The attention which we pay to the great Este history and tradition sometimes risks overshadowing other aspects of a rich and complex history. So this edition of Ferrara – Voci di una città gives space to different issues and, for once, attention to the most dramatic moments in our Renaissance and Este history gives way to other episodes, less intense but equally important. See, for…

The evocative atmosphere of a city as experienced, imagined and dreamed in the words of a great writer and historian. deserted beauty of Ferrara, / I praise you as one praises the face / of the woman who leans on our hearts / seeking the peace of her distant happiness…”. I wrote this in the sweltering spring of 2007, with my sixty-sixth year already well…

Our city has been chosen to house “Ermitage Italia”. The agreement between the Hermitage State Museum and the province of Ferrara, the city of Ferrara and the Emilia–Romagna region, was signed on 23 February last year in St. Petersburg. This date set in motion the schedule which will establish the Hermitage scientific and cultural centre in Ferrara. In October of 2007, the inauguration of the…

A fantasy facilitated by climatological forecast. Recent items in the newspapers on the possible climate changes over the next hundred years in the Italian peninsula have caused some corresponding stir in our own peaceful city. According to one of the most credible and reliable predictions, by the end of the century Ferrara will find herself on the shores of the Adriatic, while Venice will probably…

Ferrara and the Este in the library collections in Saint Mark’s. During the journey to Ferrara, the venue of the ecumenical Council which sought to bring about the union of the Greek and Roman churches, Bessarion, the archbishop of Nicaea, landed in Venice and spent about a month there in early 1438. It was to Venice, almost his second home, that he would give his…

Suspended between land and water, an oasis of unspoiled splendour in the Po delta territory. “It is unbelievably interesting, partly because it is a lowland wood and therefore unusual in our country, and also because it is a forest which floods from time to time when the river Reno bursts its banks. To be involved when this event takes place is a unique experience, which…

The cardinals in Ferrara in the first half of the 17th century and the success of paintings from Ferrara in Italian collections. The document entitled “Depository accounts of the journey to Ferrara, 1598”, kept in the Vatican’s Secret Archive, if read from beginning to end, gives us a detailed account of the months in which a part of the papal court was moved to Ferrara,…

Memories of an important figure, both as mayor and politician. The “Dante Alighieri society” in Ferrara recently celebrated the 140th anniversary of the birth of Pietro Niccolini (1866). Niccolini quickly became a prominent figure in the public and cultural life of the city, being much talked about in the local and national press. As mayor he was responsible for a unique period in Ferrara’s economy…

Memories of Don Franco, priest and artist of warmth and humanity. When I remember Don Franco it is a pleasure to think of him in Casa Cini, ready to get up from a desk overloaded with work to come towards me with his huge smile, testament to his kindness, friendliness and sociability. The spacious and rather chaotic room was his study, workshop, confessional, living room…

The friendship and historic symbiosis between Leopoldo Cicognara and Pietro Giordani. Pietro Giordani was born in Piacenza on 1 January 1774. In 1797 he entered the Benedictine monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza but left without taking orders. A supporter of the Napoleonic regime, in 1807 he wrote a Panegyric on the Sacred Majesty of Napoleon and the following year obtained the position of assistant…

New ways to help both patients and their families during illness. Nowadays the physical diagnosis of a tumour opens the way to combatting the illness with ever more efficient cures compared to several years ago, but this is still not enough. Hence the development of psycho-oncology: the aim is to observe the implications of cancer on emotional life and interpersonal relations. In 1992, with the…

Recalling the birth of the Montecatini Research Centre in Ferrara. It was 1 March 1953 when I presented myself at then seat of the Montecatini centre in Milan, taken on as an apprentice by Professor Giulio Natta with a view to one day attending the Milan Polytechnic. Rather intimidated, I was greeted by the personnel officer and taken to meet Professor Natta who immediately introduced…

Oltre al consueto bilancio annuale, quest'anno la Fondazione tira le somme di 15 anni di attività   Il 28 marzo scorso la Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara ha organizzato un convegno intitolato Le Fondazioni Bancarie nel territorio. 15 anni di sviluppo sociale ed economico, per festeggiare il suo quindicesimo anno di attività parallela a quella della Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara S.p.a.. Questa giornata…

Una strategia di crescita che dà risultati: anche a New York cresce la considerazione per la Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara   In occasione della recente Assemblea degli Azionisti della Cassa, che ha approvato all'unanimità il Bilancio 2006, ho inizialmente ricordato lo stato d'animo dei banchieri che hanno la responsabilità di, pur importanti, banche locali quando si trovano riuniti assieme ai vertici dei grandi istituti,…

Si festeggia un'associazione che ha preservato la bellezza della nostra città   "Il più importante motivo della nostra riunione è questo: non dico, celebrare - il vocabolo parrebbe troppo orgoglioso in confronto con l'opera modesta spiegata dalla Ferrariae Decus - bensì, ricordare che trascorsero ormai trenta anni da quando, sotto gli auspici della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia patria, io fondai la Società. Rammento la numerosissima…