owing to the fact that the nobles were always ready to claim the protection of their feudal chief, the emperor, brought to the front two noble families as protagonists of the contending factions the Torriani of Valsassina, and the Visconti, who derived their name from the office of delegates which they had held under the archbishops. After the battle of Cortenova, in 1237, where Frederick II. defeated the Guelph army of the Milanese and captured their carroccio, Pagano della Torre rallied and saved the remnants of the Milanese. This act recommended him to popular favour, and he was called to the government of the city—but only for the distinct purpose of establishing the “catasta,” a property tax which should fall with equal incidence on every citizen. This was a democratic measure which marked the party to which the Torriani belonged and rendered them hateful to the nobility. Pagano died in 1241. His nephew Martino followed as podesta in 1256, and in 1259 as signore of Milan—the first time such a title was heard in Italy. The nobles, who had gathered round the Visconti, and who threatened to bring Ezzelino da Romano, the Ghibelline tyrant of Padua, into the city, were defeated by Martino, and 900 of their number were captured. Martino was followed by two other Torriani, Filippo his brother (1263–1265) and Napoleone his cousin (1265–1277), as lords of Milan. Napoleone obtained the title of imperial vicar from Rudolph of Hapsburg. But the nobles under the Visconti had been steadily gathering strength, and Napoleone was defeated at Desio in 1277. He ended his life in a wooden cage at Castel Baradello above Como.
Otto Visconti, archbishop of Milan (1262), the victor of Desio, became lord of Milan, and founded the house of Visconti, who ruled the city—except from 1302 to 1310—till 1447, giving twelve lords to Milan. Otho (1277–1295), Matteo (1310–1322), Galeazzo (1322–1328), Azzo (1328–1339), Lucchino (1339–1349) and Giovanni (1349–1354) followed in succession. Giovanni left the lordship to three nephews—Matteo, Galeazzo and Bernabo. Matteo was killed (1355) by his brothers, who divided the Milanese, Bernabo reigning in Milan (1354–1385) and Galeazzo in Pavia (1354–1378). Galeazzo left a son, Gian Galeazzo, who became sole lord of Milan by seizing and imprisoning his uncle Bernabo. It was under him that the cathedral of Milan and the Certosa di Pavia were begun. He was the first duke of Milan, having obtained that title from the emperor Wenceslaus. His sons Giovanni Maria, who reigned at Milan (1402–1412), and Filippo Maria, who reigned at Pavia (1402–1447), succeeded him. In 1412, on his brother’s death, Filippo united the whole duchy under his sole rule, and attempted to carry out his father’s policy of aggrandizement, but without success.
Filippo was the last male of the Visconti house. At his death a republic was proclaimed, which lasted only three years. In 1450 the general Francesco Sforza, who had married Filippo’s only child Bianca Visconti, became duke of Milan by right of conquest if by any right. Under this duke the castello was rebuilt and the canal of the Martesana, which connects Milan with the Adda, and the Great Hospital were carried out. Francesco was followed by five of the Sforza family. His son Galeazzo Maria (1466–1476) left a son, Gian Galeazzo, a minor, whose guardian and uncle Lodovico (il Moro) usurped the duchy (1479–1500). Lodovico was captured in 1500 by Louis XII. of France, and Milan remained for twelve years under the French crown. In the partial settlement which followed the battle of Ravenna, Massimiliano Sforza, a protégé of the emperor, was restored to the throne of Milan, and held it by the help of the Swiss till 1515, when Francis I. of France reconquered the Milanese by the battle of Marignano, and Massimiliano resigned the sovereignty for a revenue from France. This arrangement did not continue. Charles V. succeeded the emperor Maximilian, and at once disputed the possession of the Milanese with Francis. In 1522 the imperialists entered Milan and proclaimed Francesco Sforza (son of Lodovico). Francesco died in 1535, and with him ended the house of Sforza. From this date till the War of the Spanish Succession (1714) Milan was a dependency of the Spanish crown. At the close of that war it was handed over to Austria; and under Austria it remained till the Napoleonic campaign of 1796. For the results of that campaign, and for the history of Italian progress towards independence, in which Milan played a prominent part by opening the revolution of 1848, with the insurrection of the Cinque Giornate (March 17–22), by which the Austrians were driven out; the reader is referred to the article Italy. The Lombard campaign of 1859, with the battles of Solferino and Magenta, finally made Milan a part of the kingdom of Italy.
