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140-614: The first documented settlements in the area of the present-day Province of Ferrara date from the 6th century BC. The ruins of the Etruscan town of Spina , established along the lagoons at the ancient mouth of Po river , were lost until modern times, when drainage schemes in the Valli di Comacchio marshes in 1922 first officially revealed a necropolis with over 4,000 tombs, evidence of a population centre that in Antiquity must have played

280-638: A Duke in October 1534, Ercole turned against the French at his court, finding them both too expensive and too influential, and by 1543 they had all been dismissed. He was also under pressure from the Curia to dismiss those suspected of heresy ; John Calvin himself was in Ferrara sometime in 1536. Meanwhile, Duchess Renée was corresponding with a number of Protestants and was suspected to have converted , despite

420-571: A Mediterranean language", a hypothesis that goes back to an article by Paul Kretschmer in Glotta from 1934. Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about

560-511: A collection of coins and Renaissance medals. The Renaissance Palazzo Paradiso , part of the Ferrara University library system, displays part of the manuscript of Orlando furioso and letters by Tasso as well as Ludovico Ariosto 's grave. Its famous alumni include Nicolaus Copernicus and Paracelsus . The northern quarter, which was added by Ercole I in 1492–1505 thanks to the master plan of Biagio Rossetti , and hence called

700-497: A common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of methlum , "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates , without much of a hint as to their function: The camthi , the parnich , the purth , the tamera , the macstrev , and so on. The people were the mech . The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscription evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking

840-542: A continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years. Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during

980-548: A dark chocolate and butter cake, and zuppa inglese , a chocolate and custard pudding on a bed of sponge cake soaked in Alchermes . The clay terroir of the area, an alluvial plain created by the river Po, is not ideal for wine; a notable exception is Bosco Eliceo ( DOC ) wine, made from grapes cultivated on the sandy coast line. Ferrara is twinned with: Etruscan civilization The Etruscan civilization ( / ɪ ˈ t r ʌ s k ən / ih- TRUS -kən )

1120-595: A few years under Napoleon and during the 1848 revolution, the ghetto lasted until Italian unification in 1859. In 1799, the Jewish community saved the city from sacking by troops of the Holy Roman Empire . During the spring of 1799, the city had fallen into the hands of the Republic of France , which established a small garrison there. On 15 April, Lieutenant Field Marshal Johann von Klenau approached

1260-590: A general trend in Italy and Europe, Ferrara has come to rely more on tertiary and tourism, while the heavy industry, still present in the town, has been largely phased out. After almost 450 years, another earthquake struck Ferrara in May 2012 causing only limited damage to the historic buildings of the town and no victims. The town of Ferrara lies on the southern shores of the Po river , about 44 km (27 mi) north-east of

1400-652: A language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a " Tyrrhenian language group " comprising Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic spoken in the Alps . However, the 1st-century BC historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that

1540-484: A large urban park around the town and are a popular destination for joggers and cyclists. In 2007, there were 135,369 people residing in Ferrara, of whom 46.8% were male and 53.2% were female. Minors (children ages 18 and younger) totalled 12.28% of the population compared to pensioners who number 26.41%. This compares with the Italian average of 18.06% (minors) and 19.94% (pensioners). The average age of Ferrara residents

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1680-567: A leader was chosen to represent the league. There were two other Etruscan leagues (" Lega dei popoli "): that of Campania , the main city of which was Capua , and the Po Valley city-states in northern Italy, which included Bologna , Spina and Adria . Those who subscribe to a Latin foundation of Rome followed by an Etruscan invasion typically speak of an Etruscan "influence" on Roman culture – that is, cultural objects which were adopted by Rome from neighboring Etruria. The prevailing view

1820-473: A major role. There is uncertainty among scholars about the proposed Roman origin of the settlement in its current location ( Tacitus and Boccaccio refer to a "Forum Alieni"), for little is known of this period, but some archeologic evidence points to the hypothesis that Ferrara could have been originated from two small Byzantine settlements: a cluster of facilities around the Cathedral of St. George, on

1960-504: A means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. It is likely that individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs to honor fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patrocles . The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities . They were entirely assimilated by Italic, Celtic , or Roman ethnic groups, but

2100-425: A monogamous society that emphasized pairing. Similarly, the behavior of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by western culture as an apotropaic device , appearing finally on

2240-810: A project—known as MEIS, after its initials in Italian—to be completed in 2021, with additional buildings that will create a major Jewish cultural hub and add exhibits focusing on the Jews in the Italian Renaissance and the Shoah. During the Renaissance the Este family, well known for its patronage of the arts, welcomed a great number of artists, especially painters, that formed the so-called School of Ferrara . The astounding list of painters and artists includes

