"Not a day passes," he writes, "but I hear of some fresh misconduct on your part, some crime committed or some uproar excited in the city, by you who are scholars of the University. Even last Holy Week your behaviour towards certain gentlemen and citizens of Pavia was justly the cause of scandal and complaint. Such things are not to be borne, nor do I intend to bear them any longer. Schools are intended for learning, and the object of all study and learning is that we may know how to live well, and, by our good conduct and fair lives, gain honour and praise both in the eyes of God and man. We do not see that the human and divine laws, in which you are daily instructed, produce any good effect if you can behave as you have done in this case towards peaceable citizens, especially in these holy days when the fear of God should, above all, control your ways and actions. If you thus neglect the laws of good living, nothing but confusion can be the result. And know that, unless you speedily return to better ways, and show more respect for our holy religion, and more honourable treatment of our honest citizens, no love of learning will induce me to countenance such misconduct. For to repress crime, keep Italy in peace, and maintain the honour of our illustrious lord duke, is the first and chief object of our endeavours."
Meanwhile, Lodovico neglected no means of improving the condition of both professors and scholars of the University. In 1489, the magnificent new Ateneo which he had planned was completed, and the different schools of medicine, jurisprudence, fine arts and letters, were brought together under the same roof. The most distinguished foreign scholars were invited to occupy the different professional chairs, their salaries were raised and their numbers increased. Giasone del Maino, who was professor of law at Pavia for fifty-two years, and whose reputation as jurist attracted students from all parts of the world, received the large salary of 2250 florins at this time, while Giorgio Merula of Alessandria, the historian, who for many years was professor of rhetoric at the University, and received only 375 florins in 1486, had his salary raised in 1492 to 1000 florins. Next to the law schools, that of medicine was the most noted for its excellence at Pavia, and among its distinguished professors were Alvise Marliani, who was said to rival Aristotle in philosophy, Hippocrates in medicine, and Ptolemy in astronomy, and who was court-physician in turn to Lodovico Sforza, to his son Maximilian, and to the Emperor Charles V.; and Ambrogio of Varese, who occupied the chair of astrology, and taught the science of Almansor, as it was termed. This favourite servant of the Moro received the title of Count and the castle and lands of Rosate from Gian Galeazzo in 1493, "for his services," so ran the patent, "in saving my illustrious uncle the Duke of Bari's life." Oriental study was another branch of learning that Lodovico especially encouraged. Count Teseo de' Albonesi of Pavia became noted as the first Chaldaic scholar of his age, and in 1490, the Moro established a chair of Hebrew, and appointed the Jew Benedetto Ispano to be the first professor, with express injunctions to study the text of the Bible. This experiment, however, proved a failure, and so few scholars attended his lectures that at the end of a year the chair was abolished. At the same time, new colleges were opened, and scholarships founded for poor students; and in 1496, Lodovico being then reigning Duke of Milan, granted the professors of law, medicine, philosophy and fine arts, an exemption from all taxation. Under his fostering care the University flourished as it had never flourished before. Scholars from all parts of Europe came to attend Giasone di Maino's lectures, the number of professors reached ninety: that of students was said to be three thousand. As the Milanese poet Lancinus Curtius sang in his Latin rhymes, "The fair-skinned Germans with their long hair flowing on their necks, the English and the knights from Gaul, the Iberian from the golden sands of Tagus, all hasten thither from the far North. The rude Pannonian lays aside his military cloak to join the eager throng who crowd into the virgin temple and seek the Helicon of Phoebus under the carved dome of wisdom, which bears Lodovico's name above the stars."
But the Moro patronage of learning was by no means limited to Pavia. He did his utmost to revive the ancient University of Milan, which had long fallen into decay, and founded new and flourishing schools in this city. The best Pavian professors Merula and the Greek Demetrius Calcondila amongst others, were invited to lecture to the Milanese students. Fra Luca Pacioli of Borgo San Sepolcro, the famous mathematician, came to teach them geometry and arithmetic, and Ferrari occupied the first chair of history ever founded in Italy, while the priest Gaffuri became the first public instructor in the new school of music. In short, as a contemporary writes, there was not a science of any description that could not be learnt at Milan in the days of Lodovico Sforza.
