Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

1
Franco Pratesi 1990
http://www.naibi.net/A/30-PRISECO-Z.pdf
DOCUMENTI DA ALTRE SEDI

Prima di passare alla legislazione sui giochi che rappresenta la fonte più tradizionale per i dati
iniziali sulle carte si può citare un’ulteriore fonte di notizie. Questa volta si tratta di testimonianze
esterne, derivanti cioè dagli archivi di altre città. Una delle più importanti di tali documentazioni fu
pubblicata nel 1874 dal Campori, dagli archivi estensi: “nel 1434 il Marchese Nicolò III faceva
pagare a Ser Ristoro e compagni in Firenze sette fiorini d’oro prezzo di due mazzi di carticelle
mandatogli a Ferrara
”. Il fatto che tali carte giungessero alla corte di Ferrara è tanto più
sorprendente in quanto in Firenze all’epoca le carte da gioco erano proibite: solo una produzione
fiorente e rinomata o l’uso di carte particolari potrebbe spiegare il mantenimento di quella
tradizione.
"Ser Ristoro e compagni in Firenze" got a rather high price for delivering 2 "mazzi di carticelle" in 1434 according an information from Ferrara.
From "e compagni" one might conclude, that Ser Ristori was not the painter, but the notary, who arranged the production for the Signore Niccolo III in Ferrara.
Bills were often paid later, it's easily possible, that the production took place earlier than 1434.

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Who is Ser Ristoro?

Lo Spedale di Ser Ristoro
Figline Valdarno, Villa di S. Cerbone
http://aiapzine.aiap.it/topografie/9202
Fondato da Ser Ristoro di Jacopo nel 1399 lo Spedale di Figline Valdarno, per quasi cinque secoli, fino alla fine dell'ottocento, ha avuto sede nel centro del paese. Poi, per volere della famiglia Serristori è stato trasferito nella villa di San Cerbone, alle pendici della collina. L'Ospedale Serristori è stato in questi anni al centro di intricate polemiche politiche sulla sua collocazione all'interno del sistema sanitario della Regione Toscana.
Si racconta che nella villa di San Cerbone si aggiri ancora il fantasma della duchessa Veronica Cybo Malaspina, protagonista, nei primi anni del seicento, di un truculento fatto di sangue. La duchessa dimorò nella villa in cerca di quiete, dice la lapide che ricorda il fatto, e oggi compare ancora, secondo la leggenda, agli infermieri e ai pazienti.
Figline Valdarno is 25 km outside of Florence in direction to Arezzo. Marsilio Ficino was born there.
Ficino was born at Figline Valdarno. His father Diotifeci d'Agnolo was a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, who took the young man into his household and became the lifelong patron of Marsilio, who was made tutor to his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the Italian humanist philosopher and scholar was another of his students.
Possibly Ficino's father had some close relation to this hospital.

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Serristori (famiglia)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serristori_(famiglia)
I Serristori furono una famiglia patrizia toscana, originaria di Figline Valdarno e inurbatasi a Firenze, dove ottenne ricchezza, titoli e onori.

Storia familiare
Averardo da Figline, in vita nel 1178, ne è ritenuto il capostipite, da cui discende quel "ser Ristoro" notaio nel 1299 da cui si radicò poi il nome familiare, in particolare grazie a un suo omonimo, ser Ristoro di Jacopo[/b], che fissò il nome e fu notaio della Signoria nel 1383. Suo nipote diretto fu Antonio Serristori, che arricchì notevolmente la sua casata e fu gonfaloniere di giustizia nel 1443.
Uno dei sui figli, Giovanni (1419-1494), superò i successi politici del padre, ottenendo le nomine di priore delle Arti, membro dei Dieci di Balia e infine gonfaloniere di giustizia. Nel corso del XV secolo ottennero il privilegio da parte di re Ladislao di Napoli di apporre il capo d'Angiò sul loro stemma familiare. Il titolo nobiliare di conti arrivò con Francesco di Averardo, che venne nominato, assieme ad altri patrizi fiorentini, conte palatino da Leone X in occasione della sua visita a Firenze del 1515.


Antonio Ser Ristoro might be the man, that we search.

