Note 76 — Chapter V · THE GREATER DYNASTIES.
S. G. C. (Samuel George Chetwynd) Middlemore translation
Pii II. Comment. iii. p. 130. Comp. ii. 87. 106. Another and rather darker estimate of Sforza’s fortune is given by Caracciolo, De Varietate Fortunæ, in Murat. xxii. col. 74. See for the opposite view the praises of Sforza’s luck in the Oratio parentalis de divi Francesci Sphortiæ felicitate, by Filelfo (the ready eulogist of any master who paid him), who sung, without publishing, the exploits of Francesco in the Sforziad. Even Decembrio, the moral and literary opponent of Filelfo, celebrates Sforza’s fortune in his biography (Vita Franc. Sphortiæ, in Murat. xx.). The astrologers said: ‘Francesco Sforza’s star brings good luck to a man, but ruin to his descendants.’ Arluni, De Bello Veneto, libri vi. in Grævius, Thes. Antiqu. et Hist. Italicæ, v. pars iii. Comp. also Barth. Facius, De Vir. III. p. 67.