"The Pilotta" - from Pelota, Basque game practiced in one of the palace’s courtyards - one of the most characteristic buildings in the city, was conceived as a court service building annexed to the Ducal Palace and was built upon the wish of Ottavio Farnese (1547-86), contemporarily with the so-called Corridore, on the project of Francesco Paciotto, starting from 1583.
The Corridore was a connecting arm between the Ducal Palace and the little Fortress (positioned on the banks of the stream near the bridge), which extended from the East to the West, in the space now occupied by the
Petitot Gallery and by the
Palatine Library and the
Bodoniano Museum.
The construction terminated only in 1611 under Ranuccio I (Duke from 1592 to 1622) leaving the construction in its incomplete state that we can see today. The Duke himself was the projector of the construction, since he was an amateur architect and lover of severe and magnificent buildings best representing the prestige and pomp of his dynasty. However, the architect and sculptor from Orvieto, Simone Moschino (1553-1610), translated the Duke’s thoughts into a technical reality. On the interior an imposing monumental staircase leads to the noble floors, making it the first example in Italy of a staircase with three flights based on the model of the imperial escalara of the Escorial. Under the Farnese dynasty the palace became, other than a recreation place, also the main premises of their great art collection (now preserved in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples), and hosts the Palantine Library and the celebrated
Farnese Theatre.
Thanks to Filippo di Borbone ’s Minister, Guillaume du Tillot, the palace confirmed its nature of container of culture and art creating the Gallery of the Art Academy (Accademia di Belle Arti) in 1752, the archeological findings from the excavations of Veleia (1760), and the rich library collections.
Today, Pilotta Palace hosts the
National Archeological Museum, the
Farnese Theatre, the
Palatine Library, The
National Gallery and the
Bodoniano Museum facing the renovated Peace Square (Piazza della Pace).
"National Archaeological Museum" The museum was founded by don Filippo di Borbone in 1760 to preserve the finds which had been unearthed in the Roman town of Veleia – a Roman municipality found in the hills in the province of Piacenza.
Excavations had begun under the direction of Filippo’s brother, Carlo, who had promoted excavation works in Pompei and Herculaneum, following the finding of the "tabula Alimentaria", on display in the museum.
Thus the museum originated as a place where archaeological finds from the province of Parma would be kept, and as time passed objects from the Farnese and Gonzaga collections were added to those on display.
Its present layout was decided by Marie Louise of Austria and in the 19th century one of the most important collections of pre-historic finds in northern Italy was added to the museum’s collections.
"Farnese Theatre" The Farnese Theatre is the most ancient and largest baroque theatre existing inside a building.
Sited on the first floor of the great Pilotta Palace, it is related to the Renaissance tradition of the court's theatres and it was built in 1618-19 by the ferrarese architect G. B. Aleotti, named l'Argenta for the Duke Ranuccio I Farnese, who wished to welcome in Parma Cosimo de' Medici with great celebrations. The distinguished guest's announced visit, in vain waited for, should consolidate the marriage alliance between the two ducal families and finally, in 1628, the marriage between Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de' Medici was celebrated, so that the famed Theatre could be at last inaugurated with the mythical - allegorical "show" enitled "Mercurio e Marte" with musics by Claudio Monteverdi and verses by Achillini, culminating in a naumachia, for which it was necessary to flood tho orchestra floor, with the astonishment of the public. The architect Aleotti, inspired by the classical.age theatres, transformed a huge "hall" which was originally intended as a "salle d'armes" in a theatrical space of great technical complexity, which still fascinates for its warm and golden wood and its wide volumes. The wooden structures were originally painted to mimic more precious materials like marble and bronze, and it was decorated with many plaster statues, work of Luca Reti, imitating white marbles, such effects being now vanished after wartime destruction in 1944. The Theatre, accurately re-built in its volumes in the '50s, still holds on the walls many portions of the original frescoes, painted by various masters, including Malosso and Lionello Spada. The wide-proportioned stage, used to hide complex stage machines which, according to the baroque theatre's character, allowed spectacular changes of scene. In the Theatre were held only nine representations, during ducal marriages or some Princes' visits. After the last representation in 1732, the Farnese Theatre slowly deteriorated until the almost total destruction of the wooden parts due to the fragmentation of a bomb, during the Second World War.
