in 1447. Milan then fell under the lordship of Sforza, whom
Colleoni served for a time, but in 1448 he took leave of Sforza and
returned to the Venetians. Disgusted at not having been elected
captain-general, he went over to Sforza once more, but Venice could not
do without him and by offering him increased emoluments induced him to
return, and in 1455 he was appointed captain-general of the republic for
life. Although he occasionally fought on his own account, when Venice
was at peace, he remained at the disposal of the republic in time of war
until his death.

Colleoni was perhaps the most respectable of all the Italian
_condottieri_, and although he often changed sides, no act of treachery
is imputed to him, nor did he subject the territories he passed through
to the rapine and exactions practised by other soldiers of fortune. When
not fighting he devoted his time to introducing agricultural
improvements on the vast estates with which the Venetians had endowed
him, and to charitable works. At his death in 1475 he left a large sum
to the republic for the Turkish war, with a request that an equestrian
statue of himself should be erected in the Piazza San Marco. The statue
was made by Verrocchio, but as no monument was permitted in the famous
Piazza it was placed opposite the hospital of St Mark by way of
compromise.

See G. M. Bonomi, _Il Castello di Cavernago e i conti Martinengo
Colleoni_ (Bergamo, 1884); for an account of his wars see S. Romanin,
_Storia documentata di Venezia_, vol. iv. (Venice, 1855), and other
histories of Venice. (L. V.*)

COLLETER (Gr. [Greek: kollos], glue), a botanical term for the
gum-secreting hairs on the buds of certain plants.

COLLETTA, PIETRO (1775-1831), Neapolitan general and historian, entered
the Neapolitan artillery in 1796 and took part in the campaign against
the French in 1798. On the entry of the French into Naples and the
establishment of the Parthenopean republic (1799) he adhered to the new
government, and when the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV. (q.v.) reconquered
the city Colletta was thrown into prison and only escaped the death
penalty by means of judiciously administered bribes. Turned out of the
army he became a civil engineer, but when the Bourbons were expelled a
second time in 1806 and Joseph Bonaparte seized the throne of Naples, he
was reinstated in his rank and served in the expedition against the
brigands and rebels of Calabria. In 1812 h