RENAISSANCE GRANDEUR AND SCIENTIFIC CULTURE IN URBINO
In central Italy the city
of Urbino became the capital of a rich and very important dukedum
during the 15th century. In particular the Court of Federico da
Montefeltro (1422-1482) provided the small dukedom in the "Marche"
(an italian area) with an European atmosphere. The great freedom
of thought, the eclecticism of the knowledge mastered by the
prominent people who daily visited the palace-town wanted by the
Duke, made Urbino able to compete with Venice and with the main
European Courts for the role of "ideal town". Federico
da Montefeltro was a great captain and became famous as a great
leader of mercenary troops. The survival of the Dukedom required
important military actions and the need to be updated about the
new military technology. It was not by chance that at the Court
of Urbino there were not only poets, scholars and painters but
also important mathematicians (Piero della Francesca,1410-1514;
Luca Pacioli, 1445-1514) or architects and military engineers (Francesco
di Giorgio Martini, 1439-1508; Roberto Valturio, 1405-1475- who
mainly worked in Rimini- , Girolamo Genga, 1476-1551, and his son
Bartolomeo Genga, 1518-1558). They were usually helped by local
labour force and this had positive effects on the economy of
Urbino through the redistribution of the wealth of the warrior-duke.
Things remained substantially unchanged with Federico's son,
Guidubaldo da Montefeltro (1472-1508). His importance is
connected with the foundation of the "Collegio dei Dottori", the act is of April 26, 1506 (this date is
presently considered to be the date of foundation of the
University of Urbino). It was made up of thirteen prominent
citizens who had to administer justice. The Collegio was approved
by Pope Julius II in 1507, then, in 1564, it was given the right
to award academic degrees after an examination; the juridical
lectures started in 1576 in the Town Hall and the "Publico
Studio" (public lectures) was officially founded in 1601. In
the meantime the Dukedom was ruled by Francesco Maria I della
Rovere (1490-1538), nephew of Guidubaldo I, who had died without
direct successors, and by Guidubaldo II della Rovere (1514-1574).
Although the dukes did not permanently stay in Urbino and
actually moved often to
Casteldurante (actually the city of Urbania) -particularly in the
following decades- and sometimes to Pesaro, the beauty and
importance of the dukedom did not change, even though there were
some signs of decline. Nevertheless exactly during that century
the most prominent mathematicians worked in Urbino: Federico Commandino (1509-1575), Guidubaldo dal Monte (1545-1607),
Bernardino Baldi (1553-1617), and Muzio Oddi (1569-1639) who was also an important architect.
Moreover Costanzo Felici (1525-1585), a physician with noteworthy
naturalistic interests, played a
very important role, too. The tradition of military engineering
went on with Jacopo Fusti Castriota (1512-1562) and Simone Genga
(16th century), even though the great war experiences already
belonged to the past (this therefore explains the atmosphere of
decline mentioned before). In this period a trade of scientific-instrument
making (the "Officina
degli Strumenti scientifici") was
set up; its origins are unknown but it fully worked in the first
half of the 16th century. The Officina degli Strumenti was
particularly prestigious and it was linked to the most eminent
mathematicians of the time, among them there were Muzio Oddi and
Guidubaldo dal Monte (though indirectly). An important aspect was
that Galileo Galilei had contacts with the mathematicians in
Urbino and that he later (June 9, 1618) went to visit the Duke of
Montefeltro; his geometric-military compass has many similarities
with other analogous instruments designed by the scholars of
Urbino. In a synthetic way we can conclude that between the 15th and the 16th
century several and separate scientific schools were set up in the background of
the magnificence of the Court, though they were something clearly different from
any academic institution: the sciences were always strictly connected to the
flourishing business and trade activities. The only merely academic institutions
that were already present at that time- together with the Collegio dei Dottori-
were the various convents, and particularly St. Francis', in which the studies
pursued the tradition of the late Middle Ages.