Note 215 — BOOK THE SEVENTH.

Gian Galeazzo Visconti became Lord of Milan in 1378, on the death of his father Galeazzo. In 1395 he obtained from the Emperor Wenceslaus a diploma creating him Duke of Milan; and by a subsequent imperial diploma the boundaries of his duchy were defined, and made to include twenty-five towns, from Verona and Vicenza on the east to Alessandria and Tortona on the west. In 1402 he was only waiting for the surrender of Florence to declare himself King of Italy, when he died suddenly of the plague.