The endowment of research was another point in which Lodovico showed himself to be in advance of his age. He granted liberal pensions to Bernardino Corio and Tristano Calco, "the Milanese Livy," who continued the history of the Visconti begun by the Alessandria professor and addressed letters in his own hand to the private owners of valuable manuscripts, requesting the loan of works that would assist these writers of Lombard history, "in order that a perpetual memory of the great deeds done by our ancestors may be preserved for future generations." From his earliest years history had been one of Lodovico's favourite studies, and an illuminated volume of extracts from Greek and Roman history which he compiled under his tutor Filelfo's direction at the age of fifteen may still be seen in the library of Turin. And in riper years, amid all the pressure of State affairs and political anxieties, he never let a day pass without having some passages from ancient and modern history read aloud to him by his secretaries. So wise and enlightened a prince well deserved the high praise bestowed upon him by the Bolognese scholar, Filippo Beroaldo, and the great Florentine, Angelo Poliziano, with whom Lodovico frequently exchanged letters, and who in one of his effusions thus addresses his princely friend: "All the world knows you to be a prince of brilliant genius and singular wisdom, while above all others you cherish the noble arts and show your love for these intellectual studies which we profess." The jealousy of his own subjects was often roused by the favour with which Lodovico regarded scholars of other nationalities, and on one occasion a fierce quarrel arose between Merula and Poliziano, in which the Lombard historian stooped to the vilest personalities. Another Pavian professor with whom he had a controversy over certain commentaries of Martial, had, it appears, ventured to hint that Merula did not really know Greek, an insinuation which provoked the most violent display of anger on his part, and when Poliziano endeavoured to appease both parties, the affronted Lombard flew at him like a small terrier attacking some big mastiff. All Lodovico's tact and courtesy were needed to allay the storm, and when at length Merula died in 1494, the duke ordered the immediate destruction of all the papers relating to this deplorable controversy, of which all parties, he felt, had good reason to be ashamed. The remodelling of the library of the Castello di Pavia was another important work which was carried out in the year 1492, by Tristano Calco the historian and kinsman of the chief secretary, under the eye of Lodovico himself, while he and Beatrice spent the summer at Pavia. All the rare and precious manuscripts which he had been at such pains to collect in France and Italy and Germany, and the ancient books contained in the library were catalogued and arranged for the use of students. For Lodovico was not only bent on enriching the ducal library, but was determined to make its treasures accessible to scholars of all nationalities. He allowed contemporary historians, Corio, Merula, and Tristan Calco himself, to borrow manuscripts freely, and, what was even more admirable in those days of persecution, gave permission under his own hand and seal to a Jewish scholar, named Salomone Ebreo, to live in the Castello with his family, in order that he might translate Hebrew manuscripts into Latin for the promotion of theological studies, and also be enabled to study the text of the Hebrew Bible belonging to the library.
It is melancholy to reflect on the sad fate of this priceless collection, upon which Lodovico and his ancestors had expended so much care and thought. In 1499, the bulk of the library of the Castello was carried off to Blois by Louis XII. and its precious contents were dispersed. Some were taken to Fontainebleau by Francis I. and afterwards by Henry Quatre to Paris, where they are still the glory of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Others again found their way into different public and private collections, and may be seen at Madrid and St. Petersburg, in London and Vienna, still bearing the inscription "De Pavye au roi Louis XII.," which tells us that they once formed part of the Sforza Library. An illuminated manuscript of Aulus Gellius, and another of the "Triumphs" of Petrarch, encircled with miniatures and bearing Lodovico's name, which originally belonged to the same collection, are among the treasures of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Many more no doubt have disappeared, lost in the general anarchy and confusion which prevailed in the Milanese during the century after the Moro's fall.
The newly discovered art of printing was also liberally encouraged by Lodovico, one of whose protégés, Alessandro Minuziano, set up a printing press in Milan before Aldo Manuzio had settled in Venice, and in the course of the year 1494, published twenty-two books, including a Latin dictionary by Dionigi Este and complete editions of Cicero and Tacitus, Pliny and Suetonius, as well as the works of Filelfo and the Sonnets and Triumphs of Petrarch. In 1496, a treatise on music by Franchino Gaffuri was published, with a dedication to the duke, and was followed by the appearance of several works on harmony.
The munificence of Lodovico stirred up others to follow his example. His secretary Bartolommeo Calco founded free schools, where Greek and Latin professors lectured free of charge to poor Milanese students; and two other noblemen, Tommaso Grassi and Tommaso Piatti, endowed similar institutions. The new passion for learning spread from Milan and Pavia to other cities, and even Lombard villages had their public schools and lecturers. Everywhere the same thirst for knowledge was felt and the same respect for scholars was shown. For as Signor Lodovico wrote to his friend Poliziano, at Florence, "Both natural inclination and the example of our ancestors have inspired us with ardent love for learned men and an eager desire to honour and reward them to the best of our power."
If the intellectual movement which took place during the twenty years of Lodovico Moro's rule in Milan commanded general admiration; if learning flourished there as it had never done before, the widespread revival of art in Lombardy was a still more remarkable feature of the period. This indeed was the province in which Lodovico's true genius was most apparent, and in which his own fine taste, vast power of organization and minute attention to detail, all made themselves felt and bore rich fruit. "This," wrote Isabella d'Este—herself no mean judge of these matters—from Lodovico's court, "is the school of the Master and of those who know, the home of art and understanding."
Throughout the Milanese, architects and engineers, painters and sculptors, with a host of minor craftsmen, were carrying out the vast projects that emanated from this one man. The decoration of the capital was naturally among the chief objects of his ambition.
"In the year 1492," writes the chronicler Cagnola, "this glorious and magnanimous prince adorned the Castello di Porta Zobia with many fair and marvellous buildings, enlarged the Piazza in front of the Castello, and removed obstructions in the streets of the city, and caused them to be painted and beautified with frescoes. And he did the same in the city of Pavia, so that both these towns, that were formerly ugly and dirty, are now most beautiful, which things are very laudable and excellent, especially in the eyes of those who remember these cities as they were of old, and who see them as they are to-day."