6

Another possible analogue was discovered by Andrea da Mosto in the records of the Council of Ten.1 In 1544 Captain Francesco da Sessa, called 'the Moor', was brought in chains from Cyprus, where he was serving in the army, along with two alleged accomplices, Paolo da Padua and his sergeant Alessandro della Mirandola. The case lasted some months, at the end of which da Sessa was banished for ten years; Paolo da Padua was released, having become ill in prison, but he was not declared innocent; Alessandro della Mirandola, who had gone mad in gaol, was declared innocent. Unfortunately the extant minutes of the Council of Ten give no hint of the charge or evidence, and the Cyprus records vanished after the Turks took the island. So there is a hollow at the core of this 'analogue', no evidence of wife-murder, nor that da Padua was the Ensign and Alessandro the 'capo di squadra' of Cinthio's tale. This 'Moro' was not a Moor but, like Ludovico Sforza (d. 1510), also nicknamed '11 Moro', a dark-skinned European.