Galeazzo Maria Sforza (24 January 1444 – 26 December 1476) was the fifth Duke of Milan from 1466 until 1476. He was born to Francesco Sforza, a popular condottiero and ally of Cosimo de' Medici who would gain the Duchy of Milan in 1450, and Bianca Maria Visconti, Duchess of Milan on her own right. Sforza was betrothed into the Gonzaga family; after the engagement with Dorotea Gonzaga was called off, he married Bona of Savoy.
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👉 Galeazzo Maria Sforza in the context of Bona of Savoy
Bona of Savoy (10 August 1449 – 23 November 1503) was Duchess of Milan as the second wife of Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444–1476), Duke of Milan. Following her husband's assassination in 1476, she served as regent of Milan for her son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, during his minority from 1476 to 1481.
As regent, Bona played a significant political role in attempting to preserve the stability of the Sforza rule amidst internal power struggles. She was also the original patron of the lavishly illuminated Sforza Book of Hours, one of the finest surviving Renaissance books of hours.
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Galeazzo Maria Sforza in the context of Sforza Book of Hours
The Sforza Hours (British Library, London, Add. MS 34294), is a richly illuminated book of hours initiated by Bona Sforza, widow of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, around 1490, who commissioned the illuminator Giovanni Pietro Birago. The book remained in an unfinished state for 30 years until Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, commissioned its completion in 1517–20 from the artist Gerard Horenbout. The book therefore contains decoration of the highest quality by two artists. It provides a unique example of an early sixteenth-century Northern Renaissance illuminator's response to Milanese art of the late Quattrocento. The history of the Sforza Hours also includes one of the earliest recorded examples of art theft.
It has been in the British Library since 1893.