FERRARI
47
FERRARI
the Schifanoia, Diamanti, Rovella, Scrofa-Calcagnini,
and other palaces. The more famous among the
painters were Benvenuto Tisi (Garofalo), Ercole
Grandi, Ippolito Scarsello, the brothers Dossi, and
Girolamo da Carpi. Alfonso Cittadella, the sculptor,
left immortal works in the duomo, or cathedral (Christ
and the Apostles), and in San Giovanni (Madonna).
Churches of note are the cathedral, SS. Benedetto and
Francesco, San Domenioo (with its beautiful carved
choir stalls of the fourteenth century). The most
famous work of ecclesiastical architecture is the mag-
nificent Certosa. The university was founded in 1391
by Boniface IX. Ferrara was the birthplace of Sa-
vonarola and of the great theologian, Silvestro di P^er-
rara, both Dominicans.
The earliest bishop of certain date is Constantine, present at Rome in S61; St. Maurelius (patron of the city) must have lived before this time. Some think that the bishops of Ferrara are the successors to those of \'igonza (the ancient Vicuhabentia). Other bish- ops of note are Filippo Fontana (1243), to whom Inno- cent IV entrusted the task of inducing the German princes to depose Frederick II; Blessed Alberto Pan- doni (1261) and Blessed Giovanni di Tossignano (1431); the two Ippolito d'Este (1520 and 155(1) and Luigi d'Este (1553), all three munificent patrons of learning and the arts; Alfonso Rossetti (1563), Paolo Leoni (1579), Giovanni Fontana (1590), and Lorenzo Magalotti (1628), all four of whom eagerly supported the reforms of the Council of Trent; finally, the saintly Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi (1823). Up to 1717 the Archbishop of Ravenna claimed metropolitan rights over Ferrara; in 1735 Clement XII raised the see to archiepiscopal rank, without suffragans. It has 89 parishes and numbers 130,752 souls; there are two educational institutions for boys and six for girls, nine religious houses of men and nineteen of women.
Cappelletti, Le Chicse d'ltalia (Venice. 1S46), IV, 9-11, 24-226; Fhizzi, Memorie per la Storia di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1791); Agnelli, Ferrara in Italia Arlistica (Bergamo, 1902).
Council of Ferrara. — When Saloniki (Thessa- lonica) fell into the hands of the Turks (1429) the Em- peror John Pala!ologus approached Martin V, Eugene IV, and the (^'ouncil of Basle to secure help against the Turks and to convoke a council for the reunion of the two Churches, as the only means of efficaciously re- sisting Islam. At first it was proposed to hold the council in some seaport town of Italy; then Constanti- nople was suggested. The members of the Council of Basle held out for Basle or Avignon. Finally (IS Sep- tember, 1437), Eugene IV decided that the council would be held at Ferrara, that city being acceptable to the Greeks. The council was opened S January, 1438, by Cardinal Nicolo -fybergati, and the pope attended on 27 January. The synodal officers were divided into three classes: (1) the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops; (2) the abbots and prelates; (3) doctors of theology and canon law. Before the arrival of the Greeks, proclamation was made that all further action by the Council of Basle as such would be null and void. The Greeks, i. e. the emperor with a train of archbish- ops, bishops, and learned men (700 in all), landed at Venice S February and were cordially received and welcomed in the pope's name by Ambrogio Traversari, the General of the (i'araaldolese. On 4 IMarch the em- peror entered Ferrara. The Greek bishops came a little later. Questions of precedence and ceremonial caused no small difficulty. P^or preparatory discus- sions on all controverted points a committee of ten from either side was appointed. Among them were Marcus Eugenicus, Archbishop of Ephesus; Bessarion, Archbishop of Nica?a; Balsamon; Siropolos and others, for the Greeks; while Cardinals Giuliano Cesarini and Nicolo Albergati, Giovanni Turrecremata, and others represented the Latins. The Greek Emperor pre- vented a discussion on the Procession of the Holy Spirit and on the use of leavened bread. For months
the only thing discussed or written about was the ec-
clesiastical teaching on purgatory. The uncertainty
of the Greeks on this head was the cause of the delay.
The emperor's object was to bring about a general
union without any concessions on the part of the
Greeks in matters of doctrine. Everybody deplored
the delay, and a few of the Greeks, among them Mar-
cus Eugenicus, attempted to depart secretly, but they
were obliged to return.
The sessions began 8 October, and from the opening of the third session the question of the Procession of the Holy Spirit was constantly before the council. Marcus Eugenicus blamed the Latins for having added the "Filioque" to the Nicene Creed despite the pro- hibition of the Council of Ephesus (431). The chief speakers on behalf of the Latins were Andrew, Bishop of Rhodes, and Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, who pointed out that the addition was dogmatically cor- rect and not at all contrary to the prohibition of the ('Ouncil of Ephesus, nor to the teaching of the Greek Fathers. Bessarion admitted the orthodoxy of the "Filioque" teaching, but maintained it ought not to have been added to the (jreed. Twelve sessions were (III-XV) taken up with this controversy. On both sides many saw no hope of an agreement, and once more many Greeks were eager to return home. Fi- nally the emperor perm.itted his followers to proceed to the discussion of the orthodoxy of the "Filioque". In the meantime the people of Florence had invited the pope to accept for himself and the council the hospi- tality of their city. They hoped in this way to reap great financial profit. The offer was accompanied by a large gift of money. Eugene IV, already at a loss for funds and obliged to furnish hospitality and money to the Greeks (who had come to Italy in the pope's own fleet), gladly accepted the offer of the Florentines. The Greeks on their part agreed to the change. The council thus quitted Ferrara without having accom- plished anything, principally because the emperor and Marcus Eugenicus did not wish to reach an agreement in matters of doctrine. (See Florence, Council of.)
Mansi, Coll. i-<;ir.. XXIX: Hardooin, Coll. Cone, IX; Hefele, Kon::h: n:},:rhi,-l,i,' (2nd ed.), VII; Cecconi, Studi slorici std connli,i di Fir, it:,' (Florence, 1869).
U. Benigni. Ferrari, Bartiielemy, Venerable. See Barna-
BITES.
Ferrari, Gaudenzio, an Italian painter and the greatest master of the Piedmontese School, b. at Val- duggia, near Novara, Italy, c. 1470; d. at Milan, 31 January, 1546. His work is vast but poorly known. He seems never to have left his beloved Piedmont or Lombardy save perhaps on one occasion. He had seen Leonardo at work in Milan (1490-98), and had learned from him lessons in expression and in model- ling. But he owed more to his compatriots in the North: to Bramante and Bramantino in architec- tural details, above all to Mantegna, whose frescoes of the " Life of St. James" inspired more than one of his paintings at Varallo.
Nothing is more uncertain than the history of the great man. His earliest known works belong to the years 1508 and 1511 ; at that time he was about forty years of age. He would seem to have been formed in the good old Milanese school of such men as Borgo- gnone, Zenale, and Butinone, which kept aloof from the brilliant fashion in art favoured by the court of the Sforzas, and which prolonged the fifteenth century with its archaisms of expression. Gaudenzio, the youngest and frankest of this group, never fell under the influence of Leonardo, and hence it is that on one point he always held out against the new spirit; he would never dally with the paganism or rationalism of Renaissance art. He was as passionately naturalistic as any painter of his time, before all else, however, he was a Christian artist. He is the only truly religious master of the Italian Renaissance, and this trait it is