2380-517: A rich Jewish family during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini and World War II . Furthermore, Wim Wenders and Michelangelo Antonioni 's Beyond the Clouds in (1995) and Ermanno Olmi 's The Profession of Arms in (2001), a film about the last days of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere , were also shot in Ferrara. In the third season of Medici (TV Series) , Girolamo Riario 's men seize Ferrara, 100 miles from Florence and takes their salt. Based on

2520-501: A stem from the Etruscan Rasna (𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀), the people. Evidence of inscriptions as Tular Rasnal (𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌛 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋), "boundary of the people", or Mechlum Rasnal (𐌌𐌄𐌙𐌋 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋). "community of the people", attest to its autonym usage. The Tyrsenian etymology however remains unknown. In Attic Greek , the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians ( Τυρρηνοί , Tyrrhēnoi , earlier Τυρσηνοί Tyrsēnoi ), from which

2660-663: A university city second only to Bologna, remained a part of the Papal States for almost 300 years, an era marked by a steady decline; in 1792 the population of the town was only 27,000, less than in the 17th century. In 1805–1814 it was briefly part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy , a client-state of the French Empire . After the 1815 Congress of Vienna , Ferrara was given back to the Pope, now guaranteed by

2800-457: A very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population. It was only from the end of the 4th century BC that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic. There have been numerous biological studies on the Etruscan origins, the oldest of which dates back to the 1950s when research was still based on blood tests of modern samples, and DNA analysis (including

2940-679: Is Alan Fabbri of the Lega Nord . The urban organisation is governed by the Italian Constitution (art. 114), the Municipal Statute and several laws, notably the Legislative Decree 267/2000 or Unified Text on Local Administration ( Testo Unico degli Enti Locali ). The current division of the seats in the city council, after the 2019 local election, is the following: The imposing Este Castle , sited in

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3080-460: Is pasticcio di maccheroni , a domed macaroni pie, consisting of a crust of sweet dough enclosing macaroni in a Béchamel sauce , studded with porcini mushrooms and ragù alla bolognese . The traditional Christmas first course is cappelletti , large meat filled ravioli served in chicken broth. It is often followed by salama da sugo , a very big, cured sausage made from a selection of pork meats and spices kneaded with red wine. Seafood

3220-425: Is 49, compared to the Italian average of 42. In the five years between 2002 and 2007, the population of Ferrara grew by 2.28%, while Italy as a whole grew by 3.85%. The current birth rate of Ferrara is 7.02 births per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the Italian average of 9.45 births. Ferrara is known as the oldest Italian city with a population over 100,000, as well the city with lowest birth rate. As of 2006, 95.59% of

3360-611: Is also an important part of the local tradition, that boast rich fisheries in the Po delta lagoons and Adriatic sea. Pasta with clams and grilled or stewed eel dishes are especially well-known. Popular food items include also zia garlic salami and the traditional coppia bread, protected by the IGP ( protected geographical status ) label. Not unusual is the typical kosher salami made of goose meat stuffed in goose neck skin. Local patisserie include spicy pampepato chocolate pie, tenerina ,

3500-481: Is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna. The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with

3640-519: Is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic republic (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC. The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the gorgon , an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by

3780-399: Is considered one of the most important examples of Renaissance urban planning and contributed to the selection of Ferrara as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In spite of having entered its golden age, Ferrara was severely hit by a war against Venice fought and lost in 1482–84. Alfonso I succeeded to the throne in 1505 and married the notorious Lucrezia Borgia . He again fought Venice in

3920-501: Is displayed in the National Gallery of Palazzo dei Diamanti . The Renaissance literary men and poets Torquato Tasso (author of Jerusalem Delivered ), Ludovico Ariosto (author of the romantic epic poem Orlando Furioso ) and Matteo Maria Boiardo (author of the grandiose poem of chivalry and romance Orlando Innamorato ) lived and worked at the court of Ferrara during the 15th and 16th century. The Ferrara Bible

4060-538: Is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration. Several archaeologists specializing in Prehistory and Protohistory , who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to material culture or to social practices , that can support a migration theory. The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in

4200-520: Is one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture . The duomo has been renovated many times through the centuries, thus its resulting eclectic style is a harmonious combination of the Romanesque central structure and portal, the Gothic upper part of the façade and the Renaissance campanile . The sculptures of the main portal are attributed to Nicholaus  [ it ] . The upper part of

4340-443: Is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage. Rome was probably a small settlement until the arrival of the Etruscans, who constructed the first elements of its urban infrastructure such as the drainage system. The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to

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4480-545: Is the town's oldest, crossed by a myriad of narrow alleys that date back to the Early Middle Ages . Casa Romei  [ it ] is perhaps the best preserved Medieval building in Ferrara. It was the private residence of merchant Giovanni Romei, related by marriage to the Este family, and likely the work of the court architect Pietrobono Brasavola. Thanks to the nuns of the Corpus Domini order, much of

