the Venetians saw too late the error they had committed in suffering
Verona and Padua to be annexed by the Visconti, when they ought to have
been fortified as defenses interposed between his growing power and
themselves. Having now made himself master of the North of Italy,[3]
with the exception of Mantua, Ferrara, and Bologna, Gian Galeazzo turned
his attention to these cities. Alberto d' Este was ruling in Ferrara;
Francesco da Gonzaga in Mantua. It was the Visconti's policy to enfeeble
these two princes by causing them to appear odious in the eyes of their
subjects.[4] Accordingly he roused the jealousy of the Marquis of
Ferrara against his nephew Obizzo to such a pitch that Alberto beheaded
him together with his mother, burned his wife, and hung a third member
of his family, besides torturing to death all the supposed accomplices
of the unfortunate young man. Against the Marquis of Mantua Gian
Galeazzo devised a still more diabolical plot. By forged letters and
subtly contrived incidents he caused Francesco da Gonzaga to suspect his
wife of infidelity with his secretary.[5] In a fit of jealous fury
Francesco ordered the execution of his wife, the mother of several of
his children, together with the secretary. Then he discovered the
Visconti's treason. But it was too late for anything but impotent
hatred. The infernal device had been successful; the Marquis of Mantua
was no less discredited than the Marquis of Ferrara by his crime. It
would seem that these men were not of the stamp and caliber to be
successful villans, and that Gian Galeazzo had reckoned upon this defect
in their character. Their violence caused them to be rather loathed than
feared. The whole of Lombardy was now prostrate before the Milanese
tyrant. His next move was to set foot in Tuscany. For this purpose Pisa
had to be acquired; and here again he resorted to his devilish policy of
inciting other men to crimes by which he alone would profit in the
long-run. Pisa was ruled at that time by the Gambacorta family, with an
old merchant named Pietro at their head. This man had a friend and
secretary called Jacopo Appiano, whom the Visconti persuaded to turn
Judas, and to entrap and murder his benefactor and his children. The
assassination took place in 1392. In 1399 Gherardo, son of Jacopo
Appiano, who held Pisa at the disposal of Gian Galeazzo, sold him this
city for 200,000 florins.[6] Perugia was next attacked. Here Pandolfo,
chief of the Baglioni fa