Stemma



Possibly Antonio Serristoro ...
Image

... given with "Il committente nel Polittico Serristori di Mariotto di Nardo (1424, Prato, Museo civico)"

This picture seems to be a later arrangement ...
http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult-- ... 716529.htm
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Florentine Public Finances in the Early Renaissance, 1400-1433
Anthony Molho
Harvard University Press, 1971 - Business & Economics - 234 pages
https://books.google.de/books?id=70qJy8 ... mo&f=false

Image


I assume, that "Antonio di Salvestri di ser Ristoro" is the complete name of Antonio Ristoro ... it was written in the wiki article, that Antonio was a nephew of Jacopo (who founded the hospital).

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The Ugly Renaissance
Alexander Lee
Random House, 26 Sep 2013 - History - 640 pages
https://books.google.de/books?id=qgcq29 ... mo&f=false
Image


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La casagrande dei serristori a figline
by Giovanni Magherini Graziani
http://www.comune.figline-valdarno.fi.i ... udi_10.pdf
Image


... this sounds, as if Ser Jacopo was father to Ser Ristoro, who had the sons Salvestro and Giovanni. And Salvestro became father of the successful Antonio di Salvestro di Ser Ristoro.

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This is complete book, as it seems ....

Sergio Tognetti: Da Figline a Firenza. Ascesa economica e politica della famiglia Serristori ( secoli XIV-XVI) (2003)

http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2584/1/volume_tognetti.pdf
... about 230 pages

Image


... from these 46 pages to the researched man.

Whow ... after many successless attempts I didn't expect that.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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... in work ...

The family tree ....

Image

... full picture: http://a-tarot.eu/7/y34.jpg

A father has 3 sons, 2 get children, the third not. A plague in the year 1400 seems to have made a serious impact, 3 members of the older family are dead then and only Giovanni, the one without children, survives. He has to care for the children of his brothers. He died in 1414.
In 1415 Antonio (19 years old, the eldest of the children?) marries and gets a lot of children in the course of time.

His wife: Costanza di Averardo de' Medici

Averardo is ...

Image


.... the 16-years-older cousin of Cosimo de' Medici (and of Lorenzo) and father of Costanza. Perhaps this explains a little bit, why the things around Antonio run so well.

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I've read through the relevant Italian book, but it's a difficult topic and many things are not easy to understand, at least to me. Alberto is a mercator (not a notary) and later a banker. I found this ...

An "Alberto Bonachosi di Ferrara" appears on a bilance list of Antonio di Salvestro di Ser Ristoro in the year 1431.

I assume, that this person is identical to the ancestor of an artist family (Albero Bonacossi or Alberto Bonacossi), which later also produced playing cards (inclusive Trionfi cards). Alberto worked Niccolo III d'Este in financial matters in the 1420s and 1430s.
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alb ... ografico)/
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1124

Image

... from Sergio Tognetti: Da Figline a Firenza. Ascesa economica e politica della famiglia Serristori ( secoli XIV-XVI) (2003)
http://www.rmoa.unina.it/2584/1/volume_tognetti.pdf
.... Page 81

Three years later, in 1434, Ser Ristoro is paid for 2 high-prized playing cards deck by Niccolo III.

Both sums (8 Lira and 7 ducats), are comparable "low", possibly both relate to delivered playing cards. It's the only mentioned business between ser Ristoro and Ferrara on the given lists in this text (there are not much lists like this).
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Huck,
In connection with the hometown of the notary or merchant handling the card sales to Ferrara, Figline Valdarno, you might also recall that the adjacent town to the south, San Giovanni Valdarno, was home to Lo Scheggia (whom I, at least, associate as one of the most likely painters of the ur-tarot). Interestingly, Giusti Giusto was himself doing Florentine business in Figline in 1428-29. It all rather ties together (if Scheggia is commissioned by the Medici or from one in their inner circle, the notary likely knows of the artist through shared connections from that part of the Florentine contado and that trionfi are thus being made in Florence; although we already know Giusti is connected to Medici partisans such as Morelli).

I'm more interested in the recipient, however: Niccolo d'Este III, Marquis of Ferrara. http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nic ... ografico)/ (what follows heavily draws on this article by Antonio Menniti Ippolito in the link, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 43, 1993, supplemented with info from Margaret King, 1994).

