L'icona di un principe e i suoi modelli. I ritratti miniati di Federico da Montefeltro

The image of Federico da Montefeltro, unanimously evaluated as an icon of the Renaissance, is usually linked to Piero della Francesca's portrait. An original formulation of Federico's portraits is offered, instead, in the illuminated manuscripts commissioned for his library in the Ducal palace of Urbino: in particular, in the manuscripts Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb. lat. 410, 491, 508, 740, 883. These books exhibit a characteristic icon of the warlord, destined to his literary and book celebration. The paper proposes to define the reasons and the models for the formulation of Federico da Montefeltro's icon in illuminated manuscripts.