Literature.—Pietro Verri, Storia di Milano; Corio, Storia di Milano; Cantù, Illustrazione grande del Lombardo Veneto; the Milanese chroniclers in Muratori’s Rer. Ital. scriptores; Sismondi, Italian Republics; Ferrari, Rivoluzione d’ Italia; Litta, Famiglie celebri, s.v. “Torriani,” “Visconti,” “Sforza” and “Trivulzi”; Muratori, Annali d’Italia; Hallam, History of the Middle Ages; and Mediolanum (4 vols., 1881); L. Beltrami, Il Castello di Milano (Milan, 1894); L. del Mayno, Vicende militari del Castello di Milano (Milan, 1894); F. Malaguzzi Valeri, Milano, 2 vols. (Bergamo, 1906); and C. M. Ady, A History of Milan under the Sforza (1907). (H. F. B.; T.As.)
MILANESI, GAETANO (1813–1895), Italian scholar and writer
on the history of art, was born at Siena, where he studied law,
and in 1838 he obtained an appointment in the public library.
In 1856 he was elected member of the Accademia della Crusca,
in which capacity he took part in the compilation of its famous
but still unfinished dictionary, and two years later was appointed
assistant keeper of the Tuscan archives, in Florence; then he
took charge of the famous Medici archives, whence he collected
a vast body of material on the history of Italian art, not all of
which is yet published. In 1889 he became director of the
archives, but retired in 1892, and died three years later. His
most important publication is his edition of Vasari’s works in
nine volumes, with copious and valuable notes (Florence, 1878–1885).
Of his other writings the following may be mentioned:
Il diario inedito di Alessandro Sozzini (in the Archivio storico
Italiano, 1842); Documenti per la storia dell’ arte senese, 3 vols.
(Siena, 1854–1856) and Discorsi sulla storia civile ed artistica di
Siena (Siena, 1862). He also edited a number of Italian classics.
See E. Ridolli’s article in the Nuova antologia (May 15, 1895); and A. Virgili’s article in the Atti della regia Accademia della Crusca (Florence, 1898).
MILAN OBRENOVICH IV. (1854–1901), king of Servia,
was born on the 22nd of August 1854, at Jassy. He was the
grand-nephew of the famous Milosh, whose brother Jefrem
(d. 1856) had a son, Milosh (1829–1861), who married Maria
Katardži, a Moldavian. Milan was their son. While still very
young, he lost both his parents, and was adopted by his cousin,
Michael Obrenovich, who returned to Servia on the expulsion
of the Karageorgeviches in 1858 and became ruling prince on
the death of his father, Milosh, in 1860. During the reign of
Michael young Milan was educated in Paris, at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand,
where he displayed considerable precocity, but he was
only fourteen years of age when in 1868 his cousin was assassinated
and he succeeded to the throne under a regency. In 1872
he was declared of age, and taking the reins of government into
his own hands, soon manifested great intellectual power, coupled
with a passionate headstrong character. Eugene Schuyler, who
saw him about this time, found him “a very remarkable young
man . . . singularly intelligent and well-informed.” By a
careful balancing of the Austrian and Russian parties in Servia,
with a judicious leaning towards the former, Prince Milan was
enabled in 1878, at the end of the Turkish War, to induce the
Porte to acknowledge his independence, and was proclaimed king
in 1882. (The history of his reign is told in detail under Servia.)
Acting under Austrian influence, King Milan devoted all his
energies to the improvement of means of communication and
the development of natural resources, but the cost, which was
unduly increased by reckless extravagance, led to proportionately
heavy taxation. This, coupled with increased military service,
rendered King Milan and the Austrian party most unpopular;
and his political troubles were further increased by the defeat of
the Servians in the war against Bulgaria, 1885–86. In 1885
(Sept.) the union of Rumelia and Bulgaria caused widespread
agitation in Servia, and Milan precipitately declared war upon
his kinsman Prince Alexander on the 15th of November. After
