FERRARA, for-I-Mr:1 ( Lat. 'or ti mot A 1 if•mt i ). A city in North Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara, 5 miles south of the Po, 30 miles north of Rologna ( Slap: Italy, C 3). It is situ ated in fertile, marshy, unhealthful territory, the threshold of the city hall being 3 feet lower than the level of the Po. The broad streets, the ancient walls, towers, and bastions, and the crumbling palaces, attest the mediaeval glory of Ferrara when it was the seal of the House of Este (q.v.). In time ancient castle, now occupied by the local authorities and the telegraph office, are frescoes by Dosso Dossi, and dungeons, in one of which the faithless Parisina Malatesta (con sult Byron's poem, "Parisina") was confined by her husband before being beheaded, Slay 21, 1425. The Cathedral of San Giorgio has a striking facade, dating from the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, hut the interior was mod ernized by Mazzarelli in 1712. Artists whose work is represented here are Baroneelli. Lom bardi, Tura. liastianino, Fr. Franria, Garofalo, Panetti, Giacomo da Siena. The campanile is mas sive and handsome. Other interesting churches are San Francesco, dating from 1494 and covered with domes, with (sixteen repetitions), echo and frescoes by Garofalo and monuments of the House of Este; Santa Maria in Vado, which was altered in 1495 in the Early Renaissance style, and has frescoes by Bonone; San Benedetto, built 1496 1553, with paintings by Searsellino.
Other interesting buildings are the episcopal seminary, formerly the Palazzo Trotti, with fres coes by Garofalo; the Palazzo Sehifannja, begun by Alberto d'Este in 1391, completed by Corso in 1469. with celebrated fifteenth-century frescoes, now an asylum for deaf mutes; the incomplete Palazzo Costabili„ with frescoes by Ereole Gran di; the sixteenth-century Palazzo de' Diamanti, containing the municipal Ateneo and an impor tant picture gallery, most of the works in which belong to the school of Ferrara, at the head of whirl ranks Dosso Dossi (1471) 1542) : the I lospital of Saint Anna. where Tasso was confined (1579-S6) : the tiny house of Ariosto. now the property of the city, and hear
ing a Latin couplet composed by himself ; the house of the poet Guarini, which still belongs to his family. In the Piazza Ariostea is a statue of Ariosto (1833) by Vidoni, and between the castle and the cathedral is a monument by Galet ti to Savonarola (q.v.), born here in 1452.
The university, which is not a State institu. tion, was founded in 1264. and, after various vicissitudes, reopened in 1S15. It has botanical gardens. a physical laboratory, faculties in medi cine, mathematics, and jurisprudence, a rich col lection of ancient coins and inscriptions, and a library with 100.000 volumes, over 2000 mann scriptS (among them several from the hand of Ariosto himself), 3200 autographs. and numerous etchings. etc. The monument of Ario,to is in the library. Ferrara also has a theological seminary, a gymnasium. etc.. an Ariosto S wiety. four the atres. numerous eharitable institutions• a cham ber of commerce. a telephone system, and public gardens. The city markets wheat, rice, hemp, wine, silk, cattle, salt, and fruit, and has silk, hemp, and soap factories and Itour-mills.
At the end of the tenth century, when Ferrara began to become prominent, the popes, basing their authority on grants from Pepin and Char lemagne, bestowed it as a fief on the margraves of Tuscany. In 120S, after a period of inde pendence, it came under the rule of the Este (q.v.), who persuaded Paul 11., in 1471, to raise it to a duchy. In 1598, on the extinction of the main branch of the House of Este, Ferrara was united by force to the Papal States by Clement VIII. In 1797 it was united to the Cisalpine Republic, and afterwards to Napoleon's King dom of Italy. It was restored to the Pope in 1814. and in 1859 became part of the dominions of Victor Emmanuel. Population, in 1881, 76,000; in 1901, 87,648. Consult: Frizzi, Memorie per la steria di Ferrara (5 vols., Ferrara, 1857-48) ; Gennari, La universita di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1879) ; Ferrara e Antolini. Ferrara nella stories del risorgimento italiano 1S14-2I (Ferrara, 1885).