eer. He was the fourth son of Francesco Sforza,
the famous soldier of fortune who had married Madonna Bianca, daughter
of the last Visconti, and reigned in right of his wife as Duke of Milan
during twenty years. On the 19th of August, 1451, a year and a half
after the great captain had boldly entered Milan and been proclaimed
Duke, Duchess Bianca gave birth at her summer palace of Vigevano to a
fine boy. This "_bel puello_," as he is called in the despatch
announcing the news to his proud father, received the name of Lodovico
Mauro, which was afterwards altered to Lodovico Maria, when, after his
recovery from a dangerous illness at five years old, his mother placed
him under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin. On this occasion
Bianca vowed rich offerings to the shrine of Il Santo at Padua, and in
discharge of this vow, her faithful servant Giovanni Francesco Stanga of
Cremona was sent to Padua in February, 1461, to present a life-size
image of the boy richly worked in silver, together with a complete set
of vestments and of altar plate bearing the ducal arms, to the ark of
the blessed Anthony. In documents still preserved in the Paduan archives
the boy is twice over mentioned as _Lodovicus Maurus filius quartus
masculus_, but the silver image itself bore the inscription, "_Pro
sanitate filii_. Lodovici Mariae, 1461."[2] There can, however, be little
doubt that Maurus was the second name first given to Lodovico, and that
this was the true origin of the surname _Il Moro_ by which Francesco
Sforza's son became famous in after-years. The most ingenious
explanations of this name have been invented by Italian chroniclers.
Prato and Lomazzo both say that Lodovico was called Il Moro because of
the darkness of his complexion and long black hair. Guicciardini repeats
the same, but Paolo Giovio, who had seen Lodovico at Como, asserts that
his complexion was fair, and he owed this surname to the mulberry-tree
which he adopted as his device, because it waits till the winter is well
over to put forth its leaves, and is therefore called the most prudent
of all trees. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that the surname
was given to Lodovico by his parents. "He was first called Moro by his
father Francesco and his mother Bianca in his earliest years," writes
Prato, and we find the same expression in the verse of a Milanese court
poet: "_Et Maurum laeto patris cognomine dictum_." The name naturally
provoked puns. The dark-eye