Fano
Fano is a town and comune of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort 12 kilometres southeast of Pesaro, located where the Via Flaminia reaches the Adriatic Sea, it is the third city in the region by population after Pesaro. An ancient town of Marche, it was known as Fanum Fortunae after a temple of Fortuna located there, its first mention in history only dates from 49 BC, when Julius Caesar held it, along with Pisaurum and Ancona. Caesar Augustus established a colonia, built a wall, some parts of which remain. In 2 AD Augustus built an arch at the entrance to the town. In January 271, the Roman Army defeated the Alamanni in the Battle of Fano that took place on the banks of the Metauro river just inland of Fano. Fano was destroyed by Vitiges' Ostrogoths in AD 538, it was rebuilt by the Byzantines, becoming the capital of the maritime Pentapolis that included Rimini, Pesaro and Ancona. In 754 it was donated to the Popes by the Frank kings; the Malatesta became lords of the city in 1356 with Galeotto I Malatesta, nominally only a vicar of the Popes.
Among the others, Pandolfo III resided in the city. Under his son, the famous condottiero Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Fano was besieged by Papal troops under Federico III da Montefeltro, returned to the Papal administration, it was part of the short-lived state of Cesare Borgia, part of the duchy of the della Roveres in the Marche. During the Napoleonic Wars it suffered heavy spoliations. In World War I Fano was several times bombed by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. During World War II it was massively bombed by Allied airplanes due to hit the strategic railway and street bridges crossing the Metauro river, suffering the destruction of all its bell towers by the Nazi occupation troops when they withdrew. Fano Cathedral:, erected over a pre-existing cathedral destroyed by a fire in 1111; the current façade is similar to the original. The interior has two aisles. No remnants of the town's namesake temple have been uncovered, nor of the basilica we are told that Vitruvius built there. San Domenico San Pietro in Valle: San Paterniano: with a Renaissance cloister.
San Francesco: church housing the tombs of Pandolfo III Malatesta and his first wife Paola Bianca Malatesta. Santa Maria Nuova: Church has an ancient portal and two works by Perugino. Outside the city, in the place called Bellocchi, is the church of St. Sebastian, for the construction of which parts of the ancient cathedral were used. Arco d'Augusto: The upper story of this Roman gate was destroyed in a siege conducted on the order of Pope Pius II in 1463, although a bas-relief of it was made by Bernardino di Pietro da Carona in 1513 on an adjacent wall of the annexed church and the loggia of St. Michael, the former having a noteworthy Renaissance portal. Corte Malatestiana: built after 1357 by Galeotto I Malatesta; the 14th-century section includes a small turret. The modern part was built under Pandolfo III in 1413–23; the current edifice was restored in the 20th century, but original are the mullioned windows in Gothic style as well as the staircase and the loggia from a 16th-century restoration.
Noteworthy is the Borgia-Cybo Arch. The palace is connected to the Palazzo del Podestà by a modern bridge present in the original structure. Rocca Malatestiana: was destroyed in 1944; the most ancient part dates from pre-existing Roman and medieval fortifications. The castle in its current form was begun in 1438 by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta; the now missing mastio was erected in 1452. Here Sigismondo's son, was besieged by Papal Troops in 1463 and signed the peace treaty that ended the Malatesta domination of Fano. Museo Civico of Fano:, located inside the Palazzo Malatestiano, contains paintings by Guercino, Michele Giambono, Giovanni Santi. Palazzo del Podestà or della Ragione; the interiors are in Neoclassicist style, it houses a museum with archaeological findings, medals, an art gallery with works by Guido Reni and others. Fontana della Fortuna. Fano dei Cesari is held annually in August for a week. During the week there are a variety of cultural events ending with a parade in Roman costumes and chariot races.
