Editing Gian Galeazzo Visconti (section)

==Biography==
During his patronage of the Visconti Castle, he contributed to the growth of the collection of scientific treatises and richly illuminated manuscripts in the Visconti Library.<ref>Hoeniger, Cathleen. ''The Illuminated Tacuinum sanitatis Manuscripts from Northern Italy ca. 1380-1400: Sources, Patrons, and the Creation of a new Pictorial Genre.'' in: Givens, Jean Ann; Reeds, Karen; Touwaide, Alain. (2006) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HK799l9nR4UC Visualizing medieval medicine and natural history, 1200-1550]''. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. pp. 51-82. {{ISBN|0754652963}}.</ref>

Gian Galeazzo was the son of Galeazzo II Visconti and Bianca of Savoy.{{sfn|Mueller|2019|p=550}} His father possessed the [[signoria]] of the city of Pavia. In 1385 Gian Galeazzo gained control of Milan by overthrowing his uncle Bernabò through treacherous means by faking a religious conversion and ambushing him during a religious procession in Milan.<ref>John T. Paoletta and Gary M. Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy</ref> He imprisoned his uncle who soon died, supposedly poisoned on his orders.<ref>[[Barbara Tuchman]] [[A Distant Mirror]] A.A.Knopf, New York (1978) p.418</ref>

Galeazzo's role as a statesman also took other forms. Soon after seizing Milan, he took [[Verona, Italy|Verona]], [[Vicenza]], and [[Padua]], establishing himself as ''Signore'' of each, and soon controlled almost the entire [[Po River|valley of the Po]],{{sfnp|Bueno de Mesquita|2011|pages=69–83}} including [[Piacenza]] where in 1393 he gave the feudal power to [[Montechino Italian Castle Piacenza|Confalonieri]] family on the lands they already had in the valleys around Piacenza.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} He lost Padua in 1390 when it reverted to [[Francesco Novello da Carrara]].{{sfnp|Bueno de Mesquita|2011|pages=122–123}} He received the title of Duke of Milan from [[Wenceslaus, King of the Romans]] in 1395 for 100,000 florins.{{sfnp|Bueno de Mesquita|2011|page=173}}

Gian Galeazzo spent 300,000 golden florins{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} in attempting to turn from their courses the rivers Mincio from Mantua and the [[Brenta (river)|Brenta]] from Padua, in order to render those cities helpless before the force of his arms.{{sfnp|Bueno de Mesquita|2011|pages=165–167, 276–277}}

Notable are his library, housed in the grandest princely dwelling in Italy, the Castello in Pavia, and his rich collection of manuscripts, many of them the fruits of his conquests. In 1400, Gian Galeazzo appointed a host of clerks and departments entrusted with improving public health. For the new system of administration and bookkeeping this established, he is credited with creating the first modern bureaucracy, with the assistance of his Chancellor Francesco Barbavara.<ref name="John Addington Symonds">{{cite book |last1=Symonds |first1=John Addington |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8msbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22His+love+of+order+was+so+precise+that+he+may+be+said+to+have+applied+the+method+of+a+banker%27s+office+to+the+conduct+of+a+state%22&pg=PA142 |title=Renaissance in Italy: The age of despots |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |year=1888 |edition=American |volume=1 |location=New York |page=142 |asin=B003YH9WF0 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015026749849 |oclc=664406875 |quote=It was he who invented bureaucracy by creating a special class of paid clerks and secretaries of departments. Their duty consisted in committing to books and ledgers the minutest items of his private expenditure and the outgoings of his public purse; in noting the details of the several taxes, so as to be able to present a survey of the whole state revenue; and in recording the names and qualities and claims of his generals, captains, and officials. |author-link1=John Addington Symonds |access-date=March 8, 2011 |orig-year=1875}}</ref>

=== Conflict with France ===
Galeazzo was a devoted father to his daughter [[Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans|Valentina]]. He reacted to gossip about Valentina at the French Court by threatening to declare war on France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frazee |first=Charles A. |date=June 1992 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Edited by Alexander P. Kazhdan, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. 3 vols. xxxi + 2232 pp. $225.00. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3168272 |journal=Church History |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=241–243 |doi=10.2307/3168272 |jstor=3168272 |s2cid=162432200 |issn=0009-6407}}</ref> The wife of King [[Charles VI of France|Charles VI]] of France was [[Isabeau of Bavaria]], the granddaughter of Bernabò Visconti, and, thus, a bitter rival of Valentina and her father Gian Galeazzo.{{sfnp|Bueno de Mesquita|2011|pages=63, 158–159}}

Furious at French political manoeuvring that had removed [[Genoa]] from his influence, Gian Galeazzo had been attempting to stop the transfer of Genoese sovereignty to France and [[Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy|Enguerrand VII]] was dispatched to warn him that France would consider further interference a hostile act. The quarrel was more than political. Valentina Visconti, the wife of the Duke of Orleans and Gian Galeazzo's beloved daughter, had been exiled from Paris due to the machinations of Queen Isabeau the same month as the departure of the crusade.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

In 1396, after the [[Battle of Nicopolis|disaster of Nicopolis]], Galeazzo was strongly suspected of having informed the Ottomans of the Crusaders' plans and of the size and strength of their army as vengeance for his daughter being accused of being behind the illness of King Charles VI of France, and for France's increasing control over the city of Genoa that he had attempted to hamper, for which he had been rebuked by [[Enguerrand VII de Coucy|Enguerrand VII]] before the battle.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

=== Uniting Italy and death ===
{{main|Florentine–Milanese Wars}}
Gian Galeazzo had dreams of uniting all of northern Italy into one kingdom, a revived Lombard empire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan {{!}} History Today |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/giangaleazzo-visconti-duke-milan |access-date=2023-03-16 |website=www.historytoday.com}}</ref> Obstacles included [[Bologna]] and especially [[Florence, Italy|Florence]], who joined with other local potentates in the [[League of Bologna]]. In 1402, Gian Galeazzo launched assaults upon these cities. The warfare was extremely costly on both sides, but it was universally believed the Milanese would emerge victorious. The Florentine leaders, especially the chancellor [[Coluccio Salutati]] worked successfully to rally the people of Florence, but the Florentines were being taxed hard by famine, disease, and poverty. Galeazzo won another victory over the Bolognese at the [[Battle of Casalecchio]] on 26–27 June 1402.{{sfn|Morelli|2015|p=200-201}}

Galeazzo's dreams were to come to nought, however, as he succumbed to a fever at the Castello of Melegnano on 10 August 1402. He died on 3 September. His empire fragmented as infighting among his successors wrecked Milan, partly through the division of his lands among both legitimate and illegitimate children.{{efn|To his son [[Giovanni Maria Visconti|Giovanni Maria]] he assigned the title of Duke of Milan, which included Como, Lodi, Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Reggio Emilia, Piacenza, Parma, and claims to Perugia and Siena. To [[Filippo Maria Visconti|Filippo Maria]], conte di Pavia, he assigned in addition Vercelli, Novara, Alessandria, Tortona, Feltre, Verona, Vicenza, Bassano and the shores of Trento. To his illegitimate son, Gabriele Maria, went Pisa and Crema.}}