History

HISTORICAL OUTLINE

The first reliable testimonies of Mirandola date back to the first half of the Xlth century. In a document of Nonantola of 1049, recorded in an abstract of goods of the XVllth century, the Court of Quarantoli is mentioned "cum castro Mirando", (L.A. Muratori, Antiquitates ltaliacae Medii Aevi, V, col. 680). From the origins, then, the place appears fortified and this will remain its peculiar aspect during the centuries. However, in this period, it is not possible yet to consider Mirandola the centre of a territorial district, as the area depended then on Quarantoll, seat of the church and of the curia.. The territory concerned belonged to the Canossa, who had obtained it in emphyteusis by the monastery of Nonantola and, in 1115, was entrusted by Mathilda to her vassal Hugo, son of that Manfredo, who IS con- sidered the founder of the dynasty of the so-called Manfredo's sons. The members of this dynasty, distinguished in the branches of the Pio, of the Pico, of the Papazzoni, of the Pedoca and of the Padella, belonged to the land lower aristocracy of Longobard extraction, who had grown much stronger by means of the armed service to the powerful houses of the area of the Po and then to the Communes. In fact, the Pico, before settling definitively at Mirandola, place of greatest concentration of their land properties, try to make fortune by exerting the office of Podestà in Reggio and in Modena. In 1154, Pico, nephew of Hugo and founder of the family of the Lords of Mirandola is Podestil in Reggio; in 1188, his son Manfredino is Podestil in Modena. And still at the beginning of the XIVth century, Francesco Pico was carrying out his office of Podestà in Modena. It is, on the contrary, in this way that he becomes powerful and in 1311, thanks to his services during the war against the Estensi, the emperor Henri VII of Luxembourg grants him the feud of Mirandola, Quarantoli and St. Possidonio, by excluding the other branches of the dynastic group of Manfredo's sons. Only now, it is possible to talk about a Mirandolese territory with exact connotations of public district. Then, a series of complicated operations are carri.ed out. in order to assure strength, autonomy and prestige to the small seignory. In 1354, Charles IV of Bohemia separates the feud of the Pico from the territory of Reggio, and declares it immediately subject to the Empire. In 1386, customs and laws are collected in an organic body (the Statutes) providing for the complicated institutional, social and economical life of the area: it is certain, however, that a similar attempt had been mad also previously. At the same time, churches and palaces are built in the centre. Towards the end of the XIVth century, through the good offices of Costanza Pico, the Church of Saint Franrcis is built instead of the small and humble one of the end of the Xlllth century.
All over the XVth century, there will be a further activity in this sense. Towards the half of the century the Cathedral (1440-1470) is built and soon after starts the building of the Town Hall (1468). In 1460 , the Monastery of Saint Ludovico is founded and in 1467, the Pico obtain the institutuion of the collegiate church from Pope Paul II. In 1495, the "Desco of the Poors" and the Pawnbroker's are established. In the meanwhile, in 1432, Giovanni Pico had been appointed Earl of Concordia by the Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. In Mirandola is granted the title of city and the Pico are appointed princes of Mirandola and marquises of Concordia. At last in 1617, Alessandro manages in being appointed Duke, thus reaching the top level in the hierarchy of jurisdictional offices: the Church of Jesus, built between 1621 and 1689, is a clear evidence of the celebration of this new dignity .

