Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/311

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M I L M I L 293 tion of their feudal chief, the emperor, brought to the front two noble families as protagonists of the contending factions, the Torriani of Valsassina, and the Yisconti, who derived their name Irom the office they had held under the archbishops. After the battle of Cortenova, in 1237, where Frederick II. defeated the Guelf army of the Milanese and captured their carroccio, Pagano della Torre rallied and saved the remnants of the Milanese. This act recom mended him to popular favour, and he was called to the "overnment of the city, but only for the distinct purpose of establishing the "catasta," a property tax which should fall with equal incidence on every citizen. This was a democratic measure which marked the party to which the Torriani belonged and rendered them hateful to the nobility. Pagano died in 1241. His nephew Martino fol lowed as podesta in 1256, and in 1259 as signore of Milan, the first time such a title was heard in Italy. The nobles, who had gathered round the Visconti, and who threatened to bring Ezzelino da Romano, the Ghibelline tyrant of Padua, into the city, were defeated l>y Martino, and nine hundred of their number were captured. Martino was followed by two other Torriani, Filippo his brother (1263-65) and Napoleone his cousin (1265-77), as lords of Milan. Napoleone obtained the title of imperial vicar from Rudolph of Hapsburg. But the nobles under the Visconti had been steadily gathering strength, and Napoleone was defeated at Desio in 1277. He ended his life in a wooden cage at Castel Baradello above Como. Otho Visconti, archbishop of Milan (1262), the victor of Desio, became lord of Milan, and founded the house of Visconti, who ruled the city except from 1302 to 1310 till 1447, giving twelve lords to Milan. Otho (1277-95), Matteo (1310-22), Galeazzo (1322-28), Azzo (1328-39), Lucchino (1339-49), and Giovanni (1349-54) fol lowed in succession. Giovanni left the lordship to three nephews Matteo, Galeazzo, and Bernabo. Matteo was killed (1355) by his brothers, who divided the Milanese, Bernabo reigning in Milan (1354-85) and Galeazzo in Pavia (1354-78). Galeazzo left a son, Gian Galeazzo, who became sole lord of Milan by seizing and im prisoning his uncle Bernabo. For an account of this most powerful prince see ITALY. It was under him that the cathedral of Milan and the Certosa of Pavia were begun. He was the first duke of Milan, having obtained that title from the emperor Wenceslaus. His sons Giovanni Maria, who reigned at Milan (1402-1412), and Filippo Maria, who reigned at Pavia (1402-1447), succeeded him. In 1412, on his brother s death, Filippo united the whole duchy under his sole rule, and attempted to carry out his father s policy of aggrandizement, but without success. Filippo was the last male of the Visconti house. At his deatli a republic was proclaimed, which lasted only three years. In 1450 the general Francesco Sforza, who had married Filippo s only child Bianca Visconti, became duke of Milan by right of conquest if by any right. Under this duke the canal of the Martesana, which connects Milan with the Adda, and the Great Hospital were carried out. Francesco was followed by five of the Sforza family. His son Galeazzo Maria (1466-76) left a son, Gian Galeazzo, a minor, whose guardian and uncle Lodovico usurped the duchy (1479-1500). Lodo- vico was captured in 1500 by Louis XII. of France, and Milan remained for twelve years under the French crown. In the partial settlement which followed the battle of Ravenna, Massimiliano Sforza, a protege of the emperor, was restored to the throne of Milan, and held it by the help of the Swiss till 1515, when Francis 1. of France reconquered the Milanese by the battle of Marignano, and Massimiliano resigned the sovereignty for a revenue from France. This arrangement did not continue. Charles V. succeeded the emperor Maximilian, and at once disputed the possession of the Milanese with Francis. In 1522 the imperialists entered Milan and proclaimed Francesco Sforza (son of Lodovico). Francesco died in 1535, and with him ended the house of Sforza. From this date till the war of the Spanish succession (1714) Milan was a dependency of the Spanish crown. At the close of that war it was handed over to Austria ; and under Austria it remained till the Napoleonic campaign of 1796. For the results of that campaign, and for the history of Italian progress towards independence, in which Milan played a prominent part by opening the revolution of 1848, the reader is referred to the article ITALY. The Lombard campaign of 1859, with the battles of Solferino and Magenta, finally made Milan a part of the kingdom of Italy. Literature. Pietro Verri, Storia di Mi ano; Corio, Storia di Milano; Cantu, Jllustrazione Granite