feltro race. The monumental solidity of the structure seems to bid defiance to time, and to impart an air of perpetual freshness to a building exposed to the action of a mountain climate.

·

Castiglione says in his Cortegiano'

The residence erected by Federigo on the rugged heights of Urbino is regarded by many as the most beautiful in Italy; and he so amply provided it with every convenience, that it appeared rather a palatial city than a palace. He furnished it not only with the usual plenishings of rich brocade in silk and gold, silver plate, and such like, but ornamented it with a vast quantity of ancient marbles and bronze sculpture, of rare pictures, and musical instruments in every variety, excluding all but the choicest objects.?.

Mr. Dennistoun is inclined to set aside this valuable testimony, because his own minutest inquiries have failed in tracing any antique marbles or bronzes or any easel picture to the possession of Federigo. Castiglione described the castle as he saw it, enriched with the accumulations of another century. Before the general diffusion of the art of oil-painting there could be few easel pictures; nor was it yet customary to collect them as the ornaments of a dwelling or the furniture of a museum. The excavations among the ruins of Rome had only just been commenced-all discoveries were claimed as the property of the Pontiff, or were only granted by him to a few favoured individuals. In the Villa Medici at Florence some few objects had been placed for the instruction of students, but we are not aware of any considerable assemblage of sculpture in the north of Italy before the sack of Rome dispersed the spoil of the Vatican. But all that befitted a royal residence of the day was to be seen in the castle of Federigo, and the chimney-pieces, doorways, friezes, and sculptured archivolts which remain, exhibit an elegance of design and a prodigality of invention which we might seek in vain, except in the very finest works of antiquity. The apartments, by Castiglione's time so crowded with gems of art, are now stripped bare enough; all that was movable is gone; their treasures must be sought at Florence and at Rome. We shall leave the description of the library to Mr. Dennistoun :

To the right and left of the carriage entrance into the great courtyard are two handsome saloons, each about forty-five feet by twentytwo, and twenty-three in height. That on the left contained the famous library of manuscripts collected by Federigo; the corresponding one received the printed books, which, gradually purchased by successive dukes, became under the last sovereign a copious collection. Baldi, in his description of the palace, printed in Bianchini's work, dwells on the judicious adaptation of the former, its windows set high against the northern sky, admitting a subdued and steady light

which invited to study; its air, cool in summer, temperate in winter; its walls conveniently shelved; the character and objects of the place fittingly set forth in a series of rude hexameters inscribed on the cornices. Adjoining was a closet fitted up with inlaid and gilded panelling, beneath which Timoteo della Vite depicted Minerva with her ægis, Apollo with his lyre, and the nine Muses with their appropriate symbols. A similar small study was fitted up immediately over this one, set round with arm-chairs encircling a table all mosaicked with tarsia, and carved by Maestro Giacomo of Florence, while on each compartment of the panelling was the portrait of some famous author, and an appropriate distich. One other article of furniture deserves special notice a magnificent eagle of gilt bronze, serving as a lectern in the centre of the manuscript-room. It was carried to Rome at the devolution of the duchy to the Holy See, but was rescued by Pope Clement XI. from the Vatican library, and restored to his native town,.where it has long been used in the choir of the cathedral.'— vol. i. p. 153.

The staircase is magnificent, and the great hall is of noble proportions, a double cube of sixty feet, vaulted above, and ornamented with niches in which the arms or devices of the princes and republics whose banners the dukes of Urbino had borne were placed. Of these the Lion of S. Mark alone remains! In more modern days this deserted palace was assigned as the shelter of the Stuart family, when they were compelled to quit France and seek the hospitality of the Pope; but of that mournful revival of a mimic court a painted escutcheon and a half-effaced inscrip tion are the only existing memorials.

