Antica fama al Sicilian dà laude Che mosse i monti e numerò l’arena Hor Guidobaldo a Voi novella applaude Novella sì, ma più lucente e piena Voi mireranno i secoli futuri
Splender lassà nel ciel fiamella eterna, Quando già fian mille famosi oscuri, Se verace valor gl’omini eterna.
Baldi about Guidobaldo in Concetti morali, p. 51.
Guidobaldo dal Monte1 was born on the 11th2 of January 1545 in Pesaro. His
godfather was, significantly for the importance of his family, the Duke of Urbino himself – to whose honor Guidobaldo took his given name.3
Guidobaldo passed his first years at the Duchess’ court,4 in the midst of Countesses
(among them Minerva Pianosi, his mother) and other children, given Ranieri’s
1It seems advisable to dwell a bit on the various, sometimes incorrect variants with which Guidobaldo is (and was) referred to literature: the incoherency about the orthography of his name in the present literature is paralleled by the manifold variants from the sixteenth cen- tury: his given name is reported as “Guid’Ubaldo, Guidubaldo, Guido Baldo”; his surname has been erroneously referred to as “Ubaldus, Ubaldi”, on the basis of the Latin form of his name “Guidus Ubaldus”. While, nowadays, the form “Guidobaldo”, with which he signed, seems stabilised (surely wrong, in this context, is Drake&Drabkin’s nomination “Guido”), there are still divergences about the particle “del, dal”. In this regard, once again, there have been inco- herent forms already in the sixteenth century. The constant, however, in these incongruences is the way in which the members of the family themselves signed: in fact, Ranieri as well as Guidobaldo and Francesco Maria (as well as the others), constantly use the “dal”-form, which seems to hint at a family convention. The appropriate from of his surname would therefore be “Guidobaldo dal Monte”. This confusion might partly be derived from the denomination of the noble family Guidobaldo’s family stemmed from: the Marchesi del Monte Santa Maria, sometimes also called Bourbon del Monte.
2Some sources quote January 2nd as his birthday. This is a confusion basing on the fact that BOP, ms 758, the fundamental description of Guidobaldo’s life, reports the numeral “11” as two simple vertical bars. Some readers must have interpreted this notation as Roman numerals and reported consequently “2”. Yet, the additional information adduced by BOP, ms 758, fixing his birthday to Sunday – “l’anno fu 1545, il mese fu di genaro alli 11 il dì fu di domenica l’ora fu alle 12 e mezza in circa” – permits to doubtlessly identify it with January 11th, cf. A. Cappelli, Cronologia Cronografia e Calendario perpetuo, Milano, Hoepli, 1988.
3Cf. BOP, ms 758, page 2 (not numbered), see Appendix I, II.2.
4For the existence of several distinct courts around Duke, Duchess, Prince and Princess, note what the Venetian ambassador Lazzaro Mocenigo wrote in 1571: “Spende Sua Eccellenza <Guidobaldo II> molto largamente, ed oltre il trattenere un’onoratissima corte, anzi più corti, cioè la sua, quella del Principe, della Duchessa e della Principessa, qual tutte son piene di molti gentiluomini (...)”. Cf. Appendix II, I.1.
and the Duke’s frequent absences.1 In this context, he made his first journeys: af- ter Prince Francesco Maria della Rovere’s2 birth on February 20th 1549, Vittoria Farnese’s court betook to Venice in spring and stayed there until autumn 1549. The Duchess and her entourage passed some time close by the Condottiere-Duke Guidobaldo II, and with him Ranieri dal Monte, who carried out missions at the service of the Serenissima.3
Three years after, Guidobaldo was called to enter into the young Prince’s service. Notably, they ate at the same table – in those times a remarkable honour.4 The former’s youth was, as far as it can be reconstructed,5 characterised by a
typical nobleman’s education: along with Francesco Maria della Rovere, he was instructed in grammar and music,6 as well as in fencing and horseriding.7 Also other progenies of the most influential noble families of the Duchy were gathered around the young Prince, like Guidobaldo’s brother Francesco Maria, Federico Bonaventura, the Prince’s cousins Ippolito and Giuliano della Rovere, his sisters Isabella and Lavinia della Rovere, probably the brothers Giulio and Pier Matteo Giordani and others,8 as well as intermittent guests of the court like Torquato
Tasso.
