Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 2 (of 3) Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1440 To 1630.

The papal policy since the accession of Julius had been directed to two leading objects. The first was to prevent any ultramontane power from attaining a decided preponderance i...

The Umbrian art, of which we have attempted to trace the origin, has not hitherto met with the notice which it merits. Lanzi allowed it no separate place among the fourteen scho...

Birth and elevation of Sixtus IV.--Genealogy of the Della Rovere family--Nepotism of that pontiff--His improvements in Rome--His patronage of letters and arts--His brother Giova...

The taste for philosophy, letters, and arts, and the patronage of their professors which Cosimo de' Medici and his son Lorenzo the Magnificent had introduced among the merchant-...

In order to comprehend the peculiar tendency which painting assumed in Umbria, it will be necessary briefly to examine the principles and history of what is now generally known...

Were the lettered court of Duke Federigo to be judged by its minstrels, a harsh sentence might perhaps be awarded. Nor would this be quite fair. Their cold and common-place idea...

News of the evacuation of Milan by the French reached Leo X. at his hunting-seat of La Magliana, five miles down the Tiber from Rome. Though not quite well, he hurried to his ca...

The Duke's influence, as head of the della Rovere family, was paramount in the conclave, composed as it was of relations, friends, and creatures of the late Pope in overwhelming...

To the family della Rovere, whom we have traced in the preceding chapter, an heir was born on the 25th of March, 1490. His father, the Lord Prefect, acknowledged his arrival to...

Whilst Valentino and his partizans thus had their hands full at Rome, Romagna and his recent conquests threw off his rule. His officers had concealed the first news of the trage...

The reputation long enjoyed by the house of Montefeltro as patrons of letters and arts can scarcely be traced further back than Federigo, second Duke of Urbino. Yet the few memo...

Having thus traced the advance of painting in the duchy of Urbino, from Oderigi da Gubbio, the friend of Dante, to Raffaele Sanzio, its _facile princeps_, it might be well to pa...

With GIOVANNI SANZI[*161] we have already made acquaintance as an epic poet. The patient labour of the Abbé Pungeleoni, and the critical acumen of Passavant, have amply refuted...

Meanwhile the fatal wars originating in the League of Cambray were finally concluded, by a treaty offensive and defensive, between the young monarchs of France and Spain, guaran...

About this time a serious conspiracy against Leo was discovered. The prime mover in it was Alfonso Petrucci, Cardinal of Siena, whose property having been confiscated, and his f...

The principal object of the new combination having been attained by the submission of Urbino, followed by that of Camerino, Borgia hastened to anticipate the suspicions of his a...

Such were the eminent men, with whom Guidobaldo is described in the _Cortegiano_ as living in easy but dignified familiarity, joining their improving and amusing conversation, o...

The letter alluded to at the close of our preceding chapter may be regarded as the matured result of Raffaele's careful study of the Tuscan masters, and an index of his resoluti...

The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia's treason, whom he assassinates--He is prosecuted, but finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope--He reduces Bologna--Is...

When writing upon Italy of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a prominent place must be allotted to letters and arts. At Urbino in particular, their progress was then great,...

New league against Charles V.--The Duke's campaign in Lombardy--His quarrels with Guicciardini--Rome pillaged by the Colonna--The Constable Bourbon advances into Central Italy--...

This work was originally published in 1851. As noted below, footnotes marked by an asterisk were added by the editor of the 1909 edition, from which this e-book was prepared.

Birth and elevation of Sixtus IV.--Genealogy of the della Rovere family--Nepotism of that pontiff--His improvements in Rome--His patronage of letters and arts--His brother Giova...

The Duke routed at Bologna from the Cardinal of Pavia's treason, whom he assassinates--He is prosecuted, but finally absolved and reconciled to the Pope--He reduces Bologna--Is...