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117-629: The Golden Ambrosian Republic ( Lombard : Aurea Republega Ambrosiana ; Italian : Aurea Repubblica Ambrosiana ; 1447–1450) was a short-lived republic founded in Milan by members of the University of Pavia with popular support, during the first phase of the Milanese War of Succession . With the aid of Francesco Sforza they held out against the forces of the Republic of Venice , but after

234-877: A Republic in Milan it would be necessary to exterminate all the nobility. . . . For there are, among the nobles, so many exalted personages that the laws do not suffice to repress them, and they must needs be kept under by a living voice and a royal power. The leading magistrates of the city, the capitani e defensori ("Captains and Defenders"), were in charge of the government, elected every six months beginning in August 1447. They originally numbered twenty-four but were eventually reduced to twelve. 45°28′N 09°10′E  /  45.467°N 9.167°E  / 45.467; 9.167 Lombard language Switzerland Brazil The Lombard language (Lombard: lombard , lumbard , lumbart or lombart , depending on

351-464: A betrayal Sforza defected and captured Milan to become Duke himself, abolishing the Republic. When Filippo Maria Visconti , Duke of Milan, died on 13 August 1447, the city was thrown into confusion by his unexpected demise and the speed with which claimants to his title acted. Filippo Maria had no heir through male bloodlines and therefore a succession crisis occurred. The claimants to the throne of

468-420: A dash to prevent them from being confused with a long vowel: a-a in ca-àl "horse". Western long /aː/ and short /ø/ tend to be back [ ɑː ] and lower [ œ ] , respectively, and /e/ and /ɛ/ may merge to [ ɛ ] . There have been contemporary attempts to develop alternative spelling systems suitable for use by all variants of Lombard. Among these, there is the attempt to develop

585-455: A linguistic minority. In Italy, that is the same as for most other minority languages, which have been for a long time incorrectly classed as corrupted regional dialects of Italian . However, Lombard and Italian belong to different subgroups of the Romance language family, and Lombard's historical development is not related to Standard Italian , which is derived from Tuscan . Historically,

702-506: A radical renewal of liberties in the cities did not suit the powers of North Italy, who had been in league against Visconti territorial gains in a decades-long series of wars interrupted by truces, most recently the Peace of Cremona of 20 November 1441. Venice was already at war with Milan, and the Republic was struck a sore blow as previously Milanese cities including Pavia , Lodi , and Piacenza defected or declared their independence. Besides

819-478: A standard language, authors in the 13th and 14th language created Franco-Lombard , a mixed language including Old French , for their literary works. The Lombard variety with the oldest literary tradition (from the 13th century) is that of Milan , but Milanese , the native Lombard variety of the area, has now almost completely been superseded by Italian from the heavy influx of migrants from other parts of Italy (especially from Apulia , Sicily and Campania ) during

936-614: A state lottery were instituted to try to alleviate the deficit. Moreover, Guelph aristocrats continued to be regularly elected over the Ghibellines, and began to make the Republic far less democratic. Carlo Gonzaga , Captain of the People, lived luxuriously as an autocrat with his will as law. He was supported by Giovanni Appiani and Giovanni Ossona, tradesmen-turned-politicians, who were prominent in government affairs. Gonzaga began replacing his officials with his unambitious supporters, and

1053-467: A surprise-attack on Sforza, so rapidly that he did not even have time to buckle on his armor. What might have been a rout Sforza turned into a great victory as he set the example for his troops on the front line and utterly defeated the Venetian army, capturing three generals. Caravaggio fell, and despite rejoicing in Milan, little gratitude was given by the government to the architect of the victory, and

1170-736: A traditional Milanese character from the commedia dell'arte , presents himself in court (Lombard on the left, Italian translation on the right): «E mì interrogatus ghe responditt. Sont Meneghin Tandœuggia, Ciamæ par sora nomm el Tananan, Del condamm Marchionn ditt el Sginsgiva; Sont servitor del sior Pomponi Gonz, C'al è trent agn che'l servj» E io interrogatus risposi: Sono Meneghino Babbeo chiamato per soprannome il Ciampichino del fu Marchionne detto il Gengiva; sono servitore del signor Pomponio Gonzo che servo da trent'anni — Meneghino appears in court in "The False Philosopher" (1698), act III, scene XIV The 17th century also saw

1287-463: A unified spelling (lomb. urtugrafia ünificada), which has not taken root due to the excessive complexity and lack of intuitiveness (as well as the lack of adaptability to the Italian keyboard) of the system, which uses symbols such as ç for /z/ and /ʧ/, or ə for unstressed /a/, /ə/ and /e/, as well as the obligation to mark the vowel length, despite the elimination of the accents on the first grapheme of

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1404-808: Is called Greater Lombardy after them, and in other parts of the Italian Peninsula after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . Lombardic acted as a linguistic superstratum on Lombard and neighboring Gallo-Italic languages since the Germanic Lombards did not impose their language by law on the Gallo-Roman population, but they rather acquired the Gallo-Italic language from the local population. Lombardic left traces, mostly in lexicon and phonetics, without Germanicising

1521-465: Is controlled with embankments . The river flows through many important Italian cities, including Turin , Piacenza , Cremona and Ferrara . It is connected to Milan through a net of channels called navigli , which Leonardo da Vinci helped design. Near the end of its course, it creates a wide delta (with hundreds of small channels and five main ones, called Po di Maestra , Po della Pila , Po delle Tolle , Po di Gnocca and Po di Goro ) at

1638-552: Is no comparable institution in Italy. In December 2004, it released a dictionary in five volumes, covering all Lombard varieties spoken in the Swiss areas. Today, in most urban areas of Italian Lombardy, people under 40 years old speak almost exclusively Italian in their daily lives because of schooling and television broadcasts in Italian. However, in rural areas, Lombard is still vital and used alongside Italian. A certain revival of

