t her certain lands by his will.

Meanwhile, in the conduct of his elder brother Galeazzo he had the worst
possible example. Once in possession of supreme power, the new duke gave
himself up to the most unbridled course of vice and cruelty. The
profligacy of his life, and the horrible tortures which he inflicted on
the hapless victims of his jealousy and anger, caused Milanese
chroniclers to describe him as another Nero. He was commonly believed to
have poisoned both his mother and Dorotea Gonzaga, the betrothed bride
of whom he wished to rid himself when a more desirable marriage
presented itself. These charges were probably groundless, but some of
his actions went far to justify the suspicions of madness which he
aroused in the minds of his contemporaries. When, for instance, he
ordered his artists to decorate a hall at the Castello at Pavia with
portraits of the ducal family in a single night, under pain of instant
death, the Ferrarese Diarist had good reason to describe the new Duke of
Milan as a prince guilty of great crimes and greater follies. At the
same time, Galeazzo showed himself a liberal patron of art and learning.
He founded a library at Milan, invited doctors and priests to the
University of Pavia, and brought singers from all parts of the world to
form the choir of the ducal chapel. During his reign a whole army of
painters and sculptors were employed to decorate the interior of the
Castello of the Porta Giovia at Milan, which his father had rebuilt when
he gave up the ground in front of the old palace to the builders of the
Duomo, and which now became the chief ducal residence. Under his
auspices printing was introduced, and the first book ever produced in
Italy, the Grammar of Lascaris--a Greek professor who had taken refuge
at the court of the Sforzas on the fall of Constantinople--appeared at
Milan in 1476. The splendour of his court surpassed anything that had
been yet seen. Great rejoicings took place in 1469, when Lorenzo de
Medici came to Milan to stand godfather to the duke's infant son, and
Galeazzo was so delighted at the sight of the costly diamond necklace
which the Magnificent Medici presented to Duchess Bona on this occasion,
that he exclaimed, "You must be godfather to all my children!" The
wealth and luxury displayed by the duke and duchess when they visited
Florence two years later with a suite of two thousand persons,
scandalized the old-fashioned citizens, and, in Machiavelli's opinio