the five leading schools of Italy, that of Ferrara did not surpass every other. It is not my purpose to decide the question, nor could it be done without giving offence to one or other of the parties. I shall here only attempt a brief history of this school upon the same plan as the rest; and I shall include a few artists of Romagna, agreeably to my promise in the preceding book, or, to speak more correctly, in its introduction. The most valuable information which I have to insert will be extracted from a precious MS. communicated to me by the Ab. Morelli, the distinguished ornament of his age and country, no less than of the learned office he fills.[57] This MS. contains the lives of Ferrarese professors of the fine arts, written by Doctor Girolamo Baruffaldi, first a canon of Ferrara, next archpriest of Cento. To these is prefixed a laboured preface by Pierfrancesco Zanotti, with copious emendations and notes by the Canon Crespi. Such a work, drawn up by this polished writer, and thus approved, continued, and illustrated by two men of the profession, was long a desideratum in Italy; nor do I know why it never made its appearance. A specimen, indeed, was given by Bottari, at the end of his Life of Alfonso Lombardi, in the course of which he inserted the life of Galasso, and of a few other artists of Ferrara. Moreover, in the fourth volume of the "Lettere Pittoriche," he published a letter of the deceased Can. Antenore Scalabrini, relating to Baruffaldi's MS., which underwent this noble ecclesiastic's corrections, communicated by him to Crespi, who inserted them in his annotations. Baruffaldi, also, having commenced the lives of the artists of Cento, and of Lower Romagna, a work left unfinished, Crespi supplied all it wanted; and it has been mentioned by us in the school of Guercino, and among some artists who flourished at Ravenna and other cities of Romagna. Cittadella, author of the "Catalogue of Ferrarese Painters and Sculptors," (edited in 1782, in 4 vols.) declares that he drew his chief information from Baruffaldi, (vol. iii. p. 140). He complains, however, in the preface, that a more correct work being either destroyed or lost, (alluding probably to this work with Crespi's notes), "he has not been in possession of such undoubted authorities as might be desired;" a very candid admission, fully entitled to credit. But this work having come into my possession, through the courtesy of my learned friend, I shall avail myself of it for public information. On such authority I shall freely ground this part of my history, adding notices drawn from other sources, and not unfrequently from the Guide of Ferrara, published by the learned Frizzi, in 1787; a work that may be included among the best yet given to Italy. So much we state by way of exordium. Footnote 57: That of head librarian at St. Mark's.