Francesco I Sforza
In 1438 Filippo Maria Visconti offered the fief to the condottiero Niccolò Piccinino, under whose government the Municipal Statutes were promulgated, the "Statuta et Decreta Terrae Castri Arquati". After his death the village went to his sons Francesco and Jacopo. After Filippo Maria Visconti's death, his son-in-law Francesco I Sforza was in 1447 also declared lord of Piacenza and its area.