The municipal schools of Milan are well organized; the expendi ture on them in 1928 was nearly £5,000,000.
The water supply, from wells some 15o ft. deep in the sub-soil, is fairly good ; one of the towers of the Castello Sf orzesco is used as a distributing centre, while the sewerage system consists of 48 m. of sewers on the single channel principle, with collectors dis charging into the Vettabia, a tributary of the Lambro.
See F. Malaguzzi Valeri, Milano, 2 vols. (Bergamo, Arti Grafiche 1906) well illustrated.
History.—(For earlier history see the establishment of the Lombard capital at Pavia in 569 Milan re mained the centre of Italian opposition to the foreign conquest. The Lombards were Arians, and the archbishops of Milan from the days of Ambrose had always been orthodox. Though the struggle was unequal, their attitude of resolute opposition to the Lombards gained for them great weight among the people, who felt that their archbishop was a power round whom they might rally for the defence of their liberty and religion. When the Lom bard kingdom fell before the Franks under Charles the Great in 774, the archbishops of Milan were still further strengthened by the close alliance between Charles and the Church, which tended to confirm their temporal authority, and also by Charles's policy of breaking up the great Lombard fiefs and dukedoms, for which he substituted the smaller counties. Under the confused govern ment of Charles's immediate successors the archbishop was the only real power in Milan. But there were two classes of difficulties in the situation, ecclesiastical and political; and their presence had a marked effect on the development of the people and the growth of the commune, which was the next stage in the history of Milan. On the one hand the archbishop was obliged to contend against the heretics or against fanatical reformers who found a following among the people ; and on the other, since the archbishop was the real power in the city, the emperor, the nobles and the people each desired that he should be of their party; and to whichever party he did belong he was certain to find himself violently opposed by the other two. From these causes it sometimes happened that there were two archbishops, and therefore no central control, or no archbishop at all, or an archbishop in exile. These difficulties de veloped a spirit of independence and a capacity of judging and acting for themselves in the people of Milan. The terror of the Hunnish invasion, in 899, further assisted them in their progress towards freedom, for it compelled them to take arms and to fortify their city, rendering Milan more than ever independent of the feudal lords who lived in their castles in the country. The tyranny
of these nobles drove the peasantry and smaller vassals to seek protection for life and property and equality of taxation and of justice inside the walled city and under the rule of the archbishop. Thus Milan grew populous, and learned to govern itself. Its in habitants became for the first time Milanese, attached to the standard of St. Ambrose—no longer subjects of a foreign con queror, but a distinct people, with a municipal life and prospects of its own. For the further growth of the commune, the action of the great archbishop, Heribert (1018-45), the establishment of the carroccio, the development of Milanese supremacy in Lom bardy, the destruction of Lodi, Como, Pavia and other neighbour ing cities, the Lombard league, and the battle of Legnano, see the articles ITALY and LOMBARDS.
After the battle of Legnano, in 1174, although the Lombard cities failed to reap the fruit of their united action and fell to mutual jealousy once more, the city of Milan began to grow in material prosperity. After the Peace of Constance (I'83) the city walls were extended ; the arts flourished, each in its own quarter, under a syndic who watched the interests of the trade. The manu facture of armour was the most important industry. During the struggles with Barbarossa, when freedom seemed on the point of being destroyed, many Milanese vowed themselves, their goods and their families to the Virgin should their city come safely out of her troubles. Hence arose the powerful fraternity of the "Umiliati," who established their headquarters at the Brera, and began to develop the wool trade, and subsequently gave the first impetus to the production of silk. From this period also date the irrigation works which render the Lombard plain a fertile garden. The government of the city consisted of (a) a parlamento or con siglio grande, including all who possessed bread and wine of their own—a council soon found to be unmanageable owing to its size, and reduced first to 2,000, then to 1,500 and finally to Boo mem bers; (b) a credenza or committee of 12 members, elected in the grand council, for the despatch of urgent or secret business, (c) the consuls, the executive, elected for one year, and compelled to report to the great council at the term of their office.