Foreword

Written by  Alfredo Santini
This edition of Ferrara. Voci di una città presents a series of topics that provide a fairly complete idea of the aspects of culture we are reading about and discussing.

There are articles on the Corot exhibition that has already attracted much praise (Vorrasi); a scholarly and amusing 'humanist' footnote (Cazzola); a gift of poetry from Roberto Pazzi. But as we know, the city does not live by high culture alone, enjoyable though it is; it cannot exhaust Ferrara's stock of intellectual energy and vitality.

So we also have the story of a medical/scientific discovery (Lucci), a review of a new book on food to help the heart (Pellegrini), and Nascimbeni's profile of a leading citizen of Ferrara, Giuseppe Pianori.

Pamela Volpi's survey of the Palazzo Riminaldi frescoes adds another piece to the jigsaw of history, as does Micalizzi with his account of the filmic qualities of Florestano Vancini's last work.

Bondanelli's contribution on the use of computer techniques to map the region draws attention to another important cultural initiative.

Venturi's report of the Ariosto Days held by the city and its schools, and the announcement of the publication of the 1515 edition of the Orlando Furioso, a major endeavour supported by all the institutions of Ferrara complete this issue, along with Sergio Lenzi's account of the Foundation's policy forecast document and the report on the Cassa di Risparmio's activities.

An issue of very broad appeal, which will surely stimulate the residents of Ferrara - and elsewhere - to get involved through these pages, as the extraordinary popularity of our review suggests, in the social, economic and cultural life of Ferrara through these pages.