Abstract

The discovery of Bernabò Visconti’s last will is not news to be confined among the erudite notices cherished by antiquarian enthusiasts. It concerns, in fact, of an extraordinary historical source, useful not only for reconstructing the geography of Visconti power, and the circle of lordly officials, but also the institutional role assigned to Bernabò’s kinship. On top of that, no less telling are the formal aspects of the document, which has more than one borrowing from the lord’s decrees and which reveals Bernabò’s own mixture of public and private