FEDERIGO DI MONTEFELTRO is generally said to have been born on the 7th of June, 1422, and the earliest incident of his childhood was his premature betrothal.[*57] The mountain-land from whence spring the Metauro and the Foglia, including some of the loftiest Apennine summits, was then called Massa Trabaria, and had been long held in fief by the Brancaleoni. Mercatello was the petty metropolis of some twenty townlets which obeyed Bartolomeo, the last male of that race. Art has given to his merits a record withheld by history, and the few travellers who visit the church of S. Francesco in that town, a very shrine of local æsthetics, will pause to admire his Gothic tomb, beautiful even through its disguise of recent whitewash, and to read this touching epitaph:--"Joanna Aledusia during her life erected this monument of affection to Bartolomeo Brancaleone, prince of this place, her most faithful husband, and to herself." This lady was born an Alidosio of Imola, and being left with an only daughter, Martin V., to whom the fief had lapsed, conferred its interim administration upon Count Guidantonio of Urbino, as rector, with promise of a new investiture to his son Federigo, on condition of his marriage with the orphaned Gentile. They were accordingly affianced ere the boy-bridegroom had completed his eighth year, and the spouses were brought up together under the fond and judicious tutelage of the Lady Joanna. [Footnote *57: Federigo was born in Gubbio, where he remained for two years, and on 2 December, 1437, was there solemnly betrothed to Gentile Brancaleoni. On the question of the birth of Federigo, see REPOSATI, _op. cit._, tom. I., p. 136, and UGOLINI, _op. cit._, tom. I., p. 221. I take this opportunity of referring the reader behind all the later lives of Federigo to what is probably the first, the codex Vatic. Urbin. 1010. It is a codex _cartaceo_ in folio bound in parchment measuring 0·32 × 0·21 of 107 pages. It is written by many hands, and is rich in marginal notes probably by Bernardino Baldi. It is entitled, _Commentarj della vita et gesti dell'invittessimo Federico duca d'Urbino raccolti et scritti da Pierantonio Paltroni da Urbino_. GUIDO ZACCAGNINI has written a commentary on this MS. in _Le Marche_, fasc. I., ann. IV., pp. 8-33 (Fano, 1904). Cf. also MADIAI, _F. da M. nella Relaz. coi Parenti_ in _Le Marche_ (Fano, 1903), vol. III., pp. 114 _et seq._; G. ZANNONI, _Federico II., di Montefeltro e G.A. Compano_, in _Atti della R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino_. See also F. MADIAI, _Pierantonio Paltroni e B. Baldi biografi di Federico da Montefeltro_, in _Le Marche_, fasc. V.-VI., ann. II. (Fano, 1902).] * * * * *