SIMONETTA, Giovanni. - Historian, born at Caccuri (province of Catanzaro) between the first and second decades of the 15th century, died probably at Milan, no later than 1491.
He is found in 1444, together with his brother Cicco, in the service of Duke Francesco Sforza, as secretary, and from 1453 as chancellor. The overthrow of the Sforza by Ludovico il Moro in 1480 also swept away the two S., who were imprisoned; but whereas Cicco paid with decapitation (Pavia, 30 Oct. 1580) for the services rendered to his master, Giovanni was merely banished into exile.
He composed in Latin: Commentarii rerum gestarum Francisci Sfortine Mediolanensium ducis, in 31 books. A singular example of humanist historiography, it embraces the history of Milan from 1421 to 1466; and it recounts not only, in all their starkness, the deeds of Sforza, but also the general setting of the events within which they unfolded and of which they were the cause or consequence.