The munificence of the Visconti exceeded that of any of Filelfo's patrons,[267] while the mode of life at Milan exactly suited his vainglorious temperament. He loved to throw his money about among lords, to appear at high Court festivals, and to take the lead on ceremonial occasions in his rank of orator. There was, moreover, no rival strong enough to threaten the blasting of his popularity.[268] We find him, during his residence at Milan, continually engaged in the exercise of rhetoric. Public and private incidents of the most various character employed his skill, nor is there any doubt that his large professorial income was considerably increased by presents received from patrons and employers.[269] In addition to the labours of his chair, he engaged in various literary works. His Satires and Odes were gradually growing into ponderous volumes.[270] Other fugitive pieces in prose he put together under the title of 'Convivia Mediolanensia.' Meanwhile he carried on an active correspondence, both familiar and hortatory, with the scholars and the princes of his day.[271] There was no branch of letters with which, sustained by sublime self-approval, he was not willing and eager to meddle. As he had professed Dante at Florence, so here at Milan, by ducal command, he undertook to comment upon Petrarch, and actually composed a poem on S. John the Baptist in _terza rima_. There is something ludicrous in the thought of this Visconti, would-be Herod as in truth he was, commissioning Filelfo, the outrageous Pagan, to versify the life of Christ's forerunner. If Filelfo despised anything more than sacred history, it was the Italian language; and if there was a task for which he was unfitted, it was the composition of poetry. [Footnote 267: His professorial stipend was soon raised from 500 to 700 golden florins.] [Footnote 268: Vespasiano says that the concourse of people to Carlo Aretino's lectures was the first cause of Filelfo's feuds at Florence.] [Footnote 269: Here are the dates of some of these displays:-- 1440. Funeral oration on Stefano Federigo Todeschini. 1441. Epithalamial on the Marriage of Giovanni Marliani. 1442. Discourse on Duties of a Magistrate. 1446. Panegyric of Filippo Maria Visconti, and oration on the Election of Jacopo Borromeo to the See of Pavia. 1450. Oration of Welcome to Francesco Sforza. 1455. Epithalamial on the Marriage of Tristano Sforza to Beatrice d'Este. 1458. Epithalamials for Antonio Crivelli and Teodoro Piatti. 1459. Oration to Pius II. on his Crusade. 1460. Oration on the Election of the Bishop of Como. 1464. Funeral oration for the Senator Filippo Borromeo. 1466. Ditto for Francesco Sforza.