Ferrarese Chronicles in the Modern Era

Abstract

In 1928, Giuseppe Pardi published the first of three fifteenth century chronicles of Ferrara. His edition of one of these chronicles, the Diario ferrarese dall’anno 1409 sino al 1502, replaced the eighteenth-century version published by Ludovico Muratori. Pardi showed a modern understanding of the challenges posed by transcribing antique documents, refusing to alter any of the material, and enriching the chronicles with full scholarly apparatus. Despite the availability and easy accessibility of material unimaginable until recently, late twentieth-century transcriptions fall woefully short of the standard set by Pardi. This paper explores the transcriptions of the chronicles, in particular the Pardi editions, illustrating how the early twentieth-century was a golden age unequaled before or since.