d boy with his long black hair and bushy
eyebrows went by the nickname of Moro, and as he grew up, adopted both
the Moor's head and the mulberry-tree as his badge. These devices in
their turn supplied the poets and painters of his court with themes on
which they were never tired of exercising their wit and ingenuity. Moors
and Moorish costumes were introduced in every masquerade and ballet, a
Moorish page was represented brushing the robes of Italy in a fresco of
the Castello of Milan, while mulberry colour became fashionable among
the ladies of the Moro's court, and was commonly worn by the servants
and pages in the palace. Lodovico early gave signs of the love of
literature and the great abilities which distinguished him in
after-life. His quickness in learning by heart, his extraordinary
memory, and the fluency with which he wrote and spoke Latin amazed his
tutors. And he was fortunate in receiving an excellent education from
the first Greek scholars of the day. Madonna Bianca, the only daughter
of Filippo Maria, the last Visconti who had betrothed her before she was
eight years old to Francesco Sforza, proved herself the best of wives
and mothers. By her courage and wisdom she helped her husband to gain
possession of her dead father's duchy, and won the hearts of all her
subjects by her goodness. While Francesco was engaged with affairs of
state, she directed the studies of her children, and gave her six sons
an admirable training in learning and knightly exercises. "Let us
remember," she said to her son's tutor, the learned scholar Filelfo,
"that we have princes to educate, not only scholars." We find her
setting the boys a theme on the manner in which princes should draw up
treaties, and desiring them in her absence to write to her once a week
in Latin. Several of these letters are still preserved in the archives
of Milan. There is one, for instance, in which Lodovico, then sixteen
years old, tells his mother that he is sending her seventy quails, two
partridges, and a pheasant, the result of a day's sport in the forest,
but takes care to assure her that the pleasures of the chase will never
make him neglect his books.

Many are the pleasant glimpses we catch of the family circle, whether in
the Corte vecchia or old ducal palace of the Viscontis at Milan, in the
beautiful park and gardens of the Castello at Pavia, or in their country
homes of Vigevano and Binasco. We see Duke Francesco riding out with his
young so