Generally speaking, Niccolo was successful in playing Milan and Venice's fears of one another, even buying fiefdoms from both to enlarge the Ferrarese state, and famously brought the Church Union Council to Ferrara before it ultimately succeeded in Florence . But this is what most concerns us here (machine translation with a few tweaks):
... [Niccollo] favoring the transition from the Visconti to his son Borso, who commanded the former's bodyguard [and was captured by Sforza at the battle of Soncino, that occurred just before Anghiari], he had so far sided with the Venetian Republic; as well as working towards the realization of that marriage of Bianca Maria, daughter of Filippo Maria Visconti, and Francesco Sforza, leader of the Venetians, which would have represented, with many consequences, the first stage of the approach between the two. The new peace between Milan and Venice, signed in Cavriana November 20 1441, still sanctioned, in fact, the superiority of the Venetian Republic, and was the reason that, in his very last days, that Niccolo came up with greater resolve to Visconti, which had become too weak in its part of the balance....a breakthrough was unexpected: the Milanese duke, immediately after the conclusion of the conflict, even named Niccollo his Captain General, handing him the management of possessions. This naturally aroused the hostile reaction of the Venetians and Francesco Sforza, troubled more and more by the rise of the insistent voice of a succession in the Duchy for the benefit of Niccollo's son, Borso....Niccollo entrusted the government of his domain to Leonello and reached Milan in Uguccione Contrari's company. After just one month, December 26 1441, a sudden illness, perhaps due to the administration of a poison, put an end to his life.
An attempt to fill in dates with some granular detail for the proposed Anghiari ur-tarot theory:
1434 N. d'Este purchases card decks made in Florence (also note he lured from Tuscany the miniaturists Giovanni Falconi and lacopino d'Arezzo)
January 1438 - Council of Ferrara
January 1439 - Council moved to Florence
June 14, 1440 - Borso d'Este, fighting for Milan, is defeated and captured by Sforza
June 30, 1440 - Battle of Anghiari
September 16, 1440 - Giusti gives Malatesta a pack of Florentine triumph cards with his arms
December 18, 1440 - Sforza honorably received in Venice and stays through Foscari-Contarini wedding in Feb. 1441
January 1, 1440 - Bianca Visconti entertained in Ferrara in which '14 figures' are made for her to 'make festive'.
October 24-28 1441 Wedding of Bianca Visconti to F. Sforza in Cremona
November 20, 1441 Treaty of Cavriana in Sforza's camp confirms him in his dowry from F. Visconti.
Decembver 26, 1441 N. d'Este dies of natural or poisoning causes (one almost suspects this was part of Sforza's peace terms at Cavriana)

The salient fact is that, outside of the pope resident in Florence, possibly no other city-state had closer ties in this time period with Florence than Ferrara, until the d'Este 'turned' on Florence after the Council was moved in 1439 and then in 1440 when Milanese hostilities flared. And that is the time period where the much-debated '14 figures' crops up in Ferrara, in connection with Bianca Visconti of whom we know most likely receives (or her husband does) the CY deck some 10 months later. Both Niccolo and Visconti are willfully playing the princely mating game at Sforza's expense, but the latter wins out. And the conditions for Visconti to play the game were Sforza's presence in hated Venice (12/1440 through 2/1441) precisely when Bianca is sent to Ferrara (1/1441).

To reiterate my primary argument yet again:
* Ur-tarot created sometime between 6/1440 (Anghiari) and 9/1440 (Giusti's gift).
* Bianca visits Ferrara on 1/1/1441, and given d'Este's deep connections to Florence, knows of this and mimics the newly created trumps, merely referred to as 'figures' as the new creation does not have a well-known name associated with it yet (and at all events, Ferrara was on the wrong side of the alliance that triumphed at Anghiari). I would also hazard that Sforza was a recipient of an ur-tarot with his arms, and that Ferrara knew this as well.
* Drawing on the Florentine and/or Ferrara trumps, the CY is created to celebrate the condotta with Sforza, paralleled and formalized in the terms of the Treaty of Cavriana the month after the wedding to Bianca.

Now given Pratesi's new find of Niccollo d'Este's interest in cards from Florence, his possible copying of a new variation of cards ('with triumphs') emanating from that very city in connection with his rival condottiere (Malatesta and possibly Sforza), seems all the more compelling of a reason for him to use that very card creation as a gift to the daughter of Visconti he's trying to marry to a condottiero son of his, Borso (less than 4 months after Giusti's journal entry for the Florentine ur).


And of course there is that pesky 70 card Ferrara reference from 1457, pointing to the lingering use of an original 14 trump tarot. There are only 14 months separating Giusti's earliest ever mentioning of tarot and the Bianca-Sforza wedding, with her Ferrara trip intervening; I don't know how there could have been much time for wholesale innovations. The Florentine ur-tarot must have simply been adapted in both subsequent occasions (Bianca's Ferrara visit and her wedding/CY), largely as is, in my opinion.

