lodovico set himself with a stern hand to repress abuses on the
one side, while on the other he grudged neither time nor money in
promoting the cause of learning. A letter which he addressed to the
students from Vigevano in August, 1488, only a few weeks before the
dangerous illness which almost ended his life, deserves to be quoted, if
only as an example of the attention which he gave to every detail of
administration.

"Not a day passes," he writes, "but I hear of some fresh misconduct on
your part, some crime committed or some uproar excited in the city, by
you who are scholars of the University. Even last Holy Week your
behaviour towards certain gentlemen and citizens of Pavia was justly the
cause of scandal and complaint. Such things are not to be borne, nor do
I intend to bear them any longer. Schools are intended for learning, and
the object of all study and learning is that we may know how to live
well, and, by our good conduct and fair lives, gain honour and praise
both in the eyes of God and man. We do not see that the human and divine
laws, in which you are daily instructed, produce any good effect if you
can behave as you have done in this case towards peaceable citizens,
especially in these holy days when the fear of God should, above all,
control your ways and actions. If you thus neglect the laws of good
living, nothing but confusion can be the result. And know that, unless
you speedily return to better ways, and show more respect for our holy
religion, and more honourable treatment of our honest citizens, no love
of learning will induce me to countenance such misconduct. For to
repress crime, keep Italy in peace, and maintain the honour of our
illustrious lord duke, is the first and chief object of our endeavours."

Meanwhile, Lodovico neglected no means of improving the condition of
both professors and scholars of the University. In 1489, the magnificent
new Ateneo which he had planned was completed, and the different schools
of medicine, jurisprudence, fine arts and letters, were brought togethe