1755-709: Is no shortage of translations of great literary classics; in fact, there are numerous versions in Lombard of works such as Pinocchio, The Betrothed, The Little Prince, the Divine Comedy and – in religious literature – of the Gospels. Lombard is considered a minority language that is structurally separate from Italian by both Ethnologue and the UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages . However, Italy and Switzerland do not recognize Lombard-speakers as

1872-477: Is now degrading. Venice , which was originally built on islands off the coast, is most at risk due to subsidence, but the effect is realized in the Po delta as well. The causes are first a decrease in the sedimentation rate due to the locking of sediment behind hydroelectric dams and the deliberate excavation of sand from rivers for industrial purposes. Second, agricultural use of the river is heavy; during peak consumption

1989-562: Is self-evident and so the Lombard language is classified as a Gallo-Italic language (from the ancient Roman name for the Celts, Gauls ). Roman domination shaped the dialects spoken in the area, which is called Cisalpine Gaul ("Gaul, this side of the mountains") by the Romans, and much of the lexicon and grammar of the Lombard language have their origin in Latin . However, that influence

2106-476: Is similar to Milanese and the varieties of the neighbouring provinces on the Italian side of the border. There is extant literature in other varieties of Lombard like La masséra da bé , a theatrical work in early Eastern Lombard, written by Galeazzo dagli Orzi (1492–?) presumably in 1554. Standard Italian is widely used in Lombard-speaking areas. However, the status of Lombard is quite different in

2223-839: Is the product of the islands of the northern ocean ( Baltic Sea )" and attributes its introduction into the Po Valley to the Veneti , the last link in a trade route to the north through Pannonia . Pliny ( Hist. Nat. , iii. 122) also gives the Ligurian name of the Po as Bodincus , which he translates as "bottomless". The root bod- has been generally analyzed as containing the PIE base * bhu(n)d(h) - seen in Sanskrit budhnah and Avestan buna - "bottom", Greek pythmen "foundation", Latin fundus "bottom", Old Irish bond "sole of

2340-669: The Busa di Tramontana to the north and the Busa di Scirocco to the south, while the mainstream, the Busa Dritta , enters Punta Maistra and exits finally past Pila lighthouse. Despite the park administration's definition of the active delta as beginning at Porto Viro, there is another active channel upstream from it at Santa Maria in Punta, where the Fiume Po divides into the Po di Goro and

2457-621: The Canton of Ticino and the Canton of Graubünden ) are Western, and both Western and Eastern varieties are found in the Italian areas. The varieties of the Alpine valleys of Valchiavenna and Valtellina ( Sondrio ) and upper- Valcamonica (Brescia) and the four Lombard valleys of the Swiss canton of Graubünden have some peculiarities of their own and some traits in common with Eastern Lombard but should be considered Western. Also, dialects from

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2574-649: The College of Jurisprudence in Pavia , painted the days of the old republic as a golden age. The merchants, seeing the prosperity of Republican Venice , supported this idea. On the morning of the 14th, Republicans stirred the populace to rise against the Bracceschi, under the leadership of Antonio Trivulzio , Giorgio Lampugnano , Innocenzo Cotta , and Teodoro Bossi (members of the College of Jurisprudence). A republic

2691-602: The Duchy of Milan were: The two most prominent candidates supported by the Milanese population were however Alfonso of Aragon and Francesco Sforza. The Bracceschi family , supporters of the King of Aragon, seized the city on the 13th, the night of Duke Filippo Maria 's death, forcing the captains to swear allegiance to Alfonso. However, other influential citizens believed that a republic could be proclaimed. Learned bodies, such as

2808-598: The European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive , 2000/60/EC. This takes in water management and flood risk plans antecedent. Between 2009 and 2015 the Po Valley Project (the implementation of the plan) took more than 60 measures, notably to: heighten and strengthen levees , increase flood-meadows , resume natural sediment transport and deposition points, enlarge wetlands, afforest, re-nature, promote biodiversity and recreational use. In Roman times

2925-540: The Last Glacial Maximum around 20,000 years ago, which brought the Adriatic to a high point at about 5,500 years ago. Since then the Po delta had been prograding . The rate of coastal zone progradation between 1000 BC and 1200 AD was 4 m/yr. Human factors, however, brought about a change in the equilibrium in the mid-20th century with the result that the entire coastline of the northern Adriatic

3042-695: The Miocene Epoch, the Messinian (7–5 mya ), the Messinian salinity crisis , a near drying of the Mediterranean, was caused by the sea level dropping below the sill at the Strait of Gibraltar and the equilibrium between evaporation and replenishment shifting in favor of evaporation. At that time the Po Valley and the Adriatic depression were a single canyon system thousands of feet deep. On

3159-565: The Parco Regionale Veneto , one of the tracts under the authority of the Parco Delta del Po , contains the latest branches of the Po. The Po di Gnocca branches to the south followed by the Po di Maestra to the north at Porto Tolle . At Tolle downstream the Po di Venezia divides into the Po delle Tolle to the south and the Po della Pila to the north. The former exits at Bonelli. The latter divides again at Pila into

3276-618: The Piedmontese provinces of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Novara , the Valsesia valley ( province of Vercelli ), and the city of Tortona are closer to Western Lombard than to Piedmontese. Alternatively, following the traditional classification, the varieties spoken in parts of Sondrio , Trentino , Ticino and Grigioni can be considered as Alpine Lombard , and those spoken in southern Lombardy such as in Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantova can be classified as Southern Lombard . Lacking

