In fact, as early as 1415, it was donated by Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, to Carmagnola, a famous condottiere of the time, who undertook its radical renovation between 1420 and 1425.

On his death by beheading in Venice in 1432, the palace was inherited by his daughters; here in 1465 was held the ceremony with which Genoa lent total dedication to Francesco Sforza, in an anti Savoia key.

Lodovico il Moro already claimed ownership of it in the last years of the 15th century: he obtained it by confiscation, forfeiting it as regalia, after the death of Pietro II Dal Verme, who in turn had received it as an inheritance from his mother Luchina Bussone, daughter of Carmagnola.

In those years the palace underwent major renovation works, which saw its completion with fine colonnades very similar to those of the Monastery of Santa Maria del Lentasio and its transfer, in 1497, to the mistress of Duca Cecilia Gallerani.

In 1947 the building was adapted by Ernesto Nathan Rogers and Marco Zanuso to house the headquarters of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, founded that same year by Paolo Grassi and Giorgio Strehler.