enough for both.' And though the Duke repeated that the larger it was the more earth would there be to remove, he never could see it, but went on saying, make it so much the greater!"
Sanzi informs us that Federigo had intended to erect, in connection with this residence, a fane unequalled in regularity, beauty, and ornament, in order at once to manifest his piety and to provide a last home for his remains. The cathedral adjoining it, though founded by his father in 1439, was scarcely well begun until 1471, and when completed, in no way realised his project.130 The church of S. Bernardino, also left unfinished at his death, was in some degree a substitute, being not only a special memorial of his piety, but supplying a mausoleum for himself and the few after members of his dynasty.
Of the other residences that shared the cares of Count Federigo, Gubbio was the most important. Sanzi describes it as facing the south-east, and flanked by mountains on the north, overlooking fertile valleys and smiling champaigns, and excelling the attractions of Urbino in charming prospects and pleasant pathways. Notwithstanding the general truth of this eulogy, nothing could be more consistent with beauty or convenience than its site, planted on a slope, with the cathedral right in front, crowded round with poor buildings, and accessible only by precipitous alleys. Its architecture is disputed between Francesco di Giorgio and Baccio Pontelli,*131 nor would it add much credit to either, its sole merit being minute decorations in hewn work and inlaid panelling, both after the style we have described at Urbino. Although the initials of the two Montefeltrian dukes appear in these, it is believed to have been chiefly built by Guidobaldo, and the oak-tree cognisance of the Della Rovere indicates in some parts a still later date. The constant recurrence of the Garter among its ornamental devices is gratifying to the very rare English visitors of this Apennine town, but no traveller of taste and intelligence can be otherwise than shocked to find this once chosen sanctuary of Italian refinement and high breeding, the residence in which Castiglione recounted his reception at the Tudor court, and where Fregoso and Bembo were successively bishops, degraded to vile uses and menaced by speedy ruin. It is now in the hands of a person who there manufactures wax candles and silk, but on my second visit in 1843 was closed up entirely and inaccessible. I owe to the obliging attention of Signor Luigi Bonfatti, a local antiquary of taste and intelligence, who is preparing a work on the early painters of Gubbio, this notice of the building and its remaining decorations: "Differing much from the architecture at Urbino, its court-yard is very fine, of the mixed or composite style usual in that age. The windows, doors, and chimneys have stone lintels, exquisitely chiselled in low relief with masterly arabesque designs, those in the interior being touched with gold. The ceilings, now partially decayed, are all of wood, in half-relief compartments, with heavy cornices, and roses coloured and gilded. The palace was completed by Duke Guidobaldo, who commissioned the cabinet or closet of superb intarsia, thirteen by six and a half feet. This tiny room is nineteen feet high, but the inlaid work goes only half-way up. It is of the finest patterns and workmanship, including several emblematic representations of music, literature, physical science, geography, and war. On the cornice is an inscription now in part illegible. … It was, in my opinion, the work of Antonio Mastei of Gubbio, a famous artist in wood, who executed the beautiful choir of S. Fortunato at Todi, and who is known to have been much in favour with Dukes Guidobaldo and Francesco Maria I., the latter of whom gave him an exemption from imposts."132
Muzio and Baldi impute to Federigo's munificence many other palaces in his state, such as Fossombrone, Cagli, Casteldurante, La Carda, Mercatello, &c.; but most of these were probably forts, of which Francesco di Giorgio speaks as having one hundred and thirty-six under his charge at once, for this prince. At the two first-named places, there still remain residences dating from this reign, and the parks or game-preserves which formerly surrounded them, embracing circuits of seven and five miles respectively, were walled in by the Count, and stocked with fallow-deer.133 These have long ago run to waste, and the palaces, with their ample halls,
"Shadowy with remembrances
Of the majestic past,"
are now desolate and rapidly falling to ruin.*134
* * * * *
It has been aptly observed that "of works which appeal to the eye, any description must be tedious and inconclusive," but less could not have been said of creations which constituted the chief praise of Count Federigo among his contemporaries, and his most enduring glory with posterity. Nor can it but excite our interest to inquire whence means were obtained for so lavish an outlay, and for his munificent patronage of letters and arts. When the eye wanders over the map of Urbino, as possessed by its dukes of the Della Rovere dynasty, it is difficult to restrict our conceptions to its true limits at this date. It would probably now be impossible to define these with perfect accuracy, much of its frontier being then debatable land.135 Into this category had fallen part of the original fief of Montefeltro, lying north of the Foglia. The proper territory of Urbino occupied the central portion of the far-receding stripe situated between that river and the Metauro, its upper section being the Brancaleone country, its sea-board divided between Pesaro and Fano. Out-lying were the holdings of Gubbio and Cagli, the latter perhaps reaching to the recently acquired townships of Fossombrone. The state composed of these straggling parts may have included about one-fourth of the subsequent duchy; but cut off from the coast, and from the fertile districts which skirt the Adriatic, its rugged uplands and rude climate derived from nature few elements of wealth. The various wars which had swept it, and especially the forays and reprisals it had long endured from the tyrant of Rimini, might well have exhausted its resources, and utterly impoverished both sovereign and people. The fact was, however, quite otherwise, war being a source of wealth to both. Military service was their only trade, and so well did they ply it, that during thirty-four years, short intervals excepted, the Count drew continuous pay from some foreign power or adventurer. The value of these engagements may be estimated from some examples. In 1453 his war pay from Alfonso of Naples exceeded 8000 ducats a month, and for many years he had from him and his son an annual peace-pension of 6000 in name of past services. At the close of his life, when captain-general of the Italian league, he drew in war 165,000 ducats of annual stipend, 45,000 being his own share; in peace 65,000 in all. Of these vast sums a considerable portion went among his hardy mountaineers, besides their contingent of plunder and perquisites picked up in the field. Thus was war rendered so acceptable to their interests, as well as to their tastes and habits, that Sanzi compares them, when their arms are cast aside, to "unpinioned eagles." Nor did the ravages of invasion prove so destructive as might be supposed. The entire population were located in villages or townlets, each a fastness capable of resistance, which, even when unsuccessful, gave time to conceal their valuables: thus when the sack began, they had only to save their persons, and these generally were allowed to go unharmed.136
CHAPTER IX
Count Federigo’s varied engagements—Battle of La Molinella—Death and character of his enemy Malatesta—Affairs of Rimini.
It was to the Pontiff's anxiety for his favourite project against the Infidel, that the Malatesta owed the shadow of sovereignty still left them. He inherited from Nicholas V. the design of a holy war; but though the ten years passed since the peace of Lodi had united the Italian powers for that purpose, the cross had not yet been raised against the aggressive and triumphant crescent. He now sought to redeem delays by redoubled zeal, and his temporal diplomacy seconded his spiritual exhortations in collecting troops and treasure from Western Europe, to be mustered at Ancona and led by his Holiness in person. But, as was shrewdly remarked by Cosimo de' Medici, it was an old man undertaking an enterprise which needed a young one. He travelled to Ancona when scarcely recovered from a severe fit of gout, and on arriving, had the mortification to discover that his ardour had been ill seconded by most of the Christian powers; that the soldiery, already disgusted with a service whose rewards were indulgences for the next world instead of present pay and pillage, were retiring in great numbers; and that the volunteers who crowded the port, far beyond the means provided for feeding or transporting them, were a mere mob of unarmed and undisciplined idlers. Chagrin, anxiety, and fatigue occasioned a relapse, which