A few words regarding the method adopted in these volumes. Of the names most conspicuous in Italian literature and art, a considerable proportion will there find a place; but readers who expect to see their productions enumerated, and their merits submitted to exhaustive criticism, will be disappointed. All that our limits permit, after rapidly sketching the revival of knowledge and the progress of that sacred painting which emanated from Umbria, is to mention those who have contributed to shed lustre over the duchy of Urbino, or who shared the patronage of its princes. The amount of notice allotted to each is therefore proportioned rather to its local importance than its absolute excellence; but, satisfied from experience how seldom a wide-spread interest attaches to individual details, our aim has ever been to generalise even those points demanding a more specific notice in connection with our immediate subject. As the recurrence of foot-notes in a popular narrative unpleasantly distracts the reader from its continuous course, these have been avoided, unless when especially called for; and the necessity for them in citing references has been in a great degree anticipated, by prefixing a list of the leading authorities consulted, which it is hoped will generally bear out views that have been honestly formed, after examining what seemed the best sources of information. Extracts have been introduced, where it appeared desirable to preserve the style or words of an author; but they are in most cases rendered (literally rather than with elegance) into English, except such specimens of poetry as could not be fairly estimated from a translation. Documents and episodical details, which would have encumbered the text, are appended to the respective volumes.[7] [Footnote 7: The most recent, and among the most interesting authorities for Urbino, is Passavant's _Life of Raffaele_, an admirable article upon which by Sir C.L. Eastlake, in vol. LXVI. of the _Quarterly Review_, suggested the present work. Had that biography been accessible to me at an earlier period, it might have assisted my labours, and perhaps modified some of my views; but I had no opportunity of consulting it until my own pages were nearly ready for press. It is the fruit of successful German industry, sweetened by candid and intelligent criticism, and its remaining still untranslated into any language is among the remarkable anomalies of literary history. I may be allowed here to mention that the accuracy and success with which Lord Lindsay and Mrs. Jameson have cultivated the field of Christian and legendary art, enable me to dispense with much regarding a subject which would otherwise have been more prominent in these volumes.]