Biagio Assereto

Native of Recco, he was the son of Constantine, an agiate blacksmith and a Ghisolfi, a woman belonging to a powerful family of Genoese merchants; his grandfather came from Rapallo, his family was pro-Milan.
He had done his first studies at the religious and should have been goldsmith. He was of good looks, atante in the physicist and at the same time intellectual and skillful man of sea, and for these qualities he had noticed Francesco Spinola, then Lord of Recco, who had taken him near himself as a toe. He had studied it, and he had graduated notary, a profession that had begun in Porto Maurizio in 1408 on behalf of the local podestà.

In the 1423 he returned to Genoa and gave himself to military activity. Patron of ships, also following the acquisition of the heritage of his wife, Pometta di Teramo di Moneglia, Biagio Assereto was Chancellor of the War Office and took part in military expeditions: he brought rescue to Queen Giovanna II of Naples (1425); at the command of a galea captured the Florentine Ferruccio Verro, bringing him prisoner to Genoa (January 1426); rejected Domenico Campofregoso and the Florentines (September) 1427).

In 1435 he was given a small but very efficient fleet with which he took to Gaeta in aid of Francesco Spinola besieged by Alfonso V d'Aragona. The decisive battle took place off Ponza on 5 August and Assereto brought a clear victory. The Aragonese fleet saved only one ship and many were the prisoners among whom King Alfonso himself. Assereto gave news of the victory to Genoa and Filippo Maria Visconti with an outstanding relationship for dignified moderation and modesty. In Genoa it was a big party for three days. The loot was of never seen size and came, as promised, distributed to the crew members.

Philip Maria Visconti first tried to convince the Senate and the Assent to continue the war by occupying Sicily; but the admiral refused because for a land enterprise there were men and denari. Then the Duke ordered him to land the king and the prisoners in Savona (and not in Genoa) and to take them to Milan; this time the Assereto, although deprived of the deserved triumph, obeyed. The Asseretus was so invested in the fief of Serravalle Scrivia with the title of vicecomes, he was welcomed into the Visconti family, whose name, titles and coat of arms added.

He received from Visconti the office of governor of Milan and the county of Serravalle Scrivia, held for him again in 1437 the position of ducal commissioner of Parma and commander of the Milanese army in the war against Venice. He defeated the Venetian admiral Andrea Querini in the river Battle of Casalmaggiore, forcing him to retreat to the lagoons (July 1448). Always linked to Milan, he then passed into the service of Francesco Sforza (1450).

Finally, in 1452 he abandoned his arms and retired into his feud of Serravalle Scrivia, devoting himself to frequenting with friends and literary studies; in this field he was also a friend of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II.

He died in Serravalle Scrivia on 25 April 1456; he was buried in the archpresbyterial church of Serravalle Scrivia: here, on his tomb, is the inscription: « Biagio Assereto, general of the galleys of the Serenissima Republic of Genoa, took two kings, one Infante, three hundred knights. He died the year 1456 ».

After his death, the Visconti Assereto lost the fief of Serravalle, divided between different political sympathies and personal disagreements.

• Giovanna Balbi, Men of arms and culture in the fifteenth century Genoese: Biagio Assereto, in "Proceedings of the Ligurian Society of Homeland History", New Series, II, fasc. II, 1962, pp. 97–206;
• Carlo Carosi, Biagio Assereto, notary and admiral, in "Activities", magazine of the National Council of Notaries, n. 1/1999. pp. 102-115.