3393-415: The Po di Venezia . The fossil Po is the region of no longer active channels from the Po to the sea. It begins upstream from Ferrara . The Fiume Po currently flowing to the north of Ferrara is the result of a diversion at Ficarolo in 1152 made in the hope of relieving flooding in the vicinity of Ravenna . The diversion channel was at first called the Po di Ficarolo . The Fiume Po before then followed

3510-495: The Po di Volano , no longer connected to the Po, which ran to the south of Ferrara and exited near Volano . In Roman times it did not exit there but ran to the south as the Padus Vetus ("old Po") exiting near Comacchio , from which split the Po di Primaro exiting close to Ravenna . Before 1152 the seaward extension of today's delta, about 12 km (7.5 mi), did not exist. The entire region from Ravenna to Chioggia

3627-475: The Stampa family engineered a coup on 24 February 1450 , which resulted in the murder of Venieri on the stairs of Palazzo Reale . The next day the citizens met and Da Vimercate convinced the people to surrender to Sforza. Sforza had made himself very popular for his generosity while fighting for Milan. He had abstained from ravaging the countryside as was so common among commanders of his day, and after some debate

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3744-532: The Swiss Italian-speaking broadcasting company in Lombard. Moreover, it is common for people to answer in Lombard in spontaneous interviews. Even some television advertisements have been broadcast in Lombard. The major research institution working on Lombard dialects is in Bellinzona , Switzerland ( CDE – Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia , a governmental (cantonal) institution); there

3861-477: The Taglio di Porto Viro , "Porto Viro cut-off". Their intent was to stop the gradual migration of the Po toward the lagoon of Venice, which would have filled up with sediment had contact been made. The subsequent town of Taglio di Po grew around the diversionary works. The lock of Volta Grimana blocked the old channel, now the Po di Levante , which flows to the Adriatic through Porto Levante. Below Taglio di Po

3978-646: The canton of Valais is drained by the Diveria . A minute section of the Po basin belongs to France in the Vallée Étroite  [ it ; fr ] (literally, the Narrow Valley) running from Mont Thabor to the Italian ski resort of Bardonecchia . Although in France, Vallée Étroite is so remote it is essentially administered by Italy (telephone network, rubbish collections, etc. ). Further minuscule parts of

4095-452: The comuni of Alfonsine, Argenta, Cervia, Codigoro, Comacchio, Goro, Mesola, Ostellato and Ravenna. The 53,653 ha (132,580 acres) of the park contain wetlands, forest, dunes and salt pans. It has a high biodiversity , with 1,000–1,100 plant species and 374 vertebrate species, of which 300 are birds. The most recent part of the delta, which projects into the Adriatic between Chioggia and Comacchio , contains channels that connect to

4212-604: The drainage basin – nearly three times higher than estimated. On February 24, 2010, the Po was contaminated by an oil spill coming from a refinery in Villasanta through the Lambro , the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata news agency has estimated it to be about 600,000 liters. Until 1989 water resources were administered regionally or locally. The major authority on the lower Po

4329-634: The "arabesques" in the Accademia dei Facchini della Val di Blenio, a Milanese academy founded in 1560. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Ossola native Giovanni Capis published the Varon milanes de la lengua de Milan (eng. "Varrone Milanese on the language of Milan"), a sort of etymological dictionary was published. An example of a text in ancient Milanese dialect is this excerpt from Il falso filosofo (1698), act III, scene XIV, where Meneghino ,

4446-399: The Adriatic and therefore is called the active delta by the park authorities, whereas the fossil delta contains channels that no longer connect the Po to the Adriatic (but once did). The active delta was created in 1604 when the city of Venice diverted the main stream, the Po grande or Po di Venezia , from its channel north of Porto Viro to the south of Porto Viro in a channel then called

4563-531: The Apennines filled the valley and the central Adriatic generally to a depth of 1,000 m (3,300 ft) to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) but from 2,000 m (6,600 ft) to 3,000 m (9,800 ft) off the current mouth of the Po, with pockets as deep as 6,000 m (20,000 ft). At the start of the Pleistocene the valley was full. Cycles of transgression and regression are detectable in

4680-582: The Asti, Milanese and French dialects mixed with barbaric Latin") composed at the end of the 15th century. The Florentine humanist Leonardo Salviati , one of the founders of the Accademia della Crusca , an important Italian linguistic academy operating to this day, published a series of translations of a Boccaccian tale into various vernaculars (including Bergamo and Milanese) explicitly in order to demonstrate how ugly and awkward they were compared to Tuscan. At

4797-623: The Elder has the most to say about the Padus of his times. Herodotus had expressed doubt concerning the existence of a river in Europe, Eridanos , which flowed into the northern sea, he said, from which amber came. He believed it was a Greek name (there are other Eridanos rivers in Greece), "invented by some poet," but makes no conjectures as to where it might be. Pliny points out that in his own time

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4914-479: The Eridanos had become wrongly identified with the Padus . He does not know when or how, but like Herodotus, he blames the poets. Amber is supposed to have come from there. Phaëthon , son of the sun, struck by lightning changed into poplars and exuded tears every year, which is the source of amber (a myth of Pausanias ). Expressing surprise at the ignorance of the poets, Pliny says "There can be no doubt that amber

5031-464: The Ghibellines saw the ideals of their Republic crumbling before their eyes. Lampugnano and his Ghibelline friends conspired against Gonzaga and the Guelph regime, but were exposed by a letter intercepted by Gonzaga from Lampugnano to his friend Bossi. Gonzaga kept this knowledge secret, knowing that Lampugnano and Bossi were two of the most influential citizens since the formation of the Republic, but with

