Galeazzo Sanseverino

Sanseverino, Galeazzo, conte di Caiazzo. - Figlio (m. Pavia 1525) di Roberto; dal 1487 capitano generale dell'esercito sforzesco, col quale si distinse nella battaglia di Fornovo (1495). L'anno seguente sposò Bianca, figlia naturale di Ludovico il Moro, la quale gli portò in dote Voghera. Ebbe poi parte in tutte le azioni militari nelle quali fu implicato il ducato di Milano durante le guerre franco-spagnole; passato infine al servizio francese come gran scudiero di Francesco I, morì alla battaglia di Pavia. Leonardo da Vinci progettò per lui un monumento equestre, noto da disegni.

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But practical jokes were much in vogue among these exalted lords and ladies
of the Renaissance. For instance, we find Beatrice's brother Alfonso and
Messer Galeazzo, disguised as robbers, breaking into the house of
Girolamo Tuttavilla, one of Lodovico's favourite ministers, at midnight,
and leading him blindfold on a donkey through the streets of Milan and
into the Castello, where he was released amid peals of laughter.

One of these letters, for
instance, is devoted to a long account of the jokes that passed between
Messer Galeazzo and the duchess [Beatrice] at table, how Messer Galeazzo begged to
be allowed a taste of the duchess's soup, and complained that he was
forgotten now that the Marchesana [Isabella d'Este] was no longer there, and how Beatrice
told him she would write and tell her sister, to which he replied, "Tell
her whatever you like, as long as I get my soup!"

In 1491, Galeazzo Sanseverino described in a letter how he and Beatrice, Lodovico’s young wife, caught eels in the river north of Milan and, after retiring to one of Lodovico’s nearby villas, “proceeded to dine off them until we could eat no more.”

Isabella had another correspondent at the court of Milan, in the person of Messer
Galeazzo di Sanseverino, with whom she had formed a warm friendship at
Pavia, and who had promised to give her frequent news of her sister,
while at the same time he still carried on the battle over Roland and
Rinaldo which had been started in the park of the Castello at Pavia.

[...] Then he returns to the old controversy over
Orlando, and replies to a gay challenge which Isabella has sent him in a
letter to Signor Lodovico, only wishing she were here to defend Rinaldo
in person, or rather to be made to own the error of her ways, and to
confess that the knight of Montalbano is not to be compared to Roland!
But he warns her that if she perseveres in this heresy, he will draw up
such an indictment of Rinaldo's faults as will fill her with confusion,
and make her recognize with shame his inferiority to Roland, that baron
of immortal fame, of whom nothing but good can be said. Isabella,
however, stuck to her colours, and, a whole month later, Messer Galeazzo
sent her a long letter from Vigevano, in which he drew up an elaborate
parallel between the conduct of the two paladins, as recorded in
Boiardo's poem, and ended with a splendid eulogy of Roland.

"Roland the most Christian! Roland the pure and strong, prudent, just,
and merciful servant of Christ, the true defender of widows and orphans!
Of his valour I will say nothing, this being known to all the world; but
this I say, that when I think of my worship for Roland, however sad and
ill disposed I may be feeling, my heart rejoices, and I become glad of
heart and joyous again."

So he begs her, for the love that he bears her Highness, to try and
amend her ways and recant her errors, and do penitence in this Lenten
season for her fault, after the example of the great apostle St. Paul,
who was converted to the Christian faith, and became an elect son and
mighty preacher of the gospel, bringing many to righteousness and
enjoying the high favour of our Lord God. For Roland, the Marchesa may
know for certain, has his place in Paradise with the saints, "and in
serving him you will be serving God; but if, on the other hand, you
persevere in your false opinions, you will find that you are serving the
devil, who accompanied Rinaldo both in his life here and afterwards in
his death. And remember," he adds in conclusion, "when the blind lead
the blind, both fall into the ditch!"

Nothing daunted by this long harangue, Isabella retorted in an equally
lengthy epistle, flatly denying the charges brought against Rinaldo as
false and unsupported by a tittle of evidence. Galeazzo replied in
another bantering letter, assuming the part of a priest, and exhorting
the fair sinner to confess her faults in these holy days of Passiontide,
lest she should incur greater damnation, and drive her soul into the
devil's jaws.

"And since this is the hour of penitence and contrition," he concludes,
"I would once more beg and pray your Highness to return to the true
faith and devotion of Roland, having before your eyes the good example
of our most illustrious duchess, your sister, who has acknowledged her
errors, and become a sincere follower of Roland, as a good Christian,
and is now gone to Milan to obtain pardon.

"Your most humble and devoted servant,
GALEAZ SFORTIA VICECOMES,