United States or Panama ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
After the French conquest of Milan, Louis XII. annulled this deed of gift, although the friars escaped further spoliation owing to the protection of the powerful Borromeo family, and, after a long dispute, their possession of the Sforzesca was eventually confirmed by Emperor Charles V. An inscription was placed over the gates of the Sforzesca in honour of Lodovico Sforza and his wife, and the domain remained the property of the convent until the general confiscation of Church lands by Napoleon in 1798.
Here he remained for the next three weeks, enjoying the beauties of the Moro's favourite summer palace, and admiring the perfection of Lodovico's latest improvements the clock recently constructed by Bramante, the marble capitals of the great hall, and the model farm and stables of the Sforzesca.
The great Naviglio Sforzesca, which has resisted the ravages of time, formed part of this admirable system, and was probably constructed under the supervision of Leonardo, who was often at Vigevano with Lodovico, and who in later years became his chief engineer. It was here, in the immediate neighbourhood of Vigevano, that Lodovico established his model farm for the encouragement of agriculture.
There were columns wreathed with ivy all the way from the bastions of the Castello to the end of the piazza, and between the columns were festoons of boughs bearing antique devices, and round shields with the imperial arms and those of our house, and Sforzesca draperies were hung above the street all the way from the Castello to the Duomo.
We found all the palace hung with tapestries, and the beds covered with satin draperies adorned with the ducal arms and those of your Excellency. And the rooms and hall are hung with Sforzesca colours, so you see that in point of good entertainment, good company, and good living we could desire nothing better.
And in this year 1492 we find Leonardo at Vigevano with the Moro in March, making designs for a new staircase for the Sforzesca, and studying vine-culture, and later in the summer drawing plans of a bath-room for Duchess Beatrice, and of a pavilion with a round cupola for the duke's labyrinth in the gardens of the Castello.
Seven masses, he decrees, are to be said daily for the duke, seven for the duchess, five requiems are to be chanted every Wednesday, and the whole office for the dead is to be used on the 3rd of every month, being the day on which Beatrice died; while in the church of the Sforzesca, masses are to be said in January and June these being the months of Beatrice's birth and death for both the duke and his wife.
Relations between Lodovico and Beatrice Cecilia Gallerani Birth of her son Cesare Her marriage to Count Bergamini Beatrice at Villa Nova and Vigevano The Sforzesca and Pecorara Lodovico's system of irrigation in the Lomellina Leonardo at Vigevano Hunting-parties and country life Letters to Isabella d'Este.
Some wolves and wild goats having been driven into a wood near La Pecorara, which, as you know, is about a mile from here, on the way to La Sforzesca, Cardinal Sanseverino had a common farm pig shut up in the same enclosure, and the next day we went out hunting, and took Mariolo with us.
Of the two, the Sforzesca was in greatest repute, as well from the bravery of the count himself, as from the promise which the duke of Milan had made him of his natural daughter, Madonna Bianca, the prospect of which alliance greatly strengthened his influence. After the peace of Lombardy, these forces, from various causes attacked Pope Eugenius.
Word Of The Day