5148-641: The Ghibellines who helped to found the Republic, namely Lampugnano and Bossi, stirred the populace against the Guelphs in a massive demonstration before the Court of Arengo. The Council of Nine Hundred was forced to abandon its plans for peace, and Sforza was given the go-ahead for his next campaign to seize the Adda River . However Sforza's plans were voted down by the Republic in favor of more traditional tactics, namely besieging Lodi directly. While this happened,

5265-461: The Lombard dialects have been classified into the Eastern, Western, Alpine and Southern Lombard dialects. The varieties of the Italian provinces of Milan , Varese , Como , Lecco , Lodi , Monza and Brianza , Pavia and Mantua belong to Western Lombard , and the provinces of Bergamo , Brescia and Cremona are dialects of Eastern Lombard . All varieties spoken in the Swiss areas (both in

5382-500: The Lombard language was widely and actively discredited in Italian literary circles. Tuscan writers and humanists such as Luigi Pulci and Benedetto Dei recorded aspects of the language spoken in Milan in the form of parodies; similarly, the Asti-born writer Giorgio Alione parodied Milanese in his Commedia e farse carnovalesche nei dialetti astigiano, milanese e francese misti con latino barbaro (eng. "Comedy and carnival farces in

5499-546: The Lombard language. One of the most important writers of the period was the Bergamo-based abbot Giuseppe Rota , author of a substantial (unpublished) Bergamo-Italian-Latin vocabulary and of several poetic works in the Orobic idiom, which he always called "lingua". In this period the linguistic characteristics of Lombard were well recognizable and comparable to the modern ones, except for some phonetic peculiarities and

5616-839: The Ministry of Public Works, headed by a chairman appointed by the Head of State and the Council of Ministers. Its headquarters are in Venice. Its domain is the management and protection of the water system in Veneto , Mantua , Trento , Bolzano and Friuli-Venezia Giulia . In 1989 in response to the major geologic problems that were developing along the river Law no. 183/89 was passed authorizing The Po Basin Water Board (Autorità di bacino del fiume Po), which would direct operations concerning all

5733-415: The Pavians no new taxes, respect for the old laws, payment for the officials he retained, and the repair of the city bridges and walls. He kept these promises faithfully and so won over the people of Pavia, establishing his rule. Pavia was previously almost a second capital to Milan, and gave Sforza his own seat of power. The city was also in a strategic location on the Po River , situated where it could block

5850-418: The Po basin as coolant. Drainage from the north is mediated through several large, scenic lakes, commonly referred to as the Italian Lakes , and shared with Switzerland. The streams are now controlled by so many dams as to slow the river's sedimentation rate, causing geologic problems. The expansive, moist and fertile flood plain is reserved mainly for agriculture and is subject to flash floods , even though

5967-420: The Po's basin (measurable in the hundreds of metres of linear distance) within France are found in the form of small streamheads forced into France by the 1947 Peace Treaty of Paris as a punitive measure against Italy. These can be found on the Mont Cenis and Mongenevre passes. The former contains a reservoir dammed at the Po end and so technically constitutes part of its basin, although it contributes little to

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6084-477: The Po, for which the European Environment Agency cited the city. Since 2005, all sewage from Milan is treated in plants at Nosedo, San Rocco and Peschiera Borromeo. These treat the sewage from over 2.5 million inhabitants. In 2005, water from the Po was found to contain much benzoylecgonine , passed by cocaine users in urine . Based on these figures, cocaine consumption was estimated to be about 4 kg daily, or 27 doses per day per thousand young adults in

6201-455: The Po. Nine gates are 6.5 m (21 ft) high and two are 8 m (26 ft) high for sediment-scouring purposes. A spillway to the right passes through a hydroelectric station of 4 generators of 76 MW each operated by a 3.5–11 m (11–36 ft) head of water. The spillway connects to a diversionary canal subtending a 12 km (7.5 mi) loop of the Po. A ship lock 85 m (279 ft) long and 12 m (39 ft) wide next to

6318-399: The Republic sent him on to Lodi, determined to end the war. It was here, when a satisfactory end to the war seemed imminent, that the Milanese took a fatal misstep. In Milan, Sforza's enemies worked continually against him. The Piccinino brothers, sons of famous condottiere Niccolò Piccinino and former Captains-General before being replaced as supreme military commanders by Sforza, convinced

6435-412: The Swiss and Italian areas and so the Swiss areas have now become the real strongholds of Lombard. In the Swiss areas, the local Lombard varieties are generally better preserved and more vital than in Italy. No negative feelings are associated with the use of Lombard in everyday life, even with complete strangers. Some radio and television programmes, particularly comedies, are occasionally broadcast by

6552-400: The Venetian fleet under Andrea Quirini assaulted the bridge of Cremona . However, Sforza's wife Bianca was there, and led the defense until her husband relieved the city. The Venetian fleet withdrew and entrenched while it waited for the arrival of the Venetian army. Sforza trapped the fleet behind its defenses and, with his unorthodox use of artillery, utterly destroyed or captured every one of

6669-585: The Venetians for 13,000 ducats and the Duchy of Milan in return for the Ghiaradadda, Crema , and his service. The treaty was signed on 18 October 1448, and Sforza now undid everything he had labored for over the past year. With such a powerful man on the Venetian side, it was the beginning of the end of the Golden Ambrosian Republic. Public opinion, despite the government's position, was generally pro-Sforza, and only an impassioned, patriotic speech from Giorgio Lampugnano subdued it at last. The Piccinino brothers became Captains-General once more, but were not as capable as

