BIANCA SFORZA 
disposition made her a favourite with all the members 
of the ducal family. Always allegro, e di bona voglia , 
her presence was hailed with joy wherever she went. 
She was on the most intimate terms with the reigning 
Duke and Duchess, and frequently paid them visits at 
the Castello of Pavia, where Gian Galeazzo lived in 
luxury and idleness, dividing his time between his wife 
and his horses. In May 1493, when Beatrice had gone 
to Venice with her mother, Bianca came to join the 
Duke and Duchess, and found them amusing them¬ 
selves after their wont at the villa of Mirabello, in the 
park of the Castello. Both Gian Galeazzo and Isabella 
welcomed her with effusion, and her coming was the 
signal for fresh games and merriment. After dinner, 
the princesses went out into the meadows, to join the 
peasants who were busy making hay, and pelted each 
other, and rolled over on the new-mown hay, amid 
shouts of laughter, until the sun sank behind the 
pinnacles of the Certosa. Then the Duke, picking up 
his wife on the pillion of his horse, galloped back .to 
the Castello, followed by Bianca and her ladies, and 
after supper they all ended the evening merrily, picking 
asparagus and herbs for salad in the gardens. 1 
So they laughed and frolicked together, careless of 
1 Malaguzzi-Valeri, op. cit., 53. I would refer all readers who wish 
for fuller details of the private life of the Sforza princes to this valu¬ 
able and finely illustrated work, published by Ulrico Hoepli, of Milan, 
in 1913. 
183 