The Fano Jazz by the Sea festival is held annually for one week. The library, the Biblioteca Federiciana, was established on 17 November 1720. Ultimate Frisbee The Ultimate Frisbee Fano Association was born in 2001; the association has 4 teams: Croccali, Mirine and Angry Gulls. Since 2001 the association has won 8 italian championship. Fathi Hassan, 1957, Artist Sebastiano Ceccarini, painter Clemente VIII, Ippolito Aldobrandini, pope Menahem Azariah da Fano, famed Rabbi and Kabbalist Antonio Giuglini, opera tenor Carlo Magini, painter Roberto Malatesta and lord of Rimini, Laura Martinozzi, grandmother of Mary II, queen of England Bruno Radicioni, painter and ceramist Ruggero Ruggeri, actor Giacomo Torelli, set designer Franco Trappoli, Mayor of Fano
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art, his painting is characterized by its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo. Piero was born Piero di Benedetto in the town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro, modern-day Tuscany, to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, Romana di Perino da Monterchi, members of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family, his father died before his birth, he was called Piero della Francesca after his mother, who supported his education in mathematics and art. He was most apprenticed to the local painter Antonio di Giovanni d'Anghiari, because in documents about payments it is noted that he was working with Antonio in 1432 and May 1438, he took notice of the work of some of the Sienese artists active in San Sepolcro during his youth.
In 1439 Piero received, together with Domenico Veneziano, payments for his work on frescoes for the church of Sant'Egidio in Florence, now lost. In Florence he must have met leading masters like Fra Angelico, Luca della Robbia and Brunelleschi; the classicism of Masaccio's frescoes and his majestic figures in the Santa Maria del Carmine were for him an important source of inspiration. Dating of Piero's undocumented work is difficult because his style does not seem to have developed over the years. Piero was elected to the City Council of Sansepolcro. Three years he received his first commission, to paint the Madonna della Misericordia altarpiece for the church of the Misericordia in Sansepolcro, completed in the early 1460s. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the Castello Estense and the church of Sant'Andrea of Ferrara, now lost, his influence was strong in the Ferrarese allegorical works of Cosimo Tura. The Baptism of Christ, now in the National Gallery in London, was completed in about 1450 for the high altar of the church of the Priory of S.
Giovanni Battista at Sansepolcro. Other notable works are the frescoes of The Resurrection in Sansepolcro, the Madonna del parto in Monterchi, near Sansepolcro. Two years he was in Rimini, working for the condottiero Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. In 1451, during that sojourn, he executed the famous fresco of St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in the Tempio Malatestiano, as well as a portrait of Sigismondo. In Rimini, Piero may have met the famous Renaissance mathematician and architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had redesigned the Tempio Malatestiano, although it is known that Alberti directed the execution of his designs for the church by correspondence with his building supervisor. Thereafter Piero was active in Ancona and Bologna. In 1454, he signed a contract for the Polyptych of Saint Augustine in the church of Sant'Agostino in Sansepolcro; the central panel of this polyptych is lost, the four panels of the wings, with representations of saints, are now scattered around the world.
A few years summoned by Pope Nicholas V, he moved to Rome, where he executed frescoes in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, of which only fragments remain. Two years he was again in the Papal capital, painting frescoes in the Vatican Palace, which have since been destroyed. In 1452, Piero della Francesca was called to Arezzo to replace Bicci di Lorenzo in painting the frescoes of the basilica of San Francesco; the work was finished in 1464. The History of the True Cross cycle of frescoes is considered among his masterworks and those of Renaissance painting in general; the story in these frescoes derives from legendary medieval sources as to how timber relics of the True Cross came to be found. These stories were collected in the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varazze of the mid-13th century. At some point, Giovanni Santi invited Piero to Urbino. Between 1469 and 1486 Piero worked in the service of Count Federico III da Montefeltro; the Flagellation is considered Piero's oldest work in Urbino. It is one of the most controversial pictures of the early Renaissance.
As discussed in its own entry, it is marked by an air of geometric sobriety, in addition to presenting a perplexing enigma as to the nature of the three men standing at the foreground. Another famous work painted in Urbino is the Double Portrait of Federico and his wife Battista Sforza, in the Uffizi; the portraits in profile take their inspiration from large bronze medals and stucco roundels with the official portraits of Fedederico and his wife. Other paintings made in Urbino are the monumental Montefeltro Altarpiece in the Brera Gallery in Milan and also the Madonna of Senigallia. In Urbino Piero met the painters Melozzo da Forlì, Fra Carnevale and the Flemish Justus van Gent, the mathematician Fra Luca Pacioli, the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and also Leon Battista Alberti. In his years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli visited his workshop, he completed the treatise On Perspective in painting in the mid-1470s to 1480s. By 1480, his vision began to deteriorate, but he continued writing treatises such as Short Book on the Five Regular Solids in 1485.
