FERRARA, city in northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara, 30 miles north northeast of Bologna, in a fertile but unhealth ful plain, at a short distance from the north branch of the Po. , It is a large and well-built town, with spacious and regular streets, and is enclosed by a wall seven miles in circuit. It is defended on the west side by a citadel regu larly fortified. In the middle of the city is a castle, flanked with towers and surrounded by wet ditches, which was once the residence of the dukes. Ferrara, though still retaining many traces of its former grandeur, has long been falling into decay; its pavements are over grown with grass and the staircases and bal conies of many of its noble palaces are overrun with ivy, while others are without either doors or windows. The population has also fallen to one-fourth of its former number. It has a cathedral and numerous churches, most of which contain valuable paintings, together with some interesting specimens of sculpture. There are here a public gallery of paintings, called the Palazzo del Magistrato, containing many excellent works by the leading painters of the Ferrara school, of which Dosso Dossi was one of the leaders. The city contains a university, originally founded in 1264 and after a check ered history reopened in 1815. The university library contains about 100,000 volumes and 2,000 manuscripts, the latter including some of those of Ariosto and Tasso. The house in
which Ariosto was educated and that in which he lived during his latter years, and known by the names respectively of the Casa degli Ariosti and the Casa d'Ariosto, are shown to strangers. The latter is now national property and is ranked among the national monuments. An other object of interest is the cell in the Hos pital of Saint Anna, in which Tasso was im prisoned. The house occupied by Guarini', the author of the Pastor Fido — the Casa Guarina — is still inhabited by the marquises of that name. Ferrara is an archbishopric; the bishop ric dates from 661 ; its archbishopric was founded by Clement XII in 1735. Savonarola was born here in 1452. It carries on some trade in corn and other produce of the soil. There are manufactures of silk ribbons, wax candles and brazen utensils; tanneries and glass works. Pop. of the commune 95,219.
Ferrara in the course of its long history has passed through many vicissitudes and seen many changes of masters. In 1597— to take more recent history only— it was claimed as a fief of the Holy See by Clement VIII and until 1797 was governed as part of the papal states, when it was united to the Cisalpino Republic, afterward becoming part of Napoleon's King dom of Italy. In 1814 it was restored to the papal states and in 1859 was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy.