A certain crimsonlike color.
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Modena
Encyclopedia Britannica
MODENA, one of the principal cities of Northern Italy, formerly the capital of a duchy, and still the chief town of a province and the seat of an archbishop, is situated in the open country in the south side of the valley of the Po, between the Secchia to the west and the Panaro to the cast. By rail it is 31 miles E.S.E. of Parma, 24 W.N.W. of Bologna, and 37 S. of Mantua. The observatory stands 135 feet above the level of the sea, in 44° 38' 52" N. lat. and 10° 55' 42" E. long. Dismantled since 1816, and now largely converted into promenades, the fortifications still give the city an irregular pentagonal contour, modified at the north-west corner by the addition of a citadel also pentagonal. Within this circuit there are various open areas— the spacious Piazza d’Armi in front of the citadel, the public gardens in the north-east of the city, the Piazza Grande in front of the cathedral, and the Piazza Beale to the south of the palace. The Aemilian Way crosses obliquely right through the heart of the city, from the Bologna Gate in the east to that of Sant’ Agostino in the west. Commenced by the countess Matilda in 1099, after the designs of Lanfranc, and consecrated in 1184, the cathedral (St Geminian’s) is a low but handsome building, with a lofty crypt, three eastern apses, and a façade still preserving some curious sculptures of the 12th and 15th centuries. The bell-tower, named La öhirlandina from the bronze garland surrounding the weathercock, is lined with white marble, and is 315 feet high; in the basement maybe seen the wooden bucket captured by the Modenese from the Bolognese in the affray at Zappolino (1325), and rendered famous by Tassoni’s Secchia Jiapita. Of the other churches in Modena, San Pietro has terra-cottas by the local artist Begarelli, ...and S. Agostino (now S. Michele) contains the tomb of Sigonius and the tombstone of Muratori. The old ducal palace, begun by Duke Francis I. in 1635 from the designs of Avanzini, and finished by Francis Ferdinand V., is an extensive marble building, and now contains the library {Bib. Palatina, see vol. xiv. p. 530), picture-gallery, and museum. Many of the best pictures in the ducal collection were sold in the 18th century, and found their way to Dresden. The valuable Museo Lapidario in a building near Porta Sant’ Agostino is well known to the classical antiquary through Cavedoni’s Dichiarazione degli antichi marmi Modenesi (1828), and the supplements in the Memoirs of the Academy, vol. ix., <fcc. The university of Modena, originally founded in 1683 by Francis II., is mainly a medical and legal school, but has also a faculty of physical and mathematical science. It has about twenty-five professors, and from 200 to 250 students; a library of 20,000 volumes, an observatory, botanical gardens, an ethnographical museum, <kc. The old academy of tlιe Dissonanti, dating from 1684, was restored by Francis in 1814, and now forms the flourishing Royal Academy of Science and Art {Memoirs since 1833); and there are besides in the city an Italian Society of Science founded by Anton Mario Lorgna, an academy of fine arts, a military college (1859), an important agricultural college, and a lyceum and gymnasium, both named after Muratori. In industrial enterprise the Modenese show but little activity, silk and linen goods and iron-wares being almost the only products of any note. Commerce is stimulated by a good position in the railway system, and by a canal which opens a water-way by the Panaro and the Po to the Adriatic. The population of the city was 32,248 in 1861, and 30,854 in 1871; that of the commune 55,512 in 1861, and 58,058 in 1881.
The Duchy of Modena, an independent sovereign state (1452 to 1859), ultimately extended from the Po to the Mediterranean, and was bounded N. by Lombardy and the Papal States, E. by the Papal States and Tuscany, S. by Tuscany, Sardinia, and the Mediterranean, and W. by Sardinia and the duchy of Parma. Its greatest length, from Porto-Vecchio, on its northern frontier towards Mantua, to the outlet of the Parmignola torrent, on the Sardinian frontier, was 84 J miles; and its greatest width, from the pass of Calama, on the Papal and Tuscan frontier, to the right bank of the Enza, on the frontier of Parma, λvas 37 nules. The area was 2371 square miles, of which three-fifths were mountainous. In 1855 the population was C06,159. The duchy had six provinces—Modena, Reggio, Guastalla, Frignano, Garfagnana, Massa-Carrara.
Modena is the ancient Mutina, which was annexed by the Romans along with the rest of the territory of the Boii. In 183 b.c. Mutina became the seat of a Roman colony. During the civil wars Marcus Brutus held out within its walls against Pompeius in 78 b.c., and in 44 B,c. the place was defended by D. Brutus against Μ. Antony. 'Die 4th century found Mutina in a state of decay; the ravages of Attila and the troubles of the Lombard period left it a ruined city in a wasted land. In the 8th century its exiles founded, at a distance of 4 miles to the north-west, a new city, Città Geminiana (still represented by the village of Cittanova); but about the close of the 9th century Modena was restored and refortified by its bishop, Laedoinus. When it began to build its cathedral (1099 a.d.) the city was part of the possessions of the countess Matilda of Tuscany; but when, in 1184, the edifice was consecrated by Lucius III., it was a free community. In the wars between Frederick II. and Gregory IX. it sided with the emperor, though ultimately the papal party was strong enough to introduce confusion into its policy. In 1288 Obizzo d’Este was recognized as lord of the city; after the death of his successor, Azzo VIII. (1308), it resumed its communal independence; but by 1336 the Este family was again in power. Constituted a duchy in 1452 in favour of Borso d’Este, and enlarged and strengthened by Hercules II., it became the ducal residence on the incorporation of Ferrara with the States of the Church (1598). Francis I. (1629-1658) erected the citadel and commenced the palace, which was largely embellished by Francis II. Rinaldo (ob. 1737) was twice driven from his city by French invasion. To Francis III. (1698-1780) the city was indebted for many of its public buildings. Hercules III. (1727-1803) saw his states transformed by the French into the Cispadine Republic, and, having refused the principality of Breisgau and Ortenau, offered him in compensation by the treaty of Campo Formio, died an exile at Treviso. His only daughter, Maria Beatrice, married Ferdinand of Austria (son of Maria Theresa), and in 1814 their eldest son, Ferdinand, received back the Stati Estensi. His rule was subservient to Austria, reactionary, and despotic. On the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1830,Francis IV.seemed for a time disposed to encourage the corresponding movement in Modena; but no sooner had the Austrian army put an end to the insurrection in Central Italy than he returned to his previous policy. Francis Ferdinand V., who succeeded in 1846, followed in the main his father’s example. Obliged to leave the city in 1848, he was restored by the Austrians in 1849; ten years later, on 20th August 1859, the representatives of the Modenese, under the direction of Carlo Farini, declared their territory part of the kingdom of Italy, and their decision was confirmed by the plebiscite of 1860.
Natives of Modena are Fallopius the anatomist, Tarquinia Molza, Sadoletius, Sigonius, Tassoni, and Cavedoni the archaeologist; the names of Zaccaria, Tiraboschi, and Muratori are associated with its library. Tiraboschi’s Bibliotheca Modcnensis, 6 vols., contains an account of all the literary personages of the duchy.
See Vedriani, Storia di Modena, 1666; Tiraboschi, Mem storiche modenesi, 1793; Scharfenberg, Gesell, des Herzogth. Modena, 1859; Oreste Raggi, Modena descritta, 1860; Baraldi, Storia di Modena; Valdrighi, Diz. Storico, dtc., delle contrade di Modena, 1879-80; Crespellani, Guida di Modena, 1879; Galvani, Mem. star, intomo la vita di Francesco IV., 4 vols.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 16, p. 541
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