4620-610: The Addizione Erculea , features a number of Renaissance palazzi . Among the finest is Palazzo dei Diamanti ("Diamond Palace"), named after the diamond points into which the façade's stone blocks are cut. The palazzo houses the National Picture Gallery, with a large collection of the school of Ferrara, which first rose to prominence in the latter half of the 15th century, with Cosimo Tura , Francesco Cossa and Ercole dei Roberti . Noted masters of

4760-586: The Empire of Austria . A bastion fort was erected in the 1600s by Pope Paul V on the site the Castel Tedaldo , an old castle at the south-west angle of the town, this was occupied by an Austrian garrison from 1832 until 1859. The fortress was completely dismantled following the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the bricks were used for new constructions throughout the town. During the last decades of

4900-608: The Gauls , and as a result may have lost many – though not all – of its earlier records. Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus , the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, Demaratus of Corinth ) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians would argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome

5040-653: The Italian Peninsula . According to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos , there was a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians. There is some evidence suggesting a link between the island of Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The Lemnos Stele bears inscriptions in

5180-627: The Italian Wars after joining the League of Cambrai . In 1509 he was excommunicated by Pope Julius II , but was able to overcome the Papal and Spanish armies in 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna . These successes were based on Ferrara's artillery, produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time. Upon his death in 1534, Alfonso I was succeeded by his son Ercole II , whose marriage in 1528 to

5320-615: The Italian communes is the City Council ( Consiglio Comunale ), which, in towns having between 100,000 and 250,000 population, is composed by 32 councillors elected every five years with a proportional system, contextually to the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Committee ( Giunta Comunale ), composed by 12 assessors , that is nominated and presided over by a directly elected mayor. The current mayor of Ferrara

5460-464: The Middle Ages , and that sometimes reveals the influence of its important Jewish community. The signature dish is cappellacci di zucca , special ravioli with a filling of butternut squash , Parmesan and flavored with nutmeg . It is served with a sauce of butter and sage or bolognese sauce . Another peculiar dish, that was allegedly cooked by Renaissance chef Cristoforo di Messisbugo ,

5600-528: The Mirandola fortress. The besieged garrison made several sorties from the Saint Paul's Gate, which were repulsed by the insurgent peasants. The French attempted two rescues of the beleaguered fortress: the first, on 24 April, when a force of 400 Modenese was repulsed at Mirandola and the second, General Montrichard tried to raise the city-blockade by advancing with a force of 4,000. Finally, at

5740-651: The Neolithic and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T ) and U5 , with a minority of mtDNA H1b . An earlier mtDNA study published in 2004, based on about 28 samples of individuals, who lived from 600 to 100 BC, in Veneto , Etruria, and Campania, stated that

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5880-482: The Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a pomerium or sacred ditch. Then, they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius ). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form Ruma-χ meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with

6020-713: The Papacy in 754 or 756. In 988 Ferrara was ceded by the Church to the House of Canossa , but at the death of Matilda of Tuscany in 1115 it became a free commune . During the 12th century the history of the town was marked by the wrestling for power between two preeminent families, the Guelph Adelardi and the Ghibelline Salinguerra. The powerful Imperial House of Este threw their decisive weight behind

6160-603: The Prehistory , Etruscan age, Roman age , Renaissance , and Present-day, and concluded that the Etruscans appear as a local population, intermediate between the prehistoric and the other samples, placing in the temporal network between the Eneolithic Age and the Roman Age. A couple of mitochondrial DNA studies, published in 2013 in the journals PLOS One and American Journal of Physical Anthropology , based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that

6300-490: The Renaissance . He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time, and his main opponent was Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). During the time that Renée of France was Duchess of Ferrara, her court attracted Protestant thinkers such as John Calvin and Olympia Fulvia Morata . The court became hostile to Protestant sympathizers after the marriage of Renée's daughter Anna d'Este to

6440-605: The Roman Kingdom became the Roman Republic . Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of Etruria (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps , and that of Campania . The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy . The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500 BC, the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from

6580-847: The Turks (four haplotypes in common), and the Tuscans (two haplotypes in common). While, the modern populations with the shortest genetic distance from the ancient Etruscans, based solely on mtDNA and FST, were Tuscans followed by the Turks, other populations from the Mediterranean and the Cornish after. This study was much criticized by other geneticists, because "data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences" and "any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous", and archaeologists, who argued that

6720-407: The "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks", respectively. The 5th-century BC historians Herodotus , and Thucydides and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo , did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of

6860-539: The (Alpine) Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici . All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls , their leader was named Raetus. The question of the origins of the Etruscans has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered so far by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an autochthonous origin of