1Cf. in this regard the letters between Duchess Vittoria Farnese and Guidobaldo II in Appendix I, I.1.1. Note also that the letter written on August 3rd 1551 speaks about “S.r Ranieri’s child” afflicted by a serious illness, the Duchess hoping that he will not die from the disease. It is not clear if the question is about Guidobaldo or his brother Francesco Maria.
2Francesco Maria was to be the future Duke of Urbino reigning from 1574 until 1631, as Francesco Maria II della Rovere. He was the last Duke of Urbino since the Duchy passed under the control of the Pontifical State after his death.
3So it was at Venice, where Guidobaldo’s brother Francesco Maria dal Monte, the future Cardinal and Caravaggio’s patron, was born, on July 5th.
4Cf. BOP, ms 758, see Appendix I, II.2. 5Cf. BOP, ms 758 in Appendix I, II.2.
6As teachers of Guidobaldo are recorded Lodovico Corrado in grammar, and Father Costanzo Porta as well as Paolo Animuccia, the brother of the famous Giovanni Animuccia, in musics.
7Also Filippo Pigafetta’s letter to Guidobaldo (cf. BAM, R121sup, fols. 14r-15r) of Novem- ber 5th 1580 hints to Guidobaldo’s military skills, doubtlessly acquired from his childhood on: “et essendomi celebrata da tutti la sua nobilissima natura, et il valore nell’armi e nella cavalle- ria, e la dottrina in ogni scienza tal che in quella venga a sovrastare a ciascun’altro Signore et a non esser secundo a niun letterato (...).”
8The membership of the Giordani brothers of the court is of interest, as Pier Matteo was Guidobaldo’s closest scientific interlocutor. A hint at their actual connection to the court in youth is contained at fol. 115r of BOP, ms 426 (letter from Francesco Maria dal Monte to Giulio Giordani, 1608): “V.S. può essere sicurissima che un’amicitia di 55 anni non si può mai cancellare. Si ricorda quando giocavamo al pallone – heu quanto melius – con le Artemisie, Cleopatre? Et pur passa ogni cosa. Io son Suo al solito et La saluto. Come fratello amorevolis- simo Il Card.le dal Monte”: “Cleopatra” appears to be an allusion to Isabella della Rovere, as another letter of Francesco Maria reveals (cf. BOP, ms 426, fols. 83r-84v). “Artemis” could therefore be the nickname of another female member of the Prince’s court, like Lavinia della Rovere.
Figure I.5: Guidobaldo’s genealogical tree. We have reported only his children who have survived childhood.
