Lives of the Milanese Tyrants

Decembrio's model was Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, whose translation into the vernacular he supervised as part of a general Milanese cultural project that was designed to praise a political system that was based on strong leadership provided by an exceptional individual. The Deeds was part of his effort to get into the good graces of the Milanese leader, which he hoped to do before Filelfo's officially sanctioned biographical history was finished, but Decembrio's work was not well received and the desired biography was ultimately produced by Giovanni Simonetta, who had access to the internal documents that Decembrio did not. [...]these two volumes meet the same high standards as the eighty-six that preceded them.