7000-464: The 16th century best known for madrigals is thought to have been born in Ferrara. Ferrara is the birthplace of Italian film directors Michelangelo Antonioni and Florestano Vancini . The latter shot in Ferrara his 1960 film Long Night in 1943 . The town was also the setting of the famous 1970 movie The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Vittorio De Sica , that tells the vicissitudes of

7140-416: The 16th-century School of Ferrara include Lorenzo Costa and Dosso Dossi , the most eminent of all, Girolamo da Carpi and Benvenuto Tisi (il Garofalo) . The district is also home to University of Ferrara Botanic Garden . The town is still almost totally encircled by 9 kilometres (6 miles) of ancient brick walls , mostly built between 1492 and 1520. Today the walls, after a careful restoration, make up

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7280-407: The 1800s and the early 1900s, Ferrara remained a modest trade centre for its large rural hinterland that relied on commercial crops such as sugar beet and industrial hemp . Large land reclamation works were carried out for decades with the aim to expand the available arable land and eradicate malaria from the wetlands along the Po delta. Mass industrialisation came to Ferrara only at the end of

7420-739: The 1930s with the set-up of a chemical plant by the Fascist regime that should have supplied the regime with synthetic rubber . During the Second World War Ferrara was repeatedly bombed by Allied warplanes that targeted and destroyed railway links and industrial facilities. After the war, the industrial area in Pontelagoscuro was expanded to become a giant petrochemical compound operated by Montecatini and other companies, that at its peak employed 7,000 workers and produced 20% of plastics in Italy. In recent decades, as part of

7560-561: The 3rd century BC. According to legend, there was a period between 600 BC and 500 BC in which an alliance was formed among twelve Etruscan settlements, known today as the Etruscan League , Etruscan Federation , or Dodecapolis ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Δωδεκάπολις ). According to a legend, the Etruscan League of twelve cities was founded by Tarchon and his brother Tyrrhenus . Tarchon lent his name to

7700-664: The Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy". In his 2021 book, A Short History of Humanity , German geneticist Johannes Krause , co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena , concludes that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque , Paleo-Sardinian , and Minoan ) "developed on

7840-405: The Este Castle, adjacent to the Corso Roma, now known as the Corso Martiri della Libertà, was the site of an infamous massacre in 1943. On December 13, 2017, the first day of Hanukkah , Italy's Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah opened on the site of a restored two-story brick prison built in 1912 that counted Jews among its detainees during the Fascist period. This is the initial phase of

7980-420: The Etruscan individuals the ancestral component Steppe was present in the same percentages found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and in the Etruscan DNA was completely absent a signal of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Both Etruscans and Latins joined firmly the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscans were a mixture of WHG, EEF, and Steppe ancestry; 75% of

8120-439: The Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to haplogroup R1b (R1b M269) , especially its clade R1b-P312 and its derivative R1b-L2 , whose direct ancestor is R1b-U152 , while the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was H . The conclusions of the 2021 study are in line with a 2019 study previously published in the journal Science that analyzed the remains of eleven Iron Age individuals from

8260-429: The Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual small cities, and probably in its prominent individual families. At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the Celts to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries. According to Dionysius the Etruscans called themselves Rasenna (Greek Ῥασέννα),

8400-418: The Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity, and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European or West Asian , but only a few haplotypes were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among Germans (seven haplotypes in common), the Cornish from the South West of Britain (five haplotypes in common),

8540-549: The Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic . The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700 BC. The Etruscans developed a system of writing derived from the Euboean alphabet , which was used in the Magna Graecia (coastal areas located in Southern Italy ). The Etruscan language remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In

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8680-435: The Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage , whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica . From

8820-501: The Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to fall very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe ( Germany , Austria , Hungary ) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the Villanovan culture , as already supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research, and that genetic links between Tuscany and western Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago during

8960-399: The Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians. Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian Xanthus of Lydia , who was originally from Sardis and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of

9100-407: The Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what

9240-502: The Etruscans. There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria. Modern etruscologists and archeologists, such as Massimo Pallottino (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless. In 2000, the etruscologist Dominique Briquel explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek narratives on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents. He argues that

9380-410: The Finzi-Continis , Long Night in 1943 ). In historical fiction, British author Sarah Dunant set her 2009 novel Sacred Hearts in a convent in Ferrara. Ferrara gave birth to Girolamo Savonarola , the famous medieval Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning , destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to

9520-447: The Greek island of Lemnos . They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" ( τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον Πελασγικόν, τῶν καὶ Λῆμνόν ποτε καὶ Ἀθήνας Τυρσηνῶν ). As Strabo and Herodotus told it, the migration to Lemnos was led by Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, the son of Atys (who was king of Lydia). Strabo added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to

9660-441: The Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations. The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures, and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean, that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to other several civilizations in

9800-426: The Latins. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to Dionysus referred to them as pirates. Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east, and did not associate them with the Pelasgians. It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with

