Urbino

It was thanks to his father that he grew up surrounded by books, despite the fact that the family was a rather poor branch of the well-to-do Machiavelli.

This made Bernardo one of the first to embrace the products of the brand-new printing press, which were considered inferior and unworthy by the great collectors of the 1400s, such as Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, who refused to have any printed books in his collection of manuscripts.

Bernardo had no such qualms and would also borrow and copy manuscripts on his own.

One of Niccolò's earliest favourites was the work of Titus Livius, better known as Livy, upon which he wrote one of his first treatises.

So Machiavelli was sent off to his major bromance moment with the son of Pope Alexander VI, who would later become one of the protagonists of his great work.

Cesare's lieutenant, meanwhile, Vitellozzo Vitelli, managed to provoke a rebellion in Florentine-controlled Arezzo and Val di Chiusa, thus creating a potential pincer move.

Meanwhile, Borgia took Urbino and Camerino.

In the end, the threat from Borgia passed, since Florence was a traditional ally of France who was essential to Borgia and was off-limits for him.

We will be covering the Borgias and Pope Alexander's papacy in future episodes.

He moved his living quarters up to the floor above, and to decorate them, his chief architect, Donato Bramante, recommended a brilliant 25-year-old prodigy from his home region of Marche, from the town of Urbino, the one and only Rafael Sanzio.

Before we get into this, we have to talk about the high-stakes rivalry between Rafael and Michelangelo, and quite frankly, Bramante.

Now, Bramante wasn't just helping a talented kid from Urbino.

He had a distinct ulterior motive.

He wanted to block his bitter rival, Michelangelo, from getting the apartment commission.

So yeah, we travel all around the world.

We just taught in Urbino, Italy.

We're probably going to be teaching in South Africa soon.

We've already taught in South Africa.

But it's there dedicated to study, you know, and it is a very male space up until this moment of time.

The men who have studiolas, like the Duke of Urbino, if anyone has been to Urbino, there's a fantastic little Intarsia studiola there.

go there because they're the ruler and they must read their Cicero or whatever, or maybe they play a little music or maybe they dictate or write their letters.

It's perceived to be masculine.

The long drama which we have described was a prelude to the coming disaster.

The condition of the smaller states of Italy, Ferrara, Faenza, Rimini, and Urbino, was as deplorable as that of the larger.

We find the same strange contrast between a high degree of literary culture and enthusiasm and the deepest political degradation.

It has been said that Italy at this time was not worse than the rest of Europe, that Louis XI was a monster of cruelty and deceit, and that Ferdinand of Aragon was notorious for duplicity and cunning.

To meet the general suspicion of danger which hung over the whole of Italy, the ambassadors of Milan, of Florence, and of King Ferrante formed a league at Rome for twenty-five years on January 4th, 1467, giving the opportunity of entering it to Siena, Lucca, Louis Gonzaga of Mantua, and even to the Republic of Venice, of whom they were especially afraid.

The Pope did not take part in it, reserving to himself liberty of action.

The League of Rome chose Federigo, Duke of Urbino, as their commander-in-chief.

The two armies of Colleoni and the League were arrayed opposite to each other in the neighborhood of Imola, but nothing decisive took place.