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| Toynbee "Visconti_1" |
powerful Ghibelline family of Milan, of which city they were lords
for many years, mentioned by D., together with the Uberti of
Florence, as typical instances of noble houses,
Conv. IV. xx. 5; Galeazzo de' Visconti is referred to by Nino
de' Visconti (in AntePurgatory) by the mention of the family arms,
a viper,
[Purg. viii. 80]
[Galeazzo:
Milanese]. As to their arms Villani says:
I signori Visconti di Milano, come si sa, hanno l'arme loro il
campo bianco e la vipera cilestra ravvolta con un uomo rosso in
bocca.
(Villani. ix. 110.)
The Visconti of Milan appear to have been of a wholly different
stock from the family of the same name at Pisa, to which belonged
Nino de' Visconti, nephew of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca.
[Nino_2.]
©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee
(1968) by permission of Oxford University Press