It is documented that Piero rented a house in Rimini in 1482. Piero made his will in 1487 and he died five years on 12 October 1492, in his own house in San Sepolcro, he left his possessions to the church. He
Spoleto
Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is 29 km N. of Terni, 63 km SE of Perugia. Spoleto was situated on the eastern branch of the Via Flaminia, which forked into two roads at Narni and rejoined at Forum Flaminii, near Foligno. An ancient road ran hence to Nursia; the Ponte Sanguinario of the 1st century BC still exists. The Forum lies under today's marketplace. Located at the head of a large, broad valley, surrounded by mountains, Spoleto has long occupied a strategic geographical position, it appears to have been an important town to the original Umbri tribes, who built walls around their settlement in the 5th century BC, some of which are visible today. The first historical mention of Spoletium is the notice of the foundation of a colony there in 241 BC. After the Battle of Lake Trasimene Spoletium was attacked by Hannibal, repulsed by the inhabitants During the Second Punic War the city was a useful ally to Rome.
It suffered during the civil wars of Gaius Marius and Sulla. The latter, after his victory over Marius, confiscated the territory of Spoletium. From this time forth it was a municipium. Under the empire it seems to have flourished once again, but is not mentioned in history. Martial speaks of its wine. Aemilianus, proclaimed emperor by his soldiers in Moesia, was slain by them here on his way from Rome, after a reign of three or four months. Rescripts of Constantine and Julian are dated from Spoleto; the foundation of the episcopal see dates from the 4th century: early martyrs of Spoleto are legends, but a letter to the bishop Caecilianus, from Pope Liberius in 354 constitutes its first historical mention. Owing to its elevated position Spoleto was an important stronghold during the Vandal and Gothic wars. Under the Lombards, Spoleto became the capital of an independent duchy, the Duchy of Spoleto, its dukes ruled a considerable part of central Italy. In 774 it became part of Holy Roman Empire. Several of its dukes during the late 9th Century, rose to wear the crown of that Empire.
Together with other fiefs, it was bequeathed to Pope Gregory VII by the powerful countess Matilda of Tuscany, but for some time struggled to maintain its independence. In 1155 it was destroyed by Frederick Barbarossa. In 1213 it was definitively occupied by Pope Gregory IX. During the absence of the papal court in Avignon, it was prey to the struggles between Guelphs and Ghibellines, until in 1354 Cardinal Albornoz brought it once more under the authority of the Papal States. After Napoleon's conquest of Italy, in 1809 Spoleto became capital of the short-lived French department of Trasimène, returning to the Papal States after Napoleon's defeat, within five years. In 1860, after a gallant defence, Spoleto was taken by the troops fighting for the unification of Italy. Giovanni Pontano, founder of the Accademia Pontaniana of Naples, was born here. Another child of Spoleto was Francis Possenti, educated in the Jesuit school and whose father was the Papal assessor, Francis entered the Passionists and became Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
The Roman theater rebuilt. The stage is occupied by the former church of St. Agatha housing the National Archaeological Museum. Ponte Sanguinario, a Roman bridge 1st century BCE; the name is traditionally attributed to the persecutions of Christians in the nearby amphiteatre. A restored Roman house with mosaic floors, indicating it was built in the 1st century, overlooked the Forum Square. An inscription by Polla to Emperor Caligula suggests the house was that of Vespasia Polla, the mother of Emperor Vespasian. Roman amphitheater, it was turned into a fortress by Totila in 545 and in Middle Ages times was used for stores and shops, while in the cavea the church of San Gregorio Minore was built. The stones were used to build the Rocca; the Palazzo Comunale. Ponte delle Torri, a striking 13th-century aqueduct on Roman foundations: whether it was first built by the Romans is a point on which scholarly opinion is divided; the majestic Rocca Albornoziana fortress, built in 1359–1370 by the architect Matteo Gattapone of Gubbio for Cardinal Albornoz.
