Humanistic Historiography Under the Sforzas Politics and Propaganda in Fifteenth-Century Milan

This is a study of the methods, concerns and attitudes which influenced the humanist approach to the writing of history in Renaissance Milan.;In the English-speaking world, studies in Renaissance culture usually centre around Florence; this study establishes Milan as one of the major centres of Italian humanism and aims to raise new questions and perhaps offer some new perspectives on an old problem: the writing of history in the Renaissance.;Focusing mainly on the two works about Francesco Sforza written by his chancery employees, Lodrisio Crivelli and Giovanni Simonetta, the author considers the radical and innovative features of their work which evolved in response to a specific set of political circumstances and became, in effect, a form of propaganda aiming to portray contemporary history.;He goes on to demonstrate that a similar approach to historical writing was evident in other Italian states in the same period, notably Naples, Rome, Urbino, and eventually Florence.