was accordingly introduced, and his fessor, ambassador, wit, and astroportrait is seen between the figures of nomer; one of the first who maintained St. Sebastian and St. Catherine. About the earth's movement round the sun; the middle of the last century, the bust whose praises have been sung by which surmounted the tomb of Ariosto Ariosto, his fellow traveller in Hunwas struck by lightning, and a crown gary, in the suite of Cardinal Ippolito of iron laurels which surrounded it d'Este. The number of volumes was melted away; an incident which amounted to 3,584, but most of them Lord Byron has happily embodied in are now dispersed. Calcagnini also his well-known stanza :bequeathed fifty golden crowns for the repairs of the library, and to furnish the chairs, benches, and desks then in use."-Valery. Over the door of the library, is the bust and dilapidated tomb of this eminent philosopher; the inscription is a remarkable testimony to the insufficiency of human learning:Ex diuturno studio in primis hoc didicit: mortalia omnia contemnere et ignorantiam suam non ignorare. Ariosto, in the Orlando, records his astronomical discoveries in a beautiful passage:— "The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust Nor was the ominous element unjust, weaves Is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves, And the false semblance but disgraced his brow; Yet still, if fondly Superstition grieves, Know, that the lightning sanctifies below Whate'er it strikes;-yon head is doubly sacred now." The Church of S. Paolo, the last public building in Ferrara which contained a work by the rare master Ercole Grandi, is remarkable for one of the masterpieces of Scarsellino, the Descent of the Holy Ghost; a Nativity, and the ceiling of one of the side chapels, are by the same master. The choir was painted by Scarsellino and Bonone. The Resurrection is by Bastianino. Two painters of this school are buried here, Giambattista Dossi, and Bastaruolo, who perished while bathing in the Po. Another tomb in this church records the name of Antonio Montecatino, the friend and minister of Duke Alfonso, better known as a professor of the Peripatetic philosophy. His bust, which is much admired, is by Alessandro Vicentini. The Church of San Domenico is remarkable for the statues on its façade by Andrea Ferreri, and for some interesting works of Garofalo and Carlo Bonone. The dead man raised by a piece of the true cross, and the Martyrdom of S. Pietro di Rosini are by Garofalo; the S. Domenico and S. Thomas Aquinas are by Carlo Bonone. The adjoining convent was once famous for its Library, bequeathed to it by the celebrated Celio Calcagnini, “a poet, scholar, antiquarian, moralist, pro Il dotto Celio Calcagnin lontana The Church of S. Andrea is celebrated for its pictures: the Virgin Throned, with saints, by Garofalo, is supposed by some to have been executed with the assistance of Raphael; the Guardian Angel is by Carlo Bonone; the Resurrection is attributed by some to Titian, by others to Garofalo; the St. Andrew is by Panetti; and there is a fine statue of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, by Alfonso Lombardo. In the refectory is a grand allegorical picture by Garofalo, representing the victory of the New Testament over the Old, the ceremonies of the Mosaic law being contrasted with the sacraments of the New law. The Church of the Theatines (de' Teatini) contains a large painting of the` Presentation in the Temple by Guercino; and a Resurrection, and a S. Gaetano by Chenda. The Church of the Capuchin Convent has some fine paintings: the Virgin Throned, with saints; a similar subject, with Capuchin nuns, both by Scarsellino; S. Christopher and S. Antonio Abbate, S. Domenico, and S. Francis, in the sacristy, by Bonone. The small statue of the Conception is by Ferreri. The Church of S. Giorgio is cele brated as the scene of the General Council held at Ferrara by Pope Eugenius IV., in 1438, for the purpose of effecting a union between the Greek and Latin churches, and at which the Emperor John Paleologus was present. Even at that period the atmosphere of Ferrara was tainted by malaria, for it is recorded that the council was removed to Florence, in consequence of the unhealthy climate of this city. The Church of the Campo Santo, whose fine architecture is attributed to Sansovino, is decorated internally with the finest sculptures of that celebrated artist. The twelve chapels are remarkable for as many paintings of the Mysteries by Niccolò Rosselli, classed, doubtfully, among the Ferrarese school by Lanzi, who mentions these works as imitations of the style of Garofalo, Bagnacavallo, and others. The Nativity is by Dielai; S. Bruno praying, and the Marriage of Cana are by Carlo Bonone; the S. Christopher, by Bastianino, is mentioned with the highest praise by Lanzi : "Ove_rappresento ignudi, como nel gran S. Cristofano della Certosa, si attenne a Michelangiolo"; the Descent of the Holy Ghost, and the Deposition from the Cross are by Bastaruolo; the S. Bruno is by Scarsellino; the Last Supper, by Cignaroli; and the Beheading of John the Baptist, by Parolini. The Campo Santo was formerly the Certosa Convent, which was said to occupy the same space as the city of Mirandola. The cloisters are now covered with statues, bas-reliefs, and sepulchral monuments. Among the tombs are those of Borso d'Este, first Duke of Ferrara, the founder of the convent; the Duke Venanziano Varano and his wife, by Rinaldini; Lilio Giraldi, the mythologist, removed from the cathedral; the wife of Count Leopoldo Cicognara, in alabaster; the Abbate Bernardino Barbulejo, or Barbojo, said to have been the preceptor of Ariosto; &c. The Church of Gesù has a picture of the three Japanese Martyrs, by Parolini; and a ceiling painted by Dielai. In the choir is the mausoleum of the Duchess Barbara of Austria, wife of Alfonso II., so well known by the eloquent eulogies of Tasso. The Church of the Convent of Corpus Domini contains several tombs of the D'Este family; and that of Lucrezia Borgia is said to be among them, but there is no inscription or authority for the statement. The Castle, formerly the Ducal Palace, now the residence of the Cardinal Legate, surrounded by its ample moat, and furnished with towers and bridges, carries the imagination back to the fortunes of Ferrara during the middle ages. It stands, says Forsyth, "moated and flanked with towers, in the heart of the subjugated town, like a tyrant intrenched among slaves, and recalls to a stranger that gloomy period described by Dante: Che le terre d'Italia tutte piene Son di tiranui; ed un Marcel diventa It is a huge, square building, defended at the angles by four large towers; it retains few traces of the ducal family, and wears an air of melancholy, in accordance with the deserted aspect of the city. Its apartments were formerly decorated by the first masters of the Ferrarese school, but they have entirely disappeared, excepting on the ceilings of the antechamber and the saloon of Aurora, which have preserved their paintings by Dosso Dossi. In the dungeons of this castle, Parisina and her guilty lover suffered execution. The outlines of that dreadful tragedy have been made familiar to the English reader by the beautiful poem of Lord Byron, to whom the subject was suggested by a passage in Gibbon. more complete account, however, is found in the learned Dr. Frizzi's History of Ferrara, from which the following is an extract, descriptive of the closing catastrophe :-"It was, then, in the prisons of the castle, and exactly in A name of Charles Heppeville. It is impossible to visit them without imagining the meetings at which the stern reformer secretly expounded his doctrines to the small band of disciples whom the favour of his patroness had collected together. Among these were Anne de Parthenai, Olympia Morata, Marot, Francesco Porto Centese, and numerous other Protestants whom persecution had driven from beyond the Alps, and who assembled in these apartments to derive instruction from the great teacher of Geneva. those frightful dungeons which are seen at this day beneath the chamber called the Aurora, at the foot of the Lion's tower, at the top of the street Giovecca, that, on the night of the 21st of May, were beheaded, first, Ugo, and afterwards Parisina. Zoese, he that accused her, conducted the latter under his arm to the place of punishment. She, all along, fancied that she was to be thrown into a pit, and asked at every step, whether she was yet come to the spot? She was told that her punishment was the axe. She inquired what was become of Ugo, and received The Studio Publico enjoys some celefor answer, that he was already dead; brity as a school of medicine and at the which, sighing grievously, she jurisprudence. It contains a rich cabiexclaimed, Now, then, I wish not net of medals, and a collection of myself to live; and, being come to the Greek and Roman inscriptions and block, she stripped herself with her own antiquities; among which is the coloshands of all her ornaments, and, wrap-sal sarcophagus of Aurelia Eutychia, ping a cloth round her head, submitted to the fatal stroke, which terminated the cruel scene. The same was done with Rangoni, who, together with the others, according to two calendars in the library of St. Francesco, was buried in the cemetery of that convent." The Palazzo del Magistrato may be considered the public gallery of Ferrara, since it contains so many excellent works by the leading painters of the school. Among them are the following:-Garofalo, the Agony in the Garden, the Resurrection, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Twelve Apostles; Dosso Dossi, Noah's Ark; Bastianino, the Nativity, the Birth of