' Federigo, the
most successful general in the Italian wars, had built a palace of
delight in his rude Urbino, in which he hoped to set a copy of every book
in the world. His book-room was adorned with ideal portraits by Piero
della Francesca and Melozzo: it was very large and lofty, 'with windows
set high against the Northern sky.' The catalogue of the books is still
preserved in the Vatican. It shows the names of all the classics, the
Fathers, and the mediaeval schoolmen, many works upon Art, and almost all
the Greek and Hebrew works that were known to exist. Among the more
modern writers we find those whose works we have discussed, Petrarch and
his friends, Guarini and Perotti, and Valla with his enemy Poggio; among
the others we notice Alexander ab Alexandro, a most learned antiquarian
from Naples, of whom Erasmus once said: 'He seems to have known
everybody, but nobody knows who he is.' The chief treasure of the place
was a Bible, illuminated in 1478 by a Florentine artist, which the Duke
caused to be bound 'in gold brocade most richly adorned with silver.'
'Shortly before he went to the siege of Ferrara,' says his librarian, 'I
compared his catalogue with those that he had procured from other
places, such as the lists from the Vatican, Florence, Venice, and Pavia,
down to the University of Oxford in England, and I found that all except
his own were deficient or contained duplicate volumes.' His son, Duke
Guidubaldo, was a celebrated Greek scholar; and the eulogies of Bembo and
Castiglione on his Duchess, Elizabeth Gonzaga, attest the literary
distinction of her Court.
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