Sforza

Sforza, Italian family that ruled the duchy of Milan from 1450 to 1535. Rising from peasant origins, the Sforzas became condottieri and used this military position to become rulers in Milan. The family governed by force, ruse, and power politics. Under their rule the city-state flourished and expanded. Similar to the Medici in their use of personal power, the Sforzas differed in that they were warriors, not bankers.

The first prominent member of the family was Muzio Attendolo Sforza, 1369-1424, a farmer from the Romagna who became a noted condottiere and took the surname Sforza [the forcer]. He fought in the service of several Italian states, then became involved in the struggles for the succession to the kingdom of Naples and died while serving Queen Joanna II in her efforts to retain the throne. His illegitimate son, Francesco I Sforza (see separate article), became duke of Milan in 1450 through his marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti, daughter of the last Visconti duke of Milan.

Francesco was succeeded by his eldest son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1444-76, a highly educated but dissolute and cruel man; he was a patron of the arts and employed the architect Bramante. He was assassinated in the Church of San Stefano at Milan by republican conspirators, but the popular uprising anticipated by the assassins did not materialize. Another of Francesco's sons, Ascanio Maria Sforza, 1455-1505, was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and also a patron of the arts. He secured the election of Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) as pope.

Galeazzo's daughter Bianca Maria married Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and his illegitimate daughter Caterina Sforza, 1463?-1509, became the wife of Gerolamo Riario, lord of the cities of Imola and Forlì and a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. After Gerolamo was murdered (1488), Caterina ruled both cities until she lost them to Cesare Borgia in 1499. With her second husband, Giovanni de' Medici, she bore a son who became the famous condottiere Giovanni delle Bande Nere (see Medici, Giovanni de').

Galeazzo's wife, Bona of Savoy, acted as regent for their son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza, 1469-94, who succeeded to the duchy as a minor on his father's assassination. However, in 1480, Galeazzo's brother Ludovico Sforza (see separate article) deprived his nephew of the duchy and assumed its control. Gian Galeazzo died a virtual prisoner. His daughter, Bona Sforza, married Sigismund I of Poland. In the Italian Wars Milan was claimed by Louis XII of France, great-grandson of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Ludovico lost Milan to Louis in 1499, but in 1512 the Swiss, as members of the Holy League against France, stormed Milan and installed Ludovico's son, Massimiliano Sforza, 1493-1530, as its duke. The Swiss actually controlled Milan until their defeat at Marignano (1515), which obliged Massimiliano to surrender Milan to Francis I of France; Massimiliano retired to France.

Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian conferred the title of duke of Milan on Massimiliano's brother, Francesco II Sforza, 1495-1535. Francesco took possession of his duchy after the French defeat (1522) by the army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Bicocca. Accused by the imperial general Pescara of plotting against Charles, Francesco was deprived (1525) of most of his duchy. He joined (1526) the League of Cognac against the emperor, but was obliged to surrender to the imperial troops that besieged him in Milan. After the Treaty of Cambrai (1529), Francesco was restored as duke and ruled until his death. He had no heirs, and the succession to Milan once more was contested by France and Spain, with Spain emerging victorious in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559).

Sforza, Carlo, Conte, 1872-1952, Italian foreign minister. He held high ministerial and diplomatic posts, became a senator, and as foreign minister (1920-21) negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with Yugoslavia. Sforza opposed Mussolini and resigned as ambassador to Paris in 1922. He went (1927) into voluntary exile and in 1940 went to the United States, where he became a prominent Italian anti-Fascist and antimonarchist leader. In 1943, Sforza returned to Italy and played a major political role. As foreign minister (1947-51) he supported the European Recovery Program and the settlement of the Trieste question. His many writings include Fifty Years of War and Diplomacy in the Balkans (1940).

Sforza, Francesco I, 1401-66, duke of Milan (1450-66); illegitimate son of Muzio Attendolo Sforza. He succeeded his father as leader of his band of mercenaries, and by his valor and sagacity he became one of the most powerful condottieri of his time. In 1441 he married Bianca Maria, illegitimate daughter of Filippo Maria (see under Visconti), duke of Milan. On Filippo's death (1447) the so-called Ambrosian republic was set up in Milan. Francesco, who commanded the Milanese troops, made himself master of the republic and was proclaimed duke in 1450 with the support of the Medici of Florence. He consolidated the power of Milan and in 1464 seized Genoa. An able prince, he patronized arts and letters and beautified Milan. His son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, succeeded him as duke.

