DUCHY OF, an independent sovereign state in the north of Italy, extending from the Po to the Mediterranean, from 43° 56' to 44° 58' of N. Lat., and from 9° 15' to 10° 53' of E. Long. The portion lying on the sea is very small, and has no ports or harbours. It is bounded on the N. by Lombardy and the Papal States, on the E. by the Papal States and Tuscany, on the S. by Tuscany, Sardinia, and the Mediterranean, and on the W. by Sardinia and the duchy of Parma. Its greatest length, from Portovecchio, its northern frontier on the province of Mantua, to the outlet of the torrent Parmignola, on the Sardinian frontier, is 843 miles; and its greatest width, from the pass of Calama, on the Tuscan and Papal frontier, to the right bank of the Enza, on the frontier of Parma, is 37 miles. It has an area of 2371 square miles, of which 598,120 acres are of flat, and 890,880 acres of mountainous country. In 1855 it contained 666,139 inhabitants.

The S.W. part of the duchy is traversed from N.W. to S.E. by the main ridge of the Apennines, of which the highest peaks are Monte Cimone, 7084 feet above the level of the sea; Monte Cruna, 6762 feet; Monte Succiso, 6630 feet; and Camporagghena, 6542 feet. It contains many small lakes among the mountains, and is watered by the Magra and the Serchio, which fall into the Mediterranean. The N.E. part, which forms a portion of the great basin of the Po, is a level plain sloping very gradually from the Apennines, and watered by numerous small streams, which finally unite in the Secchia and Panaro, and empty themselves into that river. This part is intersected by numerous canals formed chiefly for the purpose of irrigation.

The soil of the N.E. or flat part of the duchy is generally fertile, and the system of cultivation very much resembles that already fully described in this work under the head LOMBARDY, except that olive trees are more numerous there than in the north. The vine is extensively cultivated about Reggio and Modena, and produces a strong, rough wine, a large quantity of which is exported to Lombardy. The high district of Garfagnana is entirely devoted to dairy pasture. Olive trees, vines, and orchards form the cultivation of the small district on the sea-shore. Silk, of which the greatest quantity is sent to foreign markets in a Modena raw state; wheat, maize, hemp, and flax, are the other principal objects of culture; the two latter articles are coarsely manufactured for domestic consumption. Agriculture is chiefly carried on on the métayer system, and forms the principal pursuit of the larger portion of the population; for land being greatly subdivided, farms are generally very small. In the upland districts chestnuts form the principal food of the peasantry; while in the plain, polenta, or porridge made of Indian corn meal, is chiefly used.

In 1848 the acreage of the soil was distributed in the following manner:—734,810 acres were occupied by arable lands, meadows, &c.; 8996 by olive trees; 121,376 by chestnut trees; 3655 by vineyards; 121,815 by woods; 366,241 by buildings, roads, &c.; and 133,033 by waste land; giving a total of 1,489,926 acres. The value of the agricultural produce of 1854 was estimated at 88,611,986 Italian lire, or L3,544,499, which, divided by the number of inhabitants in the same year, would give a produce of 14619 lire, or L5, 16s. a head.

The following are the detailed values of various articles of production in 1854:—Wheat, L823,855; Indian corn L504,185; rice, L66,774; other grain, L1,16,701; chestnuts, L185,450; oil, L231,722; wine, L1,031,594; cheese, wool, leather, &c., L112,000; silk, fruit, &c., L260,000. The number of live stock in the same year was,—cattle, 221,330; horses, mules, &c., 27,260; swine, 91,740; sheep, 341,200.

The Stati Estensi, as the duchy is officially styled in Italian, are divided into six provinces and seventy-two communities. The government is entirely in the hands of the Duke, who is assisted by several ministers and a council of state. The judicature consists of two supreme courts at Modena and Massa, and two inferior ones at Modena and Reggio. The code of laws is the same as that of Austria. Roman Catholicism is the established religion, and the hierarchy consists of an archbishop and four bishops. The educational institutions of Modena consist of a lyceum at the capital, and colleges for law and medicine at Modena, Mirandola, and Reggio; but the education of the people is at the lowest ebb. The military force consists of 3500 regular troops and three regiments of militia, amounting to a total of 14,656 men.

In 1855 the population was classified as follows:

| Provinces | Communities | Area in acres | Inhabitants | |-----------|-------------|---------------|------------| | Modena | 13 | 398,720 | 212,440 | | Reggio | 14 | 472,950 | 166,695 | | Guastalla | 6 | 81,920 | 52,220 | | Frigiano | 8 | 253,680 | 59,713 | | Garfagnana| 17 | 140,160 | 38,705 | | Massa Carrara | 14 | 150,200 | 76,385 | | Total | 72 | 1,517,640 | 605,159 |

In this number there were 227,586 proprietors; 337,507 belonging to the agricultural class; 2648 following liberal professions; 109,500 day-labourers and servants; 40,075 tradesmen; 15,723 merchants; 11,577 shepherds; 3623 operatives; 3586 priests and monks; and 19,076 beggars!

A custom-house union with Austria was stipulated in 1849; but the commerce of the state is not considerable. In 1855 the exports amounted to L312,447; of which Carrara marble, L48,000; cattle and swine, L120,000; wine, brandy, vinegar, &c., L5600; silk, cheese, skins, grain, &c., L138,800. The imports, chiefly colonial commodities and articles of luxury, amounted to L224,731. In 1851 the annual revenue of the state was L336,545, and the expenditure L349,125; leaving a deficit of L12,380, which was made up partly by extraordinary taxes, and partly by the revenue derived from a large patrimonial estate of the Duke near Treviso, formerly in the possession of the Obizzi, a branch of the House of Este. There is no funded debt. In 1851 Modena was united with Austria by telegraphic

Modena lines; and on the 1st January 1852 the metrical decimal system was adopted instead of the ancient weights and measures of the country.

History. The sovereign of the state, who is an Austrian archduke, bears the title of His Royal Highness the Duke of Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Guastalla, Massa, and Carrara. Through the female line he is descended from the House of Este, one of the most ancient families in Europe. Adalbert, a powerful marquis who lived towards the end of the ninth century, is the earliest ancestor to whom the learned Muratori was able upon documents to trace this family. Both Muratori and Leibnitz supposed him descended from the dukes and marquises of Tuscany; but as the latter lived lege riparia, and Adalbert, on the contrary, lived lege Longobardica, it is more likely that he descended from some great Longobard family. His grandson Oberto married a sister of a Marquis Ugo, who brought him as dower the castle of Este situated at the foot of the Euganean Hills, from which henceforth the family took their name. Alberto Azzo II., Oberto's grandson, married twice. By his first wife, Cunizza or Cunegunda, a sister of Guelph III., Count of Altidörf in Swabia, he had a son Guelph, who, at his uncle's death, without issue, in 1054, was acknowledged heir to that family's estates. He became Duke of Bavaria and founder of the House of Brunswick, and consequently of the present reigning family of Great Britain. Folco, another son of Alberto Azzo II., by his second wife Garisenda, a daughter of Herbert, Count of Maine, was the founder of the Italian branch, from which the dukes of Ferrara and Modena sprung. Alberto Azzo II. died, nearly one hundred years old, in 1097, and seven centuries afterwards, in 1776, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, his direct descendant, erected to him a statue in the Prato della Valle at Padua.

Most of the present Stati Estensi formed in the eleventh century part of the vast possessions of Countess Matilda, the daughter of Bonifazio, Marquis of Tuscany. After her death in 1115, they came into the power of the Emperor Henry V., who descended into Italy and made himself master of her states. At his death in 1125 Modena acquired a certain independence, and soon afterwards engaged in constant warfare against its neighbour, Bologna. In 1249 the Modenese suffered a great defeat from the Bolognese at Fossalta, and their leader Enzo, son of the Emperor Frederic II., was made prisoner. After many years of civil faction, they invited Obizzo II. of Este, lord of Ferrara, who was proclaimed lord of Modena in 1289. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, however, Modena rid itself of its new master; but after thirty years of revolutions, in 1336, fell again into the power of Obizzo III. of Este; while, in 1409, Nicolo III. of Este having conquered Reggio, the district of Garfagnana surrendered to him without a contest. His son Borso in 1452 received the title of Duke of Modena and Reggio from the Emperor Frederic III., but continued to reside at Ferrara.

In the sixteenth century the Duke Alfonso I., the fourth husband of the famous Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI., having joined the League of Cambrai against Venice, Pope Julius II., who deserted the League, took away from him Modena, Reggio, and Carpi. Modena was soon given up to the Emperor Maximilian, from whom, in 1514, it was bought back for 40,000 ducats by Leo X. Under Clement VII., however, in 1527, Alfonso I., having advanced upon the town, the inhabitants, tired of the papal sway, proclaimed him their master; whereupon the Emperor Charles V. declared that Modena, Reggio, and Carpi belonged as imperial fiefs to Alfonso.

Under the reigns of Alfonso I. and of his two successors, Ercole II. and Alfonso II., letters and arts flourished at Ferrara, as well as at Modena and Reggio. It was Alfonso I. who, in 1522, appointed Ludovico Ariosto, the greatest romantic poet of Italy, governor of Garfagnana, and Alfonso II. was the hero of Torquato Tasso.

At the death of Alfonso II., without male issue, in 1597, the eldest branch of the House of Este having become extinct, Alfonso, by his will, nominated his cousin Cesare d'Este as his successor. Cesare, who was a natural grandson of Alfonso I., was recognised as Duke of Modena, Reggio, and Carpi, by the Emperor Rudolph II.; but Pope Clement VIII. would not recognise him as Duke of Ferrara, and carried against him both temporal and spiritual arms. At length, by a treaty signed at Faenza on the 12th January 1598, Ferrara was taken from Cesare and incorporated in the States of the Church, while Modena from that time became the capital and ordinary residence of the House of Este.

Cesare died in 1628, and was succeeded by his son Alfonso III., who, after a year, having lost his wife, Isabella of Savoy, abdicated the throne in favour of his eldest son Francis, and became a Capuchin friar, under the name of Father John Baptist of Modena.

Francis I. patronized for a time the poets Tassoni, Graziani, and Testi, and began to build the ducal palace. His grandson Francis II. continued the palace, and founded the university and the library. At his death, without children, in 1694, the duchy came to his uncle, Cardinal Rinaldo d'Este, a son of Francis I., who gave up the cardinal's hat, and married Charlotte Felicia of Brunswick. Thus the two branches of the Este family, which had been separated since the eleventh century, were again united.

During the war of the Austrian succession, 1740-48, Modena and Reggio were occupied in turn by the French and imperial armies; but by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, they were restored to Rinaldo's son, Francis III., who died in 1780. His son and successor, Ercole Rinaldo III., who in 1741 had married Maria Theresa Cybo Malaspina, the last offspring of her family, and heiress of the duchies of Massa and Carrara, being driven out of Modena in 1796 by the French invasion, appointed a regency, and retired to Venice. His estates were then formed into a province of the Cisalpine republic, and by the treaty of Campoformio in 1797, he was to receive as indemnification a principality in the Breisgau. Ercole Rinaldo, however, would not accept the Swabian state, and died an exile at Treviso in 1803, leaving an only daughter, Maria Beatrice d'Este. Besides her claim to the paternal estates, Maria Beatrice was, in virtue of her mother, Duchess of Massa and Carrara; and in 1771 had been married to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, a son of the Empress Maria Theresa, and a brother of the Emperor Joseph II. and of Leopold II. of Tuscany.

In 1805 Modena and Reggio formed part of the kingdom of Italy, which replaced the Cisalpine republic. Massa and Carrara, by a decree of Napoleon of March 30, 1806, were united to Lucca, which had been erected into a duchy and given to Prince Felix I. and Eliza Baciocchi.

After the fall of Napoleon, by the treaty of Fontainbleau, April 10, 1814, ratified by the treaty of Vienna in 1815, the former states of the House of Este were given to Francis, eldest son of Ferdinand of Austria; Lunigiana, Massa, and Carrara, were restored to his mother, Maria Beatrice of Este, and at her death in November 1829 were inherited by Francis, and joined to the Stati Estensi.

The extinction of the male line of the House of Este was a misfortune to the duchy. The princes of that family, with all their faults, always had more or less patronized letters and arts; and as they had to rely on the support of their subjects, they could not act constantly in direct opposition to their wishes and interests. The new prince, who took the name of Francis IV., had no congeniality of feelings with his subjects, looked upon them as a conquered Modena race, and was nowise solicitous to gain their affections, as he knew that he could always rely for support on the whole strength of the Austrian empire.

The bad effects of the change appeared prominently in 1821, after the fall of the Sardinian and Neapolitan constitutions. Though in the duchy there had been no insurrection, yet many persons, on a suspicion of belonging to secret societies, were imprisoned, hastily tried, and sent to the galleys, and even to the scaffold. It was on that occasion that the present distinguished chief librarian of the British Museum, Mr Panizz, was obliged to flee for safety from his country, where he was executed in effigy.

The French revolution of 1830 gave fresh encouragement to the liberal party throughout Italy. (See Italy.) Francis IV., either from fear, or with the hope of enlarging his territory, promoted with arms and money the liberal movement, which first broke out at Modena on the 3rd of February 1831. But a large Austrian army having advanced and put down the insurrection in Central Italy without any interference on the part of France, Francis returned to Modena; and to make amends for his coquetting with the liberals, distinguished himself by numerous and cruel state trials, which carried misery and dismay into every family. Among the first victims sent to the scaffold was Ciro Menotti, a young man who had been on the most friendly terms with the Duke, and had led the Modenese movement at his instigation. The remaining years of Francis's life were equally marked by reaction and political persecutions. It was under his protection that a Jesuitical journal, La Voce della Verità, was started at Modena, which became so violent in its attacks upon England, that at length Lord Holland, then the British plenipotentiary in Tuscany and the duchies, was obliged to interfere.

