DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0162
RAPHAEL AT COURT
107
Ottaviano Fregoso and Morello of Ortona, after which,
writes the chronicler of Urbino, the Duke and the
whole assembly returned to the palace amid the
joyful shouts of the people and martial music of
drums and trumpets.^
Three days later, on September 18, a still more
imposing function took place in the Duomo. The
Papal nuncio, sitting between the Duke and his
nephew the Prefettino, before the altar, pronounced a
Latin oration, setting forth the reasons which led the
Duke to adopt his nephew as his successor, with the
consent of the Pope and the Emperor Maximilian.
The Papal bull was then read aloud, and Francesco
Maria, standing on the altar steps with an illuminated
missal open before him, at a miniature of the Blessed
Sacrament, swore by the body of Christ to be loyal
to His Holiness. After this, he received the oaths of
fealty from Messer Battista Ceci, Gonfaloniere of
Urbino, and the representatives of the other cities in
the duchy, each of whom knelt in turn to do the young
Prince homage.
When these stately ceremonies were over, and after
much feasting and music the nuncio had departed, a
humbler visitor entered the palace gates and craved
audience of the Duchess. It was a young artist,
the son of Giovanni Santi of honoured memory, the
court painter and poet who had served Guidobaldo
and his father faithfully and well for many a year, and
who in his last days had been the object of the kind
Duchesss tender anxiety. She had watched the
orphan boy's career with adectionate interest, had
given him his earliest commissions, and rejoiced to
hear the high praise which his genius had won from
that worthy master, Messer Pietro of Perugia. Her
i Cod. Vat. Urb., 904 ; Baldi, 'Vita di Guidobaldo/ ii. 173.
107
Ottaviano Fregoso and Morello of Ortona, after which,
writes the chronicler of Urbino, the Duke and the
whole assembly returned to the palace amid the
joyful shouts of the people and martial music of
drums and trumpets.^
Three days later, on September 18, a still more
imposing function took place in the Duomo. The
Papal nuncio, sitting between the Duke and his
nephew the Prefettino, before the altar, pronounced a
Latin oration, setting forth the reasons which led the
Duke to adopt his nephew as his successor, with the
consent of the Pope and the Emperor Maximilian.
The Papal bull was then read aloud, and Francesco
Maria, standing on the altar steps with an illuminated
missal open before him, at a miniature of the Blessed
Sacrament, swore by the body of Christ to be loyal
to His Holiness. After this, he received the oaths of
fealty from Messer Battista Ceci, Gonfaloniere of
Urbino, and the representatives of the other cities in
the duchy, each of whom knelt in turn to do the young
Prince homage.
When these stately ceremonies were over, and after
much feasting and music the nuncio had departed, a
humbler visitor entered the palace gates and craved
audience of the Duchess. It was a young artist,
the son of Giovanni Santi of honoured memory, the
court painter and poet who had served Guidobaldo
and his father faithfully and well for many a year, and
who in his last days had been the object of the kind
Duchesss tender anxiety. She had watched the
orphan boy's career with adectionate interest, had
given him his earliest commissions, and rejoiced to
hear the high praise which his genius had won from
that worthy master, Messer Pietro of Perugia. Her
i Cod. Vat. Urb., 904 ; Baldi, 'Vita di Guidobaldo/ ii. 173.