A GREAT deal of ingenuity, and no small amount of learning, were expended in Italy on the invention of impresi, or allegorical emblems used by personages of high station or celebrity, somewhat as crests and mottoes are in modern heraldry. The same quaint fashion of devises or badges prevailed to a less degree in France, and found some favour even in England during the days of euphuism, but, being better suited to the pedantic conceits and lively fancy which circulated freely in southern lands, than to the practical tendency of Anglo-Saxon temperaments, it took no enduring hold among us. Giovio, Ruscelli, and other Italian writers of note, thought their talents worthily employed in publishing collections of impresi,—a jargon of tropes, illustrated by a jingle of spurious jests,—as well as in imagining them for patrons or friends; and Bernardo Tasso was considered an adept in such perverted ingenuity. Yet, as these badges are constantly met with in architectural decorations, medals, and illuminated MSS., it is useful to possess an index to their ownership, though not always to their occult meaning. In this view we shall give a list of the devices of Urbino sovereigns, which we have chanced to meet with in books or works of art, arranging them to the best of our information.
- 1. The ventosa, or cupping-glass, which, when painted half full of blood, more resembles a bomb-shell exploding.
- 2. A unicorn.
- 3. A white ostrich, bearing in its mouth a horse-shoe, or sometimes an arrow-head; motto, Ich an vordait ein grossers, "I'd like a larger." This is sometimes varied as a crane or stork on one leg, holding a stone in his raised claw, to be dropped as a signal of alarm to his companions.
- 4. A lion.
- 5. A bear.
- 6. A panther.
- 7. A muzzled dog, the emblem of fidelity.
- 8. The black eagle of Montefeltro; sometimes it is mounted on a tortoise, alluding to Duke Federigo's cautious policy.
- 9. The Garter of England, with its motto.
- 10. The Ermine of Naples, with the motto Non mai, or Nunquam, "Never." (See above, [p. 223], [note].)
- 11. St. Michael of France, or it may be St. George of England.
- 12. A clothes-brush of the Italian form, being a bundle of twigs closely tied and cut across. It was a device borrowed from the Dukes of Milan, of unknown signification.
- 13. An olive-tree.
- 14. A noose amid defiles.
- 15. A pen or box for shoeing oxen.
- 16. The cypher F E D X in Gothic characters.
- 17. A shield quartered; first and fourth, on a field vert, blazing flames; second and third, on a field azure.
| 18. Three golden suns, | } | |
| 19. A rainbow dividing four stars, | } | All on an azure ground. |
| 20. Three winged thunderbolts, | } |
- 21. Two palm-branches passed through a gold finger-ring, on a red ground.
- 22. A burning lantern.
- 23. On a field gules, a lion rampant proper, holding a rapier; motto, Non deest in generoso pectore virtus. It was invented by Castiglione as an assertion of Francesco Maria's worth in the affair of the Cardinal of Pavia.
- 24. A palm-tree bent to one side, and half crushed by a block of marble; motto, Inclinata resurgit, "Though bent it springs again." This was adopted by Duke Francesco Maria I. in token of his successful struggle against evil fortune.
- 25. Three metæ, or antique goal pillars, or obelisks; motto, [Φιλαιρετοτατω], "To the most devoted lover of virtue." A design for these goals was sent to Duke Guidobaldo II. by Bernardo Tasso, from the Circus Maximus at Rome.
- 26. Two circular temples, united by a balustrade; motto, Hic terminus hæret, "This goal adheres."
- 27. A face inflated with wind; motto, [Ολβιος σιανολβιος], "Happy and prosperous."
- 28. A budding oak-tree, the armorial bearing of the della Rovere, inscribed Feretria.
- 29. An oak-tree whence are suspended the arms of Montefeltro or Feretria; motto, Tuta tueor, "I watch over their safety."
- 30. The initials of his own two Christian names linked by a gordian knot to those of his two wives, G.G. and V.V. i.e. Guido with Giulia; Ubaldo with Vittoria; motto, Gordio fortior, "Stronger than the gordian tie."
- 31. An altar, on which are the sybil's leaves.
Of these, Nos. 1 and 2, with perhaps others, were used by the early Counts; Nos. 3 to 21 by Montefeltrian Dukes; Nos. 22 and 23 by Duke Francesco Maria I.; the remainder by his son.
[APPENDIX VI]
THE ILLUMINATED MSS. IN THE URBINO LIBRARY