Francesco I Gonzaga

Diplomatic policies towards Milan and Venice

Succeeding his father Ludovico II Gonzaga in 1382, he led a policy of balance between the nearby powers of the Visconti of Milan and Venice. In 1380, he married Agnese, daughter of Barnabò Visconti.{{cite book

Second marriage

In 1393, he remarried, to Margherita Malatesta, who carried in the Gonzaga family the hereditary illness of osteomalacia, which appeared periodically in Mantua's rulers until the 16th century. Francesco had subsequently to defend his lands from Gian Galeazzo's assault, but the latter's death in 1402 solved the conflict.

His son by Margherita was Gianfrancesco I.

Building projects

Francesco Gonzaga is remembered as the builder of the Castle of San Giorgio,{{cite book

Introducing the substitution cipher in his correspondence

Francesco Gonzaga used the earliest known example of a homophonic substitution cipher in 1401 for correspondence with one Simone de Crema.

References

References

1. David Salomon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=A88kvYwIVu0C&dq=homophonic+cipher+mantua+1400s&pg=PA224 Coding for Data and Computer Communications]. Springer, 2005.
2. Fred A. Stahl. "[https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1973/5081/00/50810565.pdf A homophonic cipher for computational cryptography]" Proceedings of the national computer conference and exposition (AFIPS '73), pp. 123–126, New York, USA, 1973.