9940-422: The Lydians. For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship

10080-462: The M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from Croatia (1631–1531 BC). While the four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1 , H , T2b32 , K1a4 . Among the older studies, only based on mitochondrial DNA, a mtDNA study, published in 2018 in the journal American Journal of Physical Anthropology , compared both ancient and modern samples from Tuscany, from

10220-479: The Middle Ages to the present day. It played an important role when Ferrara enjoyed its greatest splendor in the 15th and 16th century, with the duke Ercole I d'Este . The situation of the Jews deteriorated in 1598, when the Este dynasty moved to Modena and the city came under papal control. The Jewish settlement, located in three streets forming a triangle near the cathedral, became a ghetto in 1627. Apart from

10360-632: The Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan ethnogenesis was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Phoenician-Punic colonies in Sardinia , and the consequent orientalizing period . One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of

10500-508: The Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī , Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum ( Tyrrhenian Sea ). The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī (singular Tuscus ). Their Roman name is the origin of the terms " Toscana ", which refers to their heartland, and " Etruria ", which can refer to their wider region. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been

10640-604: The Salinguerra and eventually reaped the benefits of victory for themselves. Thus, in 1264 Obizzo II d'Este was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara, taking the additional titles of Lord of Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Este rule, which lasted until 1598. In 1452 Borso d'Este was created duke of Modena and Reggio by Emperor Frederick III and in 1471 duke of Ferrara by Pope Paul II . Lionello and, especially, Ercole I were among

10780-537: The Umbrian word for "Etruscan", based on an inscription on an ancient bronze tablet from a nearby region. The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen , literally "the Tuscan name". Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci, which would, through metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis , be likely to lead to the form, E-trus-ci . As for

10920-525: The actions by Riario, Pope Sixtus IV condemns Riario and accepts Lorenzo's invitation to a peace conference in Bagnolo. The attack by Riario’s men on Ferrara was filmed at Castle of Oliveto in Castelfiorentino , once the residence of the noble Pucci family of Florence. The Palio of St. George is a medieval-themed horse race held every last Sunday of May. Established in 1279, it is probably

11060-582: The analysis of ancient samples) was not yet possible. It is only in very recent years, with the development of archaeogenetics , that comprehensive studies containing the whole genome sequencing of Etruscan samples have been published, including autosomal DNA and Y-DNA , autosomal DNA being the "most valuable to understand what really happened in an individual's history", as stated by geneticist David Reich , whereas previously studies were based only on mitochondrial DNA analysis, which contains less and limited information. An archeogenetic study focusing on

11200-476: The ancient Greek civilization. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly subsumed by greater, more powerful neighbors. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in

11340-482: The ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and on the mere fact that there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks. He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact

11480-537: The area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, which is a Continental European practice, derived from the Urnfield culture ; there is nothing about it that suggests an ethnic contribution from Asia Minor or the Near East . A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings, based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities, showed

11620-727: The areas around Rome, of which four were Etruscan individuals, one buried in Veio Grotta Gramiccia from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near Civitavecchia from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the Latins (900–500 BC) from Latium vetus were genetically similar, with genetic differences between

11760-896: The central and western Mediterranean up to the Iberian Peninsula . Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the Tomb of the Augurs , the Tomb of the Triclinium or the Tomb of the Leopards , as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia , were painted by Greek painters or, in any case, foreigner artists. These images have, therefore,

11900-522: The cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites . In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast . Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars , Etruria was conquered by Rome in

12040-507: The city of Tarchna , or Tarquinnii, as it was known by the Romans. Tyrrhenus gave his name to the Tyrrhenians , the alternative name for the Etruscans. Although there is no consensus on which cities were in the league, the following list may be close to the mark: Arretium , Caisra , Clevsin , Curtun , Perusna , Pupluna , Veii , Tarchna , Vetluna , Volterra , Velzna , and Velch . Some modern authors include Rusellae . The league

12180-484: The continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution ". The Etruscan civilization begins with the early Iron Age Villanovan culture , regarded as the oldest phase, that occupied a large area of northern and central Italy during the Iron Age. The Etruscans themselves dated the origin of the Etruscan nation to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC. The Villanovan culture emerges with

12320-621: The court she assembled about her in Ferrara corresponded to the tradition which the cultivation of science and art implicitly required, including scholars like Bernardo Tasso and Fulvio Pellegrini Morato . Their first child, Anna , born in 1531, who was married to Francis, Duke of Guise , was followed by Alfonso in 1533; Lucrezia in 1535, who was married to the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere ; and later Eleonora and Luigi , whose education she carefully directed. Once he became

12460-414: The depiction of a fasces on the grave stele of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word populus , which appears as an Etruscan deity, Fufluns . The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. It

