Cicco Simonetta – ducal secretary
(Policastro 1410 – Pavia 1480) Son of Antonio da Gucia di Caccuri and Margherita Simonetta, member of an important family from Policastro, he received a humanistic education and around 1430, thanks to his maternal uncle Angelo who worked there, he entered the leader’s secretariat Francesco Sforza. He was with him in Milan in 1447, upon the death of Visconti, and from 1450 at the head of the secretarial chancellery. The following year he married Elisabetta Visconti and obtained the recognition of nobility. Thanks to the duke’s patents, real estate properties began to form: in Lomellina he obtained possession of Sartirana and the investiture of the fiefdom with castle, lands and appurtenances. Having acquired other lands, the Sartirana fiefdom became a vast agricultural company, managed with innovative criteria. Once Francesco died, he supported Galeazzo Maria against his mother Bianca Maria, and strengthened his position at court. He assisted the regent Duchess Bona in managing the government after the killing of Galeazzo, but, disliked by Ludovico, the duke’s brother, and other Milanese notables, he was persecuted, sentenced to death and beheaded.