1574-1621 AD., Urbino in Italy, Francesco Maria II. della Rovere, 2 Sedicine, CNI 21.

Urbino in Italy, Francesco Maria II. della Rovere, 1574-1621 AD.,
AR 2 Sedicine (32 Quattrini) (25-27 mm / 2,47 g),
Obv.: FRA • MARIA • II • VRB • DVX • VI • E , coat of arms of the Duchy of Urbino.
Rev.: MONETA • DE • DOI • SEDICINE , Saint John (San Giovanni) standing left, holding book in left hand (along the body) and holding up long drapery in right.
CNI 21 ; Andrea Cavicchi. Le Monete del Ducato di Urbino (2001), 202 . very rare
thanks to Luigi ("tacrolimus") for the reference and further details

The Duchy of Urbino was a sovereign state of northern Italy.
Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region in Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482. The town, nestled on a high sloping hillside, retains much of its picturesque medieval aspect, only slightly marred by the large car parks below the town. It hosts the University of Urbino, founded in 1506, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Urbino (see below). Its best-known architectural piece is the Palazzo Ducale, rebuilt by Luciano Laurana.
The first lords of Urbino were the Montefeltro, who obtained the title of counts from Emperor Frederick II in 1213. The first Duke was Oddantonio, who received the title from Pope Eugene IV in 1443. The duchy's territories occupied approximately the northern part of the modern region of Marche: they were bordered by the Adriatic Sea at east, the Republic of Florence at west and by the Papal States southwards.
In 1523 the capital was moved to Pesaro. After the short rule by Cesare Borgia in 1502-08, the dukedom went to the Della Rovere papal family, who held it until 1625, when Pope Urban VIII annexed to the Papal States as Legazione del Ducato di Urbino (later Legazione di Urbino).
Francesco Maria II della Rovere (Pesaro, February 20, 1549 - Urbania, April 23, 1631) was the last Duke of Urbino.
Francesco Maria II was the son of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, Count of Montefeltro and Vittoria Farnese, Princess of Parma. He was raised between 1565 and 1568 at the Royal court of Philip II of Spain, and succeeded his father as Duke of Urbino after his death in 1574. In 1585 he was made a Knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece by Philip II of Spain.
First he married in 1570 to Lucrezia d'Este (December 16, 1535 - February 12 1598), a daughter of Ercole II d'Este. The marriage remained childless. Francesco Maria needed a male heir to prevent the return of the Duchy to the Papal States. So he married in 1599, after the death of Lucrezia, his 36-year-younger cousin Livia della Rovere (San Lorenzo in Campo, December 16, 1583 - Castelleone, July 6, 1641).
On May 16, 1605 their long expected and only child Federico Ubaldo was born.
Federico Ubaldo married Claudia de' Medici in 1621 and was made Duke by his father. But Federico died in 1623 from an epileptic attack, leaving only a daughter, Vittoria Della Rovere.
The aging Francesco Maria took up the title of Duke again, but as there was no more hope for a male heir, he gave his Duchy back to Pope Urban VIII in 1625, which was annexed to the Papal States after Francesco's death in 1631. The last member of the della Rovere family, Vittoria, inherited the Duke's art collection and had it transferred to Florence to the Uffizi Gallery.

The modest Roman town of Urvinum Mataurense ("the little city on the river Mataurus") became an important strategic stronghold in the Gothic wars of the 6th century, captured in 538 from the Goths by the champion of the Emperor of the East, Belisarius, and frequently mentioned by the Byzantine historian Procopius. Though Pippin presented Urbino to the Papacy, independent traditions were expressed in its commune, until, around 1200 it came into the possession of the fighting nobles of nearby Montefeltro. Although these noblemen had no direct authority over the commune, they could pressure it to elect them to the position of podestà (potestas, "power"), a title that Bonconte di Montefeltro managed to obtain in 1213, with the result that the "urbinati" rebelled and formed an alliance with the independent commune of Rimini (1228), finally regaining control of the town in 1234. Eventually, though, the Motefeltro noblemen took control once more, and held it until 1508. In the struggles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines (factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire), associated with individual families and cities, rather than the struggle between Hohenstaufen emperors and the Papacy as they had been, the 13th and 14th century Montefeltro lords of Urbino were leaders of the Ghibellines of the Marche and in the Romagna region.

The most famous member of the Montefeltro was Federico, lord (duca) of Urbino from 1444 to 1482, a very successful condottiere, a skillful diplomat and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature. At his court, Piero della Francesca wrote on the science of perspective, Francesco di Giorgio Martini wrote his Trattato di architettura ("Treatise on Architecture") and Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, wrote his poetical account of the chief artists of his time. Federico's brilliant court, according to the descriptions in Baldassare Castiglione's Il Cortegiano ("The Book of the Courtier"), set standards of what was to characterize a modern European "gentleman" for centuries to come. (See Federico da Montefeltro for full biography.)

In 1502, Cesare Borgia, with the connivance of his Papal father, Alexander VI, dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltre, duke of Urbino, and Elisabetta Gonzaga. They returned in 1503, after Alexander had died. After the Medici pope Leo X's brief attempt to establish a young Medici as duke, thwarted by the early death of Lorenzo II de' Medici in 1519, Urbino was ruled by the dynasty of Della Rovere dukes (see also War of Urbino).

In 1626, Pope Urban VIII definitively incorporated the Duchy into the papal dominions, the gift of the last Della Rovere duke, in retirement after the assassination of his heir, to be governed by the archbishop. Its great library was removed to Rome and added to the Vatican Library in 1657. The later history of Urbino is part of the history of the Papal States and, after 1861, of the Kingdom (later Republic) of Italy.