If this glorious monument of the taste and magnificence of former days depended for preservation on the care of man, it would long since have fallen into ruin; but it may defy any accident but an earthquake, and it will be long we fancy (whatever may be the fate of the Papal States) ere the languid industry of the Urbinese would be spurred to the mischievous energy of pulling it down for the value of the materials. It is the summer residence of the Cardinal legate who governs the district, and the second floor has been fitted up for his use. Mr. Dennistoun expresses a regret at not having been able to enter those rooms; he may console himself; we have visited them, as well as every other in the castle, and can assure him that they contain nothing to gratify curiosity. The traveller will discover there neither ancient splendour nor modern convenience. No Italian of any class finds much of his enjoyment in home accommodations; his house he uses to sleep in; to seek his amusements, his pleasures, and his occupations, he leaves it. His fixed notion of comfort is to guard himself against heat, and this idea pursues him to Urbino, where the glare of a three months'

months' summer is followed by nine months of weather as changeable as that of England, and on the whole even more inclement. The Cardinal's apartment, in the commencement of a cold and late spring, was warmed by no cheerful fire; no carpets covered the clammy brick floors; the naked walls bore no decoration-except a grim and unsightly resemblance of the reigning pope suspended over a hard and high-backed sofa (inviting no repose), from whence diverged in parallel lines two rows of chairs as rectangular as the uneasy seat of honour. The rest of the furniture, fitted rather for a barrack-room than a palace, contrasted sadly with the splendour of the period to which we must now hasten back.

The

Guidobaldo I., the son and successor of Duke Federigo, was in his eleventh year when he ascended the throne. He had lost his mother (a daughter of Alexander Sforza, Lord of Pesaro) in infancy, and the guardianship of his person and the regency of the state were committed by his father's will to Ottavio Ubaldini, a trust fully justified by that kinsman's fidelity and prudence. The commencement of the new reign was serene and prosperous. cause which the late Duke had espoused was generally successful, and the son, notwithstanding his youth, was immediately appointed by the allied princes to succeed him in the title of generalissimo, with all the honours and emoluments appertaining to it. His person was handsome-his address engaging-his temper mild-his talents excellent; his aptitude for learning and his application equally remarkable. His proficiency in all graceful accomplishments was universally admired. To cultivate such promising dispositions no care could be excessive. Mr. Dennistoun owes no apology for citing the curious regulations drawn up for the conduct of the young prince's court; they are among the most interesting and characteristic details he has preserved.

To all persons composing the household, unexceptionable manners were indispensable. In those of higher rank there were further required competent talents and learning, a grave deportment, and fluency of speech. The servants must be of steady habits and respect. able character; regular in all private transactions; of good address, modest, and graceful; willing and neat-handed in their service. There is likewise inculcated the most scrupulous personal cleanliness, especially of hands, with particular injunctions as to frequent ablutions, and extraordinary precautions against the unpleasant effects of hot weather on their persons and clothing: in case of need medical treatment is enjoined to correct the breath. Those who wore livery had two suits a year, generally of fustian, though to some silk doublets were given for summer use. They had a mid-day meal and a supper; the former usually consisted of fruit, soup, and boiled meat; the latter

of

of salads and boiled meat. This was varied on Fridays and vigil fasts by dinners of fish, eggs, and cheese; suppers of bread, wine, and salads. Saturdays were semi-fasts, when they dined on soup and eggs, and supped on soup and cheese. The upper table offered but few luxuries in addition to this plain fare, such as occasionally roasts, fowls, and pastry, with a more liberal allowance of eggs and cheese on meagre days.

