<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> After the demise of the House of Montefeltro in 1508, rule shifted to the House of della Rovere, situated in the small but culturally important and geostrategically well-positioned Duchy of Urbino. This study sheds new light on the hypothesis about the cultural-political rise and fall of the Urbinos in the 16th century.