History
The papal nomination transformed the county of Urbino, established in 1213, into a duchy governed by the House of Montefeltro. [1]
In fact, it was Pope Eugene IV, in 1443, who appointed Oddantonio da Montefeltro as the first Duke of Urbino. However, he reigned for less than a year, from 1443 to 1444, before being assassinated. His older half-brother Federico therefore took power, one of the greatest princes on the Italian scene of the time, famous both as a leader in battle and as a cultured patron of the arts. He alternated important military campaigns with a dazzling career as a statesman, also taking care of the erection of the Ducal Palace and protecting very famous artists at his court, such as Leon Battista Alberti, Piero della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, Pedro Berruguete, Luca della Robbia and Justus van Gent, in addition to the large group of architects and sculptors who embellished his palace. [2]
Confirmed duke in 1474, he promoted the construction of numerous fortresses designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and assembled one of the most important libraries of the Renaissance. He married Battista Sforza in 1459 and ruled his duchy with solid authority until his death in 1482. During the rule of Federico the State reached its maximum territorial expansion and notable economic prosperity. Such was the importance of the Duchy that Urbino attracted or hosted in those times, among others, Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, Luca Signorelli, Perugino, Giovanni Santi, Pinturicchio and Francesco di Giorgio Martini, as well as a young Bramante. From around 1480 the city of Gubbio became the second residence of the ducal family. [3]
After a period of regency by Ottaviano Ubaldini della Carda, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro came to power, a promising but ill young man since his youth, who for this reason was unable to match his father's military career, despite taking part in some battles as a leader. He married Elisabetta Gonzaga and protected artists such as Raphael, Bramantino and Luca Signorelli. A famous literary monument at the court of him and his wife is Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier. His reign was troubled by the struggles against the Papal States, in particular the conquests, which were never long-lasting, suffered by the nephews of the pontiffs, such as Cesare Borgia and Lorenzo de' Medici. [4]
Guidobaldo died without children, but not before having adopted his sister Giovanna's firstborn, Francesco Maria I della Rovere, who became the fourth Duke of Urbino. Francesco Maria managed to take back Urbino from the Pope Leo X and was also able to expand the state with Senigallia and, above all, Pesaro, which was chosen as the new capital of the duchy in 1523. The city of Urbino suffered as a result, both economically and demographically, but the state continued to enjoy relative prosperity until the early 17th century. With his wife Eleonora Gonzaga, he dedicated himself to the construction of new sumptuous residences, including the Palazzo Ducale and the Villa Imperiale of Pesaro, and was the protector of artists such as Titian, Girolamo Genga, Raffaellino del Colle and Dosso Dossi. [5]
In 1538 he was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo II della Rovere, fifth duke, who married twice, to Giulia da Varano and to Vittoria Farnese. Unlike his father, he loved to reside in the palace in Urbino, where he promoted the arrangement of the second floor. His ministers were Antonio Stati, count of Montebello and Pietro Bonarelli, count (later marquis) of Orciano, belonging to the noble Bonarelli family of Ancona. Among the artists he protected were Titian, Battista Franco Veneziano and Bartolommeo Genga. [6]
In 1563 the Ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Urbino was created, made up of the dioceses present in the Duchy, a particular case at the time since Urbino was the first archdiocese and the first ecclesiastical province erected within the Papal States, of which Urbino was a fiefdom, from its foundation in the 8th century; the only other case, not considering the "external" cities of Benevento and Avignon, was the province of the archdiocese of Ravenna founded at the time of the Roman Empire. [7]
Upon the death of Guidobaldo II in 1574, he was succeeded by the sixth and last duke, his son Francesco Maria II della Rovere, a dark and grim personality, in the Spanish style, fascinating in his almost "friend" relationships with Torquato Tasso and Federico Barocci. Worried by the problem of the heir, he finally had Federico Ubaldo in 1606. The young man married Claudia de' Medici and had time to have a daughter, Vittoria, before dying under mysterious circumstances in 1623, before becoming duke. [8]
The old Francesco Maria II thus bowed to fate and worked, in his last years, to favor the devolution of his State to the Roman Curia, signing an act as early as 1625. Upon his death, in 1631, Pope Urban VIII decreed the devolution of the Duchy to the Papal States, asserting both the feudal rights that the Holy See boasted over the Duchy and the will of the last duke. However, all the movable things of the family remained the personal property of Francesco's daughter, Vittoria, who, upon marrying the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de' Medici, brought the extraordinary collections of paintings, jewels and various objects with her to Florence. [9]
Immediately after the incorporation of the Duchy, the Legation of Urbino was established which, in the eighteenth century, gave its name to the papal province of the same name. [10]
Statistics
In 1610, a contemporary estimate printed by the Elzevirs gave the duchy's annual income as over 200,000 scudi, and the duke's fortune at St. Leo as 2,000,000 scudi. In 1624, Mercurius Gallicus estimated the revenue of the duchy at 300,000 scudi. In regards to population, Zane estimated 150,000 for the duchy at the start of the 17th century, and the military at 10,000 fighting men, half of whom were soldiers and the other half militia. Three-fourths of the duchy's military force was available for foreign service. In 1591, the military force of the duchy amounted to 13,313 fighting men, of whom 8,300 carried arquebuses and 3,783 wore marions. A contemporary census places the duchy's population in 1598 at 115,121. The last legation census before the dissolution of the duchy gave the population as 220,000 in an area of 5,556 square kilometers (giving nearly 40 people per square kilometer), with Urbino (the urban area) having 12,000 (7,500 in the city proper, 4,500 in the adjacent district). [11]
In 1574, few to none of the nobility had annual revenues of more than 3,000 scudi, but many burgesses made 300–400 scudi annually. The few merchants were chiefly from outside the duchy. A few years after the loss of the duchy's independence, the papacy drew 100,000 scudi annually from direct and fiscal taxation. The militia at the time number 8,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, plus the garrison of Sinigaglia. [12]