6786-520: The Venetians from coming to the relief of the beleaguered Piacenza by water. Returning to the siege of Piacenza and finding the city not likely to crumble by starvation, he resolved to storm it. Employing cannon in an almost unheard-of manner, he opened up a breach in Piacenza's walls and sacked the city. The news of Piacenza's sack was greeted by three days' rejoicing in Milan. Meanwhile, Milanese Captain Bartolomeo Colleoni captured Tortona which had previously proclaimed Sforza as its lord, stealing it from

6903-433: The ancient Ligures . However, available information about the ancient language and its influence on modern Lombard is extremely vague and limited. That is in sharp contrast to the influence left by the Celts , who settled in Northern Italy and brought their Celtic languages and culturally and linguistically Celticised the Ligures. The Celtic substratum of modern Lombard and the neighbouring languages of Northern Italy

7020-403: The area, at the time nearly one-third of the population of Italy. The two main economic uses of the valley are for industry and for agriculture. The industrial centres, such as Turin and Milan, are located on higher terrain, away from the river. They rely for power on the numerous hydroelectric stations in or on the flanks of the Alps, and on the coal/oil power stations which use the water of

7137-440: The brilliant Sforza. This was reinforced by the internal dissension that was prominent in Milan. Crime and mob violence were rampant, and the harsh but empty measures against it only served to further divide the populace. Members of the government were filled with suspicion against one another. In an attempt to resolve the situation, the podestà was given absolute power. Financial problems were also grave; fines, confiscations, and

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7254-412: The city of Tortona if he would abandon Crema. This was accepted, and Crema, without support, quickly capitulated. To the Milanese, Sforza's victory now seemed certain, but he found his Venetian allies beginning to have doubts about their Captain-General. They decided that Milan run by Sforza would be far more dangerous and detrimental to their interests than if it were run by a weak Republic. The last of

7371-536: The city, from which only a few, such as Vitaliano Borromeo , escaped to safety in Arona, Piedmont and elsewhere. The heads of the slain were placed upon pikes in the Piazza of the Broletto. Meanwhile, the other claimants to the Duchy began to see that Sforza would be a greater threat than the Ambrosian Republic. Louis of Savoy invaded in spring of 1449, and Sforza sent Colleoni (who had earlier defected) to defeat him at Borgomanero , leading to an uneasy peace. Sforza also faced treachery within his own ranks, added with

7488-456: The concession of a few unimportant castles, he defeated the Venetians under his rival Sigismondo Malatesta and continued the siege. Sforza chose for his headquarters the Borromeo castle of Peschiera , south-east of the city. Starvation and suffering were rampant in Milan, and the Venetians had sent an ambassador, Leonardo Venieri, to negotiate the city's surrender and help them defeat Sforza. At last, Gaspare da Vimercate and several members of

7605-458: The digraph (aa and not àa). Some examples are presented below: (IPA) /fjøl/ (east.) Po River It is characterized by its large discharge (several rivers over 1,000 km have a discharge inferior or equal to the Po). It is, with the Rhône and Nile , one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest water discharge. As a result of its characteristics, the river is subject to heavy flooding. Consequently, over half its length

7722-407: The downfall of the Ambrosian Republic. Venice allied herself with the Kingdom of Naples , whose king ( Alfonso V ) was previously a contender for the succession of Milan. Sforza, however, allied himself with his friend, Cosimo de' Medici of Florence against Venice and Aragonese Naples. The continued war was finally concluded by the peace of Lodi in 1454 with the House of Sforza established as

7839-448: The emergence of the first bosinade : popular poems written on loose sheets and posted in the squares or read (or even sung) in public; they were widely diffused until the first decades of the 20th century. Milanese literature in the 18th century was quickly developing: some important names which emerged in that period include Domenico Balestrieri , who was associated the famous poet Giuseppe Parini . The latter wrote some compositions in

7956-415: The fact that he rashly accepted the defection of his great enemies the Piccinino brothers, who, upon gaining access to Monza, promptly returned it to Milan. Lampugnano, unfortunately for the Guelphs, was considered a martyr for the Republic. This was made worse by the fact that the Guelphs in leadership refused to run elections in April, until in June they were forced by the populace. Ghibelline families took

8073-528: The flow in places nearly dries up, causing local contention. As a result of decreased flow, salt water is intruding into the aquifers and coastal ground water. Eutrophication in standing waters and streams of low flow is on the increase. The valley is subsiding due to the extraction of ground water. Always prone to fog, the valley is subject to heavy smog due to industrial atmospheric emissions, especially from Turin . The city of Milan had no sewage treatment plants. Sewage went through channels directly into

8190-408: The foot". The word Bodincus appears in the place name Bodincomagus , a Ligurian town on the right bank of the Po downstream from today's Turin. The Po, along with other rivers in northern Italy , was the scene of numerous military episodes throughout the Middle Ages and all the major cities and coastal lordships were equipped with real river fleets. Particularly violent were the clashes between

8307-574: The institution of two regional parks in the regions in which it is situated: Veneto and Emilia-Romagna . The Po Delta Regional Park in Emilia-Romagna, the largest, consists of four parcels of land on the right bank of the Po and to the south. Created by law in 1988, it was managed by a consortium, the Consorzio per la gestione del Parco , to which Ferrara and Ravenna provinces belong as well as nine comuni : Comacchio , Argenta , Ostellato , Goro , Mesola , Codigoro , Ravenna , Alfonsine , and Cervia . Executive authority resided in an assembly of

8424-457: The late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire , long after the valley had been occupied successively by prehistoric and historic peoples: Ligures , Etruscans , Celts , Veneti , Umbri , and Romans. At that late date, the ancient authors were attempting to explain the provenance of the name. Perhaps the earliest of these, Polybius (2nd century BC), uses Pados (in Greek) and says that it

