PARMA, the capital of the duchy of Parma, situated in a fine plain about twelve miles south of the Po, is rather more than four miles in circumference, and is surrounded by walla and ditches : it is a bishop's see, and has about 40,000 inhabitants. The streets are wide and straight. Parma has a lyceum, with chairs of theology, medicine, and philosophy ; a secondary or grammar school ; two colleges for boarders, a military college ; a school for the arts, and several elementary schools. The museum of Parma contains 20,000 medals, and many inscriptions, bronzes, and other remains of antiquity, dug up at Veleia, an ancient town situated at the foot of the Apennines, not far from the Nura.
Most of the churches of Parma are adorned with paintings by Cor reggio. The most remarkable buildings are—the ducal palace, which contains a library of 90,000 volumes and a gallery of good paintings ; the cathedral; the Baptistery, which is built of marble, and adorned with numerous statues and frescoes; the churches of St. John the Evangelist ; L'Annunziata; and La Madouna della Steccata, which contains the tombs of the dukes of Parma. In the convent of St. Paul is an apart ment exquisitely painted by Correggio, and the Palazzo del Oiardino is adorned with frescoes by Agostino Carracci and Cignani. The great
Farnese theatre, one of the largest in Italy, has not been used for many years, and is now in a dilapidated state. A new theatre, of more moderate dimensions, was finished in 1829. Several palaces belonging to the nobility also deserve notice.
I'arma has a Monte di Pieta, founded in 1488 by Father Benardino chi Feltre, a philanthropist who invented this kind of institution for the accommodation and relief of the labouring classes. Among the other beneficient institutions of Parma are—an hospital for incurable patients, a school of mechanical trades, a house for the poor, another for the insane, and a school for midwives, all founded by the duchess, Maria Louisa. Foreign consuls reside at Parma.
Parma was once a town of the Etruscans, and afterwards of the Boll ; it was made a Roman colony at the same time as Mutina (Modena) B.C. 183. (Livy, xxxix. 55.) Of tho ancient town nothing remains except two military columns, which are in the little square near the church of La Steccata; a sarcophagus; and a with an inscription, in which Parma is styled ' Colonic Augusta. These two last monuments stand in front of the cathedral.