ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Recent researches enable us to add a few more 

 details to the short sad tale. Bianca Giovanna Sforza 

 was born at Milan in 1482, shortly after Lodovico's 

 return from exile and appointment as Regent, during 

 his nephew Gian Galeazzo's minority. Her mother, 

 Bernardina de' Corradis, was one of the many mistresses 

 for whom the Moro seems to have had a passing 

 fancy. After giving birth to Bianca, she married a 

 Milanese gentleman and bore him several children. 1 

 But Lodovico, after his custom, treated his discarded 

 mistress kindly, giving her a liberal allowance and 

 letting her have frequent access to Bianca, who was 

 brought up, under his own eye, in the Castello. " In 

 this country," remarks Commines, "no difference is 

 made between legitimate and illegitimate children." 

 The French chronicler's saying was literally true of the 

 Este and Sforza princes. The good Duchess Leonora 

 brought up her husband's illegitimate daughter, 

 Lucrezia, with her own children, and both Isabella 

 D'Este and Elizabetta Gonzaga treated the Marquis 

 Francesco's natural daughter, Margherita, with the 

 utmost affection. Lodovico Sforza had already two 

 illegitimate sons, Galeazzo, who died in his childhood, 

 and Leone, the son of a Roman girl, who was born in 

 1476. But little Bianca had the distinction of being 

 his only daughter, and, from the first, was the object 



1 A. Giulini in Archivio St. Lomb., xxxix. 243. 

 I 7 2 



