 The word "biscione" is a masculine augmentative of Italian feminine "biscia", "grass snake" (corrupted from "bistia", ultimately from Latin "bestia").The charge became associated with the city after the Visconti family gained control over Milan 1277; Bonvesin da la Riva records it in his "De magnalibus urbis Mediolani" ("On the Marvels of the City of Milan") as a Visconti symbol no later than the end of the 13th century.The symbol may in turn have been derived from a bronzed serpent brought to Milan from Constantinople by Arnolf II of Arsago (Archbishop of Milan 998-1018) in the 11th century.