Note 47 — Chapter III

The remote origin of the Ubaldini is curiously illustrated by an inscription, which is among the earliest known records of armorial bearings. It was inscribed in Gothic characters upon a stone, originally placed on one of their Apennine castles, but brought to Florence by a branch of their race, where it was long regarded as an heirloom. It has been published in Borghini's Discorsi Toscani, II., p. 25, and the following literal translation from its barbarous Latino-Italian rhymes may be acceptable to our readers. It was intended to commemorate the erection of the castle, and exhibits, in rude carving, the Ubaldini arms, a stag's head antlered.

"For this boon Thanks I render to Christ, Completed on the fête of the gentle St. Mary Magdalene; Ah! do Thou specially pray To God for me a sinner. In this my chant, From the most veritable narration I in nothing deviate. In the year one thousand Of Christ's salvation, and a hundred Eighty-four, Chased by hounds Furiously, I, hard by the Coppices in Mugello, a stag By the horns stopped,— Of old the genius of the Ubaldini, Subjects of the holy Empire; Where, rushing on at speed, I grappled with my hands At his horns all the while. The mighty Sir Frederick, Who observed him thus cumbered, Having come up, slew him outright. Thereupon he gifted me with The forehead, beautifully horned, And honourably branched; And desired that it should be Of my race The accepted cognisance. My father was Ugicio, And my grand-sire Guarento, Son of Ugicio, son of Azo, Son of Ubaldino, Son of Gotichino, Son of Luconazo. Q.D.A.A.D.V."

[Thus read]

"Who shall sway the Apennines? The favoured house of Ubaldini."

After many a conflict with their neighbours of Florence, the Ubaldini of Val di Mugello paid the penalty of their Ghibelline principles, by expulsion from their native fiefs, and were scattered throughout Central Italy. A branch of them retired to the more distant fortresses of Umbria, and after lording it for a time over Città di Castello, found an eventual home on the mountains north of Gubbio, which they are supposed to have had in dowry with a daughter of the Brancaleoni, about 1280. Her descendant,

Bernardino Ubaldini della Carda, a gallant condottiere in the wars of Count Guidantonio, died in 1437, having married that Count's natural daughter Aura. Their son,

Ottaviano Ubaldini della Carda, will figure in these pages, as the companion and counsellor of his uncle Count Federigo.

In a lengthened sketch of his character, Giovanni Sanzi, the metrical chronicler of Federigo's reign, tells us that his native excellences were amply developed at the court of Filippo Visconti, where he was brought up under that Duke's immediate eye. During many years he was chief minister and treasurer of his uncle, to whose interests he devoted himself with unwearied zeal, discharging his duties with singular dignity and discretion. Nor did he, amid the cares of state, forget the improvement of his intellectual gifts. Francesco Filelfo dedicates a work to him, as a man of great weight and learning. Porcellio, who had probably shared his bounty, calls him an indefatigable reader of the poets; and Sanzi thus extends the catalogue of his acquirements:—

"Well versed he was in classic literature, And mastered readily theology, Whilst music's gentle art his pastimes shared: The secrets of astrology to him Seemed nature's lesson. Never man than he A heart more trusty or more leal could boast; A shrine of truth his bosom. Friend of peace And justice, merit's steady patron still, Painters and sculptors solace found in him, Their almost father."

Berni, the chronicler of Gubbio, applies to Ottaviano and to his father the epithet Magnificent, a not unfrequent euphuism in Italy, although with us applied exclusively to Lorenzo de' Medici. In 1473 he had from Sixtus IV. in special guerdon the privilege of using at his devotions a portable altar, and authority to legitimise bastards. When Federigo set forth with sad forebodings on his last fatal campaign of Ferrara, he confided to Ottaviano the guardianship of his boyish heir Guidobaldo, and the government of his state, trusts which appear to have been faithfully and judiciously fulfilled. Yet Bembo has perpetuated what was probably a vile slander, or at best the suggestion of ignorant drivelling, that the alleged impotence of Duke Guidobaldo was occasioned by magical arts resorted to by his guardian, who had been named next heir of his state. Ottaviano breathed his last at Cagli in 1498, leaving by his wife Angela Orsini, an only son Bernardino, on whose early death the estates and townships of La Carda, Mercatello, Sassocorbaro, S. Marco, Rampugnano, Sta. Croce, La Merola, Lamola, Cargine, and Pecchio devolved upon Duke Guidobaldo. Two contemporaries of his name are mentioned, but I have not traced their relationship; Guidantonio Ubaldini, who in 1464 married Altadonna, daughter of Bartolomeo Contarini; and Pietro, whom Duke Federigo sent to England in 1475, as proxy at his installation as Knight of the Garter, and who was killed at La Stellata in 1482. In 1648 there remained to this ancient house but a wreck of their great estates, including Massa Vaccareccia, but in compliment to their descent and connection with the Montefeltri, they retained precedence over the nobles of Urbino. The Counts of Pecorari and Montefiori were branches of the same stock.