ROMAGNA

ROMAGNA. -

I. GEOGRAPHY

However, the boundaries of Romagna have varied considerably over different periods, ranging from a narrower definition, closely aligned with the territory to which the name was originally applied—that is, the possessions of the Eastern Roman Empire (Romania or Romandiola) when the rest of Italy was under Lombard rule—to a broader one, roughly coinciding with the four present-day provinces of Ravenna, Forlì, Bologna, and Ferrara. Today, Romagna is properly considered the area bounded by the Reno, Sillaro, Apennines, and the ridge of Monte Carpegna, belonging for the most part to Emilia (the provinces of Ravenna and Forlì, with the eastern extremity of Bologna and a small strip of the Ferrarese), and the remainder to Tuscany and the Marches; the small Republic of San Marino lies entirely within II. The region covers approximately 6,350 square kilometers with a population of 1 million, divided into a mountainous sector (the former district of Rocca San Casciano) and a hilly one (the territories of Forlì and Imola), separated from the true plain descending to the Adriatic by the Via Emilia (100 kilometers of coastline).

Romagna is an agricultural region, with significant production of cereals (wheat) and sugar beets; fruit trees are also important. There are no mineral resources (only a small amount of sulfur), and the coastline, like the rest of the Emilia district, is poorly suited to harbor construction (the only one being Ravenna, which, like the other Emilian ports, is a canal port). Industry is essentially limited to food processing (especially sugar refineries); however, there are traditional industries (Faenza majolica) and modern ones (mechanical engineering in Rimini). Numerous seaside resorts south of Savio—Cervia, Cesenatico, Riccione, Cattolica, and especially Rimini, whose clientele has long been international—are widely renowned. The population density of Romagna exceeds the Italian average (153 and 164 inhabitants per square kilometer in the provinces of Ravenna and Forlì, respectively).

II. HISTORY

the Lombard invasion, when Ravenna, having become the capital of the Exarchate, stood opposite Lombardy as Romania, from which Romandiola and then Romagna derived. It shared the fate of the Exarchate until King Aistulf occupied Ravenna in 751, after which it became the subject of negotiations between Popes Stephen III, Adrian I, and Leo III with Pepin and Charlemagne, kings of the Franks. The evangelization of the region is linked to that of Ravenna, though not all episcopal sees necessarily originated from Ravenna, as some may have had direct ties to Rome; for at least some, their origins certainly predate the 4th century. Along the Via Flaminia, the sees included Rimini, Ficocle (Cervia), Cesena, Forlimpopoli, and Ravenna; in Emilia, they were Forlì, Faenza, Imola, Claterna (?), Bologna, and Voghenza (later transferred to Ferrara). Comacchio appears in the 8th century, and Montefeltro in the 9th.

Already under Carolingian rule and even more so under that of the Italian kings, the political supremacy of the Archbishop of Ravenna (q.v.) asserted itself in Romagna, and the Roman aristocracy of the House of Theophilactus soon took advantage of this with their interventions. With the Saxon kings, German rule succeeded, of which Archbishop Guibert, later antipope, was one of the most prominent representatives.

The communal movement largely extinguished the dispute between the Papacy and the Empire over rights to sovereignty in these lands. An exaggerated principle of liberty led Romagna into factional strife and ultimately to disintegration into small principalities. The petty lords, often holding the title of papal vicars, were in fact the true masters of the region: the Polenta family in Ravenna, the Malatesta in Rimini, the Ordelaffi and later the Riario in Forlì, the Manfredi in Faenza, the Alidosi in Imola, the Montefeltro, the Pepoli, and later the Bentivoglio in Bologna; and above all the Este in Ferrara (cf. Dante, *Inf.*, XXVII, 28 ff.).

Papal sovereignty over Romagna, explicitly and definitively recognized in 1278 by Rudolph I of Habsburg to Pope Nicholas III, lasted only until the Avignon Papacy, when the tyrants of Romagna reasserted themselves. Cardinal Bertrand du Pouget, sent by John XXII to restore papal authority, was initially widely recognized, but later, after being defeated by the Este (1333) and Bologna revolting, he lost what he had previously regained. Later, Innocent VI dispatched as his legate to Italy Cardinal Egidio Alvarez Albornoz (1353), who tenaciously resumed the struggle against the Romagnol lords, defeated them, and transformed them into servants of the Church. He confirmed and revived communal liberties, restored temporal dominion, and reorganized it with the famous *Constitutiones Aegidianae* (see Emi).