"Palatine Library" The Royal Parmense Library, National Library, Imperial Bibliothèque, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Parme, and the Ducal Library are today united into the Biblioteca Palatina, which is located on the second floor of the Pilotta Palace. Founded on the request of Ferdinando di Borbone, and by the Reform Minister Guillaume-Lèon Du Tillot, its original project was given over to the librarian Paolo Maria Paciaudi, a religious Theatine of Piemontese origin. It gained publishing rights from 1768 and, the first in Italy, adopted the author card catalogue system.
It was installed with wooden shelving designed by E. A. Petitot, provided with valuable bibliographic material, subdivided by subject into six main categories (theology, nomenclature, philosophy, history, philology, liberal arts), was officially inaugurated in May of 1769. Besides Paciaudi, the librarians who had a great influence on the library were the following: Ireneo Affò (1785-1797); Angelo Pezzana (1804-1862); Federico Odorici (1862-1876); Edoardo Alvisi (1893-1915); Pietro Zorzanello (1927-1935); Giovanni Masi (1935-1952) and Angelo Ciavarella (1957-1973). Today Leonardo Farinelli directs it. If the library’s layout is due to the efforts of Paciaudi, the purchase of collections of exceptional cultural, bibliographic, and artistic value is above all the work of Angelo Pezzana who was the director when the "Maria Luigia" Reading Room was built.
Under the Italian Unity it became part of the State, and Museum Bodonian and the Musical Section (this latter one in the “A. Boito Conservatory Hall) were annexed on.
"National Gallery" The core of the collection in the National Gallery of Parma goes back to the collection of the first Bourbons in Parma who desired the idea of creating a ducal collection after Carlo di Borbone brought the sumptuous Farnesian Painting collection to Naples in 1734. In addition to the first group of paintings purchased especially in Tuscany, there were several pieces sent back from France after the Napoleonic lootings and those purchases that Maria Luigia had made from the Dalla Rosa Prati, Sanvitale, Callani and Boiardi collections. In 1939, Armando Ottaviano Quintavalle reorganized and cleared out the collection during the war, saving it from bombings that struck instead the Farnese Theatre. Its exhibition space was completely renovated and re-modernized at the beginning of the 1980s utilizing bridges and passages supported by tension-structures and white tubes. The collection covers the chronological arc: from the Medieval (Romanesque capitals and slabs, including the one that was found next to the Deposition by Antelami in the Parma Cathedral), 14th century examples (Daddi, Bicci di Lorenzo, Gaddi), and then paintings by Beato Angelico , Correggio (Virgin of St. Girolamo, Martyr of four saints, Virgin of the Stairway, the detached fresco with the Incoronation of the Virgin), Parmigianino (Turkish slave), Leonardo (Head of Leda), Araldi, Loschi, Caselli, Cima da Conegliano, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio Romano, Dosso Dossi, Garofalo, Anselmi, Bertoja, Sons, Tinti, Schedoni, Spada, Lanfranco, Bernabei, Holbein (Erasmo da Rotterdam), Carracci, Guercino, El Greco, Van Dyck, Bronzino, Tintoretto, Canaletto, Ricci, Piazzetta, Pittoni, Bellotto, Tiepolo . A section of 19th century busts represent members of the court under Maria Luigia. A large room is dedicated to court portraits of the 18th century with the celebrated portrait of Philip of the Ducal family painted by Giuseppe Baldrighi. At the centre of the room a recent purchase towers over all else: the splendid table decoration created by Damià Campeny. The collection of 19th century local paintings is also very large and a room is dedicated to 19th century pieces.
"Bodoniano Museum" Dedicated to the work of Giambattista Bodoni , it has gathered over 80,000 original pieces coming from the Parma Royal Printing shop that Bodoni directed from 1768.
