FEDERICO da Montefeltro, duke of URBINO. — Born at Gubbio in 1422, to Guidantonio; died at Ferrara on 10 September 1482. In 1444 he succeeded his brother Oddantunio, who had been killed by the people of Urbino. From Flo II he received the investiture of the lands taken from Sigismondo Malatesta (1464).
Captain general of the Italian League, he fought against Colleoni at Molinella (1467). Sixtus IV appointed him captain general of the Church and conferred upon him the title of duke (1474). In 1482 he led the league against the Venetians and the Pope. He made the ducal palace of Urbino, which he had erected and endowed with a celebrated library, a centre of humanistic culture.
BIBL.: Works: F. da M., Lettere di Stato e d'arte (1470-80), edited for the first time by P. Alatri, Rome 1949. Studies: Veneziano da Biotici, Vita, ed. L. Frati, I, Bologna 1892, p. 285 ff.; F. Ugolini, Storia dei conti e duchi d'Urbino, I, Florence 1849, p. 295 ff. Vittorio E. Giuntella