Note 34 — COSIMO DI GIOVANNI DE’ MEDICI

Alluding to the old proverb, Fiorentini ciechi, Senesi matti, Pisani traditori, Lucchesi signori. Niccolò Fortebraccio, formerly in the service of the Florentine Republic, was the great rival of Francesco Sforza. These two condottieri had both seized on separate portions of the Marches, and while Sforza’s fortress was Ancona, Assisi was that of Fortebraccio. The two captains fought for the mastery in the Marches, and in the end Fortebraccio was defeated and slain.