del Lombardo Veneto; the Milanese chroniclers in Mura- tori s Rer. Ital. Scriptores ; Sismondi, Italian Republics ; Ferrari, Rivoluzione a" Italia; Litta, Famiglie eelebri, s.v. " Torriani," "Visconti," " Sforza," and "Trivulzi; 1 Muratori, Annali a" Italia ; Hallam, History of the. Middle Ages and A/edioIanum, 4 vols., 1881. Bonvicino da Uiva gives a contemporary account of Milan in the 12th century. (II. F. B.) MILAZZO, a city of Italy in the province of Messina in Sicily, 20| miles west of Messina, is built on the eastern shore of the Bay of Milazzo, partly on the isthmus of the promontory, Capo Milazzo, which divides it from the Bay of Olivieri. It consists of an old or upper town protected by strong bastioned walls, and a lower or modern town outside of the enceinte. The fine old castle is now used as a prison. Besides a certain amount of foreign com merce (37 vessels with a burden of 6707 tons entering in 1881, 93 with 13,496 in 1863), Milazzo carries on a good coasting trade (194,366 tons in 1881, 40,138 in 1861), and is one of the seats of the tunny-fishery. The com munal population increased from 10,493 in 1861 to 13,565 in 1881, and that of the city was 7427 in 1871. Milazzo is the ancient Mylse, a seaport and fortress founded by the Zancla?ans (Messanians), which gives its name to the battle of the Mylrean plain in which the Mamertines were defeated by Hiero in 270 B.C. In 1523 it was the scene of an unsuccessful conspiracy to transfer Sicily to the French. Captured by the Germans in 1718, it was besieged by the Spaniards, but relieved by a Neapolitan and English force. In July 1860 the defeat of the Neapolitans in the vicinity, and the seizure of the fortress, formed almost the crown ing act of Garibaldi s victorious campaign. The Bay of Milazzo has been the scene of the defeat of the Carthaginian navy by Duilius (260 B.C.), of Fompeius by Octavian s general Agrippa (36 B.C.), and of the French and Messinian galleys by the Pisans (1268). MILDEW (explained as "meal-dew" or, with more probability, as "honey-dew") is a popular name given to various minute fungi from their appearance, and from the sudden, dew-like manner of their occurrence. Like many other popular names of plants, it is used to denote different species which possess very small botanical affinity. The term is applied, not only to species be longing to various systematic groups, but also to such as follow different modes of life. The corn-mildew, the hop-mildew, and the vine-mildew are, for example / parasitic upon living plants, and the mildews of damp linen and of paper are saprophytes, that is, they subsist on matter which is already dead. It is generally possible to draw a distinct line between parasitic and saprophytic fungi ; a species which attacks the living body of its host does not grow on dead matter, and vice versa. This is true so far as is known of perhaps all the higher fungi except Saprohgnia ferax (Gruith.), a parasite of freshwater fishes (especially of the salmon), which also grows freely on their dead bodies and on those of flies, <tc. As regards mildews in general, the conditions of life and growth are mainly suitable nutrition and dampness accompanied by a high temperature. The life-history of the same species of mildew frequently covers two or more generations, and these are often passed on hosts of different kinds. In some cases again the same generation confines its attack to the same kind of host, while in others the same genera tion grows on various hosts. For information regarding fungi generally see FUNGUS, vol. ix. p. 827. The following examples are of common occurrence. The Corn-Mildew (Puccinia graminis, Pers., Order Uredinese). This disease of our grain crops and of many other grass plants is very widely distributed, like its hosts, over the earth, and is by far the most important to man of all mildews. Its life-history is passed in three generations two of them on the grass plants and one on the barberry. In early spring the first generation is found on the dead leaves and leaf-sheaths of grass plants (in which the disease has hibernated), presenting to the naked eye the appearance of thin black streaks. When examined with a microscope these streaks are seen to consist of a great number of minute two-celled and thick-walled teleutospores (reproductive bodies), each situated at the end of a stalk (see A in fig. 2, vol. ix. p. 831). These have burst through the epidermis of the plant from their origin on threads among the tissues beneath. When they have been in contact with excessive moisture for a few hours, each of the spore-cells germinates by emitting a fine tube called a promycelium, on which there are borne small round thin- walled sporidia (reproductive bodies). The sporidia are easily detached and carried from place to place by the

wind, and on alighting on the leaves of a barberry plant