en
sands of Tagus, all hasten thither from the far North. The rude Pannonian
lays aside his military cloak to join the eager throng who crowd into the
virgin temple and seek the Helicon of Phoebus under the carved dome of
wisdom, which bears Lodovico's name above the stars."

But the Moro patronage of learning was by no means limited to Pavia. He
did his utmost to revive the ancient University of Milan, which had long
fallen into decay, and founded new and flourishing schools in this city.
The best Pavian professors Merula and the Greek Demetrius Calcondila
amongst others, were invited to lecture to the Milanese students. Fra
Luca Pacioli of Borgo San Sepolcro, the famous mathematician, came to
teach them geometry and arithmetic, and Ferrari occupied the first chair
of history ever founded in Italy, while the priest Gaffuri became the
first public instructor in the new school of music. In short, as a
contemporary writes, there was not a science of any description that
could not be learnt at Milan in the days of Lodovico Sforza.

The endowment of research was another point in which Lodovico showed
himself to be in advance of his age. He granted liberal pensions to
Bernardino Corio and Tristano Calco, "the Milanese Livy," who continued
the history of the Visconti begun by the Alessandria professor and
addressed letters in his own hand to the private owners of valuable
manuscripts, requesting the loan of works that would assist these
writers of Lombard history, "in order that a perpetual memory of the
great deeds done by our ancestors may be preserved for future
generations." From his earliest years history had been one of Lodovico's
favourite studies, and an illuminated volume of extracts from Greek and
Roman history which he compiled under his tutor Filelfo's direction at
the age of fifteen may still be seen in the library of Turin. And in
riper years, amid all the pressure of State affairs and political
anxieties, he never let a day pass without having some passages from
ancient and modern history read aloud to him by his secretaries. So wise
and enlightened a prince well deserved the high praise bestowed upon him
by the Bolognese scholar, Filippo Beroaldo, and the great Florentine,
Angelo Poliziano, with whom Lodovico frequently exchanged letters, and
who in one of his effusions thus addresses his princely friend: "All the
world knows you to be a prince of brilliant genius and singular wisdom,
while above all others y