The monastery, dedicated to Saint Ambrose but also known as Our Lady of the Lamb of God, was founded in 1349 by Giovanni Visconti, bishop and lord of Milan. In the 14th century it housed, among others, the poet Petrarch. It was pillaged in 1449 when the Visconti dynasty fell. It was suppressed under the rationalist reforms of the Emperor Joseph II, Milan then being under Austrian rule, and became a parish church in 1782. In 1960 the surviving buildings and parochial duties were taken over by the Capuchin Friars. The present buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries.