logy and church history,
a complete series of Italian poets, historiographers, and commentators,
various medical, mathematical, and legal works, essays on music,
military tactics and the arts, together with such Hebrew books as were
accessible to copyists. Every volume was bound in crimson and silver,
and the whole collection cost upwards of 30,000 ducats. For the expenses
of so large a household, and the maintenance of this fine library, not
to mention a palace that was being built and churches that required
adornment, the mere revenues of the duchy could not have sufficed.
Federigo owed his wealth to his engagements as a general. Military
service formed his trade. 'In 1453,' says Dennistoun, 'his war-pay from
Alfonso of Naples exceeded 8,000 ducats a month, and for many years he
had from him and his son an annual peace-pension of 6,000 in name of
past services. At the close of his life, when captain-general of the
Italian league, he drew in war 165,000 ducats of annual stipend, 45,000
being his own share; in peace, 65,000 in all.' As a Condottiere,
Federigo was famous in this age of broken faith for his plain dealing
and sincerity. Only one piece of questionable practice--the capture of
Verucchio in 1462 by a forged letter pretending to come from Sigismondo
Malatesta--stained his character for honesty. To his soldiers in the
field he was considerate and generous; to his enemies compassionate and
merciful.[3] 'In military science,' says Vespasiano, 'he was excelled by
no commander of his time; uniting energy with judgment, he conquered by
prudence as much as by force. The like wariness was observed in all his
affairs; and in none of his many battles was he worsted. Nor may I omit
the strict observance of good faith, wherein he never failed. All to
whom he once gave his word, might testify to his inviolate performance
of it.' The same biographer adds that 'he was singularly religious, and
most observant of the Divine commands. No morning passed without his
hearing mass upon his knees.'

[1] The Panormita; author, by the way, of the shameless
'Hermaphroditus.' This fact is significant. The moral sense was
extinct when such a pupil was intrusted to such a tutor.

[2] For the following details I am principally indebted to 'The
Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino,' by James Dennistoun; 3 vols.,
Longmans, 1851. Vespasiano's Life of Duke Frederick (Vite di
uomini illustri, pp. 72-112) is one of the mos