in search of a new home for his defeated
companions. Virgil based the twelve books
of his epic on theIliadand theOdysseyof
Homer.Hebeganworkin30B.C. and con-
tinued for the last eleven years of his life,
leaving the work unfinished at his death in
19 B.C. Although he ordered the entire
poem to be burned, Augustus instead had
the poem published in 17B.C.The Aeneid
was soon acclaimed as one of the great
works of Roman literature, an honor it
maintained through the Renaissance and
still holds today.
The poem was well known to the
manuscript copyists of medieval Europe,
where theAeneidwas often used as a book
of divination. Dante Alighieri, inThe Di-
vine Comedy, made Virgil his own guide to
the circles of Hell and Purgatory. Virgil
was studied in universities and was a sub-
ject of debate and commentary by schol-
ars, philosophers, and poets, who held up-
The Aeneidas a model of classical clarity
and perfection of form.
Visconti dynasty ...............................
A noble family of northern Italy who ruled
the duchy of Milan and whose members
were important patrons of the early Re-
naissance in that important city. In the
twelfth century the clan was granted the
title of viscount, which they adopted as
the family name. Oddone Visconti, the
archbishop of Milan, became ruler of the
city by ousting the rival Della Torre clan
in 1277. His successor, Matteo I Visconti,
controlled Milan with the backing of the
Holy Roman Emperor, but the opposition
of the Guelph (papal) faction forced him
to surrender his title in favor of his son
Galeazzo I Visconti in 1322. Luchino Vis-
conti (1292–1349) added Tuscany, Pied-
mont, and a small canton of Switzerland
to the Visconti domains. The rapidly grow-
ing power and territory of the Visconti
aroused opposition in northern Italy, and
the Visconti lands came under frequent at-
tack by rivals fearing the establishment of
a Visconti kingdom stretching across
northern Italy.
Galeazzo II (1320–1378), the son of
Stefano Visconti, fought with his brother
Bernabo against the d’Este and Gonzaga
clans, defeating his rivals at the Battle of
Casorate. He shared the Visconti realm
with Bernabo after the death of Matteo II
Visconti. A patron of artists and writers,
notably Petrarch, he founded the Univer-
sity of Pavia and extended his family’s in-
fluence by marrying his daughter Violante
to a prince of England and his son Gian
Galeazzo to Isabella, the daughter of the
king of France. In 1362, he moved to Pa-
via, allowing his brother Bernabo to rule
in Milan, where he contended with the
powerful cities of Florence and Venice as
well as with the pope.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351–1402)
combined the Pavia and Milan realms un-
der his authority and brought the Visconti
domain to the height of its wealth, power,
and prestige. He added the March of Tre-
viso to the realm in 1387 and also con-
quered Pisa, Siena, Bologna, and the duchy
of Umbria, employing skilled mercenary
captains as well as his own skillful diplo-
macy to avoid open warfare with the coa-
litions that were constantly forming against
him. Through the payment of a large sum
of money, he was invested as hereditary
ruler of Milan by the Holy Roman Em-
pire, an event that brought about the in-
dependence of northern Italy from control
by the emperors. Gian Galeazzo’s dream of
founding a hereditary Visconti kingdom
was cut short by his death from the plague.
After his death the Visconti territories
passed to Giovanni Maria Visconti, whoseVisconti dynasty