8541-463: The left, looking downstream ): The Reno (R) was a tributary of the Po until the middle of the eighteenth century when the course was diverted to lessen the risk of devastating floods. The Tanaro is about 50 km (31 mi) longer than the upper Po at their confluence near Alessandria . The longest tributaries of the Po are Adda (313 km), Oglio (280 km), Tanaro (276 km) and Ticino (248 km). The Po Delta wetlands have been protected by

8658-463: The local language in its structure and so Lombard preserved its Romance structure. From the 15th century onwards, literary Tuscan began to supplant the use of northern vernaculars such as Lombard, even regardless of the fact that Lombard itself began to be heavily influenced by the Tuscan vernacular. Prior to that, the Lombard language was widely used in administrative spheres. Among those who favoured

8775-478: The loss of support and defensive locations, the drop in revenue also caused a brief financial crisis resolved by the imposition of new taxes. Venice, now occupying Lodi and Piacenza, refused to listen to Milan's pleas for peace. Milan turned to Francesco Sforza, the greatest military leader of his day, offering him the position of Captain-General and the city of Brescia . Although he wished – and indeed, planned – to succeed his father-in-law as Duke, he decided to accept

8892-472: The most prominent advocate of Lombard language was Bortolo Belotti , a lawyer, historian and minister in the liberal governments of the time. The Lombard language became known outside its linguistic borders thanks to I Legnanesi, a theatre company that performed comedies in the Legnanese dialect and which is the most famous example of travesti theatre in Italy. In their comic shows the actors propose to

9009-685: The neighbouring regions, notably the far eastern side of Piedmont and the extreme western side of Trentino , and in Switzerland in the cantons of Ticino and Graubünden . The language is also spoken in Santa Catarina in Brazil by Lombard immigrants from the Province of Bergamo , in Italy . The most ancient linguistic substratum that has left a mark on the Lombard language is that of

9126-504: The now dangerously powerful Sforza. This caused even greater rejoicing, for the Milanese feared Sforza. In January 1448, the terms of the previous Captains and Defenders ended, and in the following election the Guelphs rose to political prominence. Being especially adverse to Sforza, they entered peace negotiations with Venice, which, also threatened by Sforza's growing power, was willing to come to terms, albeit dictated by herself. Two of

9243-596: The orthography; pronunciation: [lũˈbaːrt, lomˈbart] ) belongs to the Gallo-Italic group within the Romance languages . It is characterized by a Celtic linguistic substratum and a Lombardic linguistic superstratum and is a cluster of homogeneous dialects that are spoken by millions of speakers in Northern Italy and southern Switzerland . These include most of Lombardy and some areas of

9360-411: The overall quantity of water is lower than in the past and lower than demand. The main products of the farms around the river are cereals including – unusually for Europe – rice , which requires heavy irrigation . The latter method is the chief consumer of surface water, while industrial and human consumption use underground water. The Po has 141 tributaries . They include (R on the right bank, L on

9477-471: The position and promised rewards. A draft was declared in Milan on 13 September. Sforza quickly captured independent Pavia when his mother-in-law persuaded the city's ruling condotierro to relinquish it to him, and the Republic grudgingly allowed him to keep it with the title of Count, fearing that the Pavians and their large arsenal might instead offer themselves to Venice if they refused. Sforza promised

9594-698: The presence of a remote past tense, replaced almost fully by the past perfect tense by 1875. The beginning of the 19th century was dominated by the figure of Carlo Porta , recognized by many as the most important author of Lombard literature, also included among the greatest poets of Italian national literature. With him some of the highest peaks of expressiveness in the Lombard language were reached, which clearly emerged in works such as La Ninetta del Verzee, Desgrazzi de Giovannin Bongee , La guerra di pret and Lament del Marchionn de gamb avert . Milanese poetic production assumed such important dimensions that in 1815

9711-541: The presidents of the provinces, the mayors of the comuni and the board of directors. They employed a Technical-Scientific Committee and a Park Council to carry out directives. In 1999 the park was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and was added to "Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta." From 2012 the park is managed by the Ente di Gestione per i Parchi e la Biodiversità - Delta del Po , composed by

9828-530: The public satirical figures of the typical Lombard court; founded in Legnano in 1949 by Felice Musazzi, Tony Barlocco and Luigi Cavalleri, it is among the most famous companies in the European dialect theatre scene. The 21st century has also seen the use of Lombard in contemporary music, such as in the musical pieces of Davide Van De Sfroos and in the translations into Lombard of the works of Bob Dylan. There

9945-752: The public was convinced. The following day terms were offered to Sforza, who accepted them. Sforza earned the city's devotion by distributing food to the starving people. On 22 March 1450, he had himself declared capitano del popolo , and by right of his wife , the Duke of Milan . He secured his popular support by letting many office-holders keep their positions and being very lenient in his reprisals. The leaders were briefly imprisoned or relegated to their estates, but were generally pardoned soon after, even knighting some of his old enemies at his coronation. Ghibellines were allowed to return in safety and were restored to favor. Sforza remained at war with Venice for years after

10062-630: The rapid industrialization after the Second World War . Ticinese is a comprehensive denomination for the Lombard varieties that are spoken in Swiss canton Ticino (Tessin), and the Ticinese koiné is the Western Lombard koiné used by speakers of local dialects (particularly those diverging from the koiné itself) when they communicate with speakers of other Lombard dialects of Ticino , Grigioni or Italian Lombardy . The koiné

10179-454: The reins of Milan in this election, and the Guelphs were defeated. However, the reprisals against the Guelphs, including the imprisonment of Appiani and Ossona who had been blamed (probably unjustly) for the massacre, led the populace to violently depose the Ghibellines and reinstall the extremist Guelphs. Gonzaga, however, whose friend Galeotto Toscano was killed in the uprising, departed Milan for Crema, hoping to make peace with Sforza. Sforza