Around the year 1560,1 Guidobaldo was conceded by the Duke to take his illegitimate daughter Felice della Rovere for his wife. A greater privilege was hardly imaginable and permits to comprehend the brilliant relations that must have been maintained between Ranieri and Guidobaldo on the one hand, and Guidobaldo II as well as Prince Francesco Maria on the other in that period – as the following account will show, however, the things were not to remain in this way. Anyway, Guidobaldo henceforward was formally related with the reigning family of the Duchy. Then in 1563, his first son Francesco Maria (II)2 was born.3 Presumably prior to the end of 1563, Guidobaldo – and, apparently, his brother Francesco Maria dal Monte – had betaken to Padua, in order to attend its famous Studio, the university centre of the Venetian Republic.4
Guidobaldo’s initial aim was to attend lectures on philosophy. Then, however, he was more attracted by his increasing passion for mathematics.5 Apparently,
he frequented inter alia Pietro Catena’s lectures on Aristotle’s6 Quaestiones Me-
1Various sources disagree about the wedding year: BOP, ms 758 quotes the year 1559 (“Quando <Guidobaldo> fece il sposalitio avea 14 anni”). Other sources report different years. A terminus ante quem is the year 1563: Felice signs in a letter, written on 12 November 1563 (conserved at BCF, Collezione Piancastelli, Carte Romagna 629.42) as “Felice Rovere dei Mar.si del Monte”. A further hint might be contained in the preface of D. Atanagi’s De le lettere facete, cit., which reads in regard: “et al Signor Guidobaldo vostro primogenito figliuolo, giovanetto d’alta speranza, dia per consorte la Illustrissima Signora Felice Rovere sua figliuola.” The use of the present tense (“dia”) instead of the past tense (“dette”), in contrast to the precedent phrase, suggests that Felice della Rovere has already been affianced in 1561, the edition year of the De le lettere facete, but that the marriage has not yet been solemnised. In effect, the confusion about the precise year seems to derive from a confusion of the engagement and the actual wedding. Anyway, neither Waźbiński’s quotation of 1571 as wedding year, nor Montani’s (cf. BOP, ms 965, “Pesaresi Illustri”, fol. 130r) of 1567 can be right.
2We use the numbering “(II)” in order to distinguish Francesco Maria, Guidobaldo’s son, from Francesco Maria, Guidobaldo’s brother and future Cardinal, and, on the other side, from Francesco Maria II (della Rovere), the future Duke of Urbino.
3About twenty five years later, 17 children had been born to Guidobaldo and his wife Felice della Rovere dal Monte, eleven of whom survived childhood, cf. figure I.5. Very little is known about these children, with only few exceptions. Frequently, there is not even any cognition about their dates of birth and death, not to speak of details on their lifes. Studies on this topic would be a desideratum, since they would contribute to a better comprehension of Guidobaldo’s biography.
4It is plausible to antedate Guidobaldo’s Paduan stay compared to the usual quoting of 1564 – based substantially on BOP, ms 758 – on the ground of a recently found letter (ASF, Ducato di Urbino, I, 217, fol. 335r) from the Paduan Colonel Agostino Clusone to the Duke of Urbino, cf. Appendix I, I.1.2.
5BOP, ms 758 writes: “<Guidobaldo> andò a Padoa per lo studio della filosofia, ma più vivamente attendeva alle dette matematiche”, cf. Appendix I, II.2.
6The debate on the authorship of the text is still open, some scholars attribute it to Aristotle personally, other consider it as a work of a disciple. For the sake of brevity, we will call it here an “Aristotelian” writing.
chanicae.1 And probably it has already been in this period that he and his brother got to know Jacobo Mazzoni.2
Guidobaldo’s stay a Padua is reported to have lasted only one year,3 even if the
possibility of a longer stay should not be excluded.4 Anyway, Guidobaldo Pad- uan stay continues to remain nebulous; but in-depth studies on it would be a desideratum given that it surely constituted a highly formative period.5
There is some reason to suppose that Guidobaldo, in the context of his Paduan period, went to Venice in May-June 1564: Duke Guidobaldo II undertook a trip to Venice with his court, accompanied by his son Francesco Maria, presumably with his own court. Given that Guidobaldo was among the Prince’s intimates, it can be assumed that he did move from Padua to the nearby Venice and attend the respective ceremonies.6
Again in 1564,7 the city residence of dal Monte family was built at Pesaro: it
1The information that Guidobaldo attended Catena’s lectures comes from Ireneo Affò, La Vita di Monsignore Bernardino Baldi, Parma, Carmignani, 1783, p. 9, who cites a passage of Guidobaldo’s Vita (now apparently lost), written by Baldi.
2Mazzoni was to become an important philosophical interlocutor both to Guidobaldo as to Galileo. He reached a very high reputation as philosopher of the Italian Cinquecento. He as well took up his studies at Padua in November 1563. For a more detailed description of his life and friendship to the dal Monte family, cf. Appendix II, II.1, “Jacopo Mazzoni”.
3Cf. BOP, ms 758; see Appendix I, II.2.
4Guidobaldo had been maintaining excellent relations with the Paduan community of schol- ars around Gian Vincenzo Pinelli and Giacomo Contarini, considering the conspicuous num- ber of letters between Guidobaldo and that community; further, as their analysis reveals, the Marchigian mathematician knew Pinelli’s copy of Pappus’s Collectiones Mathematicae very well: this hints at a profound scientific exchange. Was it possible to get in such an acquain- tance in only one year? In effect, Waźbiński supposes a longer stay of Guidobaldo at Padua. Yet, a five-years-stay, as hypothesised by the Polish scholar, seems exaggerated. A possible end of the Paduan period could have been marked by his participation in the military campaign in Hungary in 1566, as we will expose in the following.
5Among the most interesting questions are: which lectures did he frequent besides the one held by Catena? Did he frequent one of the Paduan academies, which dealt also with mechan- ics? Is the information, reported by BOP, ms 758 (and repeated by all modern biographies), about the one-year-duration veridical? Was he recommended by the Duke to some professor of prestige (note that recommendations to famous professors, certificated by Duke Guidobaldo II to subjects of his Duchy, were not unusual, cf. Waźbiński, p. 26. Note in this context also to the Duke’s recommendation for Ranieri’s sons to the Paduan Colonel Clusone).
6The official purpose of the trip were the Ascension ceremonies. The main goal of the mission, however, was the negotiation on a contract about the Duke’s military service for the Venetian Republic, as well as the conclusion of a similar agreement for his son. In the number of the Duke’s entourage there were the major exponents of the Urbino court, like Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, Ranieri dal Monte, Count Pietro Bonarelli and many others. There is good reason to believe that the presence of the Duke’s court was paralleled by the participation also of the Prince’s court; cf. Z. Waźbiński, Il Cardinale Francesco Maria del Monte 1549-1626, 2 vols., Firenze, Olschki, 1994, pp. 21-25.
7Again, in 1564, also the city walls of Pesaro were finished, as L. Firpo tells (p. 39), after a 30 years period of works. Surely, Ranieri and his son Guidobaldo observed the work in progress with attention. It is not to exclude, that at least the former had also some responsibilities
is a huge, majestic and still conserved edifice in the close neighbourhood of the Palazzo Ducale.1 It must have been an important centre of the political life in the Duchy, considering the fact that the future Duke Francesco Maria II seems to have been rather familiar with the building.2
In 1566,3 Guidobaldo accompanied the renowned Aurelio Fregoso4on a military campaign in Hungary with 3000 men, in service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.5
Even if we continue to be ignorant of Guidobaldo’s precise role in this campaign,6
beyond any doubt it constituted an important event in the young nobleman’s life: it was probably meant to be the first move to follow in the footsteps of important members of his family: Ranieri, Montino, Giam Battista dal Monte, they all were famous and influential captains and generals. Presumably Guidobaldo, as
concerning these works, given that he was Governatore of Pesaro.
1Cf. G. Allegretti, Monte Baroccio 1513-1799, Comune di Mombaroccio, Le penne studio editing, 1992, p. 56. The impressive building, nowadays called Palazzo Del Monte-Baldassini, is located in Via San Francesco, at a 100 meters distance to Piazza del Popolo and the Palazzo Ducale.
2In fact, the architect Girolamo Arduini, in his proposals for the ornaments of the ducal Villa Vedetta, refers to the dal Monte city residence, proposing a certain kind of stone for the Villa Vedetta. Cf. BOP, ms 434 fols. 19r ff.: “Se vorrà conci alle finestre et altri ornamenti allo scoperto, la meglio è la pietra di Curzola, o vero di quella del Furlo, che sono fatto le cantonate al palazzo del S.r Raniero <dal Monte>, et li pilastri della Loggia grande della corte in Piazza di Pesaro.”
3BOP, ms 758 quotes no precise year for this event and describes Guidobaldo as “about 22 years”-old. It is plausible to assume the military campaign to have been executed in 1566: as he is told to have been in Aurelio Fregoso’s company, and as the later was on a military campain in Hungary in 1566 (cf. the documents below and in Appendix I), there is little doubt regarding this date. 1566 was the year in which Suleiman attacked Szigetvár.
4Aurelio Fregoso further was the father of Guidobaldo’s brother-in-law Ottavio who had his sister Virginia dal Monte in 1564.
5Beyond this fact, details regarding Guidobaldo about this enterprise are unknown. Some light, at least on some reference values of the campaign, is shed by a letter recently found in the Florentine State Archive, written by Aurelio Fregoso from Györ (Hungary) and dated September 21th 1566. Therein, the condottiere reports on the Ottoman movements and sends military drawings of strategic places in his proximity (cf. ASF, Mediceo del Principato, 522, fols. 809-810; see Appendix I, I.1.3). We can fix the end of this campaign prior to February 1567: a terminus ante quem is constituted by a letter from the Florentine court to Fregoso, who was on the Island of Elba at that time, at Portoferraio (cf. ASF, Mediceo del Principato, 5923, fols. 32r ff., see Appendix I, I.1.3.) Although the quoted data is February 18th 1566, it corresponds to February 18th 1567 according to the modern calendar – in fact, the Florentine calendar observed, from the 10th century until 1749, the style ab Incarnatione: a new year began with March 25th, postponed regarding the modern calendar. From March 25th to December 31th it corresponded with it.
6For example, it is not clear if Guidobaldo was involved in real battles: the fortress Szigetvár fell, after a month’s besiege, on September 7th of 1566, that is before the date of Fregoso’s letter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Peace negotiations were held from the summer of 1567 on and, after half a year, the Treaty of Edirne was signed on 21 February 1568.
well, (was?) intended to follow their example. In any case, his contact with the military milieu was anything but secondary for his interest in mechanics.1
Not very much later, Commandino began to teach mathematics at Urbino, on initiative of Prince Francesco Maria, with particular focus on Euclid’s Elements.2
Guidobaldo attended to those lectures as well.3 There is strong evidence that these studies started in the period comprised by the end of 1568 and the begin- ning of 1569.4 Consequently, the beginning of Guidobaldo’s studies with Federico
Commandino can plausibly be dated to this period, too.5 They should have in- fluenced Guidobaldo’s whole scientific activity: more generally, they created and reinforced in Guidobaldo a strong interest and approach to ancient mathematics, common with other scholars of Commandino like Baldi. For numerous shared aspects of their works, the group is assembled with the classification “School of Urbino”.6
1The campaigns of those times required the transport and lifting of huge weights, e.g. of cannons, and entailed the application of mechanical machines, cf. M. Henninger-Voss, Working Machines and Noble Mechanics. Guidobaldo del Monte and the Translation of Knowledge, in “Isis”, XCI 2 (2000). Further, the trajectory of cannonballs was another problem that arouse the interest of sixteenth-century scholars of mechanics. Plausibly, Guidobaldo had occasion to apply what he had learned from his father, an expert of military architecture, cf. Appendix II, I.2.
2In the Vita di Federico Commandino, Bernardino Baldi writes: “attendeva egli <Com- mandino> adunque a condurre a fine molte opere già da lui cominciate, quando Francesco Maria, figliuolo di Guid’Ubaldo <II> nostro Duca, giovane d’animo eroico, sapendo quanto quelle scienze stiano bene a chi è per dar opera all’arti militari, non comportò che Federico se