Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first
duke of Milan
The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna.
Before elevation to duchy
Until 1259, Milan was a free commune that elect ...
(1395) and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
. He also ruled
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
jointly with his uncle
Bernabò. He was the founding patron of the
Certosa di Pavia
The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large huntin ...
, completing the
Visconti Castle at
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
begun by his
father
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
and furthering work on the
Duomo of Milan
Milan Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombard ...
. He captured a large territory of Northern Italy and the Po valley. He threatened war with France in relation to the transfer of Genoa to French control as well as issues with his beloved daughter
Valentina. When he died of fever in the castello of Melegnano, his children fought with each other and fragmented the territories that he had ruled.
Biography
During his patronage of the Visconti Castle, he contributed to the growth of the collection of scientific treatises and richly illuminated manuscripts in the Visconti Library.
Gian Galeazzo was the son of Galeazzo II Visconti and Bianca of Savoy. His father possessed the
signoria
A signoria () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
The word signoria comes from ''signore'' , or "lord"; an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government; governing authority; ...
of the city of Pavia. In 1385 Gian Galeazzo gained control of Milan by overthrowing his uncle Bernabò through treacherous means by faking a religious conversion and ambushed him during a religious procession in Milan. He imprisoned his uncle who soon died, supposedly poisoned on his orders.
Barbara Tuchman
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...
A Distant Mirror A.A.Knopf, New York (1978) p.418
Galeazzo's role as a statesman also took other forms. Soon after seizing Milan he took
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
,
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a th ...
, and
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, establishing himself as ''Signore'' of each, and soon controlled almost the entire
valley of the Po, including
Piacenza
Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
where in 1393 he gave the feudal power to
Confalonieri family on the lands they already had in the valleys around Piacenza. He lost Padua in 1390, when it reverted to
Francesco Novello da Carrara
Francesco II da Carrara (19 May 1359 – 16 January 1406), known as Francesco il Novello ('Francesco the Younger'), was Lord of Padua after his father, Francesco I il Vecchio, renounced the lordship on 29 June 1388; he was a member of the family ...
. He received the title of Duke of Milan from
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; cs, Václav; german: Wenzel, nicknamed "the Idle"; 26 February 136116 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he ...
in 1395 for 100,000 florins.
Gian Galeazzo spent 300,000 golden florins in attempting to turn from their courses the rivers Mincio from Mantua and the
Brenta from Padua, in order to render those cities helpless before the force of his arms.
Notable are his library, housed in the grandest princely dwelling in Italy, the castello in Pavia, and his rich collection of manuscripts, many of them the fruits of his conquests. In 1400, Gian Galeazzo appointed a host of clerks and departments entrusted with improving public health. For the new system of administration and bookkeeping this established, he is credited with creating the first modern bureaucracy, with the assistance of his Chancellor Francesco Barbavara.
Conflict with France
Galeazzo was a devoted father to his daughter
Valentina. He reacted to gossip about Valentina at the French Court by threatening to declare war on France. The wife of King
Charles VI of France was
Isabeau of Bavaria
Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – September 1435) was Queen of France from 1385 to 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the only daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingols ...
, the granddaughter of Bernabò Visconti, and, thus, a bitter rival of Valentina and her father Gian Galeazzo.
Furious at French political maneuvering that had removed
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
from his influence, Gian Galeazzo had been attempting to stop the transfer of Genoese sovereignty to France and
Enguerrand VII was dispatched to warn him that France would consider further interference a hostile act. The quarrel was more than political. Valentina Visconti, the wife of the Duke of Orleans and Gian Galeazzo's beloved daughter, had been exiled from Paris due to the machinations of Queen Isabeau the same month as the departure of the crusade.
In 1396, after the
disaster of Nicopolis, Galeazzo was strongly suspected of having informed the Ottomans of the crusaders' plans and of the size and strength of their army as vengeance for his daughter being accused of being behind the illness of King Charles VI of France, and for France's increasing control over the city of Genoa that he had attempted to hamper, for which he had been rebuked by
Enguerrand VII before the battle.
