GIOVANNI SIMONETTA. — Historian, born in Caccuri (province of Catanzaro) between the first and second decades of the 15th century, died probably in Milan, not later than 1491.
He is found in 1444, with his brother Cicco, in the service of Duke Francesco Sforza, as secretary, and from 1453 as chancellor. The fall of Sforza at the hands of Ludovico il Moro in 1480 also dragged down the two S.s, who were imprisoned; but while Cicco paid with his head (Pavia, 30 Oct. 1480) for his services to his master, Giovanni was merely exiled.
He composed in Latin: Commentarii rerum gestarum Francisci Sfortiae Mediolanensium ducis, in 31 books. A singular example of humanistic historiography, it embraces the history of Milan from 1421 to 1466; and it narrates not only the deeds of Sforza in their stark reality, but also the general context of events within which they unfolded and of which they were either cause or consequence.