It has six sturdy towers which formed two distinct inner spaces: the Cortile delle Armi, for the troops, the Cortile d'onore for the use of the city's governor. The latter courtyard is surrounded by a two-floor porch; the rooms include the Camera Pinta with noteworthy 15th‑century frescoes. After having resisted many sieges, the Rocca was turned into a jail in 1800 and used as such until the late 20th century. After extensive renovation it was reopened as a museum in 2007; the Palazzo Racani-Arroni has a worn graffito decoration attributed to Giulio Romano. The inner courtyard has a notable fountain. Palazzo della Signoria, housing the city's museum; the majestic Palazzo Vigili includes the Torre dell'Olio, the sole mediaeval city tower remaining in Spoleto. Temple of Clitumnus lies between Spoleto and Trevi Duomo of S. Maria Assunta: Construction of the Duomo begun around 1175 and completed in 1227; the Romanesque edifice contains the tomb of Filippo Lippi, who died in Spoleto in 1469, designed by his son Filippino Lippi.
The church houses a manuscript letter by Saint Francis of Assisi. San Pietro extra Moenia: This church was founded in 4
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta was an Italian condottiero and nobleman, a member of the House of Malatesta and lord of Rimini and Cesena from 1432. He was considered by his contemporaries as one of the most daring military leaders in Italy and commanded the Venetian forces in the 1465 campaign against the Ottoman Empire, he was a poet and patron of the arts. Sigismondo Pandolfo was born in Brescia, northern Italy, the elder of the two illegitimate sons of Pandolfo III Malatesta and Antonia da Barignani, his younger brother, Malatesta Novello, was born in Brescia on 5 August 1418. An elder half-brother, Galeotto Roberto Malatesta, born in 1411, was the issue of the relationship of their father Pandolfo III with Allegra de' Mori. Following the family's tradition, Sigismondo after the death of his father debuted as man-at-arms at the age of 13 against his relative Carlo II Malatesta, lord of Pesaro and Pope Martin V's ally, who aimed to annex Rimini and Fano to his territories. After his victory, Sigismondo obtained, together with his brothers Galeotto Roberto and Domenico, the title of Papal vicar for those cities.
In 1431, though having inferior forces, he repelled another invasion by the Malatestas of Pesaro. When, soon afterwards, his elder brother abdicated, he became lord of Rimini, at the age of 15. In 1432 he accepted the command of a papal corps, defeating the Spanish condottiero Sante Cirillo and thwarting Antonio I Ordelaffi's attempt to capture Forlì. However, the following year Sigismondo was excommunicated, he fought in Romagna and the Marche alongside Francesco Sforza. In the meantime he married his niece Ginevra d'Este, Niccolò III's legitimate daughter by his second wife Parisina Malatesta, first cousin of Sigismondo. On 12 October 1440 she died, rumours spread that she had been poisoned by Sigismondo. Two years he married Polissena Sforza, Francesco I's illegitimate daughter. In this period he fought several times against the other condottiero Niccolò Piccinino: first, in 1437, as a Venetian commander, he was defeated at Calcinara sull'Oglio. While defending his lands from the papal invasion army led by Piccinino, Federico III da Montefeltro and Malatesta Novello, he crushed them at Monteluro, managing to obtain some territories of Pesaro, although the latter was defeated by Federico's forces.
In his restlessness he betrayed Sforza twice, but he betrayed his momentary ally against him, Niccolò Piccinino. Enmity against Sforza turned into true hatred when his father-in-law bought the signory of Pesaro from Carlo Malatesta. Therefore, Sigismondo allied with the Sforza duke of Milan, he was hired by King Alfonso V of Naples, but soon afterwards received money for a condotta to be spent in the service of Florence against Alfonso. In 1445 he forced the Neapolitans to raise the siege of Piombino in Tuscany. In 1449 his second wife Polissena died under mysterious circumstances. Francesco Sforza claimed that Sigismondo had her drowned by one of his servants, but this has remained unconfirmed. During his two marriages, he had numerous mistresses, but only two were well known: Vannetta dei Toschi, who bore him a son, Roberto, in 1441, Isotta degli Atti, who bore him four children: Giovanni, Margherita and Antonia -later the first wife of Rodolfo Gonzaga, Lord of Castiglione delle Stiviere, who beheaded her in 1483 when she was discovered in adultery.
