ABSTRACT
This chapter follows through some implications of Ianziti's work on a couple of levels. It suggests ultimately that the relationship between history and propaganda that Ianziti documented did persist, but much refashioned and expanded in the public sphere during the Italian Wars. Gary Ianziti, Humanistic Historiography under the Sforzas: Politics and Propaganda in Fifteenth-century Milan. Although written in the vernacular, their histories show ample evidence of advanced Latin education and of a thirst for appropriate source material that would have been familiar to the Sforza historians of Ianziti's study. In the wake of the Sforza ouster in 1500, an opportunity opened for an expansion or reorientation of the political discourses that had been central to earlier regime-sponsored historiographical projects. On the mechanics of political legitimacy, see Rodney Barker, Legitimating Identities: The Self-presentation of Rulers and Subjects. The desire for agreement upon the authenticity of governance and power was at the heart of popular and elite resistance during the Italian Wars.