Sforza, Ludovico or Lodovico, b. 1451 or 1452, d. 1508, duke of Milan (1494-99); younger son of Francesco I Sforza. He was called Ludovico il Moro [the Moor] because of his swarthy complexion. In 1480 he deprived his sister-in-law, Bona of Savoy, of the regency for her infant son, Gian Galeazzo Sforza (see Sforza, family), and from that date his actual rule may be reckoned. In 1494, Gian Galeazzo died, a virtual prisoner, and Ludovico was formally invested with Milan by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Partly in order to divert French ambitions from Milan, partly in order to protect himself from the hostility of the king of Naples, Ludovico concluded an offensive alliance with Charles VIII of France, whose invasion (1494) of Italy was the beginning of the Italian Wars. In 1495, however, Ludovico reached an understanding with Charles's enemies and turned against the French, who were expelled from Italy. In 1499, Louis XII of France, who had a hereditary claim to the duchy of Milan (he was a great-grandson of Gian Galeazzo Visconti), invaded Italy and expelled Ludovico from his duchy. Ludovico's attempt, with the aid of Swiss mercenaries, to recover his lands was defeated at Novara (1500); he was captured and died a prisoner in France. Before his fall, Ludovico Sforza was one of the wealthiest and most powerful princes of Renaissance Italy. He was a subtle diplomat and an unscrupulous intriguer. With his wife, Beatrice d'Este, he held a brilliant court and spent immense sums of money to further the arts and sciences. He is remembered especially for his patronage of Leonardo da Vinci and of the architect Bramante.

(born July 27, 1452, Vigevano, Pavia, duchy of Milan—died May 27, 1508, Loches, Toubrenne, France) Regent (1480–94) and duke of Milan (1494–98). The second son of Francesco Sforza, he was known as “the Moor” because of his dark complexion and black hair. He plotted to take over as regent for his young nephew. He made Milan supreme among the Italian states, and his patronage of scholars and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci made his court renowned in Europe. He bribed Maximilian I to declare him duke of Milan and fought to expel the French from Italy. After Louis XII conquered Milan (1498), Ludovico tried unsuccessfully to retake it (1500); he was captured and died in prison.

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(born Sept. 25, 1873, Montignoso di Lunigiana, Italy—died Sept. 4, 1952, Rome) Italian diplomat. He entered the diplomatic service in 1896 and served in embassies worldwide. He served as minister for foreign affairs (1920–21) and as Italy's ambassador to France (1922), but he resigned after refusing to serve under Benito Mussolini. A strong antifascist, he lived in voluntary exile in Belgium until 1939 and in the U.S. (1940–43). He returned to Italy after World War II to serve in various government posts, including minister of foreign affairs (1947–51).

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(born July 27, 1452, Vigevano, Pavia, duchy of Milan—died May 27, 1508, Loches, Toubrenne, France) Regent (1480–94) and duke of Milan (1494–98). The second son of Francesco Sforza, he was known as “the Moor” because of his dark complexion and black hair. He plotted to take over as regent for his young nephew. He made Milan supreme among the Italian states, and his patronage of scholars and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci made his court renowned in Europe. He bribed Maximilian I to declare him duke of Milan and fought to expel the French from Italy. After Louis XII conquered Milan (1498), Ludovico tried unsuccessfully to retake it (1500); he was captured and died in prison.

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Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (born January 25, 1922) is an Italian population geneticist born in Genoa, who has been a professor at Stanford University since 1970 (now emeritus).

Works

One of the more distinguished geneticists of the 20th century, he has summed up his work for laymen under five topics covered in Genes, Peoples, and Languages (2000). Physiologist and evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond praised the work for "demolishing scientists' attempts to classify human populations into races in the same way that they classify birds and other species into races." According to an article published in The Economist, the work of Cavalli-Sforza "challenges the assumption that there are significant genetic differences between human races, and indeed, the idea that 'race' has any useful biological meaning at all." (The Human Genome Survey, 1 July 2000, pg. 11)

Cavalli-Sforza's The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994 with Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza) is considered a standard reference on human genetic variation. Cavalli-Sforza also wrote The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution (with his son Francesco).