Phaeded

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

5
We have the use of "Trionfi" as a name for a type of playing card deck with evidence for September 1440. 15 years (at least) before we have the use of 16 cards with unusual iconographical content as a trump sequence (Michelino deck), a similar trump sequence (though with less unusual motifs) might have already existed in 1377 with the 60-cards-deck of JvR.
Ser Ristoro and his 2 decks belong to the phase 1425-1440, something between Michelino deck and 14 pictures in Ferrara and the Cary-Yale Tarocchi.
The terminus Ur-Tarot is only fiction. What shall this be? Something with the correct numbers of cards, the correct motifs, the correct sequence and the right name? Go and look around 1505.


We better fill this place with facts around "Ser Ristoro". As far we find some.
Now given Pratesi's new find of Niccollo d'Este's interest in cards from Florence, his possible copying of a new variation of cards ('with triumphs') emanating from that very city in connection with his rival condottiere (Malatesta and possibly Sforza), seems all the more compelling of a reason for him to use that very card creation as a gift to the daughter of Visconti he's trying to marry to a condottiero son of his, Borso (less than 4 months after Giusti's journal entry for the Florentine ur).
I don't understand that. The ser Ristoro finding is from 1990 (Pratesi) / 1874 (Campori). Already the 8 Imperatori cards were imported from Florence. But that's also not a "new finding". New is the identification of "Ser Ristoro" with a specific person (as far I now) ... but that's only my opinion, since yesterday. New is also, that Ser Ristoro alias Antonio etc. had contact in 1431 to Alberto Bonachosi alias Albero Bonacossi ... since yesterday.

I think, that Leonello (widower at 1.1.1441) was "a little bit" expected (possibly) to marry Bianca Maria. How do you come to Borso?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Huck wrote:We have the use of "Trionfi" as a name for a type of playing card deck with evidence for September 1440. 15 years (at least) before we have the use of 16 cards with unusual iconographical content as a trump sequence (Michelino deck), a similar trump sequence (though with less unusual motifs) might have already existed in 1377 with the 60-cards-deck of JvR.
Ser Ristoro and his 2 decks belong to the phase 1425-1440, something between Michelino deck and 14 pictures in Ferrara and the Cary-Yale Tarocchi.
The terminus Ur-Tarot is only fiction.
The "phase 1425-1440" is the fiction - there is no causal link between Marziano's deck devised for Filippo Visconti and whatever Giusti ordered in Florence. Standard cards existed and variations ensued. The earliest evidence for a variation called trionfi is 1440 - all earlier dates are baseless speculation. Period. And yes, apparently I did overlook Pratesi's note of the 1434 apparently standard decks bought by Borso, so it was merely new to me.
Huck wrote:
I think, that Leonello (widower at 1.1.1441) was "a little bit" expected (possibly) to marry Bianca Maria. How do you come to Borso?
I posted Antonio Ippolito's bio sketch (if badly translated) of Niccolo d'Este from the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Volume 43, 1993) via the Treccani link in my original reply - here it is again: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nic ... ografico)/

What is your source for Leonello being the suitor of Bianca - your own musings on trionfi.com - another fiction? http://trionfi.com/leonello-d-este-ferrara

Here's the problem for Leonello vs Borso as the suitor:
[Wiki]Leonello’s succession and subsequent marriage would also serve an important role in relations with neighbouring city-states. Previously, the House of Este owed a great debt to Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua.[11] Instead of having this debt paid monetarily, Gonzaga agreed to have his daughter Margarita marry Leonello, in exchange for Niccoló promising his daughter’s line of descendants the position of lords in Ferrara.[11] [Fn 11 = Bestor, Jane Fair (1996). "Bastardy and Legitimacy in the Formation of a Regional State in Italy: The Estense Succession". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 38 (3): 570.]


Leonello has a male son, Niccollo, in 1438, satisfying the agreement with Gonzaga. Yes, Margharita dies in July 1439, but don't you think the Gonzaga, whom Niccollo went out of his way to placate with a son-in-law, would be a little miffed if Leonello, who should still be in mourning, was wooing the daughter of Milan only five months after the death of the Mantuan princess? More importantly, why would Visconti be interested in marrying off his daughter to a Ferrarese prince who already had a male heir linked to the Gonzaga? Notably Leonello waits 5 years later to remarry (and Alfonso already had his male heir, so the conditions were completely different than Filippo's). Unlike culture-focused Leonello, Borso could provide Filippo with a military arm. Borso had to be the candidate in 1440: Leonello was to rule Ferrara and Borso hopefully Milan in the future via Bianca (and both domains united in the event of the death of either prince - but Sforza made all of this a fiction).

