Azzo agreed to pay 25,000 florins.

The vast wealth of the Visconti amassed during their years of peaceful occupation always stood them in good stead when bad times came, and when the Emperor was short of cash.

Azzo deserves special commendation from the student of art for the exquisite octagonal tower of S.Gottardo, which he built of terra cotta with marble pilasters, in Milan.

It is quite one of the loveliest monuments of mediaeval Italian architecture.
[3] Lucchino and Galeazzo Visconti were both afflicted with gout, the latter to such an extent as to be almost crippled.
[4] This would not have been by itself a bar to succession in an Italian tyranny.

But Lucchino's bastards were not of the proper stuff to continue their father's government, while their fiery uncle was precisely the man to sustain the honor and extend the power of the Visconti.
[5] Storia di Milano, 1554, p.