12600-565: The end of the German occupation. During the Second World War, 96 of Ferrara's 300 Jews were deported to German concentration and death camps; five survived. The Italian Jewish writer, Giorgio Bassani , was from Ferrara. His celebrated book, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis , was published in Italian as Giardino dei Finzi-Contini, 1962, by Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a. It was made into a film by Vittorio de Sica in 1970. During WWII,

12740-466: The end of the month, a column led by Pierre-Augustin Hulin reached and relieved the fortress. Klenau took possession of the town on 21 May, and garrisoned it with a light battalion. The Jewish residents of Ferrara paid 30,000  ducats to prevent the pillage of the city by Klenau's forces; this was used to pay the wages of Gardani's troops. Although Klenau held the town, the French still possessed

12880-554: The examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant. The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of c.  30% steppe ancestry . Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds Copper Age ancestry ( EEF + WHG ; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%), and one-third Steppe-related ancestry (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%). The only sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283) , found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried exactly

13020-524: The fervently Catholic Duke of Guise. The Ferrarese musician Girolamo Frescobaldi was one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. His masterpiece Fiori musicali ( Musical Flowers ) is a collection of liturgical organ music first published in 1635. It became the most famous of Frescobaldi's works and was studied centuries after his death by numerous composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach . Maurizio Moro (15??–16??) an Italian poet of

13160-523: The figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability. A number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in

13300-412: The first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily . A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae . Etruria's influence over

13440-536: The form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family. The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome , had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as

13580-442: The fortress with a modest mixed force of Austrian cavalry, artillery and infantry augmented by Italian peasant rebels, commanded by Count Antonio Bardaniand and demanded its capitulation. The commander refused. Klenau blockaded the city, leaving a small group of artillery and troops to continue the siege. For the next three days, Klenau patrolled the countryside, capturing the surrounding strategic points of Lagoscuro , Borgoforte and

13720-493: The golden crown, the sceptre, the toga palmata (a special robe), the sella curulis ( curule chair ), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the fasces . The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe , carried by the king's lictors . An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan Vetulonia . This allowed archaeologists to identify

13860-433: The growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the gens at Rome and perhaps even its model. The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the center of the society was the married couple, tusurthir . The Etruscans were

14000-603: The introduction, for example, of writing, of a new way of banqueting, of a heroic funerary ideology, that is, a new aristocratic way of life, such as to profoundly change the physiognomy of Etruscan society. Thus, thanks to the growing number of contacts with the Greeks, the Etruscans entered what is called the Orientalizing phase . In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from

14140-515: The last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous Proto-Villanovan culture , and that the subsequent Iron Age Villanovan culture is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization. It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaean world at the end of the Bronze Age. However contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of Greece , Aegean Sea Islands, Asia Minor, and

14280-471: The main façade, with arcades of pointed arches, dates from the 13th century. The recumbent marble lions guarding the portals are copies of the originals, now in the cathedral's museum. An elaborated 13th-century relief depicting the Last Judgement is found in the second storey of the porch. The interior was restored in baroque style in 1712. The marble campanile attributed to Leon Battista Alberti

14420-423: The most advanced areas of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East . Also directly Phoenician, or otherwise Near Eastern, craftsmen, merchants and artists contributed to the spread in southern Europe of Near Eastern cultural and artistic motifs. The last three phases of Etruscan civilization are called, respectively, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic, which roughly correspond to the homonymous phases of

14560-434: The most important patrons of the arts in late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy. During this time, Ferrara grew into an international cultural centre, renowned for its architecture, music, literature and visual arts. The architecture of Ferrara greatly benefited from the genius of Biagio Rossetti , who was requested in 1484 by Ercole I to draft a masterplan for the expansion of the town. The resulting " Erculean Addition "

14700-449: The names of Andrea Mantegna , Vicino da Ferrara , Giovanni Bellini , Leon Battista Alberti , Pisanello , Piero della Francesca , Battista Dossi , Dosso Dossi , Cosmé Tura , Francesco del Cossa and Titian . In the 19th and 20th centuries, Ferrara again hosted and inspired numerous painters who grew fond of its eerie atmosphere. Among them Giovanni Boldini , Filippo de Pisis and Giorgio de Chirico . A large collection of paintings

14840-628: The names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age , marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic. Ercole II d%27Este, Duke of Ferrara Ercole II d'Este (4 April 1508 – 3 October 1559)

14980-459: The oldest such competition in the world. The Ferrara Buskers Festival is a non-competitive parade of street musicians from all over the world. At the 2017 edition, more than 1,000 artists from 35 different nations took part in the festival, including dancers, clowns, equilibrists, jugglers and other original performers. Additionally, the town hosts the yearly Ferrara Balloons Festival , a large hot-air balloon show. The town's football team, SPAL ,

