View source for Della Rovere

{{Short description|Noble family of Italy}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox family|surname=Della Rovere|coat of arms=Coat of arms of the House of della Rovere.svg|image_size=|caption=|type=|origin=[[Savona]], [[Republic of Genoa]]|country= [[Duchy of Urbino]]<br/>[[Papal States]]|motto=[[Fortune favours the bold|Audentes Fortuna iuvat]]|estates={{ubl|[[Palazzo Ducale, Urbino]]|[[Palazzo Della Rovere]], Rome}}|titles=* [[Pope]] (not hereditary)
* [[Duke of Urbino]]
* [[Duchy of Sora|Duke of Sora]]
* [[Pesaro|Lord of Pesaro]]
* [[Senigallia|Lord of Senigallia]]
* [[Vinovo|Lord of Vinovo]]
* [[Vinovo|Count of Vinovo]]|styles=|founded=14th century|founder=Leonardo Beltramo della Rovere|current head=|final head=[[Vittoria della Rovere]], died 1694|deposition=}}
The '''House of Della Rovere''' ({{IPA|it|della ˈroːvere|pron}}; literally "of the oak tree") was a powerful [[Italian nobility|Italian noble family]]. It had humble origins in [[Savona]], in [[Liguria]], and acquired power and influence through [[nepotism]] and ambitious marriages arranged by two Della Rovere popes: Francesco Della Rovere, who ruled as [[Sixtus IV]] from 1471 to 1484 and his nephew Giuliano, who became [[Julius II]] in 1503.{{r|trecc}} Sixtus IV built the [[Sistine Chapel]], which was named after him. Julius II was patron to [[Michelangelo]], [[Raphael]] and many other [[Renaissance]] artists and started the modern rebuilt of [[St. Peter's Basilica]]. Also the [[Basilica]] of [[San Pietro in Vincoli]] in Rome was the family church of the Della Rovere.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}} Members of the family were influential in the [[Catholic Church|Church of Rome]], and as [[dukes of Urbino]], [[Duchy of Sora|dukes of Sora]] and lords of [[Senigallia]]; the title of Urbino was extinguished with the death of [[Francesco Maria II]] in 1631, and the family died out with the death of his granddaughter [[Vittoria della Rovere|Vittoria]], [[Grand Duchess of Tuscany]].{{r|trecc}}
== History ==
[[Francesco Della Rovere]] was born into a poor family in [[Liguria]] in north-west Italy in 1414, the son of Leonardo della Rovere of [[Savona]].{{r|trecc}} A [[Franciscan]] who became Minister General of his order, then cardinal, he had a reputation for unworldliness until he was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV he was both wealthy and powerful, and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of the Della Rovere and [[Riario]] families. Within months of his election, he had made [[Giuliano della Rovere]] (the future pope Julius II) and [[Pietro Riario]] both [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinals]] and [[bishop]]s; four other nephews were also made cardinals.{{r|cronin|hibbert|page1=252|page2=128}} He made [[Giovanni Della Rovere]], who was not a priest, [[prefect of Rome]], and arranged for him to marry into the [[House of Montefeltro|da Montefeltro]] family, [[dukes of Urbino]]. Sixtus claimed descent from a noble Della Rovere family, the counts of [[Vinovo]] in [[Piemonte]], and adopted their [[coat-of-arms]].{{r|trecc2}}
[[Guidobaldo da Montefeltro]] adopted [[Francesco Maria I della Rovere]], his sister's child and nephew of [[Pope Julius II]]. Guidobaldo I, who was heirless, called Francesco Maria at his court, and named him as heir of the [[Duchy of Urbino]] in 1504, this through the intercession of Julius II. In 1508, Francesco Maria inherited the duchy thereby starting the line of Rovere Dukes of Urbino. That dynasty ended in 1626 when [[Pope Urban VIII]] incorporated Urbino into the [[papal dominions]]. As compensation to the last sovereign duke, the title only could be continued by [[Francesco Maria II della Rovere|Francesco Maria II]], and after his death by his heir, [[Federico Ubaldo della Rovere|Federico Ubaldo]].