Under Alexander VI, Cesare Borgia occupied Imola and Forlì, which were defended in vain by Caterina Sforza. Appointed Gonfalonier of Justice (March 1500) and later Duke of Romagna (May 1501), he gathered and organized an army with skilled captains and successively took Cesena, Pesaro, Rimini, and Faenza, whose young lord, Astorre Manfredi, he had brutally killed in Castel Sant’Angelo, while Caterina Sforza, lady of Forlì, escaped only through the intervention of Louis XII. Allied with France and aided by Alfonso I d’Este, Cesare was on the verge of further conquests when the sudden death of Alexander VI (August 18, 1503) cut short his ambitious designs.

The Venetians, ever watchful from Ravenna (where they had settled in 1441), occupied Rimini and Faenza and other lands. On March 15, 1505, through an agreement with Julius II, they retained Ravenna, Cervia, Faenza, and Rimini with their territories while restoring the other lands held by the Church. After Bologna, from which the Bentivoglio had fled (1506), returned to the Church, Julius II joined the League of Cambrai formed by Louis XII of France and Maximilian I of Austria (August 10, 1508), and recovered Ravenna, Cervia, and Rimini. When the Pope prepared the Holy League (October 15, 1511) against the French, Bologna, Ferrara, and the exiled Pandolfo Malatesta sided with France. Romagna was traversed by the Spanish army and French forces, whose commander, Gaston de Foix, entrenched himself on the banks of the Ronco. Here, on April 11, 1512, the famous Battle of Ravenna was fought, and the French, who remained masters of the field, mercilessly sacked the city. As French fortunes declined in Italy, Clement VII drew closer to Charles V (Barcellona Pact, 1520), who agreed to expel the Venetians from Ravenna; they returned in 1527. After reconciling with Rome, Venice definitively ceded Ravenna and Cervia back to the Church in 1529. With the recovery of Ferrara in 1598 upon the death of Alfonso II, the last legitimate heir of the Este, all of Romagna came under papal obedience within the broader boundaries assigned to it by Dante (*Purg.*, XIV, 92) between the Po, the mountain, the sea, and the Reno. A new historical period (1598–1797) began for Romagna, in which factional strife was not entirely extinguished and, under the old names of Guelphs and Ghibellines, long-standing grudges continued to fester.

In February 1797 the revolutionary troops spread into the Romagna, greeted by the first dawnings of liberty. In the Peace of Tolentino (19 February 1797), Pius VI ceded the Apennine-Adriatic side of his States, which were incorporated into the new Cispadane Republic, with its capital at Bologna. With the Cispadane, the Romagna passed to the Cisalpine Republic, then to the Italian Republic, and finally to the Kingdom of Italy. The French divided the Romagna into three departments: the Reno (capital Bologna), the Basso Po (capital Ferrara), and the Rubicone (capital Forlì), which under the Kingdom of Italy were transformed into prefectures. Austrian troops, which had occupied the Romagna in the early years of the second coalition, returned with General Nugent (1813–14). In February 1814, Neapolitan soldiers under Joachim Murat appeared there as allies of Austria, only to be succeeded again by the Austrians when Murat turned against his former allies and, with the Proclamation of Rimini (30 March 1815), proclaimed the independence and unity of Italy.

The Lombard invasion, when Ravenna became the capital of the Exarchate, faced the Lombardy with the Romania, whence later came Romandiola and Romagna. The region shared the fate of the Exarchate itself until King Aistulf occupied Ravenna (751), and then became the subject of negotiations between the popes and the Lombards.

The Congress of Vienna restored papal authority in the Romagna, though not without resistance from Austria. Pius VII reconstituted the three ancient legations of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara, subdivided into the two delegations of Bologna and Ferrara and the two legations of Ravenna and Forlì.

The Revolution of Naples (1820) and that of Piedmont (1821) had only a faint echo in the Romagna. A stronger repercussion was felt there from the July Revolution in Paris of 1830. During the sede vacante, papal authorities were deposed in Bologna, Forlì, and other cities as far as Ancona; in Bologna, the temporal power was declared forfeit and a provisional government of the "United Italian Provinces" was established. Austria came to the aid of the new pope, Gregory XVI; at Rimini (25 March 1831), the forces of General Carlo Zucchi were dispersed. The Austrians, under the pretext of new liberal disturbances, re-entered the legations (1832) and remained there until 1838, while the French, under the pretext of restoring order, occupied Ancona. Once the Habsburg troops withdrew, unrest resumed in the always-turbulent Romagna (revolts of 1843 and 1845). The rebellion in Rimini provided Massimo d'Azeglio with the occasion to write his pamphlet *Gli ultimi casi di Romagna* (January 1846).

The liberal policy of Pius IX was greeted in the Romagna with enthusiasm. When the Roman Republic was proclaimed on 9 February 1849, it found support in the Romagna, but by the end of the same month the Austrians returned. Although Cavour had proposed at the Congress of Paris (1856) the abolition of military occupation in the Papal States, the Austrians did not leave the Romagna until after the Battle of Magenta (4 June 1859). Papal rule then definitively ceased there; a provisional government proclaimed the dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel II. King Victor Emmanuel II immediately sent as royal commissioner Massimo d'Azeglio, who took up residence in Bologna. He was later replaced, following the Armistice of Villafranca, by Colonel Leonetto Cipriani, who assumed the title of governor-general of the Romagna until the region was united with the former duchies of Modena and Parma under Luigi Carlo Farini, appointed "dictator of Emilia." By the plebiscite of 11–12 March 1860, Emilia, together with Tuscany, decreed its annexation to the Kingdom of Victor Emmanuel II. The Romagna, thus joined to the Kingdom of Italy, has shared its history ever since.

III. CONCILIAR REGION — It bears the title of Regio Flaminia. It presents itself as a right-angled triangle, whose longest side is formed by the Apennines and the shorter sides respectively by the Adriatic Sea and the Po; it embraces part of Emilia.

Ecclesiastically it comprises three archdioceses: Ferrara, Bologna, and Ravenna; nine dioceses: Bertinoro, Cervia, Cesena, Comacchio, Forlì, Faenza, Imola, Rimini, and Sarsina. Bologna and Ravenna are also metropolitan sees, with Bertinoro, Cervia, Cesena, Comacchio, Forlì, Rimini, and Sarsina as suffragans of Ravenna; Faenza and Imola of Bologna. Ferrara is immediately subject to the Holy See.

Bologna is the seat of the first-instance tribunal (Tribunal of the Via Flaminia) for cases of matrimonial nullity, with appeal to Venice. This tribunal also exercises jurisdiction over that part of the territory of the Republic of San Marino which belongs to the diocese of Rimini. Bologna is also the seat of the Pontifical Regional Seminary of Romagna, founded by Benedict XV; not all dioceses, however, send their students to Bologna. Civilly, the conciliar region of Romagna comprises four provinces: Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna, and Forlì. The last plenary council of the region was held on 27 September 1932.

Benedetto De Sanctis

IV. ART — Closely connected with the evolution of artistic forms in Emilia (v.) is the art of the Romagna. It nevertheless has direct and immediate relations with that of the art flourishing in Umbria, the Marches, Tuscany, and the lower Po valley.

The pre-Romanesque architecture of the territory of the ancient Ravennate Exarchate, deriving from Byzantine and late-Roman themes that appeared in Ravenna in the 5th and 6th centuries and linked to developments in the architectural forms of the Po valley, as well as the characteristics of the Romagnol or Rimini school of painting in the 14th century, bear ample witness to this for the Middle Ages.

The same was true during the Renaissance, when Leon Battista Alberti and Agostino di Duccio of Florence, Piero della Francesca of Arezzo, and Matteo de’ Pasti of Verona contributed to the creation in Rimini of the Tempio Malatestiano, one of the most distinguished and harmonious works of the 15th century. In direct and constant relation with the art

It is the art of the Romagna during the Baroque age, while towards the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th, especially through the work of Felice Giani, a painter of the Neoclassical age, a native of Faenza if not by birth, and of Tommaso Minardi, recognized leader of the "Purism" movement in Italy, Romagna showed a notable independence from the artistic environment of Bologna.

