Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino


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Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino in three volumes presents a history of the houses of Montefeltro and Della Rovere, of their famous and most brilliant Court, and of that part of Italy over which they held dominion. It deals not only with history and politics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Italy, but it also illustrates "the arms, arts, and literature of Italy from 1440 to 1630." Contents: Book First: Of Urbino and Its Early Accounts Book Second: Of Federigo di Montefeltro, Count and Second Duke of Urbino Book Third: Of Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, Third Duke of Urbino Book Fourth: Of Literature and Art Under the Dukes di Montefeltro at Urbino Book Fifth: Of the Della Rovere Family Book Sixth: Of Francesco Maria Della Rovere, Fourth Duke of Urbino Book Seventh: Of Guidobaldo Della Rovere, Fifth Duke of Urbino Book Eighth: Of Francesco Maria II Della Rovere, Sixth and Last Duke of Urbino Book Ninth: Of Literature and Art Under the Dukes Della Rovere at Urbino




Bernard Quaritch


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The Connoisseur


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Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume I (of 3)


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Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume I (of 3) But Dennistoun's Dukes of Urbino is not merely a history of the houses of Montefeltro and Della Rovere, of-viii- their famous and most brilliant Court, and of that part of Italy over which they held dominion, but really a work in belles-lettres too, discursive and amusing, as well as instructive. It deals not merely with history, as it seems we have come to understand the word, a thing of politics—in this case the futile and childish politics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Italy—but illustrates "the arms, arts, and literature of Italy from 1440 to 1630." And indeed this programme was carried out as well as it could be carried out at the time these volumes were written. The book, which has long been almost unprocurable, is full, as it were, of a great leisure, crammed with all sorts of out-of-the-way learning and curious tales and adventures. Sometimes failing in art, and often we may think in judgment, Dennistoun never fails in this, that he is always interested in the people he writes of, interested in their quarrels and love affairs, their hair-breadth escapes and good fortunes. How eagerly he sides with Duke Guidobaldo, chased out of his city of Urbino by Cesare Borgia! It is as though he were assisting at that sudden flight at midnight, and, whole-heartedly the Duke's man as he was, almost fails to understand what Cesare was aiming at, and quite fails to see what Cesare saw too well—the helplessness of Italy, at the mercy, really, of the unconscious nations of the modern world. Such failures as this make his work, indispensable as it is, less valuable than it might have been, but they by no means detract from the general interest of the story. That is a quarry from which much has been hewn, and a good many of those enduring blocks which go to make up so popular and charming a work as John Inglesant came in the first instance from Dennistoun's volumes.




Piero's Light


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In the tradition of The Swerve and Galileo's Daughter, Piero's Light reveals how art, religion and science came together at the dawn of the modern world in the paintings of one remarkable artist. An innovative painter in the early generation of Renaissance artists, Piero dell Francesca was also an expert on religious topics and a mathematician who wanted to use perspective and geometry to make painting a “true science.” Although only sixteen of Piero’s works survive, few art historians doubt his importance in the Renaissance. A 1992 conference of international experts meeting at the National Gallery of Art deemed Piero, “One of the most highly regarded painters of the early Renaissance, and one of the most respected artists of all time.” In recent years, the quest for Piero has continued among intrepid scholars, and Piero's Light uncovers the life of this remarkable artistic revolutionary and enduring legacy of the Italian Renaissance.