The Art in The Court

...Situated in the wide plain of the Po, Mirandola is one of those small but great Italian capital cities, which, for several centuries, as Carpi, Sabbioneta, Montagnana, Palmanova, ..., will playa strategic role in the great and more complicated game of politics, economics and culture dominated in Italy, throughout the XVth-XVlllth century, by the great Seignories and by Papacy while, in Europe, by the Empire and the great unitary States.
...City-State: it becomes already famous in the XVth century with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the philosopher who challenges the academical and religious world 01 his time.
Pico's utopy of a universal concord will later be followed by that utopy of the small cities not directly coming from Pico but theorized by Thomas Campanella with his City of Sun, and by Zuccolo, in his Happy City.
.Mirandola, as so many other small Italian capital cities, seems to anticipate and then support the theory of cities ideal for man: busy and rigorous, closely bound to aristocracy and clergy, a model of societas in compliance with laws, with established authorities, with man and nature. ...After the urban settlement and defensive works, it follows with the same determination and awareness of its pertaining destinies, a policy of cultural opening and artistic commissions, which embellish it and make it capital among the small capital cities.
The imposing boundary walls, which had become impregnable after the surrender to Pope Giulio II, the quality and quantity of churches, convents and religious orders, are indicative of that economic wealth stating beyond the appearance, the true rank of the Princes of Mirandola on the Italian, political, economic and cultural scene. ...In addition to works commissioned by Church, there was also the strong initiative of the Lords of Mirandola, who seem to discover in art values the peace and serenity sorely-tried by the struggles for dynastic successions and by the more general political climate in Italy.
As examples, the ancon of the Three Crosses probably ordered by Galeotto to Francesco Bianchi Ferrari, in the attempt of appeasing spirits and settling the disputes originated in the family by the exclusion of the brother Alessandro from the government and the Ages of man by Palma il Giovane and Santo Peranda, where the Lords of Mirandola themselves are differently portrayed among the craftsmen of human progress. ...Even if history is full of episodes where ordering Lords lend, so to say, their image also in sacred works to the artist and certainly also the Pico made use of that contrivance both for natural narcissism and persisting will of power -, it is however not to be denied to the Pico the value of the choice they carried out with respect to art and culture more in general. The fact that the Pico and also the Medici, the Gonzaga or the Este were in touch and among the artists, was certainly useful to their culture and, of course, to the civilization of the cities they ruled. Already from the beginning of the Xllth century, sculptores of Wiligelmo's and Nicolo's studio start working in the Parish Church of Ouarantoli. At the end of the XIVth century, Paolo di lacotJello carries out the grave of Prendiparte and a certain "Antonio da Mestre" probably makes the one of Spinetta. They are considered as some of the best examples of sepulchral sculpture of that time. However, It is certainly from the end of the XVth century -beginning of the XVlth century with Francesco Bianchi Ferrari, Giulio and Giacomo Francia and the master Giorgio, that starts the real golden age of Pico's art orders. ...Un age d'or counting Galeotto, Gianfrancesco II, Alessandro I and Alessandro II as well as Giulia Boiardo and Fulvia from Correggio among the real advocates of a city project drawing inspiration in culture but ending ingloriously with the sale of the Dukedom to the House of Este as a result of declared betrayal commanded by the Empire. But, in the meanwhile, tenths of artists had been able to work for Mirandola.
Among these, Palma ii Giovane, Giovan Gioseffo Dal Sole, Giovan Antonio Burrini, Ferdinando and Francesco Galli Bibiena, Giovan Francesco Cassana, the Boccia, the Donducci, Bartolomeo Cesi, Alessandro Tiarini, Innocenzo Monti, the Scarsellino and, among the many others who should and can be listed, the magnificent and refined court painter Santo Peranda.
Wood engravers as Bonelli, who carries out the altars of the Church of Jesus, Bolognese decorators, such as Paolo Zagnoni, Giulio Morina, Giovan Battista Cremonini; painters such as Matteo Borboni and Gioacchino Pizzoli, come to the end of that extraordinary season of factories existing in Mirandola from the XVlth up to the end of the XVllth century.
A season ending in the first decade of the XVllth century followed by a series of abstractions, losses and devastations, which have distorted the face of the city and deprived its people of the innumerable art treasures. All this, on behalf of the principle of authority and property, in compliance with the sense of opportunity and the necessities imposed by civil and economic progress... At the end of the XIXth century, when historical studies on Mirandola were in their period of greatest splendour, the demolition of defensive works is started. Together with some parts of the royal palace, already dismantled since the beginning of the XVlllth century, the mentioned demolition probably represents one of the most tragical destruction.
..."Everything changes, nothing can persist" told a Russian philosopher and it happens the same to men and cities. But one thing is to change and another one is to alter the profile of a city , as it was the case with Mirandola. Therefore, nobody should consider himself free forever of the seduction of those principles, which, urged by the history itself, impose, even now, irreversible choices.

Mirandola, because of the distruction of places and cultural materials, was affected by irremediable and immeasurable losses.