Federico da Montefeltro

Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482), was one of the most successful mercenary captains (condottieri) of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 (as Duke from 1474) until his death. A renowned intellectual humanist and civil leader in Urbino on top of his impeccable reputation for martial skill and honour, he commissioned the construction of a great library, perhaps the largest of Italy after the Vatican, with his own team of scribes in his scriptorium, and assembled around him a large humanistic court in the Ducal Palace, Urbino, designed by Luciano Laurana and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Biography Federico was born in Castello di Petroia in Gubbio. Guidantonio da Montefeltro, lord of Urbino, Gubbio and Casteldurante, and Duke of Spoleto acknowledged Federico as his illegitimate son. Two years later he was legitimized by Pope Martin V, with the consent of Guidantonio's wife, Caterina Colonna, who was Martin's niece. However, there were persistent rumours that Federico was not Guidantonio's son, but his grandson. Guidantonio had an illegitimate daughter named Aura, who, in 1420, married Bernardino Ubaldini della Carda, a captain in Guidantonio's employ. It was rumoured that, being without a son and heir at the time, Guidantonio took his daughter's firstborn son soon after birth and passed the child off as his own. This rumour was recorded by various commentators during Federigo's lifetime, including Pope Pius II. In the aftermath of the Peace of Ferrara (see Wars in Lombardy) in 1433, he lived in Venice and Mantua as a hostage. In 1437 he was knighted by Emperor Sigismund, and in the same year, he married Gentile Brancaleoni in Gubbio.