Category:Sforziada

Sforziada 

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Instance of	written work
Author	Giovanni Simonetta
Language of work or name	Latin
Publication date	1483
Authority file  Q4586860 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file Search depicted

• "Historia delle cose face dallo invictissimo Duca Francesco Sforza"
• Sforziade: The history of things done by Duke Francesco Sforza of Giovanni Simonetta, Velins manuscript 724 folio 1 B recto, published by Antonio Zarotto, Milan, 1490
• Commentarii rerum gestarum Francisci Sfortiae

"La Sforziada" is a historical-panygyrical work about the founder of the ducal dynasty of Milan, Francisco Sforza (1401-1466). In the 15th century the Milan-based publishing house of Antonio Zarotto pressed three editions of this text in the years 1482, 1486 and 1490. Only few copies of the 1490 impression were printed on vellum for the members of the ducal family. They were, each on an individual basis, decorated by illuminations by Giovanni Pietro Birago, an outstanding miniaturist who worked for the Milan court. Each miniature, in spite of the common scheme, constitutes an integral, selfstanding work featuring symbolics full of court-related and political hints, enabling identification of the ducal addresses of the four copies known to exist.

The copy of duke Lodovico il Moro is held at the British Library. The copy of duke Gian Galeazza Sforza, father of Queen Bona, is held at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. A heavily damaged copy from the court library of the Sforza family of Pavia has been recently found at the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence. At the National Library in Warsaw is held a volume, which until recently was assigned to the descendants of duke Gian Galeazzo and Isabelle of Aragon and which could belong only to Queen Bona. The most recent research has indicated an addresse among the descendants of duke Gian Galeazzo Sanseverino, the son-in-law of Lodovico il Moro. Only this copy is signed by the author of miniatures, Giovanni Pietro Birago. It comes from the collections of the Zamoyski Library, earlier it was probably the property of king Sigismund Augustus and after his death, of chancellor Jan Zamoyski. F.7., illuminated : in the base of the right margin is a vase, in its border-strip is the sign : P[re]SB[yte]R IO[annes] PETR[us] BIRAGUS FE[cit]”. In the initial space of the text is the portrait of Francesco Sforza.;