The Light of Italy

- Blurb -

The story of the Renaissance city and palace of Urbino, and the life of the extraordinary man who created it: Federico da Montefeltro, humanist, book-collector, patron of celebrated artists and battle-scarred mercenary soldier. The story of the Renaissance city and palace of Urbino, and the life of the extraordinary man who created it: Federico da Montefeltro, humanist, book-collector, patron of celebrated artists, and battle-scarred mercenary soldier. Between 1444 and 1482 the dukedom of Urbino, in what is now the northern part of the region of Marche in central Italy, was ruled by a remarkable man. He was Federico da Montefeltro, condottiere, humanist, book-collector, patron of such artists as Piero della Francesca and creator of one of the most renowned libraries in Italy outside of the Vatican. From 1460 he was married to Battista, of the formidable Sforza family, their partnership apparently a blissful one: Federico calling his wife ' the delight of both my public and my private hours' . The court Federico assembled in the ducal palace of Urbino is regarded by many - from Baldassare Castiglione, author of the highly influential Book of the Courtier, to the German cultural historian Jakob Burckhardt, to Sir Kenneth Clark of Civilisation fame - as representing a high point of Renaissance courtly culture. As well as casting revelatory light on patronage, politics and humanism in fifteenth-century Italy, The Light of Italy is rich in extraordinary details of the brutally demanding lifestyle of Italy' s mercenary captains, and the often prominent political and cultural roles played by their wives during their protracted absences on campaign. Jane Stevenson tells the remarkable story of the city that Kenneth Clark saw as the ultimate expression of Renaissance humanist ideals - and its most celebrated duke - in well-wrought words and glorious images.