Urbino Humanist Court

1513

The small but brilliant court of the dukes of Urbino under Francesco Maria I della Rovere continued to attract painters, poets, and philosophers. The library of Federico da Montefeltro still held one of the finest collections of manuscripts in Europe, a memorial to the previous generation of humanist patronage. Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, set here, would immortalize the duchy as the embodiment of Renaissance refinement.