Few cities can boast citizens as deeply in love with their city's history as Ferrara can. The memory of centuries past, the 15th and 16th centuries in particular, reinforces a sense of belonging to an important historical and cultural inheritance, the foundation of the only identity that the city unanimously recognizes. On the other hand it cannot be denied that such a strong collective interest in the period when Ferrara was the capital of the Este duchy does little to encourage adequate consideration of the preceding and successive centuries.
And so, while the age of the Estes is covered by a wide-ranging and up to date bibliography, considerable lacunae still exist regarding events and currents outside that period.
The new History will not be a continuation of its predecessor of the same title, which was discontinued. The new history will be published by Corbo Editore, probably in seven volumes, and is to be published between 2000 and 2006.
Although it will pick up the thread from where its predecessor left off, the new History will be different. It will be nimbler, with a different format and more illustrations, while closer attention will be paid to economic history and to the outlying areas around Ferrara.
The first volume will deal with some less well known aspects of the history of Ferrara in the 15th and 16th centuries and the following volumes will tackle the subsequent centuries, about which less is known.
If it is true that we need to look at the past in order to acquire an understanding of the present, then the idea of drawing the attention of the citizens to this extensive chunk of the past - to which the city and district are so intrinsically linked - is revealed in all its particular importance.