ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



his grandmother, Lisa Sforza, a sister of Francesco, 

 who possessed a large share of the great Duke's 

 courage and ability. After his father was killed 

 fighting at the head of the Venetian forces in Tyrol, 

 Galeazzo entered Lodovico's service and rose high in 

 his favour. This brilliant and accomplished youth, 

 who excelled in all knightly exercises, and took delight 

 in art and letters, became dear to the Moro as a son, 

 and was daily honoured with fresh marks of his con- 

 fidence and affection. In 1489 he made Galeazzo 

 Captain-general of the Milanese armies, and gave him 

 the hand of his little daughter, who was growing up a 

 singularly lovely and attractive child, "counting her 

 the most precious thing he had on earth." 



On the loth of January, 1490, the wedding was 

 solemnised with due splendour in the Castello of 

 Milan, before the Duke and Duchess and the whole 

 court. Bellincioni, the favourite poet of the Sforza 

 princes, wrote an ode for the occasion, in which he 

 celebrated the bridegroom's prowess in arms, his 

 generous soul and noble heart, while he praised the 

 charms of the youthful bride, "the phoenix of her 

 age and the heir of her illustrious father's genius." 

 Bianca's dowry included the city of Voghera and 

 the magnificent palace in Milan, formerly given by 

 Francesco Sforza to Cosimo de' Medici. The Medici 

 Bank, as it was called, stood in the narrow Via de 



