Like Mantua, Urbino was a small <em>condottiere</em> principality that achieved recognition for its military prowess and its patronage of art and culture. This small mountainous region experienced political ups and downs, and the glittering court of its ruling family, the Montefeltro, lives on in the one of the classics of Renaissance literature, Baldassare Castiglione's <em>The Book of the Courtier</em>.