Phaeded

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Phaeded wrote:
What is your source for Leonello being the suitor of Bianca - your own musings on trionfi.com - another fiction? http://trionfi.com/leonello-d-este-ferrara
Phaeded, there is a basis for this in a contemporary source, but I'll have to find it, if you don't first.

IIRC, it was never intended to be serious - just to infuriate Sforza. Filippo mentioned - or it was speculated - that he sent Bianca there to make Sforza think that the betrothal was off, and Filippo was now going to give her to Leonello.
Image

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Phaeded,

I think, you mean this note at ...
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nic ... ografico)/
Ciò suscitò naturalmente le reazioni veneziane e l'ostilità di Francesco Sforza, le cui ambizioni sull'eredità del suocero erano notevoli, e che rimaneva turbato dal levarsi sempre più insistente della voce di una successione nel Ducato a vantaggio del figlio dell'E., Borso.
I think, if you research it with energy, that you'll find out, that this happened after the wedding of October 1441 and after Niccolo's death (at least I remember, that I've read so). Borso's younger years are badly documented, it's difficult to find notes about Borso in this time. He spend then some time in Milan and Filippo made promises, cause he was disappointed by Sforza after the wedding (as far I remember).

http://trionfi.com/0/d/41 (translation from Pizzagalli, La signora de Milano)
"Niccolo III d'Este assunse la funzione del mediatore, ruolo che ben s'adattava alla posizione geografica del suo Stato e anche al suo stesso caraterre, volentieri inclinato alle minuziose disquisizione della diplomazia: per tale motivo era stato tra gli artefici dei trattati di pace firmati appunto a Ferrara negli anni precedenti. Nella controversia fra il Visconti e lo Sforza, il Marchese di Ferrara si presentava come il paciere ideale, in quanto, oltre ad essere amico di Filippo, molti anni prima aveva accolto Francesco come paggio alla sua corte, allevandolo insieme ai proprî figli, e contava quindi d'avere su di lui un certo ascendance. Quanto al ventilato progretto di fidanzamento fra Bianca Maria e Leonello, da poco vedovo di Margherita Gonzaga, era solo un pretesto concertato per disorientare lo Sforza e indurlo ad abbandonare subito la Lega: per rendere l'esca più plausible e lancinante, il Visconti mando Bianca a Ferrara"
Niccolo III d'Este took on the function of mediator, a role well adapted to the geographic position of his State and also to his own character, one inclined to the minutest disquisitions of diplomacy: for which reason he had brokered a peace treaty in Ferrara the previous year. In the controversy between Visconti and Sforza, the Marquis of Ferrara was seen as the ideal peacemaker, since, besides being a friend Filippo, Francesco had been a page in his Court many years before, becoming like his own son to him, and as such having a certain authority over him. Essentially, the engagement of Bianca Maria to Leonello (recently a widower), was only a pretext to disorient Sforza, to induce him to abandon the League (against Milan). To make it more convincing, Visconti sent her to Ferrara.
Elsewhere I've read, that Carlo Gonzaga was also "in discussion as future husband" (likely little later than Leonello).
You misinterpreted the text of treccani.it (the article was written in a manner, that one can easily do so).

Ah, here ... you wrote:
Leonello has a male son, Niccollo, in 1438, satisfying the agreement with Gonzaga. Yes, Margharita dies in July 1439, but don't you think the Gonzaga, whom Niccollo went out of his way to placate with a son-in-law, would be a little miffed if Leonello, who should still be in mourning, was wooing the daughter of Milan only five months after the death of the Mantuan princess?
Earlier you wrote, that the document is from 1.1.1440 ... (I thought, this was a typo ...)

That's definitely wrong. It's from 1.1.1441, modern counting of the years. 5+12 = 17 months after the death of his wife. Bianca's journey was from late September 1440 till End of March 1441.
1.1.1441 is 4 1/2 months after Giusto Giusto's present.
http://trionfi.com/0/d/
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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Yes, I meant 1441 for Bianca.