10296-404: The rise of the figure of the playwright Carlo Maria Maggi, who normalised the spelling of the Milanese dialect and who created, among other things, the Milanese mask of Meneghino. A friend and correspondent of Maggi was Francesco De Lemene, author of La sposa Francesca (the first literary work in modern Lodi dialect) and of a translation of Gerusalemme liberata . Moreover, the 17th century saw

10413-402: The river. However, transit is severely hampered during summer months by low water levels. At the village of Isola Serafini in the comune of Monticelli d'Ongina , Piacenza Province , 40 km (25 mi) downstream from Piacenza, a 362 m (1,188 ft) long, 20 m (66 ft) high gate dam featuring eleven 30 m (98 ft) openings gated by vertical lift gates, crosses

10530-643: The rulers of the Duchy of Milan During its three-year existence, the Ambrosian Republic won two major battles. The Lombards defeated the French at the Battle of Bosco Marengo in 1447 and the Venetians at the Battle of Caravaggio in 1448. It was those victories that assured the Republic all the territory of the former Duchy . Of the Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli remarked In order to create

10647-615: The same time, the 15th century saw the first signs of a true Lombard literature: in the eastern parts of Lombardy, the Bergamo-born Giovanni Bressani composed numerous volumes of satirical poetry and the Brescia-born Galeazzo dagli Orzi wrote his Massera da bé , a sort of theatrical dialogue; in the west of the region area, the Mannerist painter Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo lead the composition of

10764-456: The scholar Francesco Cherubini published an anthology of Lombard literature in four volumes, which included texts written from the seventeenth century to his day. In the first part of the 20th century, the greatest exponent of Lombard literature was the Milanese lawyer Delio Tessa , who distanced himself from the Portian tradition by giving his texts a strong expressionist tone. In Bergamo,

10881-518: The seventy ships. This victory was celebrated in Milan, but the leaders of the Republic still feared Sforza, and sent him off to occupy himself with the Ghiarad'adda region while Lodi and Caravaggio were besieged, hoping that their fall would end the war. Ultimately both Sforza's Milanese forces and the Venetian army under Micheletto Attendolo met at Caravaggio. The siege remained unbroken throughout July and until 15 September, when Attendolo launched

10998-474: The severity, resulting in a "decrease in precipitation during critical crop growing seasons". In July 2022, the Italian government declared a state of emergency in the regions Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Water levels decreased and revealed large riverbed areas and lost objects. The Po is first certainly identified in the Graeco-Roman historians and geographers of

11115-521: The sounds that are used in all Lombard dialects. alveolar In Eastern Lombard and Pavese dialect /dz/ , /z/ and /ʒ/ merge to [ z ] and /ts/ , /s/ and /ʃ/ merge to [ s ] . In Eastern Lombard , the last sound is often further debuccalized to [ h ] . In Western varieties , vowel length is contrastive ( Milanese andà "to go" and andaa "gone"), but Eastern varieties normally use only short allophones . Two repeating orthographic vowels are separated by

11232-482: The southern part of which is Comacchio , an area famous for eels . The Po Valley was the territory of Roman Cisalpine Gaul , divided into Cispadane Gaul (south of the Po) and Transpadane Gaul (north of the Po). The Po has a drainage area of 74,000 km in all, 70,000 of those being in Italy, of which 41,000 is in montane environments and 29,000 on the plain. The slope of the Po's river valley decreases from 0.35% in

11349-719: The southwest the Apennine Mountains bordered a land mass termed Tyrrhenis geologically. Their orogeny was just being completed in the Miocene. On the north the Alpine Orogeny had already created the Alps . At the end of the Messinian the ocean broke through the sill and the Mediterranean refilled. The Adriatic transgressed into all of northern Italy. In the subsequent Pliocene sedimentary outwash primarily from

11466-502: The station passes some traffic through the canal, but above the dam traffic is mainly barges. The average flow at the dam is 854 m /s, with a 12,800 m /s maximum. The historic average flow for June is 1,805 cubic metres per second. In late June 2022, the flow measured in Ferrara fell below an average of 145 cubic metres per second. Climate change has caused several droughts across Northern Italy, with predictions for their frequency and

11583-510: The strengthening of Tuscan influences over Lombard culture was the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro; during his reign he brought numerous men of culture from the Republic of Florence to the Sforza court, the most famous of whom was certainly Leonardo da Vinci. At the same time, however, Lancino Curzio still wrote some works in Milanese dialect at the Sforza court. Between the 15th and 16th centuries,

11700-469: The support of the vengeful Guelph Captains and Defenders conspired to have them slain. Lampugnano and Bossi were sent as envoys to Frederick III in February 1449, but on the road were caught and imprisoned. Lampugnano was beheaded without a trial, and Bossi was tortured until he gave the names of his fellow conspirators. Following the execution of the leaders there was a massacre of leading Ghibellines within

11817-409: The suspicious Republic to work secretly against Sforza. Rumors were spread among the troops about not receiving payment at the end of the war if they remained with Sforza, and Sforza himself was ordered back from the siege of Brescia , the city promised to him, while the citizens were secretly told to hold out until peace, already in the works, was signed. Sforza learned of this treachery and defected to

11934-406: The territory claimed by Venice, namely Crema, was now captured. Venice went behind Sforza's back and signed a peace treaty with the Republic. They conceded conquered land to the Republic in return for peace, and let Sforza keep only Pavia, Cremona, Piacenza, and a narrow strip of land. They ordered him to accept the treaty or find Venice his enemy. The Republic rejoiced, and the citizens were confident

