s of Gian Maria Visconti were
repeated with the addition of extravagant vanity. We may notice in
particular his parade-expedition in 1471 to Florence, when he flaunted
the wealth extorted from his Milanese subjects before the soberminded
citizens of a still free city. Fifty palfreys for the Duchess, fifty
chargers for the Duke, trapped in cloth of gold; a hundred men-at-arms
and five hundred foot soldiers for a body-guard; five hundred couples of
hounds and a multitude of hawks; preceded him. His suite of courtiers
numbered two thousand on horseback: 200,000 golden florins were expended
on this pomp. Machiavelli (1st. Fior. lib. 7) marks this visit of the
Duke of Milan as a turning-point from austere simplicity to luxury and
license in the manners of the Florentines, whom Lorenzo de' Medici was
already bending to his yoke. The most extravagant lust, the meanest and
the vilest cruelty, supplied Galeazzo Maria with daily recreation.[1] He
it was who used to feed his victims on abominations or to bury them
alive, and who found a pleasure in wounding or degrading those whom he
had made his confidants and friends. The details of his assassination,
in 1476, though well known, are so interesting that I may be excused for
pausing to repeat them here; especially as they illustrate a moral
characteristic of this period which is intimately connected with the
despotism. Three young nobles of Milan, educated in the classic
literature by Montano, a distinguished Bolognese scholar, had imbibed
from their studies of Greek and Latin history an ardent thirst for
liberty and a deadly hatred of tyrants.[2] Their names were Carlo
Visconti, Girolamo Olgiati, and Giannandrea Lampugnani. Galeazzo Sforza
had wounded the two latter in the points which men hold dearest--their
honor and their property[3]--by outraging the sister of Olgiati and by
depriving Lampugnani of the patronage of the Abbey of Miramondo. The
spirit of Harmodius and Virginius was kindled in the friends, and they
determined to rid Milan of her despot. After some meetings in the garden
of S. Ambrogio, where they matured their plans, they laid their project
of tyrannicide as a holy offering before the patron saint of Milan.[4]
Then having spent a few days in poignard exercise for the sake of
training,[5] they took their place within the precincts of S. Stephen's
Church. There they received the sacrament and addressed themselves in
prayer to the Protomartyr, whose fane was about to