After 1449 Malatesta served variously under Venice, Siena and Sforza himself. The Peace of Lodi, from which he was excluded, pushed the major Italian powers against him, his territories were invaded by Aragonese and Papal troops. In 1456 Sigismondo married Isotta degli Atti, his long-time mistress, legitimized their three surviving children. On 25 December 1460, a famous trial in absentia was held in Rome against Sigismondo. Pope Pius II, who considered him guilty of treachery towards Siena arising from his long-running feud with Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, excommunicated him, declaring him a heretic and attributing to Sigismondo a series of sins which smeared his reputation for centuries. In a unique ceremony, he was canonized into Hell with the curse, "No mortal heretofore has descended into Hell with the ceremony of canonization. Sigi shall be the first deemed worthy of such honor." The art critic and historian Robert Hughes contrasted Sigismondo's patronage of art with the story that his excommunication was "a distinction he earned by trussing up a Papal emissary, the fifteen-year-old Bishop of Fano, publicly sodomising him before his applauding army in the main square of Rimini".
Malatesta's image was publicly burnt in Rome, a de facto crusade was launched against him, in a league including the pope, the king of Naples, the Duke of Milan and Federico da Montefetro. He defeated the first contingent of Papal troops, led by Napoleone Orsini, on 2 July 1461 at Castelleone di Suasa. In 1462 he was able to take Senigallia, but was forced to flee to Fano after the arrival of Federico da Montefeltro; the latter followed and crushed him on 12 August 1462 near Senigallia at the mouth of the Cesano. The war ended in 1463, due to the intervention of Venice, with the loss of all Sigismondo's territories apart from Rimini and a territory of some 8 k
Assisi
Assisi is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born around 50–45 BC, it is the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208, St. Clare, the founder of the Poor Sisters, which became the Order of Poor Clares after her death; the 19th-century Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was born in Assisi. Around 1000 BC a wave of immigrants settled in the upper Tiber valley as far as the Adriatic Sea, in the neighborhood of Assisi; these were the Umbrians. From 450 BC these settlements were taken over by the Etruscans; the Romans took control of central Italy after the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. They built the flourishing municipium Asisium on a series of terraces on Monte Subasio. Roman remains can still be found in Assisi: city walls, the forum, a theatre, an amphitheatre and the Temple of Minerva. In 1997, the remains of a Roman villa were discovered containing several well-preserved rooms with frescoes and mosaics in a condition found outside sites such as Pompei.
In 238 AD Assisi was converted to Christianity by bishop Rufino, martyred at Costano. According to tradition, his remains rest in the Cathedral Church of San Rufino in Assisi; the Ostrogoths of king Totila destroyed most of the town in 545. Assisi came under the rule of the Lombards as part of the Lombard and Frankish Duchy of Spoleto; the thriving commune became an independent Ghibelline commune in the 11th century. Struggling with the Guelph Perugia, it was during one of those battles, the battle at Ponte San Giovanni, that Francesco di Bernardone was taken prisoner, setting in motion the events that led him to live as a beggar, renounce the world and establish the Order of Friars Minor; the city, which had remained within the confines of the Roman walls, began to expand outside these walls in the 13th century. In this period the city was under papal jurisdiction; the Rocca Maggiore, the imperial fortress on top of the hill above the city, plundered by the people in 1189, was rebuilt in 1367 on orders of the papal legate, cardinal Gil de Albornoz.
In the beginning Assisi fell under the rule of Perugia and under several despots, such as the soldier of fortune Biordo Michelotti, Gian Galeazzo Visconti and his successor Francesco I Sforza, dukes of Milan, Jacopo Piccinino and Federico II da Montefeltro, lord of Urbino. The city went into a deep decline through the plague of the Black Death in 1348; the city came again under papal jurisdiction under the rule of Pope Pius II. In 1569 construction was started of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. During the Renaissance and in centuries, the city continued to develop peacefully, as the 17th-century palazzi of the Bernabei and Giacobetti attest. Now the site of many a pilgrimage, Assisi is linked in legend with St. Francis; the gentle saint founded the Franciscan order and shares honors with St. Catherine of Siena as the patron saint of Italy, he is remembered by many non-Christians, as a lover of nature. Assisi was hit by two devastating earthquakes, that shook Umbria in September 1997.
But the recovery and restoration have been remarkable. Massive damage was caused to many historical sites, but the major attraction, the Basilica di San Francesco, reopened less than 2 years later. UNESCO collectively designated the Franciscan structures of Assisi as a World Heritage Site in 2000; the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun after his canonization in 1228, completed in 1253; the lower church has frescoes by the late-medieval artists Giotto. The Basilica was badly damaged by a 5.5 earthquake on 26 September 1997, during which part of the vault collapsed, killing four people inside the church and carrying with it a fresco by Cimabue. The edifice was closed for two years for restoration. Santa Maria Maggiore, the earliest extant church in Assisi; the Cathedral of San Rufino, with a Romanesque façade with three rose windows and a 16th‑century interior. Basilica of Santa Chiara with its massive lateral buttresses, rose window, simple Gothic interior, begun in 1257, contains the tomb of the namesake saint and 13th‑century frescoes and paintings.
Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which houses the Porziuncola. Chiesa Nuova, built over the presumed parental home of St. Francis Santo Stefano, one of the oldest churches of Assisi. Eremo delle Carceri, a small monastery with church at a canyon above the town, where St. Francis retreated and preached to birds Church of San Pietro, built by the Benedictines in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 13th century, it has a rectangular façade with three. The town is dominated by two medieval castles; the larger, called Rocca Maggiore, is a massive reconstruction by Cardinal
Colonna family
The Colonna family known as Sciarrillo or Sciarra, is an Italian noble family. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders; the family is notable for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence in Rome, until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V. Thereafter, historians recorded that "no peace had been concluded between the princes of Christendom, in which they had not been included by name". According to tradition, the Colonna family is a branch of the Counts of Tusculum — by Peter son of Gregory III, called Peter "de Columna" from his property the Columna Castle in Colonna, Alban Hills. Further back, they trace their lineage past the Counts of Tusculum via Lombard and Italo-Roman nobles and clergy through the Early Middle Ages — claiming origins from the Julio-Claudian dynasty; the first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206, when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.
Cosma e Damiano. For many years, Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo was identified as a member of the Colonna family and therefore its first representative in the College of Cardinals, but modern scholars have established that this was based on false information from the beginning of the 16th century. Giovanni Colonna, nephew of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano, made his solemn vows as a Dominican c. 1228 and received his theological and philosophical training at the Roman studium of Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. He served as the Provincial of the Roman province of the Dominican Order and led the provincial chapter of 1248 at Anagni. Colonna was appointed as Archbishop of Messina in 1255. In 1248, after having dedicated her entire life to serving God and the poor, Margherita Colonna died. A member of the Franciscan Order, she was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1848. At this time, a rivalry began with leaders of the Guelph faction.
This reinforced the pro-Emperor Ghibelline course that the Colonna family followed throughout the period of conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1297, Cardinal Jacopo disinherited his brothers Ottone and Landolfo of their lands; the latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who ordered Jacopo to return the land, furthermore hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna and other towns to the Papacy. Jacopo refused; the Colonna family declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V. The dispute led to open warfare, in September, Boniface appointed Landolfo to the command of his army, to put down the revolt of Landolfo's own Colonna relatives. By the end of 1298, Landolfo had captured Colonna and other towns, razed them to the ground; the family's lands were distributed among his loyal brothers. The exiled Colonnas allied with the Pope's other great enemy, Philip IV of France, who in his youth had been tutored by Cardinal Egidio Colonna.
In September 1303, Sciarra and Philipp's advisor, Guillaume de Nogaret, led a small force into Anagni to arrest Boniface VIII and bring him to France, where he was to stand trial. The two managed to apprehend the pope, Sciarra slapped the pope in the face in the process, accordingly dubbed the "Outrage of Anagni"; the attempt failed after a few days, when locals freed the pope. However, Boniface VIII died on 11 October, allowing France to dominate his weaker successors during the Avignon papacy; the family remained at the centre of religious life throughout the late Middle Ages. Cardinal Egidio Colonna died at the papal court in Avignon in 1314. An Augustinian, he had studied theology in Paris under St. Thomas of Aquinas to become one of the most authoritative thinkers of his time. In the 14th century, the family sponsored the decoration of the Church of San Giovanni, most notably the floor mosaics. In 1328, Louis IV of Germany marched into Italy for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor; as Pope John XXII was residing in Avignon and had publicly declared that he would not crown Louis, the King decided to be crowned by a member of the Roman aristocracy, who proposed Sciarra Colonna.