15120-535: The origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were Pelasgians who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy and were not from Greece. The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians , was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod , in his work, the Theogony . He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside

15260-467: The original decorations in the inner rooms have been saved. The house features fresco cycles in the "Sala delle Sibille" ("room of sibyls"), an original terracotta fireplace bearing the coat of arms of Giovanni Romei in the adjoining Saletta dei Profeti ("room of the prophets"), depicting allegories from the Bible, and in other rooms, some of which were commissioned by cardinal Ippolito d'Este , paintings by

15400-624: The original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the word Latin turris , means "tower", and comes from the ancient Greek word for tower: τύρσις , likely a loan into Greek. On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders". This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to

15540-513: The origins of the Etruscans; however, the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population. The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture , considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in

15680-417: The past, has been to associate the later Orientalizing period of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves, and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria. Orientalizing period in the Etruscans was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with

15820-593: The phenomenon of regionalization from the late Bronze Age culture called " Proto-Villanovan ", part of the central European Urnfield culture system . In the last Villanovan phase, called the recent phase (about 770–730 BC), the Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first Greek immigrants in southern Italy (in Pithecusa and then in Cuma ), so much so as to initially absorb techniques and figurative models and soon more properly cultural models, with

15960-482: The population was Italian . The largest immigrant group was other European nations with Ukraine and Albania : 2.59% followed by North Africa: 0.51%, and East Asia : 0.39%. The city is predominantly Roman Catholic , with small Orthodox Christian adherents. The historical Jewish community is still surviving. The Jewish community of Ferrara is the only one in Emilia Romagna with a continuous presence from

16100-471: The presence of a special court of the Inquisition in Ferrara. Ercole brought accusations of heresy against his wife to King Henry II of France and Inquisitor Oriz in 1554, and she subsequently confessed. Ercole sided with Pope Paul IV and France against Spain in 1556 , but made a separate peace agreement in 1558. He was also a patron of the arts along with his brother, Cardinal Ippolito , who built

16240-461: The question of Etruscan origins was published in September 2021 in the journal Science Advances and analyzed the autosomal DNA and the uniparental markers (Y-DNA and mtDNA) of 48 Iron Age individuals from Tuscany and Lazio , spanning from 800 to 1 BC, and concluding that the Etruscans were autochthonous (locally indigenous), and they had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. In

16380-515: The regional capital, Bologna , and 87 km (54 mi) south of Venice . The territory of the municipality, entirely part of the Padan plain , is overwhelmingly flat, situated on average just 9 metres (30 ft) above sea-level. The proximity to the largest Italian river has been a constant concern in the history of Ferrara, that has been affected by recurrent, disastrous floods, the latest occurring as recently as 1951. The Idrovia Ferrarese links

16520-630: The right bank of the main branch of the Po, which then ran much closer to the city than today, and a castrum , a fortified complex built on the left bank of the river to defend against the Lombards. Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, when he captured the town from the Exarchate of Ravenna . Later the Franks , after routing the Lombards, presented Ferrara to

16660-529: The river Po from Ferrara to the Adriatic at Porto Garibaldi. The climate of the Po valley is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa) under the Köppen climate classification , a type of climate commonly referred to as "warm temperate" that features mild winters and hot summers, heavy rains in spring and autumn but there is also a lot of rain even in the driest month of January for Ferrara. The legislative body of

16800-535: The same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyrscoï [an earlier form of Tusci]. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna. Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian Livy , in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri , said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin. The Alpine tribes have also, no doubt,

16940-523: The same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living. The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus

17080-649: The same origin (of the Etruscans), especially the Raetians; who have been rendered so savage by the very nature of the country as to retain nothing of their ancient character save the sound of their speech, and even that is corrupted. The first-century historian Pliny the Elder also put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north, and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79): Adjoining these

17220-514: The same region, part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Etruscan civilization dominated Italy until it fell to the expanding Rome beginning in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars ; Etruscans were granted Roman citizenship in 90 BC, and only in 27 BC the whole Etruscan territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire . The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 500 BC, shortly after

17360-463: The same suffix -χ : Velzna-χ '(someone) from Volsinii' and Sveama-χ '(someone) from Sovana '. This in itself, however, is not enough to prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from θefarie , then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar ( Tiber ) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390 BC, the city of Rome was attacked by

17500-434: The school of Camillo and Cesare Filippi (16th century). Palazzo Schifanoia was built in 1385 for Alberto V d'Este . The palazzo includes frescoes depicting the life of Borso d'Este , the signs of the zodiac and allegorical representations of the months. The vestibule was decorated with stucco mouldings by Domenico di Paris  [ it ] . The building also contains fine choir-books with miniatures and