V. FOLKLORE

Other characteristic expressions of popular art are the rustic ceramics: plates, vases, candles, and in particular the *mezzina* or *mezzetta*, a wide-bellied vessel vividly painted with flowers and humorous inscriptions inviting one to drink, and the *gotto*, which is the traditional glass. But rustic art reaches its peak of originality in the industry of fabrics printed with rust, with various decorative motifs, whether intended as tablecloths, bedcovers, or for the backs of oxen. On the rustic rugs, as on the sides of the *pluristi*, images of St. George and St. Anthony the Abbot are often reproduced; these are among the most venerated saints. Note: devotion is also paid to the Madonna del Fuoco of Forlì, whose feast (February 4) is heralded by great bonfires, and to the Madonna del Monte of Cesena, whose sanctuary preserves ancient and beautiful painted ex-votos.

Among the beliefs and customs marking the cycles of man and the year, the most common are noted. Pregnant women are forbidden to throw stones at a nut and to cross bridles or animal halters. Those born with the "caul" are considered extremely fortunate. When two engaged couples have a child baptized, they cannot meet again for a year and three days, as they believe that this act makes them relatives. The figure of the *bracco* or marriage broker is widespread; among the betrothal ceremonies, the *toccamano* stands out, which repeats the ancient *dextrarum coniunctio*. As the spouses kneel on the stool in church, once the rite is over, the bride does not rise until her mother, or in her absence a designated person (called a *filippa*), has pulled her by the dress. After eight days of married life, the bride returns to her father’s house, where she stays for another eight days (*rivoltaglio* or *ritornello*). Premonitions of death include falling asleep on Easter Day and collapsing in church.

The cycle of the year is marked by customs and festivals, of agrarian origin and significance, which Romagna, an eminently agricultural region, has preserved and often revived. On Christmas Eve, farmers burn a large log (whoever burns the largest log will kill the largest pig), which must burn all night and sometimes until Epiphany; on Christmas morning, they scatter the extinguished embers in the vineyard, along with seeds of *graze*, and keep the remains of the burnt trunk to ward off hail and storms. On New Year’s Day, they carefully observe the first person they meet, deducing from whether they are wealthy or poor, young or old, an auspicious or ominous omen. It is believed that on the night of Epiphany, animals speak. Young people go from house to house singing the *pasquella* to receive gifts. On the last evening of Carnival, the oldest hen in the henhouse is eaten, otherwise all the others will die. The feast of *Mezzaguaresima* (Segavecchia) is celebrated with greater splendor in Forlimpopoli and Cotignola: a large effigy, adorned with garlands of dried fruit, is sawed apart amid festive shouts, and the fruit falls, hotly contested by the children. Traces of ancient sacred drama remain in Romagna’s Holy Week rituals: the most important is the feast of the *Signor morto* in Modigliana. Particular healing virtues are attributed to the dew of St. John’s Eve, especially for those with skin diseases, who, at dawn, roll naked in the grass. This day is also propitious for divination.

November 11 (St. Martin’s Day) is the feast of the wine harvest.

Most popular songs are not originally from Romagna, but they have taken on a certain local character, discernible in the various names they take according to their themes and occasions, and in a particular dialectal hue that constitutes the poetic language of Romagna’s laborers. Lyric poetry includes the *canti a la stesa* (extended songs), which vary in name: *canti a la bioga* (plowman’s songs), *canti a la rastladora* or *a la sfujadora* (songs of raking and stripping), and in the Ferrarese area, *rumanelli* (little Romans). Narrative poetry comprises two groups, representing the confluence of two traditions: the first consists of epic-lyric songs of Franco-Provençal type, made up of short stanzas with more or less complex refrains (e.g., *La donna lombarda*); the other consists of legends, mostly sacred, from central Italy, in the form of rhymed or assonanced hendecasyllables (e.g., *S. Alessio*), called *ravagioni* and recited by itinerant beggars. Romagna also has a rich heritage of fairy tales, riddles, and proverbs.

Among the surviving ancient folk dances are the *saltarello*, the *trescone*, the Bergamasque dances, and in the upper Savio valley, the *ballo della mela*. These are usually performed at Carnival and during agricultural work, among which the husking of corn and the heckling of hemp and flax take on a particularly festive character for engaged couples. Traditional clothing styles have disappeared. The ancient Romagnol peasant wore on his head the *galoza*, a horned felt or fur cap, a coarse brown or dark blue woolen garment, and in winter wrapped himself in a double-sided cloak (*caparèla*).

V. tavv. LXXV-LXXVI.