Urbino
università
the town | university
Urbino dates back to the Romans, when it was an important municipality called Urbinum Metaurense. It was successively occupied by the Goths, the Byzantines, the Lombards (who enlarged its territory) and the Franks, who donated it to the Church in the 8th Century. In 1155 it fell under the command of the Montefeltro family who, conquering the surrounding territory, governed it as a relatively independent city-state until 1508. The Montefeltros created a splendid walled city filled with beautiful Renaissance buildings and instituted the university. In 1474 Pope Sixtus IV recognized Federico II as duke, who became the most famous leader of Urbino; his court hosted the most important artists and humanists of the epoch. Pope Julius II ceded the city to his nephew Francesco Maria della Rovere, and it remained in the della Rovere family until 1626, when it was returned to the Church and began a rapid decline. In 1797 it was occupied by the French, and in 1860 it was conquered by Italian troops.
Below is a list of a few of the many renowned people hail from Urbino:
The Montefeltro Dukes, the most famous of which was the great Federico.
The Della Rovere family
Raphael Sanzio (1483-1551), the "divine" painter;
Donato Bramante (1444-1514), marvelous architectural genius
Girolamo Genga (1476 -1551), painter, sculptor, and architect
Federico Barocci (1534-1612), leading Mannerist painter
Federico Brandani (1525-1575), refined sculptor;
Timoteo Viti (1469c.-1523) painter and Majolica ceramicist;
Nicola da Urbino (m. 1538) famous portrait artist and ceramicist;
Federico Comandino (1506-1575) celebrated mathematician.