17640-503: The second daughter of Louis XII , Renée of France , brought great prestige to the court of Ferrara. Under his reign, the Duchy remained an affluent country and a cultural powerhouse. However, an earthquake struck the town in 1570, causing the economy to collapse, and when Ercole II's son Alfonso II died without heirs in 1597, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the Papal States . Ferrara,

17780-466: The simple Latins. The proposed etymology has a long history, Dionysius of Halicarnassus having observed in the first century B. C., "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers." In his recent Etymological Dictionary of Greek , Robert Beekes claims the Greek word is a "loanword from

17920-420: The south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron , led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea . Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia , Spain and Corsica . This led

18060-572: The study was not clear-cut and had not provided evidence that the Etruscans were an intrusive population to the European context. In the collective volume Etruscology published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins, echoing an earlier article of his from 2009, provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes that "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that [the] Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in

18200-609: The town's fortress. After making the standard request for surrender at 08:00, which was refused, Klenau ordered a barrage from his mortars and howitzers. After two magazines caught fire, the commandant was summoned again to surrender; there was some delay, but a flag of truce was sent at 21:00, and the capitulation was concluded at 01:00 the next day. Upon taking possession of the fortress, Klenau found 75 new artillery pieces, plus ammunition and six months worth of provisions. In 1938, Mussolini's fascist government instituted racial laws reintroducing segregation of Jews which lasted until

18340-444: The very centre of the town, is iconic of Ferrara. A very large manor house featuring four massive bastions and a moat, it was erected in 1385 by architect Bartolino da Novara with the function to protect the town from external threats and to serve as a fortified residence for the Este family. It was extensively renovated in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Cathedral of Saint George , designed by Wiligelmus and consecrated in 1135,

18480-544: The “infans Romanus”. Ercole played an indirect role in the 1527 Sack of Rome . Emperor Charles V 's army crossed the Alps in 1526 but was unable to bring their heavy artillery with them. They sought to make a deal with Ercole, who subsequently provided the army with the necessary artillery to later advance on and sack the city of Rome. In April 1528, he married Renée of France , the second daughter of Louis XII , King of France, and Anne of Brittany . Renée received from Francis I of France an ample dowry and annuity. Thus

18620-735: Was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559. He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia . Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander VI , nephew of Cesare Borgia , and cousin of Saint Francis Borgia . Through his father, he was nephew of both Isabella d'Este , "the First Lady of the Renaissance ", and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este . His siblings included Ippolito II , Archbishop of Milan and later Cardinal, nun Leonora, and Francesco, Marchese di Massalombarda. His half-siblings included Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon, Lucrezia's son by Alfonso of Aragon , Duke of Bisceglie , and perhaps Giovanni Borgia ,

18760-413: Was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome. Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills – the steeper the better – and surrounded by thick walls. According to Roman mythology , when Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on

18900-757: Was a 1553 publication of the Ladino version of the Tanakh used by Sephardi Jews . It was paid for and made by Yom-Tob ben Levi Athias (the Spanish Marrano Jerónimo de Vargas , as typographer) and Abraham ben Salomon Usque (the Portuguese Jew Duarte Pinhel , as translator), and was dedicated to Ercole II d'Este . In the 20th century, Ferrara was the home and workplace of writer Giorgio Bassani , well known for his novels that were often adapted for cinema ( The Garden of

19040-512: Was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy , with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany , western Umbria , and northern Lazio , as well as what are now the Po Valley , Emilia-Romagna , south-eastern Lombardy , southern Veneto , and western Campania . A large body of literature has flourished on

19180-552: Was established in 1907. In 2017 it was promoted to Serie A , Italy's top-level football league, after a 49-year absence. Its home ground is Paolo Mazza Memorial Stadium , with a capacity of 16,134. Ferrara's basketball team Kleb Basket Ferrara competes in the Serie A2 Basket and plays its home games at the Palasport di Ferrara . The culinary tradition of Ferrara features many typical dishes that can be traced back to

19320-404: Was founded by Etruscans. Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius , the people were said to have been divided into thirty curiae and three tribes . Few Etruscan words entered Latin , but the names of at least two of the tribes – Ramnes and Luceres – seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title lucumo , while the regalia were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin –

19460-499: Was initiated in 1412 but is still incomplete, missing one projected additional storey and a dome, as it can be observed from numerous historical prints and paintings on the subject. Near the cathedral and the castle also lies the 15th-century city hall, that served as an earlier residence of the Este family, featuring a grandiose marble flight of stairs and two ancient bronze statues of Niccolò III and Borso of Este. The southern district

19600-502: Was mostly an economic and religious league, or a loose confederation, similar to the Greek states. During the later imperial times, when Etruria was just one of many regions controlled by Rome, the number of cities in the league increased by three. This is noted on many later grave stones from the 2nd century BC onwards. According to Livy , the twelve city-states met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae at Volsinii , where

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