Quattrocento vignolese
The munition book and other unpublished documents about the fortress, castle and territory – Volume II

By Debora Dameri, Achille Lodovisi and Giuseppe Trenti
2013, Vignola Foundation
15.00 pp. XII, 339; ill.
ISBN 978-88-7866-023-6

With the publication of the second volume of Quattrocento vignolese, a long and fruitful work of research on the history of Vignola and its territory in the 15th century carried out by Debora Dameri, Achille Lodovisi and Giuseppe Trenti for the Documentation Center comes to a close.
This volume also contains a considerable number of unpublished archival documents concerning the vicissitudes of the fortress and castle of Vignola, the fortress of Monfestino and the entire Vignola fiefdom. The numerous records broaden and innovate knowledge of the 15th century, in which the waning of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Modern Age coincided with the end of a long and devastating political, economic and social crisis, which was followed by the pacification and emergence of the entire territory. Letters, notarial deeds, and records narrate the golden age in which the Vignola fortress was transformed into a lordly residence, embellished by refined fresco cycles that have come down to us.
The absolute protagonist of the 15th century in Vignola was Uguccione Contrari, a character to whom the book devotes a chapter bringing out the remarkable profile of his personality. He played a very important role in the consolidation of the Este seigniory and in political balances thanks to a prestige gained both on the battlefields and in the shrewd exercise of diplomacy. By following Uguccione’s personal and public affairs, documents have been uncovered whose contents transcend the boundaries of local history, shedding new light on the Italian history of those decades characterized by the clash between Milan and Venice for hegemony in the peninsula.

Entries of Este lands
Glossary of the vernacular in common use (Ferrara – Modena) from documents and chronicles of the time, 14th-16th centuries

by Joseph Trenti
2008, Vignola Foundation
€18.00 pp. XX, 682
ISBN 978-88-7866-011-3
88-7866-011-6

Who was the official of the purgo? In sixteenth-century Modena this appellation denoted the official of the Arte della lana who was in charge of checking that the cloth was properly purged, removing all impurities. This and ten thousand other words and idioms of the vernacular language in common use in the Este lands between the 14th and 16th centuries have been collected by Giuseppe Trenti with painstaking patience, rigor and great love for the arduous discipline of linguistics. The glossary is the result of twenty years of work transcribing thousands of archival documents and dozens of chronicles of the time.

Quattrocento vignolese
The munition book and other unpublished documents about the fortress, castle and territory – Volume I

By Debora Dameri, Achille Lodovisi and Giuseppe Trenti
2007, Vignola Foundation
15.00 pp. XIV, 310; ill.
ISBN 978-88-7866-010-6
88-7866-010-8

With the publication of the first of two volumes edited by Debora Dameri, Achille Lodovisi and Giuseppe Trenti and dedicated to the fifteenth century in Vignola, a decisive century for the fate of modern Vignola, more fruits ripen from the research started about seven years ago by the Documentation Center of the Vignola Foundation, with the aim of collecting, studying and disseminating documentary sources for the history of the city and its territory.
The testimonies presented in this work are for the most part unpublished and therefore are able to offer innovative keys to interpreting the events that from the early 15th century led to the profound physical, social and economic transformation of the Vignola environment.
From the transcription of the Liber munitionum we learn news that allow us to date with considerable precision the phases of the expansion of the fortress in the very first years of the 15th century, essential information for the purposes of any intervention of valorization, restoration or retrofitting. Other elements that have emerged from the documentation then make it possible to place the frescoes decorating the rooms of the castle building in time and to interpret them in a more truthful manner.
The long and complex work of transcription, commentary and construction of a critical apparatus and a rich set of images taken largely from fifteenth-century illuminated codices of the Este domain, has been conducted with the aim of making the content of the documents comprehensible and interesting even to non-specialists. The intent is to divulge a sense of the value and relevance of history, in the hope that this work will help bring the public and younger generations even closer to the fortress and its territory.

Men and lands in the parchments of the Monastery of St. Peter of Modena
Private deeds relating to land ownership, 11th-13th centuries

by Joseph Trenti
2004, Vignola Foundation
€ 15,00 pp. XII, 436
(complimentary with the purchase of a publication in the series The Notebooks)
ISBN 978-88-7866-003-8
88-7866-003-5

The volume presents a concise description of the contents of 762 documents, most of them unpublished, from which emerge the negotiation types of the various deeds, the names of the contracting parties belonging to the most diverse social classes-monks, bumpkins, artisans, notaries, citizens and “comitatini”-and the place names of a myriad of places. The possessions of the monastery of St. Peter’s extended to a vast area, depicted in two historical maps by Loreno Confortini included in the volume, which ranged from Modena to the Apennine ridge all the way to the Lower Plain, concentrating mainly in the foothills between Savignano, Vignola and Sassuolo. Giuseppe Trenti’s work makes available to the public of scholars and enthusiasts a considerable amount of hitherto unknown information, indispensable for being able to reconstruct and historically frame not only the complex events of medieval rural civilization, but also the ancient toponymy of numerous localities in the Modena area whose memory has been lost today.

Trials of the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Modena. General analytical inventory 1489-1784

by Joseph Trenti
2003, Aedes Muratoriana
15.00 pp. XXI, 338

SOLD OUT COPIES

The work is the result of twenty years of research work on more than five thousand personal files, spanning a chronological span of three centuries, relating to as many inquisites for crimes of heresy – from outright heresy to magical or otherwise superstitious practices – preserved in the fund, precisely, of the Inquisition at the State Archives of Modena. This documentation – extremely rich in news not only for the history of religious and cultural movements in general but also for microhistory, of customs, of the arts of folklore – constitutes, on the other hand, in itself an absolute unicum, being the only one of its kind, with that of the Venice Archives, preserved in Italy at a non-religious institution, and as such appreciated by scholars who come to Modena from all over the world to consult it.
The volume qualifies not only for its uncommon scientific rigor, but also for its “methodological and historiographical value, which far surpasses,” as Paolo Prodi’s preface points out, “the albeit important archival indications,” and in any case represents, in its completeness, a real novelty in this genre of publications.

The Vignolas: Giacomo and Giacinto Barozzi

2004, Vignola Foundation
10.00 pp. XIII, 310
ISBN 978-88-7866-002-1
88-7866-002-7

The publication, the result of a collaboration between the Documentation Center and the State Archives of Parma, offers previously unpublished insights into Barozzi’s themes through the analysis of partially unknown documentation, which allows for a broadening of the horizon of studies on the life and works of the famous architect from Vignola and his son.

The palace of Hercole the Elder. 16th century.

2002, Vignola Foundation
5.00 pp. 104
(complimentary with the purchase of a publication in the series The Notebooks)
ISBN 978-88-7866-001-4
88-7866-001-9

Vignola’s authorship of the Palazzo Contrari Boncompagni (known as Palazzo Barozzi) for a long time was questioned by many scholars, but new research has overturned this opinion with documentary evidence. Barozzi actually lent his advice in the building of the mansion, which was built after 1560 by Count Ercole Contrari the Elder.
It is possible to recognize one of his interventions in the splendid spiral staircase that takes place in the south tower of the palace. Research was conducted by Achille Lodovisi, Giuseppe Trenti and Debora Dameri.