Bartolomeo Colleoni (; 1400 – 2 November 1475) was an Italian condottiero, who became captain-general of the Republic of Venice. Colleoni "gained reputation as the foremost tactician and disciplinarian of the 15th century". He is also credited with having refurbished the Roman baths at Trescore Balneario. Biography Background Colleoni was born in Solza near Bergamo, which was then part of the Duchy of Milan. In Bergamo Colleoni later bult himself a mortuary chapel, the Cappella Colleoni. The Colleoni family was noble, but had been exiled with the rest of the Guelphs by the Visconti of Milan. Bartolomeo's father Paolo Colleoni had seized the castle of Trezzo, until he was assassinated by his cousins, probably acting on the orders of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan. Career The young Colleoni trained as a soldier, first in the retinue of Filippo d'Arcello, the new master of Piacenza. Then he entered the service of various condottieri, beginning with Braccio da Montone, who was skirmishing in Apulia, profiting from the struggles between Alfonso of Aragon and Louis of Anjou during the weak sovereignty of Queen Joan II and taking Alfonso's cause, then that of Carmagnola. After the latter was put to death in Venice (1432), Colleoni entered the direct service of the Venetian Republic, which represented the major phase of his career. Although Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua was nominally commander-in-chief, Colleoni was in fact the real leader of the army. He recaptured many towns and districts for Venice from the Milanese, and when Gonzaga went over to the enemy, Colleoni continued to serve the Venetians under Erasmo of Narni (known as Gattamelata) and Francesco I Sforza, winning battles at Brescia, Verona, and on the Lake of Garda. When peace was made between Milan and Venice in 1441, Colleoni joined the Milanese, together with Sforza, in 1443. Although well treated at first, Colleoni soon fell under the Visconti's suspicion, and was imprisoned at Monza, where he remained until the duke's death in 1447. The Milanese then proclaimed the Golden Ambrosian Republic with Sforza as commander-in-chief, whom Colleoni served for a time, but in 1448 he took leave of Sforza and returned to the Venetians until 1451. Disgusted at not having been elected captain-general, he once more went over to Sforza (who had conquered Milan in 1450, ending the Ambrosian Republic and being recognised as the new Milanese duke) in 1452, but Venice could