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NOTES TO THE SECOND BOOK OF THE COURTIER family, after the first Cosimo, he was a poor financier, and on his sudden death he was found to have pawned the very jewels of his tiara. His reckless expenditure led to the sale of indulgences, and thus in no small degree to the progress of the Reformation. Note 301, page 153. BlAGINO Crivello was one of Duke Ludovico Sforza's captains, and is mentioned (July 1500) in a list of Sforza adherents who had rebelled against Louis XII, and whose possessions were declared forfeit. The list speaks of him as keeping himself at Mantua and in Venetian territory, and as owning no attachable property in the Milanese. In April of the same year an ineffectual demand had been made upon the Marquess of Mantua for the surrender of Crivello and other chiefs of the Sforza party. Note 302, page 153. THE DUKE, i.e., Ludovico Sforza, " II Moro," (born 1451; died 1508), was the fourth son of the Francesco Sforza whom Duke Fed- erico of Urbino had helped to become Duke of Milan (and whose father, a peasant condottiere, Muzio Attendolo, became known as Sforza by reason of great personal strength), — and of Bianca Maria, a daughter of the last Vis- conti duke of Milan. Early noted for his physical and mental qualities, Ludovico read and wrote Latin fluently, had a tenacious memory, and was a ready speaker. He was tall and of strongly marked features. Unlike his horrible brother Galeazzo Maria, he shunned bloodshed. Banished from Milan after his brother's assassination in 1476, he returned in triumph in 1479, and assumed the guardianship of his nephew Giangaleazzo, for whom he chose as bride his sister's child, Isabella (see note 396), daughter of Alfonso II of Naples. Having first sought the hand of Isabella d'Este (see note 397), — who was already betrothed to the Marquess of Mantua, — in 1491 he married her younger sister Beatrice (see note 398), whose influence is by some said to have led him to aggravate the humiliation of his young nephew and niece, the rightful duke and duchess. Being threatened by the latter's father, the King of Naples, Ludovico invited Charles VIII to enter Italy (1494) and assert the Angevine claim to Naples. His unhappy nephew died the same year, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by the uncle's order, who thereupon assumed the title as well as the despotic power of duke. Becoming alarmed at the rapid success of the French in Italy, he joined the league formed against them, and was afterwards punished for his treachery by being expelled from Milan by Louis XII and carried to France. It is said that at the time of his capture, the only favour he asked was to be allowed the use of a volume of Dante. He died a prisoner in the Castle of Loches, where, after a vain effort to escape, he was confined in an underground dungeon. At the height of his prosperity his revenues exceeded those of any Italian state except Venice. Policy and also his natural taste for intellectual pleasures led him to copy the Medici in their patronage of art and letters. He aspired to make his capital a modern Athens, and sought to attract men of fame and talent from far and wide. Both Leonardo da Vinci and the architect Bra- mante were in his pay. 381