When we meet with our friends on the editorial committee, it is always cause for joy and pride to see how Ferrara provides an endless supply of arguments worthy of discussion. Every time we make a choice, we realize how much more space ideally ought to be devoted to each topic. In this issue, for example, talking of Girolamo Savonarola meant concentrating on only one…

A proposal for a new interpretation of the function and meaning of the celebrated frescoes of the mid Fifteenth century. The house of Giovanni Romei, a wealthy merchant related to the ducal family through marriage with the young Polissena d'Este, is the only building in which it is still possible to view the architectonic and decorative elements typical of aristocratic houses in Ferrara of the…

Several dozens of amateur theatrical companies are active in Ferrara and district, performing both in Italian and in dialect. The official birth of regional theatre featuring productions in dialect in Ferrara dates from 1 April 1902, when a group of amateur actors directed by Alfredo Migliari put on a highly successful production of Castalda, Giovanni Pazzi's abridged version of the play of the same name…

Ferrara as seen through the eyes of a German journalist who has elected it his second home.The Italians, or at least so it seems to me, are mad about those statistical tables ranking the cities with the highest standard of living that one sees published regularly in the newspapers. The most important criteria for these assessments include the average income of the citizens, the quality…

From Ferrara to Ferrara: the peregrinations of a book of extraordinary historic importance (with a note by Luisa Pagnoni on the bibliographical exhibition in the Ariostea). In Ferrara, the 24th of April is devoted to the city's patron saint (Saint George) and on that day in 1475 the Palio was held: first the horses, then the donkeys, and then the men and women on foot…

Three men and a race of fifty years ago. Ferruccio Lamborghini had mechanics and engines in his blood. At ten, in the stalls of the family estate, his hobby was repairing and modifying the most disparate pieces of machinery. His passion was to take concrete form during the immediate post war period, with a prototype agricultural tractor: the Carioca, built over a Morris truck. In…

The deputy chairman of the European Investment Bank gives his views in a speech at the University of Ferrara. We shall shortly be living through a momentous change, certainly the most important in the history of European economics since the birth of the Community: monetary union.The European Investment Bank finds itself at the centre of the continent's economic revolution: in fact the Bank has already…

The history of Sant'Antonio in Polesine revisited thanks to an archaelogical dig. The convent of Sant'Antonio in Polesine is one of the oldest monastic complexes in Ferrara. In 1910, as the number of nuns had fallen below the minimum prescribed by law, the town council purchased a part of the complex but allowed the nuns to go on using it; the second cloister, farther from…

On the trail of the strange pilgrimage of ornamental elements and works of art. The marbles that walked is the story of the vicissitudes of certain ornamental elements that wound up being used in buildings different from those for which they were originally intended. A story of times gone by and of places in which marble was precious, hard to find and therefore very costly;…

Not just sounds and images, words too. Ferrara, the city of art; Ferrara, the city of concerts, of music, of exhibitions that attract "intelligent" tourism; Ferrara, the city of culture. Of course, we are the first to be glad about this, but a spontaneous objection arises. And the written word? Can it be that Ferrara's cultural programme has room only for the sign and the…

Il salone del restauro e il convegno delle Fondazioni sono stati un necessario momento di riflessione.   Si è soliti affermare, e con ragione, che l'Italia è un paese di forte e diffusa umanizzazione. E questo vuol dire che non esiste, o quasi, luogo o stagione storica che non abbia consegnato a quel fenomeno complesso che chiamiamo civilizzazione opere e testimonianze, stili e costumi di…

Dal 7 giugno al 30 agosto, una grande mostra realizzata con il contributo della Fondazione. L'opera di uno dei maggiori pittori del Settecento, protagonista assoluto del Rococò europeo e anticipatore dell'arte romantica, giunge per la prima volta in Italia, nelle sale del Palazzo dei Diamanti, per un evento espositivo eccezionale che raduna una somma di capolavori che, dagli anni lontani delle mostre di Londra e…

La relazione del presidente della Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara agli azionisti. Signori Azionisti, oggi riferendovi i dati del bilancio 1997, che sottoponiamo alla Vostra approvazione, si conclude anche il mandato triennale del Presidente e del Consiglio di Amministrazione. E' quindi un momento importante per ricordare brevemente gli impegni assunti per questo triennio nei Vostri confronti e per riferirvi su quanto realizzato.In questo periodo c'è stato…

Arrivai a Ferrara verso sera. Alle porte della città le guardie presero nota del mio nome e mi tolsero tutti i pugnali e pistole che portavo con me. Qui, infatti, vige l'abitudine di non permettere a nessun forestiere di passaggio di entrare in città armato: perciò le sue armi vengono custodite dalle guardie per tutto il tempo che vuole fermarsi. [...] Ferrara è una città…

Ferrara. Voci di una città Rivista semestrale di cultura, informazione e attualitàAnno 5, numero 8 - Giugno 1998Registrata presso il Tribunale di Ferrara il 9 novembre 1994 con il numero 13/94Spedizione in abbonamento postale c. 20/c, art. 2, l. 662/96Edizione fuori commercio, riservata ai soci e agli amici della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara