PARMA, a town and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, capital of the province of Parma, situated on the Parma, a tributary of the Po, 55 m. N.W. of Bologna by rail. Pop. (1921) 58,469 (town), 62,603 (commune). Parma lies in a fertile tract of the Lombard plain, within view of the Alps and sheltered by the Apennines, 17o ft. above sea-level. From south to north it is traversed by the channel of the Parma, crossed here by five bridges ; and from east to west runs the line of the Via Aemilia, by which ancient Parma was connected on the one hand with Ariminum (Rimini), and on the other with Placentia (Piacenza). The old ramparts and bastions now converted into avenues make an enceinte of about 42 m. The cathedral of the Assumption (originally S. Herculanus) (1058-74), is a Lombardo-Romanesque building in the form of a Latin cross. The west front has three rows of arches, and a central porch supported by huge red marble lions, sculptured with the rest of the façade by Giovanni Bono da Bissone in 1281. On the south side of the facade is a large Gothic brick campanile (1284-94), with the foundations of another on the north. The walls and ceiling of the fine Romanesque interior are covered with frescoes of about 1570; those of the octagonal cupola representing the Assumption of the Virgin are by Cor reggio. In the sacristy are fine intarsias. To the south-west of the cathedral stands the baptistery, designed by Benedetto Ante lami ; it was begun in 1196 and not completed till 1281.
The church of S. Giovanni Evangelista, which dates from 151o, has a façade of 16o4–o7. The frescoes of the cupola are by Cor reggio, and the arabesques on the vault of the nave by Anselmi. The Madonna della Steccata (Our Lady of the Palisade), a fine church in the form of a Greek cross (1521-39) contains the tombs and monuments of many of the Bourbon and Farnese dukes of Parma. In the Palazzo della Pilotta is a vast irregular group of buildings (16th and 17th centuries) with the academy of fine arts (1752) and the valuable picture gallery, library, and museum. The Teatro Farnese, a remarkable wooden structure erected in 1618 from Aleotti's designs, and capable of containing persons, is also in this palace. There are other beautiful ceiling frescoes by Correggio in the former Benedictine nunnery of S. Paolo. The royal university of Parma, founded in i6or by Ranuccio I., and reconstituted by Philip of Bourbon in 1768, has faculties in law, medicine and natural science, and possesses an observatory, and natural science collections. It had 44o stu dents in 1925-26. A very considerable trade is carried on at Parma in grain, cattle and the dairy produce of the district, especially the cheese known as Parmesan. Railways run hence
to Sarzana through the Apennines (part of the shortest route from Milan to Rome), to Piadena (for Cremona and Mantua) and Brescia, and to Suzzara.
History.—From archaeological discoveries it would appear that the ancient town was preceded by a prehistoric settlement of the bronze age, the dwellings of which rested upon piles—one, indeed, of the so-called terremare, which are especially frequent in the neighbourhood of Parma. It became a Roman colony of 2,000 colonists in 183 B.C., four years after the construction of the Via Aemilia, on which it lay. A bishop of Parma is mentioned in the acts of the council of Rome of A.D. 378. It fell into the power of Alboin in 569 and became the seat of a Lombard duchy; it was still one of the wealthiest cities of Aemilia in the Lombard period. During the I 1 th, 12th and 13th centuries Parma had its full share of the Guelph and Ghibelline struggles, in which it mainly took the part of the former, and also carried on repeated hostilities with Borgo San Donnino and Piacenza. As a republic its government was mainly in the hands of the Rossi, Pallavicino, Correggio and Sanvitale families. In 1307 the city became a lord ship for Giberto da Correggio, who laid the basis of its territorial power by conquering Reggio, Brescello and Guastalla, and was made commander-in-chief of the Guelphs by Robert of Apulia. The Correggio family never managed to keep possession of it for long, and in 1346 they sold it to the Visconti (who constructed a citadel in 1356), and from them it passed to the Sforza. Becoming subject to Pope Julius II. in 1512, Parma remained (in spite of the French occupation from 1515 to 1521) a papal possession till when Paul III. (Alexander Farnese) invested his son Pier luigi with the duchies of Parma and Piacenza. There were eight dukes of Parma of the Farnese line (q.v.). After the failure of the line in 1731, the duchy was chiefly in Spanish hands, though it twice passed temporarily under Austrian rule, until its conquest by the French revolutionary armies in 1796. At the congress of Vienna, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were assigned to Marie Louise (Napoleon's second consort). In 186o Parma was formally incorporated with the new kingdom of Italy.