As for Bianca's Ferrarese suitor: either Pizzagalli or Ippolito's 1993 entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani is wrong. There is no misreading that Borso was meant by Ippolito. There's not even a meniton to Leonello in connection with Bianca; Ippolito's original text:
La "generosità" veneziana era saldamente motivata: le decise affermazioni della Repubblica sui Viscontei non potevano non impensierire l'E. che proprio nel mediare tra le due forze aveva conosciuto le maggiori fortune. L'E. riuscì però egualmente a soccorrere i Milanesi, non ostacolando, oppure, più probabilmente, favorendo, il passaggio alla parte viscontea del figlio Borso e degli armigeri che questi comandava, fino a quel momento schierati al fianco della Serenissima; nonché adoperandosi per la realizzazione di quel matrimonio tra Bìanca Maria, figlia di Filippo Maria Visconti, e Francesco Sforza, condottiero dei Veneziani, che avrebbe rappresentato, con tante conseguenze, la prima tappa dell'avvicinamento tra le due personalità. La nuova pace fra Milano e Venezia, firmata a Cavriana il 20 nov. 1441, sancì ancora, di fatto, la superiorità della Repubblica veneta, e fu per questo che, nei suoi ultimissimi giorni, l'E. si avvicinò con maggior decisione ai Visconti, divenuti ormai parte troppo debole del suo sistema di equilibri.....

Ciò suscitò naturalmente le reazioni veneziane e l'ostilità di Francesco Sforza, le cui ambizioni sull'eredità del suocero erano notevoli, e che rimaneva turbato dal levarsi sempre più insistente della voce di una successione nel Ducato a vantaggio del figlio dell'E., Borso.
I just don't see how Visconti would even begin to consider Leonello, since he already had a legitimate male heir (where would that leave Visconti's future grandchildren?). One can understand the assumption in thinking Leonello, as the heir to Ferrara, was intended, but not with that human baggage.

I've got several recent scans of a book on the d'Este I guess I'll have to trudge through that on this point....

Re: Ser Ristoro (playing cards 1434 to Ferrara)

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I don't know, of which legitimate male heir of Filippo Maria you speak of in the year 1440. Galeazzo Maria was born in 1444.

Well, let's stop it.
This is a thread for Ser Ristoro and it has nothing to do with that, what happened 6 years later.

Thanks, that you pointed to Lo Scheggia born in a village (San Giovanni Valdorno) close (c. 8 km) to the original location of the Serristori family (Figline Valdarno).
That's indeed interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaccio
Masaccio (elder brother of Lo Scheggia) * 1401
Lo Scheggia * 1406
Father dies + 1406 ; father is a notary as ser Ristoro (grandfather of Antonio) ... which means, that Ser Ristoro and Ser Giovanni di Simone Cassai should have known each other, notaries should have known other notaries in close distance.
Mother comes from the Mugello as daughter of an innkeeper in Barbarino di Mugello ... that's earlier Medici territory, there the Medici came from. Likely the family knew, that Antonio was related by marriage to the Medici.

1412 oo ... mother marries again, an elder apothecary ; any apothecary in the region should have known the Ristoro family, cause this had founded and sponsored the hospital in Figline Valdorno.
In 1412 Monna Jacopa married an elderly apothecary, Tedesco di maestro Feo, who already had several daughters, one of whom grew up to marry the only other documented painter from Castel San Giovanni, Mariotto di Cristofano (1393–1457). There is no evidence for Masaccio's artistic education,[5] however Renaissance painters traditionally began an apprenticeship with an established master around the age of 12. Masaccio would likely have had to move to Florence to receive his training, but he was not documented in the city until he joined the painters guild (the Arte de' Medici e Speziali) as an independent master on January 7, 1422, signing as "Masus S. Johannis Simonis pictor populi S. Nicholae de Florentia."

First works
The first works attributed to Masaccio are the San Giovenale Triptych (1422), now in the Museum of Cascia di Reggello near Florence, and the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (Sant'Anna Metterza) (c. 1424) at the Uffizi.
The San Giovenale altarpiece was discovered in 1961 in the church of San Giovenale at Cascia di Reggello, very close to Masaccio's hometown.
It's also close to Figline Valdorno (10 km).
This seems to say, that Masaccio got his artist education in the region, likely from Mariotto di Cristofano. Likely Antonio knew the active artist in his region. Possibly Antonio helped, that Masaccio found his way to Florence.

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I made various attempts to find a connection between Masaccio+Scheggia and Ristoro family, but for the moment I see nothing, which directly confirms a relation.
Huck
http://trionfi.com