Gubbio, Past and Present. By Laura McCracken. Illustrated by Katharine
McCracken. (David Nutt. 5s. net.)—There could not be a more delightful little book about an old city than this about Gable. The place is very little known, and this fact especially strikes us when we realise how famous it was in the Middle Ages and in Renaissance times. It is out of the beaten track. Few tourists care to stop at Gubbio, though, as the capital of Umbria, with archives, especially the wonderful tables of bronze, which carry back its history far beyond that of most Italian cities, it is full of ancient and modern interest.
" Blest Ubaldo's chosen hill " has only lately become accessible by railway, and even now the climb from the plain is considerable. But there is much to repay any trouble taken to visit the city. The wonderful old Palazzo dei Consoli is itself worth a journey, not to mention the Cathedral and the other churches, with their histories and legends of St. Ubaldo, the patron of Gubbio, and the ruined Ducal Palace, full of memories of Federico of Urbino and his son Guidubaldo, who married the charming Elisabetta Gonzaga, sister-in-law of the greatest among Renais- sance ladies, Isabella d'Este. Miss McCracken has the art of writing something which, though full of information, is not to be called a guide-book. It is a most agreeable history and descrip- tion of Gubbio, without a dry or an unnecessary word in it. The illustrations are equally to be commended. The author's graceful Italian dedication, and the light touch of M. Paul Sabatier's French preface, seem to give an extra charm and an even more literary flavour to the whole.
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