Milan in 1300 is a city of Lombardy, in the Po valley, ruled by the Visconti, and “the city by which everything probably begins” in the Florenzen chronicle. It is described as “terrible for its arrogance.”
Description
- The Po valley, crisscrossed by canals, allowed very fast exchange of gold florins and goods.
- It is the counterpoint of Florence, which lacks Milan’s Alps but has the Arno running through its center, three rings of walls and about a hundred thousand inhabitants: one of the great metropolises of Christendom.
- Its earlier history includes Frederick Barbarossa fighting it in June 1162, which explains the situation of 1300.