[[Vittoria della Rovere|Vittoria]], last descendant of the della Rovere family (she was the only child of Federico Ubaldo), married [[Ferdinando II de' Medici]], Grand Duke of Tuscany. They had two children: [[Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Cosimo III]], Tuscany's longest reigning monarch, and [[Francesco Maria de' Medici]], a [[prince of the Church]].
==Della Rovere Dukes of Urbino (1508)==
#[[Francesco Maria I della Rovere]] (1490–1538)
#[[Guidobaldo II della Rovere]] (1514–1574)
#[[Francesco Maria II della Rovere]] (1549–1631) - duchy abolished, title continued
#[[Federico Ubaldo della Rovere]] (1605–1623) - title became extinct with his death.
== Other people with the same surname ==
Among the many people who did not belong to this family, but bore the same name, are:
* the Della Rovere family, counts of Vinovo, among them:
** [[Domenico della Rovere]] of Vinovo, cardinal, who built the {{ill|Castello Della Rovere (Vinovo)|it|lt=Castello Della Rovere}} there
** his brother [[Cristoforo della Rovere]] of Vinovo{{r|trecc3}}
and various artists, including:
* the brothers [[Giovan Battista Della Rovere]] and [[Giovan Mauro Della Rovere]], both known as "il Fiamminghino"
* an unrelated Lombard family of painters and [[limner|illuminators]] active in the seventeenth century.{{r|trecc4}}
== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px" style="text-align:left; font-size:93%">
File:Tizian Portrait Papst Sixtus IV ca. 1545-46 Uffizien Florenz-01 (cropped).jpg|Francesco della Rovere, later Sixtus IV
File:Pope Julius II.jpg|Giuliano della Rovere, later Julius II
File:Titian - Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino - WGA22982.jpg|Francesco Maria I della Rovere
File:Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) - Portrait of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino - 1956.7.1 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|Guidobaldo II della Rovere
File:Francesco II della Rovere.jpg|Francesco Maria II della Rovere
File:Sustermans, Justus - Vittoria della Rovere con una rosa.jpg|Vittoria della Rovere
</gallery>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px" style="text-align:left; font-size:93%">
File:Urbino, palazzo ducale visto dal mercatale 02.JPG|[[Palazzo Ducale, Urbino]]
File:Panoramica P.za Duca Rocca.jpg|Rocca Della Rovere in [[Senigallia]]
File:Rocca Roveresca2 - Mondavio, Italia.JPG|Rocca Roveresca in [[Mondavio]]
File:Palazzo Della Rovere di San Lorenzo in Campo.JPG|Palazzo Della Rovere in [[San Lorenzo in Campo]]
File:Borgo - palazzo dei Penitenzieri 1150682.JPG|[[Palazzo Della Rovere]] in [[Rome]]
</gallery>
== References ==
{{Reflist|45em|refs=
<ref name=cronin>Vincent Cronin (1992 [1967]). ''The Florentine Renaissance''. London: Pimlico. {{ISBN|0712698744}}.</ref>
<ref name=hibbert>Christopher Hibbert (1979 [1974]). ''The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici''. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin. {{ISBN|0140050906}}.</ref>
<ref name=trecc>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/della-rovere/ Della Róvere] (in Italian). ''Enciclopedie on line''. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.</ref>
<ref name=trecc2>Giuseppe Castellani (1931). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/della-rovere_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/ Della Rovere] (in Italian). ''Enciclopedia Italiana''. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.</ref>
<ref name=trecc3>François Ch. Udinet (1989). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/domenico-della-rovere_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ Della Rovere, Domenico] (in Italian). ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', volume 37. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.</ref>
<ref name=trecc4>Giovanni Romano (1989). [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/della-rovere_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ Della Rovere] (in Italian). ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', volume 37. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.</ref>
}}
==Further reading==
* Ian Verstegen (2007). [https://books.google.com/books?id=-PCw5quwyY0C ''Patronage and Dynasty: the Rise of the Della Rovere in Renaissance Italy'']. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press.
{{Royal houses of Italy}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Italian noble families]]
[[Category:Della Rovere family| ]]
[[Category:Papal families]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic families]]