[See also: ANTIQUITY, ROMANCES OF; BERNARD SILVESTRIS; OVID,
INFLUENCE OF]
Cardwell, R.A., and J.Hamilton, eds. Virgil in a Cultural Tradition: Essays to Celebrate the
Bimillennium. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press, 1986.
Cormier, Raymond J. One Heart One Mind: The Rebirth of Virgil’s Hero in Medieval French
Romances. University: Romance Monographs, 1973.
——.“The Present State of Studies on the Roman d’Énéas.” Cultura Neolatina 31(1971):7–39.
Jones, Julian Ward, and Elizabeth Ward Jones, eds. The Commentary on the First Six Books of the
“Aeneid” Commonly Attributed to Bernardus Silvestris. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1977.
Lectures médiévales de Virgile. In Actes du colloque organisé par l’École Française de Rome,
1982, ed. J.-Y.Tilliette. Rome: École Française, 1985.
VISCONTI
. The Visconti family, which ruled Milan between the mid-13th and mid-15th centuries,
concluded two important marriage alliances with the French monarchy in the 14th
century. In 1360, when the Milanese state was divided between two Visconti brothers,
Bernabo and Galeazzo, the latter arranged for his son, Gian Galeazzo, to marry Isabelle,
the daughter of John II, furnishing the French king with a large sum of money needed for
his ransom from captivity in England. In 1387, Gian Galeazzo’s daughter Valentina
(1371–1408) married Louis, duke of Orléans, the younger brother of Charles VI. She
became involved in the political intrigues of the French court, particularly her husband’s
Italian ambitions. After his assassination in 1407, she demanded justice from the French
government but died without obtaining satisfaction. Her son, Charles d’Orléans, then
only fourteen years old, eventually became the father of the future Louis XII, who, as
Valentina’s grandson, claimed the duchy of Milan and conquered it in 1499.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
VISCOUNT/VISCOUNTY
. The English word “viscount” and its Old French cognate, visconte, are derived from the
Latin word vicecomes ‘vice-count,’ coined ca. 790 specifically as the title of a new type
of officer appointed in a growing number of counties to serve as the deputy of the count.
By ca. 850, virtually every county in the new West Frankish kingdom seems to have been
provided with a viscount, who, in addition to performing certain administrative functions
peculiar to his office, assumed all of the normal duties of the count during his frequent
absences from the county. By 1000, the office was hereditary in virtually every province
except Normandy, where it always remained appointive. From ca. 1020, “viscountess”
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1822