Once the genetic structure of inheritance had been made plain, Cavalli-Sforza was one of the first scientists to ask whether the genes of modern populations might contain an inherited historical record of the human species. The study of demographics was already well-established, based on linguistic, cultural, and archaeological clues, but it had become overlaid with nationalist and racist ideologies. Cavalli-Sforza initiated a new field of research by combining the concrete findings of demography with a newly-available analysis of blood groups in an actual human population.

Cavalli-Sforza has studied the connections between migration patterns and blood groups.

His papers in the mid-1960s with Anthony Edwards pioneered statistical methods for reconstructing evolutionary trees (phylogenies). They introduced the first parsimony method, which searched for the tree that connected the populations with the least change in gene frequencies. They also were first to use maximum likelihood methods to estimate phylogenies. They had an early distance matrix method as well. In effect, their work in 1963-1964 introduced two of the three major numerical methods for reconstructing phylogenies, with distance matrix methods having also been introduced by Walter Fitch. Edwards and Cavalli-Sforza were always concerned with trees of populations within the human species, where genetic differences are affected both by treelike patterns of historical separation of populations and by spread of genes among populations by migration and admixture. Cavalli-Sforza has been concerned with the effects of both divergence and migration on human gene frequencies.

While Cavalli-Sforza is best known for his work in genetics, he also, in collaboration with Marcus Feldman, initiated the sub-discipline of cultural anthropology known alternatively as coevolution, gene-culture coevolution, cultural transmission theory or dual inheritance theory. The seminal publication Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach (1981) made use of models from population genetics to investigate the transmission of culturally transmitted units. This line of inquiry initiated research into the correlation of patterns of genetic and cultural dispersion.

Cavalli-Sforza received his M.D. from the University of Pavia in 1944. His post-war studies at Cambridge in the area of bacterial genetics were followed by years of teaching in northern Italy, in Milan, Parma, and Pavia, and a move in 1970 to Stanford, where he found the intellectual culture more open-ended and cooperative, and where he has remained.

Criticism

His proposed ambitious Human Genome Diversity Project to gather further genetic data from populations around the world was accused of "cultural insensitivity, neocolonialism, and biopiracy."

Linguist Bill Poser in Language Log has criticized some of Cavalli-Sforza's comments about linguistics, in particular the suggestion, echoing controversial linguists Merritt Ruhlen and Joseph Greenberg, that some mainstream linguists are unnecessarily conservative about hypothesized long-range relationships between language families, and an overstatement that Greenberg's critics "have ruled out the possibility of hierarchical classification", which Cavalli-Sforza did not defend when challenged by Poser, but deferred to Ruhlen. Cavalli-Sforza's interest in hypothesized large-scale language families is as a basis for comparison with similarly large-scale postulated genetic classifications of human populations.

Quote

• "The classification into races has proved to be a futile exercise for reasons that were already clear to Darwin." (Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, & Piazza, 1994, p. 19).

See also

• Dual inheritance theory
• Human genetic variation

Bibliography

• Edwards, A.W,F, and L.L. Cavalli-Sforza. 1964. Reconstruction of evolutionary trees. pp. 67-76 in Phenetic and Phylogenetic Classification, ed. V. H. Heywood and J. McNeill. Systematics Association pub. no. 6, London.
• Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and A.W.F. Edwards. 1965. Analysis of human evolution. pp. 923-933 in Genetics Today. Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Genetics, The Hague, The Netherlands, September, 1963, volume 3, ed. S. J. Geerts, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
• Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. and A.W.F. Edwards. 1967. Phylogenetic analysis: models and estimation procedures. American Journal of Human Genetics 19:233-257.
• Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and W. F. Bodmer. 1971. The Genetics of Human Populations. W. H. Freeman, San Francisco (reprinted 1999 by Dover Publications).
• Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and M. Feldman. 1981. Cultural Transmission and Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
• Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., P. Menozzi, A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
• Cavalli Sforza, L. L, Il caso e la necessità - Ragioni e limiti della diversità genetica, 2007, Di Renzo Editore, Roma

Films

• 2003 - Journey of Man

External links

• African Human Genome Initiative: Brief biography of Cavalli-Sforza from the Internet archive
• The Great Human Diasporas - The History of Diversity and Evolution: book review
• L.L. Cavalli-Sforza's Stanford University homepage profile
• Genes, Peoples, and Languages: book review from the Internet archive