The publication of the volumes began in 1993 with the appearance of the first tome edited by Luciano Moroni Stampa and Giuseppe Chiesi. Chiesi then carried it forward until 2017. Currently the publication is managed by the State Archives, which thanks to the availability of the various stakeholders involved and the support of the Federal Aid for Italian language and culture has been able to resume publishing. .
The series offers scholars, for the first time in a systematic and integral way, the rich harvest of medieval sources from the State Archives of Milan (Sforzesco Archive) which are related to the lands today in Ticino, once subject to the Duchy of Milan, as well as those concerning the Mesolcina Valley of the counts de Sacco, the Valtravaglia, the Val d'Intelvi and the lands in the fief of the Rusca lords of Locarno.
The newly printed volume contains over a thousand documents dating back to the years 1490-1494, the last of the duchy of the young Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza under the reign of Ludovico il Moro. From the written testimonies a vivid portrait emerges not only of the complex political and administrative framework of the late fifteenth century, but also of the aspects of daily life of the communities of our villages and valleys. Everything is accompanied by critical, historical and biographical notes, as well as detailed alphabetical indexes that will be of help both to the researcher and to the simple lover of local history.
The meeting at Castel Grande will also be an opportunity to reveal some little-known aspects of the Bellinzona Fortress, in an interdisciplinary dialogue between the archaeological sources and those offered by the ducal Ticino.