'At the ducal table the chief superiority seems to have consisted in the more liberal use of sweet herbs and fruits. The latter were presented in singular order; cherries and figs before dinner; after it pears, apples, peaches, nuts, almonds; before supper melons and grapes. The splendour of the table service seems to have been more looked to than its good cheer; and many rules are given as to the covered silver platters, the silver goblets and glass caratis, the fine napery and ornamental flowers. The regulations for the duke's chamber service indicate scrupulous ablutions in perfumed water, and frequent change of clothing, in strict conformity to the directions of physicians and astrologers. Among the conveniences enumerated for his bedroom are a bell, a night-light, and, in cold weather, a fire. An attendant slept by him without undressing; also a clerk in the guard-room within call. The music provided to accompany his rides seems miscellaneous—a company of bagpipes, a sackbut, four trumpets, three drums, with a herald or pursuivant. The qualities insisted on for ladies of the duchess's household are exemplary gravity and unsullied honour; they must further be handy, addicted neither to gossip nor wrangling, and never talking unnecessarily in her presence.'-(v. i. p. 295.)

6

At sixteen years of age Guidobaldo married Elizabeth Gonzaga, daughter of the Marquis of Mantua, the most beautiful and accomplished princess of her day. But, as Mr. Dennistoun observes, the bitter was mixed with the sweet.' The constitution of the duke, undermined by hereditary gout, gave early symptoms of decay, and he himself, feeling convinced of the impossibility of transmitting his honours to lineal heirs, applied to Pope Alexander VI. for permission to adopt as his eventual successor the son of his sister by the nephew of Sixtus IV. The application was ill-timed. The reigning pontiff had already fixed his eye on the Duchy of Urbino as the centre of a principality to be carved out of the dominions of the Church, which he destined for his own son Cæsar Borgia. It was no part of his Holiness's policy, however, to disclose that project prematurely, or to awaken the suspicions of the duke, and he accordingly received the proposal with apparent favour. When his plans were matured, he put them into execution with a degree of treachery to which not even that age or country had hitherto afforded a parallel.

The general state of Italy was favourable to the pope's scheme of consolidation. The great feudatories in Romagna, unless when

employed

employed in the command of mercenary armies, had not the means of maintaining the state of sovereign princes excepting by the excessive taxation of their subjects. Their exactions made their government oppressive, and their vices made it hateful. M. Sismondi draws a gloomy picture of the crimes of these princely houses, which we cannot agree with Mr. Dennistoun in thinking overcharged; though it is undoubtedly an error to describe them alone as guilty, or to attribute all their enormities to ‘a state of isolation which cut them off from the sympathies of humanity.' M. Sismondi's own pages prove that the nobles and wealthy citizens were no less violent and vindictive than these princes, or the vassals than their lords. Nor, on the other hand, did the restless anarchy of the neighbouring democracies allow any greater degree of happiness, or encourage a higher tone of morality. Everywhere the land was filled with rapine and oppression. Between such governments and their subjects there could exist no attachment.

Cæsar Borgia (Duke of Valenza), who fills so large a space in the annals of this period, had recently opened a secular career to his ambition by the murder of his elder brother, and the subsequent resignation of his scarlet hat, and with it of his countless benefices. It was the extravagance to which Sixtus IV. first pushed the practice of advancing a family that caused the invention of the term of Nepotism. By him his nephew Giovanni della Rovere had been fixed in the lordship of Sinigaglia, while the still more tenderly beloved nephew-or son- Gerome Riario was seated at Imola and Forlì in the place of their former masters. It was now their turn to be ejected by a still more daring usurper. Borgia, amidst the indifference, at least, of the population, speedily achieved the conquest of Romagna. The Malatesta, who ruled at Rimini, fled at his approach, and the other princes did not generally offer a much more vigorous opposition. In the progress of their conquest crimes were committed by the Papal troops and their leaders which the scepticism of our day would refuse to believe-nay, which its delicacy forbids any historian to recite in detail. Thus the greatest culprits in the world may escape much merited odium through the fastidiousness of readers and the timidity of writers.

The conduct of the young duke of Urbino afforded no pretext for the intended aggression. His obedience to the pope as his spiritual and temporal superior had always been unbounded, and it was through this habit of blind submission that his ruin was now accomplished. The people were known to be brave and warmly attached to him, the frontier rough, and the strongholds numerous. The first object of his Holiness was to lull sus

picion,