Uniting Italy and death
Gian Galeazzo had dreams of uniting all of northern Italy into one kingdom, a revived Lombard empire. Obstacles included
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
and especially
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. In 1402, Gian Galeazzo launched assaults upon these cities. The warfare was extremely costly on both sides, but it was universally believed the Milanese would emerge victorious. The Florentine leaders, especially the chancellor
Coluccio Salutati
Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406) was an Italian humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effec ...
worked successfully to rally the people of Florence, but the Florentines were being taxed hard by famine, disease, and poverty. Galeazzo won another victory over the Bolognese at the
Battle of Casalecchio on 26-27 June 1402.
Galeazzo's dreams were to come to naught, however, as he succumbed to a fever at the castello of Melegnano on 10 August 1402. He died on 3 September. His empire fragmented as infighting among his successors wrecked Milan, partly through his division of his lands among both legitimate and illegitimate children.
Marriage and issue
His first marriage was to
Isabelle of Valois, who brought him the title of comte de Vertus in
Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...
, rendered in Italian as ''Conte di Virtù'', the title by which he was known in his early career. They had:
*Gian Galeazzo (b. Pavia, 4 March 1366 – d. bef. 1376).
*Azzone (b. Pavia, 1368 – d. Pavia, 4 October 1381).
*
Valentina (b. Pavia, 1371 – d. Château de Blois, Loir-et-Cher, 14 December 1408), married on 17 August 1389 to
Louis I, Duke of Orléans
Louis I of Orléans (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407) was Duke of Orléans from 1392 to his death. He was also Duke of Touraine (1386–1392), Count of Valois (1386?–1406) Blois (1397–1407), Angoulême (1404–1407 ...
*Carlo (b. Pavia, 11 September 1372 – d. Pavia, 1374).
After Galeazzo's wife Isabelle died in childbirth in 1372, he married secondly, on 2 October 1380, his niece
Caterina Visconti
Caterina Visconti (1361 – 17 October 1404) was Duchess of Milan as the second spouse of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan, and was the mother of two succeeding Dukes of Milan, Gian Maria and Filippo Maria Visconti. Caterin ...
, daughter of Bernabò; with her he had:
*
Gian Maria (7 September 1388 – 16 May 1412)
*
Filippo Maria (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447).
Gallery
File:Caterina Visconti.jpg, The painted figures of Caterina
Caterina is a feminine given name which is an Italian and Catalan form of the name ''Katherine''. Notable people with the name include:
In music:
* Caterina Assandra, Italian composer and Benedictine nun
* Caterina Bueno, Italian singer and fo ...
and Gian Galeazzo are shown kneeling in the foreground in this missal by Anovelo da Imbonate
File:The coronation of Gian Galeazzo Visconti.png, The Coronation of Gian Galeazzo Visconti in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
The Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio (official name: ''Basilica romana minore collegiata abbaziale prepositurale di Sant'Ambrogio'') is a church in the center of Milan, northern Italy.
History
One of the most ancient churches in Milan, it was built by ...
File:Gian Galeazzo dona alla Madonna la Certosa.jpg, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, with his three sons, presents the Certosa di Pavia
The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large huntin ...
to the Virgin (Certosa di Pavia)
File:Giangaleazzo Visconti.jpg, Detail from Gian Galeazzo donates the Certosa to the Madonna
File:Tomba di Gian Galeazzo Visconti.jpg, Tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti at the Certosa di Pavia
The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large huntin ...
See also
*
Montechino Italian Castle Piacenza
Montechino Castle is located in Montechino village, in the municipality of Gropparello, in the Riglio valley, province of Piacenza, Italy. It is situated on the crest of Monte Occhino hill, overlooking the Riglio river.
History
Montechino Cast ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
Portrait and family tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visconti, Gian Galeazzo
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
People from Pavia
14th-century Italian nobility
1351 births
1402 deaths