BIANCA SFORZA 



archives at Milan and Modena, we catch charming 

 glimpses of Bianca. We read, for instance, how she 

 and Beatrice went out together on bright spring 

 mornings to pick flowers in the gardens of the Castello, 

 and how they rode out to Vigevano or Cussago, to fly 

 their herons and enjoy the balmy sweetness of the air, 

 and danced and ran races and played at palla on the 

 green sward. In a graphic letter to his master, Duke 

 Ercole, Jacopo Trotti describes how on May-day the 

 dukes and duchesses, followed by the whole Court, rode 

 out from the Castello, according to their usual custom, 

 to receive the first flowers of spring torre del Mojo. 

 The stately procession issued from the gates in the early 

 morning and rode out three miles into the country, 

 where the dukes and their consorts flew falcons and 

 then returned to the piazza in front of the Castello, 

 to receive the first May-blossoms from the hands of 

 a troop of maidens, before an immense concourse of 

 people. On this occasion Isabella and Beatrice were 

 clad in green taby silk and wore their hair after the 

 French fashion, crowned by a peaked head-dress, 

 studded with pearls, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, 

 with long silken veils flowing down to the ground. " But 

 everyone noticed," remarks Trotti, " that the Duchess 

 Beatrice's pearls were much finer and larger than those 

 worn by the Duchess of Milan. And Madonna Bianca, 



the daughter of Signor Lodovico, was dressed in exactly 

 181 