Annexed to the Palatine Gallery and located on the last floor of the Pilotta Palace, it has all of the tools of Bodoniano art: ink pushers, stencils, printing presses, vice-grips, alphabet cases, characters, decorations, print trials and tools for lead casting.
The museum preserves the master etcher’s work and the complete collection of work that he had edited.
Giambattista Bodoni was born in Saluzzo (CN) on 16 February 1740 to a family of printers.
In 1758 Bodoni transferred to Rome, where thanks to the interest of Costantino Ruggeri (a printing director), he found work in the Printing Shop of the Propaganda Fide Congregation , a congregation born under Pope Gregory XV with the scope of diffusing the Catholic faith.
In this period inside the church there was much discussion about the Jansenist position, which was diffused among some of the representatives of the Propaganda Fide, while the Roman movement of Arcadia was becoming always more influential.
The Roman formation of Bodoni received the effects of this environment and the influence of certain individuals, such as Cardinal Spinelli , who was in charge of the congregation, as well as his collaborator Paciaudi, and Father Giorgi, an Augustine friar.
In 1768 he was called by Duke Ferdinando to direct the Parma Royal Printing Shop , where he could finally demonstrate his talent. The first work that garnered great success and was made up of characters that he had etched and cast together was the Epithalamia exositicis linguis reddita in 1775, in twenty-five foreign languages. This work was preceded by a typographic manual, decorations and large etchings and castings that he had done in 1771.
A very important work worth mentioning is the Typographic Manual which was published in several editions: the first is from 1788 and the last, posthumous, was published by his widow in 1818 five years after his death in 1813.
Ireland, a novel - by Frank Delaney: BBC reporter Delaney's fictionalized history of his native country, an Irish bestseller, is a sprawling, riveting read, a book of stories melding into a novel wrapped up in an Irish history text. In 1951, when Ronan O'Mara is nine, he meets the aging itinerant Storyteller, who emerges out a "silver veil" of Irish mist, hoping to trade a yarn for a hot meal. Welcomed inside, the Storyteller lights his pipe and begins, telling of the architect of Newgrange, who built "a marvelous, immortal structure... before Stonehenge in England, before the pyramids of Egypt," and the dentally challenged King Conor of Ulster, who tried, and failed, to outsmart his wife. The stories utterly captivate the young Ronan ("This is the best thing that ever, ever happened"), and they'll draw readers in, too, with their warriors and kings, drinkers and devils, all rendered cleanly and without undue sentimentality. When Ronan's mother banishes the Storyteller for telling a blasphemous tale, Ronan vows to find him. He also becomes fascinated by Irish myth and legend, and, as the years pass, he discovers his own gift for storytelling. Eventually, he sets off, traversing Ireland on foot to find his mentor. Past and present weave together as Delaney entwines the lives of the Storyteller and Ronan in this rich and satisfying book.
Another kind of life - by Catherine Dunne: Perceptive, absorbing and beautifully told, Another Kind of Life is an unforgettable portrait of a family, and of Ireland, which will stay with the reader long after the last page. Hannah, May and Eleanor are sisters whose early life in Dublin with their middle class parents, has prepared them for a comfortable future of marriage, children and servants. Further north, Mary and Cecilia are also sisters, struggling to make a living in the linen mills of Belfast amid rising political tension. The lives of all the sisters are destined to unfold in ways that none of them could have imagined and Another Kind of Life is the intricately crafted tale of how their lives entwine, against the backdrop of the rapidly changing Ireland of the late 19th century.In her eagerly awaited new novel Catherine Dunne returns to the themes of family ties, love and loyalty which she has delineated so finely in her earlier work but this time she opens out her canvas to tell us a much wider story.
Not bad at all, don't you think? This way I won't stress anymore Marty borrowing her camera for posting pics as fast as I take them!
This is the cd from Kelli, I found it tonight coming back home from work............... Thanks so much Kelli! (nice idea, CAOK I mean). Now I'm gonna listen to it......
Pumpkin risotto: (I know, it's not pumpkin season, but we like it so very much)
Parma ham tarts:
and a green salad with yougurt dressing.
one margherita
and one black olive and pepperoni
