The House of Sforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last member of the family's main branch in 1535.
Galeazzo II Visconti was a member of the Visconti dynasty and a ruler of Milan, Italy. His most notable military campaigns were against Pope Gregory XI, around 1367. These battles fought between the papacy and the Visconti family ultimately ended in a peace treaty. Politically active, he expanded the power of his family, where the Visconti first became hereditary rulers of Milan starting in 1349. He is remembered in conjunction with his patronage of intellectuals and writers, from his sponsorship of Petrarch to the founding of the University of Pavia in 1361. Galeazzo II Visconti, and his brother Bernabò, are credited with the institution of the Quaresima Torture Protocol, a vicious means of torture.
The Republic of Florence, known officially as the Florentine Republic, was a medieval and early modern state that was centered on the Italian city of Florence in Tuscany, Italy. The republic originated in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon the death of Matilda of Tuscany, who controlled vast territories that included Florence. The Florentines formed a commune in her successors' place. The republic was ruled by a council known as the Signoria of Florence. The signoria was chosen by the gonfaloniere, who was elected every two months by Florentine guild members.
The Visconti of Milan are a noble Italian family. They rose to power in Milan during the Middle Ages where they ruled from 1277 to 1447, initially as Lords then as Dukes, and several collateral branches still exist.
Galeazzo Maria Sforza was the fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until 1476. He was notorious for being lustful, cruel, and tyrannical.
The Golden Ambrosian Republic was a short-lived republic founded in Milan by members of the University of Pavia with popular support, during the first phase of the Milanese War of Succession. With the aid of Francesco Sforza they held out against the forces of the Republic of Venice, but after a betrayal Sforza defected and captured Milan to become Duke himself, abolishing the Republic.
Gian Maria Visconti was the second Visconti Duke of Milan, the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and Caterina Visconti. He was known to be cruel and was eventually assassinated. He had no children.
Girolamo Riario was Lord of Imola and Forlì. He served as Captain General of the Church under his uncle Pope Sixtus IV. He was one of the organisers of the failed 1478 Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici family, the rulers of Florence, and was assassinated 10 years later by members of the Forlivese Orsi family.
Carlo Visconti was an Italian, who was a member of the prominent Visconti family, and a government secretary in Milan's Council of Justice, he was executed for being the assassin of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan.
Gerolamo Olgiati was a government official in Milan and one of the assassins of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan, along with Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani and Carlo Visconti.
Franzone was a servant of the Lampugnani family of Milan, and a figure in the assassination of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan.
Azzone Visconti was lord of Milan from 1329 until his death. After the death of his uncle, Marco Visconti, he was threatened with excommunication and had to submit to Pope John XXII. Azzone reconstituted his family's land holdings, taking numerous cities. He died in 1339.
Bonifacio Bembo, also called Bonfazio Bembo, or simply just Bembo, was a north Italian Renaissance artist born in Brescia in 1420. He was the son of Giovanni Bembo, an active painter during his time. As a painter, Bonifacio mainly worked in Cremona. He was patronized by the Sforza family and was commissioned to paint portraits of Francesco Sforza and his wife Bianca Maria Visconti. Scholars have credited him as the artist who produced a tarot card deck for the Visconti-Sforza families, now held in the Cary Collection of Playing Cards at Yale University. In the past century, art historians have begun to question the authenticity of his works, believing his only two secure works to be the portraits of Francesco and Bianca Maria Sforza. He is believed to have died sometime before 1482.
The House of Carrara or Carraresi (da Carrara) was an important family of northern Italy in the 12th to 15th centuries. The family held the title of Lords of Padua from 1318 to 1405.
Anna Maria Sforza was Hereditary Princess of Ferrara as the first wife of Alfonso I d'Este, future Duke of Ferrara. She was the second legitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and his second wife, Bona of Savoy.
Lucrezia Landriani was the mistress of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and the mother of his renowned illegitimate daughter, Caterina Sforza, Lady of Imola, Countess of Forlì. Lucrezia had three other children by the Duke, and two by her husband.
Bonacossa Borri, also known as Bonaca, or Bonaccossi Bonacosta (1254–1321), was Lady of Milan by marriage from 1269 to 1321.
The Aliprandi is an Italian family originally from Milan, descending from the Lombards. Wealthy feudal lands in various parts of Lombardy, had supremacy over the city of Monza in municipal period. The House of Aliprandi gave the Catholic Church Blessed Catherine Aliprandi.
Lampugnani's Conspiracy is an 1826 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, now in the pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, which acquired it in 1907. It shows the conspiracy led by Giovanni Andrea Lampugnani, Girolamo Olgiati, Carlo Visconti and Cola Montano to overthrow the tyranny of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, killed on 26 December 1476 in Santo Stefano church in Milan.
Cola Montano, also known as Nicola Capponi, was an Italian writer and humanist scholar who helped incite the Congiura dei Lampugnani or Conspiracy of the Lampugnani that succeeded in murdering the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza. While not present at the murder, Cola Montano was captured by the Lorenzo de' Medici government of Tuscany, and hung from a window in the Bargello.
