FERRARA, a city of Italy, the capital of the duchy of Ferrara, situated on the north bank of the river Po, which here divides into two branches, called Po di Volano and Po di Primaro, both flowing to the east. This city is sur rounded by a fortified wall and broad ditch, which may be filled with water by means of a canal from the river. There are five gates, called the gate of St Benedict, St Paul, St George, St John the Baptist, and the gate of the Angels ; and at the south-west extremity there is a regular fortress. Within the walls are some gardens, which en large the dimensions ascribed to the city. There are several squares, and the streets are tolerably wide and con venient. The suburbs of St Luke and St George are with out the walls, on the opposite side of the river, which is crossed by bridges near two of the gates.
The principal objects in the city of Ferrara, are churches, convents, a few edifices for public purposes not ecclesias tical, and those belonging to private individuals ; but of the first there is a very great superiority with regard to num bers. The metropolitan church, dedicated to St George, the tutelar saint of the city, occupies one side of the Piazza di San Crispin°, the principal square. The antiquity of this edifice remounts to the year 1135, when it was com pleted and consecrated, and exhibits a specimen of the bad taste which pervaded the architecture of that period, in termixed with subsequent alterations. It contains many inscriptions, and statues. Among the last, are five in bronze as large as life, ornamenting an altar, representing the crucifixion, the Virgin Mary, and other sanctified persons. There are several of fine Carrara mat ble, of which one of the most conspicuous, and as large as life, was erected by the citizens of Ferrara, in honour of Albert their sovereign lord, in 1393, who had repaired to the Pope with a great cavalcade, and obtained two im portant bulls, sanctioning the erection of a university, and certain privileges regarding succession to property. Pope Urban III. having died in Ferrara in the year 1187, was interred here, and his successor Gregory VIII. elected in
the church. The architecture of the tower, which was built in 1412, and consists of marble, is much celebrated.
About the year 1506, a spacious edifice, the church of St Benedict, was built by two native architects, towards the western part of the city, to which a monastery adjoins. Here are deposited the remains of the famous Italian poet Ariosto, in a marble mausoleum, executed by Nano, a Mantuan sculptor, with two inscriptions, one of which was composed by Guarini. This monument has attracted the notice of crowned heads in their visits to Italy, while the ashes of philosophers have reposed in neglected obscurity. Ariosto was a native of Ferrara, and his house is still shown as a curiosity to strangers. It bears two inscrip tions, composed by himself and his natural son, a literary ecclesiastic : The former is in these words, Parva, sed afita bahi, sed nulli obnoxia, scd non sordida, parta me° sed tamen acre domus, certainly neither very elegant nor poeti cal ; the latter is, Sic domus htec Areosta propitios habcat dens olim ut Pindarica. The house was built by him, and he died there on the sixth of June 1533. In the monastery at axed to the church of St Benedict, are preserved some hiportant archives.
A church dedicated to St Francis was founded at an early period of the Ferrarese history, and after being fre quently renewed and altered, was at last completed in the year 1495. This edifice is also rich in pictures and statues, and presents several beautiful sculptures of different des criptions. It is besides remarkable for an echo which father Lana, in his work Magisterium Xaturat et Anis, considers one of the most wonderful phenomena extant. The voice of a person standing in a particular position, near the main entrance, is repeated 15 or 16 times dis tinctly, and afterwards more faintly, for some intervals, until totally lost. The repetitions are so numerous, how ever, that, to avoid confusion, only a single syllable must be expressed, in order that the echo may be heard in per fection.