the Virgin, the Assumption; Cosmè (Cosimo Tura), the Martyrdom of St. Maurelius; Ortolano, the Nativity; Guercino, S. Bruno; Agostino Caracci, the Fall of Manna. In one of the halls of this palace the Ariostean Academy, Accademia degli Ariostei, holds its sittings; it was founded on the Accademia degli Intrepidi, one of the first poetical societies of Italy, but it has now become more generally useful as a literary and scientific institution. Near this hall some small rooms are shown which were occupied by Calvin, when he found an asylum at the court of the Duchess Renée, under the assumed wife of P. Pubius. But its chief interest is the Public Library, containing 80,000 volumes and 900 MSS., among which are the Greek Palimpsests of Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, &c. The most remarkable, however, and the most valuable of all its treasures, are the manuscripts of Ariosto and Tasso. The former are preserved in an apartment where the poet's arm-chair of walnut-wood, and his bronze inkstand surmounted by a Cupid enjoining silence, and said to have been designed by Ariosto himself, are deposited. These manuscripts comprise a copy of some cantos of the Orlando Furioso, covered with corrections, and remarkable also for the following memorandum which Alfieri begged permission to inscribe, "Vittorio Alfieri vide e venerò 18 Giugno, 1783"; one of the Satires; the Comedy of La Scolastica; and some highly interesting letters, among which is one from Titian to Ariosto. The manuscript of the Gerusalemme is one of the most touching records in Ferrara; it was corrected by Tasso during his captivity, and has the words Laus Deo at the end. Like the Orlando, this is also remarkable for its corrections and cancelled passages, many of which are extremely curious, and worthy of being published. There are likewise nine letters of Tasso, written while confined in the hospital of St. Anna; and a small collection of Rime. Another manuscript, which seems to lose its interest by the side of the two great Epic poets, is that of the Pastor Fido of Guarini. Another valuable treasure, but of a different character, is the series of Choir Books, formerly belonging to the Certosa; they are filled with beautiful miniatures, and occupy eighteen volumes. There is also a Bible, in one large volume, illustrated with miniatures of the same kind, and apparently by the same hand. Of the printed books in the library, we may mention fifty-two early editions of Ariosto, a fine collection of cinquecento editions, and a very perfect series of books printed at Ferrara, which was one of the first cities in which the printing press was established. Signor Antonelli, one of the curators of this library, in his work on the Ferrarese printers of the fifteenth century, states that during the first thirty years of the fifteenth century upwards of 100 editions were issued from the press of nine printers in Ferrara. Among the most famous of these printers was Giambattista Guarini, from whom Aldus, before settling at Venice, received instructions in printing Greek. The medical traveller will observe here with great curiosity the celebrated and exceedingly rare work of Giambattista Canani, "Musculorum humani corporis picturata dissectio," without date, but evidently referrible to the middle of the sixteenth century. In one of the rooms of this library is a very interesting collection of Portraits of Ferrarese Authors, from the earliest period down to Cicognara and Monti. In another, are eighteen Portraits of Ferrarese Cardinals, the most interesting of which, from his connection with Ariosto, is that of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, in whose service the great poet had spent so many painful and unprofitable years; In a third room, called the Sala d'Ariosto, is his Tomb, brought here by the French from the church of S. Benedetto, June 6, 1801, the anniversary of the poet's death. The mausoleum and decorations are in the worst style of French taste. The inscriptions, recording the merits of Ariosto as a statesman as well as a poet, were written by Guarini. The library is open to the public from eight to twelve, and from three to four. The modern additions to its collections are so cramped by want of funds, that it does not keep pace with the progress of the times; but it has received several valuable accessions from the munificence of its citizens. The Casa d'Ariosto is marked by an inscription composed by the great poet himself: "Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non Sordida, parta meo sed tamen ære domus." Above it, is the following, placed there by his favourite son and biographer, Virgilio : "Sie domus hæc Ariosta Propitios habeat deos, olim ut Pindarica." Ariosto is said to have inhabited this house during the latter years of his life, and when some visitor expressed surprise that one who had described so many palaces had not a finer house for himself, he replied that the palaces he built in verse cost him nothing. After his death, nearly all the well-known characteristics of the house, described with so much interest by Ariosto himself, were destroyed by its subsequent proprietors. In 1811, Count Girolamo Cicognara, when Podestà, induced the town council to purchase it, as one of those national monuments which ought to be beyond the caprice of individuals. The chamber of the poet was then cleaned and carefully restored, and the circumstance was recorded in the following inscription placed under his bust: Lodovico Ariosto in questa camera scrisse e questa casa da lui abitata edificò, la quale CCLXXX anni dopo la morte del divino poeta fu dal conte Girolamo Cicognara Podestà co' danari del comune compra e ristaurata, perchè alla venerazione delle genti durasse. The Casa degli Ariosti, in which the poet was educated, is still preserved, and is situated near the church of Sta. Maria di Bocche. He lived there for the purpose of pursuing his legal studies under the superintendence of his paternal uncles; but he soon gave up law for the more congenial study of poetry and romance. It was in one of the chambers of this residence that Ariosto, with his brothers and sisters, performed the Fable of Thisbe, and other comic pieces of his own composition. The apartment is still shown, and is well adapted for such representations. On the death of his father, the poet removed from this house to the one already described. The Casa Guarini, still inhabited by the Marquises of that name, recalls the name of the author of the Pastor Fido, whose bust decorates the hall. On the corner of the house is this inscription; Herculis et musarum commercio favete linguis et animis. the verse and prose' of the prisoner have brought to Ferrara. The poet was confined in this room from the middle of March 1579, to December 1580, when he was removed to a contiguous apartment, much larger, in which, to use his own expressions, he could philosophise and walk about. The inscription is incorrect as to the immediate cause of his enlargement, which was promised to the city of Bergamo, but was carried into effect at the intercession of Don Vincenzo Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua."-Hobhouse. Few questions have been more debated than the cause of the great poet's imprisonment, some believing that it was actual insanity, others that it was mere detention in a Maison de Santé, combined with vexatious annoyances of the police; while by far the greater number coincide in regarding Tasso as neither more nor less than a prisoner of state, whose sufferings were aggravated by the capricious tyranny of Alfonso. His biographer, the Abate Serassi, has left it without doubt that the first cause of the poet's punishment was his desire to be occasionally, or altogether, free from his servitude at the court of Alfonso. In 1575, Tasso resolved to visit Rome, and enjoy the indulgence of the jubilee; and this error," says the Abate, "increasing the suspicion already entertained, that he was in search The greatest object of interest in of another service, was the origin of his Ferrara is the cell in the hospital of misfortunes. On his return to Ferrara, St. Anna, shown as the Prison of the Duke refused to admit him to an Tasso. Over the door is the follow- audience, and he was repulsed from ing inscription, placed there by General the houses of all the dependants of the Miollis: Rispettate, o Posteri, la court; and not one of the promises celebrità di questa stanza, dove Tor- which the Cardinal Albano had obquato Tasso infermo più di tristezza tained for him were carried into effect. che delirio, ditenuto dimorò anni vii. Then it was that Tasso-after having mesi ii. scrisse verse e prose, e fu suffered these hardships for some time, rimesso in libertà ad istanza della città seeing himself constantly discountedi Bergamo, nel giorno vi. Luglio, 1586. nanced by the Duke and the princesses, It is below the ground floor, and is abandoned by his friends, and derided lighted by a grated window from the by his enemies-could no longer conyard; its size is about nine paces by tain himself within the bounds of mosix, and about seven feet high. "The deration, but giving vent to his choler, bedstead, so they tell, has been carried publicly broke forth into the most inoff piecemeal, and the door half cut jurious expressions imaginable, both away, by the devotion of those whom against the Duke and all the house of The Piazza Grande, now the Piazza d'Ariosto, formerly contained a statue of Pope Alexander VII.; but this was removed by the republicans of 1786 to make room for one of Napoleon, whose name the Piazza bore until the peace of 1814, when both the statue and the title gave way to those of the "Italian Homer." |