Italy
Other Powers
Verona
At the beginning of our course, Verona was a major power in northern Italy. It was ruled by Cangrande della Scala (1308-1328), who ruled several neighboring towns and was a patron of Giotto and who took in Dante after the latter's exile from Florence. The della Scala (also called the Scaligeri) continued to grow in power throughout the 14th century. Their family history was bloody, with brother killing brother in rivalries, but always adding to their holdings. By the end of the century, Verona was along with Florence the chief rival of Milan. But the family had so alienated the people they ruled that their empire fell quickly before the brilliance of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and Verona by 1390 was just another town.
Not many years after, in 1405, Verona became one of the first towns to fall to the landward ambitions of Venice. We can't leave the town, though, without mentioning Romeo and Juliet. Verona is where Shakespeare set the story. There really was a family called Capulet in Verona, though not Montague and anyway the story came from Siena. Don't turn to Shakespeare for history!
Bologna
Famous more for its university than for anything else. Bologna can lay claim to having one of the first universities in Europe. It was a very large city in 1300, one of the largest in Europe, though it suffered terribly in the plague.
Urbino
Urbino was a problem for the popes. In theory it was part of the Papal States, almost in the center of the States, but its lords belonged to the Montefeltro family and this family was Ghibelline to the last. Moreover, they were condotierri, hiring themselves out to other Ghibelline towns, and their abilities were renowned. Various cardinal-vicars tried over and over to bring Urbino to heel, without success until the later 15th century.
The lords of Urbino eventually gained the title of duke. The most famous of the dukes was Federigo da Montefeltro, who ruled from 1444 to 1482. He is immortalized in a famous painting by Piero della Francesca, but he's also very famous as a patron of the arts who turned Urbino into a leading center of the Renaissance.
Ferrara
This town was the home of the Este family, another leading Renaissance family. As with Urbino, the lords of Ferrara were eventually made dukes (in the 15th century) and their court became a center of Renaissance patronage.