[76] Pii II. Comment. iii. p. 130. Comp. ii. 87. 106. Another and rather darker estimate of Sforza’s fortune is given by Caracciolo, De Varietate Fortunæ, in Murat. xxii. col. 74. See for the opposite view the praises of Sforza’s luck in the Oratio parentalis de divi Francesci Sphortiæ felicitate, by Filelfo (the ready eulogist of any master who paid him), who sung, without publishing, the exploits of Francesco in the Sforziad. Even Decembrio, the moral and literary opponent of Filelfo, celebrates Sforza’s fortune in his biography (Vita Franc. Sphortiæ, in Murat. xx.). The astrologers said: ‘Francesco Sforza’s star brings good luck to a man, but ruin to his descendants.’ Arluni, De Bello Veneto, libri vi. in Grævius, Thes. Antiqu. et Hist. Italicæ, v. pars iii. Comp. also Barth. Facius, De Vir. III. p. 67.
[77] Malipiero, Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor. vii. i. pp. 216 sqq. 221-4.
[78] Important documents as to the murder of Galeazzo Maria Sforza are published by G. D’Adda in the Archivio Storico Lombardo Giornale della Società Lombarda, vol. ii. (1875), pp. 284-94. 1. A Latin epitaph on the murderer Lampugnano, who lost his life in the attempt, and whom the writer represents as saying: ‘Hic lubens quiesco, æternum inquam facinus monumentumque ducibus, principibus, regibus, qui modo sunt quique mox futura trahantur ne quid adversus justitiam faciant dicantve; 2. A Latin letter of Domenico de’ Belli, who, when eleven years old, was present at the murder; 3. The ‘lamento’ of Galeazzo Maria, in which, after calling upon the Virgin Mary and relating the outrage committed upon him, he summons his wife and children, his servants and the Italian cities which obeyed him, to bewail his fate, and sends forth his entreaty to all the nations of the earth, to the nine muses and the gods of antiquity, to set up a universal cry of grief.
[79] Chron. Venetum, in Murat. xxiv. col. 65.
[80] Malipiero, Ann. Veneti, Archiv. Stor. vii. i. p. 492. Comp. 482, 562.
[81] His last words to the same man, Bernardino da Corte, are to be found, certainty with oratorical decorations, but perhaps agreeing in the main with the thoughts of the Moor, in Senarega, Murat. xxiv. col. 567.
[82] Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 336, 367, 369. The people believed he was forming a treasure.
[83] Corio, fol. 448. The after effects of this state of things are clearly recognisable in those of the novels and introductions of Bandello which relate to Milan.
[84] Amoretti, Memorie Storiche sulla Vita Ecc. di Lionardo da Vinci, pp. 35 sqq., pp. 83 sqq. Here we may also mention the Moor’s efforts for the improvement of the university of Pavia.
[85] See his sonnets in Trucchi, Poesie inedite.