12051-516: The use of Lombard has been observed in the last decade. The popularity of modern artists singing their lyrics in Lombard dialects (in Italian rock dialettale , the best known of such artists being Davide Van de Sfroos) is also a relatively-new but growing phenomenon involving the Swiss and the Italian areas. Lombard is spoken in Campione d'Italia , an exclave of Italy that is surrounded by Swiss territory on Lake Lugano . The following tables show

12168-589: The valley and the Adriatic as far as its centre and in the southern Adriatic. From the Pleistocene alternation of maritime and alluvial sediments occur as far west as Piacenza . The exact sequences at various locations have been studied extensively. Apparently the sea advanced and receded over the valley in conformance to an equilibrium between sedimentation and glacial advance or recession at 100,000-year intervals and 100 m (330 ft) to 120 m (390 ft) fluctuation of sea level. An advance began after

12285-692: The vast majority of Lombards spoke only Lombard, as "Italian" was merely a literary language, and most Italians were not able to read or write. After the Italian economic miracle , Standard Italian arose throughout Italy and Lombard-speaking Switzerland, wholly- monolingual Lombard-speakers became a rarity as time went by, but a small minority may still be uncomfortable speaking Standard Italian. Surveys in Italy find that all Lombard-speakers also speak Italian, and their command of both two languages varies according to their geographical position as well as their socio - economic situation. The most reliable predictor

12402-436: The war was over and their future was secured. But Sforza could not accept the conditions of the treaty, and decided to persevere in the struggle. He was already very powerful, and moreover was close to Milan. The Milanese in their assurance of peace had nearly exhausted their resources to plant crops and return to the old way of life. He was confident that Milan would quickly fall to him. After reinforcing his peace with Savoy with

12519-517: The water flow as the water is, by definition, retained by the dam. The Po is the longest river in Italy; at its widest point it is 503 m (1,650 ft) across. The vast valley around the Po is called the Po Basin or Po Valley (Italian Pianura Padana or Val Padana ); the main industrial area and the largest agricultural area in the country - accounting for 35% of Italian agricultural production . In 2002, more than 16 million people lived in

12636-555: The water resources in the Po basin (see under Po Valley ). Its headquarters have been in Parma since its inception in 1990. It considers itself a synergy among all the institutions concerned with the preservation and development of the Po basin. It is administered by officials chosen from the administrations of the constituent regions and provinces. In 2009 the water board began its Integrated River Basin Management Plan to meet

12753-498: The waterway was navigable as far upstream as Turin . Today the waterway is navigable for substantial craft (up to 1350 tonnes —the European Class IV waterway standard ) from Cremona to the river delta on the Adriatic . Passage by smaller vessels is available for some distance above Cremona. In the lower reaches the surrounding basin is generally flat and it is served by a complicated network of small canals linked to

12870-599: The west to 0.14% in the east, a low gradient. Along its path lie 450 standing lakes. Almost all of the rest of the non-Italy basin is in Switzerland , primarily in the canton of Ticino , which is essentially drained by the river Ticino rising in the Gotthard Area , and includes Lake Maggiore and Lake Lugano . A small part of the canton of Grisons drains to the Po, partly via the Ticino. The Simplon Valley in

12987-481: Was coming close to Milan itself in his conquests, and decided that since it was too powerful to be taken by force, he would surround it and starve the populace into surrender. With the loss of the outer cities by conquest or defection, Milan experienced famine. Gonzaga offered Crema to Sforza, hoping he would be tempted to take it himself and betray the Venetians. But Sforza remained staunch, and instead offered Gonzaga

13104-757: Was declared behind the Palace of the Commune, and the captains abandoned their oaths to Alfonso in favor of it. The Bracceschi were driven from Milan, and the new republic was called the Golden Ambrosian Republic, after St. Ambrose , the 4th century bishop of Milan , who was adopted as the Republic's patron. They took the old constitution and revised it that same day to suit their needs, electing twenty-four Capitani e difensori della libertà , or " Captains and Defenders of Liberty ," to frame laws, elected regularly and later reduced to twelve. The idea of

13221-643: Was dense swamps, explaining why the Via Aemilia was constructed between Rimini and Piacenza and did not begin further north. The Mediterranean Basin is a depression in the Earth 's crust caused by the African Plate slipping under the Eurasian Plate . Typically in geologic history the depression is filled with sea water under various geologic names such as Tethys Sea . In the last period of

13338-476: Was found to be the speaker's age. Studies have found that young people are much less likely to speak Lombard as proficiently as their grandparents. In some areas, elderly people are more used to speaking Lombard than Italian even though they know both. Lombard belongs to the Gallo-Italic (Cisalpine) group of Gallo-Romance languages , which belongs to the Western Romance subdivision. Traditionally,

13455-564: Was not homogeneous since idioms of different areas were influenced by previous linguistic substrata, and each area was marked by a stronger or weaker Latinisation or the preservation of ancient Celtic characteristics. The Germanic Lombardic language also left strong traces in modern Lombard, as it was the variety of Germanic that was spoken by the Germanic Lombards (or Longobards), who settled in Northern Italy, which

13572-533: Was the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia , first formed in the 16th-century Republic of Venice . It made all the decisions concerning the diversion of the lower river. Most part of the delta is still in Veneto . In 1907 under the Kingdom of Italy the agency became the Magistrato alle Acque and took responsibility for all the water resources in northeastern Italy. Currently it is a decentralized institution of

13689-484: Was to be identified with the Eridanos of the poets. Moreover, the country people call it Bodencus . This implies that a "country" population either remained from prehistoric times or adopted the name in use by that substrate. The name has been segmented as Bod-encus or Bod-incus , the suffix being characteristic of the ancient Ligurian language of northern Italy, southern France, Corsica and elsewhere. Pliny

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