Parma

PARMA

PARMA. Located in the region of Emilia in northern Italy, Parma and its surrounding territory, never independent, became part of the Papal States in 1521. In 1545 Pope Paul III (reigned 1534–1549) created the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, a nearby town, and made his son Pier Luigi Farnese (1503–1547) the ruler. Paul III saw the duchy as a counterweight to Spanish power centered in Milan, while the Spanish viceroy in Milan, Ferrante Gonzaga, viewed it as a threat. In addition, some nobles of Piacenza saw Pier Luigi's rule as oppressive. So, with the support of Gonzaga, they assassinated Pier Luigi on 10 September 1547. In the settling of accounts afterward, the duchy remained in Farnese hands but under Spanish protection.

From that point onward, Farnese dukes pursued a cautious pro-Spanish foreign policy that kept them out of most conflicts and was sometimes accompanied by suppression of internal dissent. The city of Parma had 20,000 to 25,000 people in the sixteenth century, grew to 33,000 people in the early seventeenth century, declined to a low of 19,000 by 1650, and then rose again to about 35,000 in the eighteenth century. The duchy had 350,000 to 400,000 inhabitants in 1600.

Farnese dukes pursued a policy of support for education, the arts, and building projects, which won friendship and prestige outside the state. In 1601 Duke Ranuccio I (1569–1622; ruled 1592–1622) founded the University of Parma, the only Italian university to include members of the Society of Jesus as members of the faculty. Jesuit professors taught the humanities, logic, philosophy, mathematics, and theology, while laymen appointed by the duke taught law and medicine, the larger part of the university. The University of Parma successfully competed for professors and students with older Italian universities.

Also in 1601 Ranuccio I founded a boarding school for boys of noble blood. It accepted boys between the ages of eleven and fourteen who might remain until the age of twenty. In 1604 Ranuccio awarded direction of the school to the Jesuits. In additional to the standard Jesuit curriculum of humanities, philosophy, mathematics, and religious instruction, the Parma school taught French, singing, dancing, designing fortifications, and horsemanship, and it charged high fees. The boarders could also hunt in the duke's preserve and received honored places at public events. The Parma school attracted noble boys from Italy and other parts of Europe, because it offered a curriculum designed for them and the opportunity to mix with peers. Enrollment climbed to a peak of 550 to 600 boys between 1670 and 1700 before a gradual decline set in. Parma's school for nobles had imitators across Europe.

Other Farnese dukes engaged in building programs. They began to erect a huge ducal palace in 1583, which was not finished until the next century. The Farnese Theater opened in 1628 and immediately became a preferred setting for plays, spectacles, and operas, including those of Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643).

The Farnese dynasty ruled successfully and married well into other Italian ruling families and Spain. The dynasty ended when Duke Antonio (1679–1731; ruled 1727–1731) died without heirs in 1731. Because Elisabetta Farnese (1692–1766) was the wife of King Philip V of Spain, the duchy passed in 1732 into the hands of their son, Don Carlos de Bourbon (1716–1788; ruled Parma 1732–1736, ruled Spain as Charles III, 1759–1788). The duchy fell into Austrian hands from 1735 to 1748 but returned to the Spanish Bourbons in 1748 and remained there for the rest of the century. The most important figure of this period was Guillaume du Tillot, chief minister from 1749 to 1771. He brought with him French cultural influences and learning to the court, as well as French Enlightenment administrative reforms, agricultural methods, and restrictions on the rights of the church.

See also Bourbon Dynasty (Spain) ; Jesuits ; Papacy and Papal States ; Universities .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brizzi, Gian Paolo. La formazione della classe dirigente nel Sei-Settecento: I seminaria nobilium nell'Italia centrosettentrionale. Bologna, 1976. Study of the school for nobles at Parma and similar schools.

Grendler, Paul F. The Universities of the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore, 2002. See pages 129–137 et passim for the University of Parma.

Romani, M. A., and A. Quondam, eds. Le corti farnesiana di Parma e Piacenza, 1545–1622. 2 vols. Rome, 1978.

Paul F. Grendler