In honor of this event, the Colonna family was granted the privilege of using the imperial pointed crown on top of their coat of arms. The celebrated poet Petrarch, was a great friend of the family, in particular of Giovanni Colonna and lived in Rome as a guest of the family, he composed a number of sonnets for special occasions within the Colonna family, including "Colonna the Glorious, the great Latin name upon which all our hopes rest". In this period, the Colonna started claiming. At the Council of Constance, the Colonna succeeded in their papal ambitions when Oddone Colonna was elected on 14 November 1417; as Martin V, he reigned until his death on 20 February 1431. Vittoria Colonna became famous in the sixteenth century as a figure in literate circles. In 1627 Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna, married Taddeo Barberini of the family Barberini. In 1728, the Carbognano branch of the Colonna family added the name Barberini to its family name when Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra married Cornelia Barberini, daughter of the last male Barberini to hold the name and granddaughter of Maffeo Barberini (son of Tadde
Urbino
Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482. The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, it hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino. Its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana; the city is located in a predominantly hilly area, at the foothills of the Northern Apennines and the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines. The city is in the southern area of Montefeltro, an area classified as medium-high seismic risk. In the database of earthquakes developed by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, nearly 65 seismic events have affected the town of Urbino between 26 March 1511 and 26 March 1998, they include 24 April 1741, when the shocks were stronger than VIII on the Mercalli intensity scale, with an epicenter in Fabriano.
The modest Roman town of Urbinum Mataurense became an important strategic stronghold in the Gothic Wars of the 6th century, captured in 538 from the Ostrogoths by the Byzantine general Belisarius, mentioned by the historian Procopius. Though Pepin the Short presented Urbino to the Papacy in 754–56, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, around 1200, it came into the possession of the House of Montefeltro. Although these noblemen had no direct authority over the commune, they could pressure it to elect them to the position of podestà, a title that Bonconte di Montefeltro managed to obtain in 1213, with the result that Urbino's population rebelled and formed an alliance with the independent commune of Rimini regaining control of the town in 1234. Though, the Montefeltro noblemen took control once more, held it until 1508. In the struggles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, when factions supported either the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire the 13th and 14th century Montefeltro lords of Urbino were leaders of the Ghibellines of the Marche and in the Romagna region.
The most famous member of the Montefeltro family, Federico da Montefeltro, ruled as Duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482. A successful condottiere, a skillful diplomat and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature, he took over in 1444 as the son of Guidantonio, after a conspiracy and the murder of the legitimate Oddantonio, hated for his "unbridled lust" and for the excessive taxation exercised during his seventeen months in office. Federico set his hand to the political imperative and began a reorganization of the state, which included a restructuring of the city according to a modern conception - comfortable and beautiful. Thanks to his efforts, for the nearly four decades of his rule the government aimed at this purpose, thanks to the Duke's extraordinary qualities combined with a considerable fortune, he realized this dream. At his court, Piero della Francesca wrote on the science of perspective, Francesco di Giorgio Martini wrote his Trattato di architettura and Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, wrote his poetical account of the chief artists of his time.
Federico's brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, set standards of what would characterize a modern European "gentleman" for centuries to come. Cesare Borgia dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Elisabetta Gonzaga in 1502, with the complicity of his father, Pope Alexander VI. After the attempt of Pope Leo X to appoint a young Medici as duke, thwarted by the early death of Lorenzo II de Medici in 1519, Urbino was part of the Papal States, under the dynasty of the dukes Della Rovere, they moved the court to the city of Pesaro in 1523 and Urbino began a slow decline that would continue until the last decades of the seventeenth century. In 1626, Pope Urban VIII definitively incorporated the Duchy into the papal dominions, the gift of the last Della Rovere duke, in retirement after the assassination of his heir, to be governed by the archbishop; the state was ruled thereafter by a papal legate belonging to high ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Following the annexation of the duchy by the Papal States, the rich artistic heritage of the Ducal Palace went to form, for the most part, the dowry of the last direct descendant of the Della Rovere, Vittoria della Rovere, who married Ferdinand II de Medici. These works went on to form the core of the future Uffizi Gallery. Among the works that went to Florence is the diptych of the Dukes of Urbino by Piero della Francesca. Other works of the Ducal Palace were brought to Rome, such as the Barberini Ex Tables of Fra Carnevale and the famous library, absorbed by the Vatican Library in 1657; the eighteenth century opened with the election to the papacy of Cardinal Giovan Francesco Albani Urbino, under the name of Clement XI. This was a windfall for the city and was its last great era in terms of arts and culture, thanks to funding by Pope Albani and his family. Major renovation of several buildings and monasteries took place. In addition, due to the patronage of the Pope and of his family, the Duomo di Urbino received many improve
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
