350 years after being transferred to the Vatican’s Apostolic Library, Federico di Montefeltro’s Library, i.e. the Library of the Dukes of Urbino, has been moved back to the halls where it originated.

Curated by Claudia Caldari, Lorenza Mochi Onori and Marcella Peruzzi, the exhibition illustrates Federico’s activity as a humanist and patron of the arts, who commissioned the purchase and creation of rare manuscripts, thereby building a book collection which was celebrated as one of the grandest in the 15th Century all over the Western World. “Most ornate codexes,” as the title states, that is all those preciously illuminated manuscripts, which can generally be admired only by erudite scholars.

Texts as varied as the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, classics, scientific and humanistic works made up the collection and are now on show. All exhibited specimens are richly illuminated, often with full-page colour plates. The creations of some of the major copyists and miniaturists who worked for Federico are worth mentioning, particularly the Florentines, who contributed some magnificent books made in the Bottega (workshop) of Vespasiano da Bisticci, as well as the artists from Ferrara and Urbino. Also on show are works by miniaturists such as Franco dei Russi, Bartolomeo della Gatta, Francesco Rosselli and Francesco del Chierico, all of them leading names in an art which nowadays is not as popular and widespread as it was then, though it still makes a strong impression on any viewer.

In order to make such masterpieces enjoyable in the best possible way, the original books stand next to near-perfect facsimiles of the manuscripts, which can be browsed by the visitors, and are accompanied by bas-reliefs reminiscent of some miniaturists’ decorations, with portraits of Federico di Montefeltro, of his wife, Battista Sforza, and of their best friend and counsellor, Ottaviano Ubaldini.

The peculiar nature of this exhibition makes it feasable for the viewer to virtually access the space of the Library. A multiple projection and 3D visualization, created by Paolo Buroni, allows visitors to interact with a “spectacularization” of the Library: digital books can be virtually touched and opened, through the interplay of sensors and videocameras. Finally, a few computers are available to plunge the viewer into an original digital journey: a DVD, curated by Marcella Peruzzi, presents a virtual model of Federico di Montefeltro’s Library, precisely as it was a few years after his death, in 1487. Such a reconstruction carries the visitors back to the end of the 15th Century, and lets them move freely around, so that they can mount the ladders propped against the shelves, browse the book spines, admire the covers, open the books and read them.