Francis IV. died in 1846, and was succeeded by his son, Francis Ferdinand V., the present Duke, who at first adopted a less oppressive course of government. In October 1847 he added to his estates the districts of Gallicano, Montignoso, and Fivizzano, which were given up by Tuscany on receiving the duchy of Lucca, according to a treaty of November 1844; and in January 1848 he also added the small duchy of Guastalla, and a district on the right bank of the Enza, which were received in exchange for the smaller districts of Villafranca, Castevoli, Treschietto, and Mulazzo, from Carlo Ludovico Borbone, who, having surrendered Lucca to Tuscany at the death of the Empress Maria Louisa in December 1847, had become Duke of Parma.

The liberal agitation of 1847 drove Francis Ferdinand V. into a course of stringent measures and persecutions. He had an Austrian detachment to garrison Brescello, and by an offensive and defensive treaty of February 1848, both he and the Duke of Parma empowered Austria to occupy their estates in times of danger. After the insurrection of Lombardy, the Austrians having found it necessary to withdraw, Francis took refuge in the fortress of Mantua, and the Stati Estensi by universal suffrage joined Sardinia. On the defeat of the Sardinian army in August 1848, Francis returned to Modena, which, however, on the resumption of hostilities, he again left and retired to the fortress of Brescello. He returned to his capital in May 1849, after the final defeat of Charles Albert, and ever since has followed a comparatively mild and more conciliatory policy.

Modena (ancient Mutina), the capital of the above duchy, is situated in 44° 38' 52" N. Lat., and 10° 26' 5" E. Long., between the Rivers Secchia and Panaro, on the banks of a canal which connects it with both these rivers. In ancient times Mutina was an important town of Gallia Cispadana, situated on the Via Emilia. It was probably founded by the Etruscans, and afterwards fell into the hands of the Romans in 218 B.C., who, thirty-five years later, established a colony here, after annexing the country belonging to the Boians, in which it was situated. Civic rights were soon accorded to the inhabitants, and the great Via Emilia constructed in order to develop the resources of the district. In 117 B.C., however, the settlers were disturbed by an incursion of the Ligurians, who for a short time held possession of the town. They were ultimately expelled by Consul Claudius, who inflicted a severe chastisement on the intruders. The next mention we have of Mutina is during the civil war, when in 78 B.C. it was held by M. Brutus against the victorious Pompey. Its most memorable occurrence in history, however, was during the bellum Mutinense, in 43 B.C., when it sustained a siege of about four months against the troops of Mark Antony. After the rupture of the latter with Octavius, he established a close blockade of Mutina, then garrisoned by Decimus Brutus. The forces of Antony held Bononia as well as Parma and Regium; while the main army, under his own leadership, kept up the siege of Mutina. For the relief of the latter the Senate had sent Consuls Hirtius and Pansa, besides the young Octavian. As Pansa was marching up to the support of his colleague with some newly-raised legions, he was attacked by Antony on the Bononian road, about eight miles from the besieged town. A severe action ensued, when the consul was mortally wounded; but Hirtius, taking the opportunity to attack the rear of Antony's army, forced him to retire to his camp before Mutina. The successful consul, however, was slain some days after, in a second battle near the town, which, nevertheless, had the effect of obliging his antagonist to raise the siege. In later years the town was besieged and taken by Constantine in 312 A.D., during his war with Maxentius; while after the decline of the empire it suffered severely from the barbaric invasions, and in 452 was laid waste by Attila. After the Longobard conquest it became the frontier city of their kingdom towards Ravenna; yet it gradually fell into such a state of decay, that in the tenth century it was almost totally deserted, and its site had in part become a morass. Most of the ancient buildings were allowed to go to decay, and ultimately became buried in the soil. From this abject state Mutina began to recover in the eleventh century, under the government of Countess Matilda, and gradually rose again to such prosperity, that in the fourteenth century it was already a very flourishing and opulent city.

The modern town is surrounded with walls, and defended by bastions and a citadel, which, though much enlarged and strengthened by the late Duke Francis IV. since 1830, is not capable of much defence. The city is well built, with a broad street running between two opposite gates. The houses are handsome, and many of them furnished with piazzas, or covered porticos, on the ground-floor. The ducal palace, which was begun by Francis I. in the seventeenth century, from the designs of Avanzini, and finished by the present Duke, Francis Ferdinand V., is a fine marble building, with several courts, open staircases, galleries, &c.; and still contains a large collection of paintings, though the best of them were sold in the last century, and form now the chief gems of the Dresden Gallery. In a wing of the palace is a collection of more than 25,000 coins and medals, and a museum of ancient sarcophagi, inscriptions, and curious medieval sculptures. In the same wing is also the Biblioteca Estense, or library, of 90,000 volumes and 3000 MSS., founded at the end of the seventeenth century by Francis II. Muratori, Zacharia, and Tiraboschi, three of the most learned men of Italy in the last century, were successively its librarians. The Duomo, or cathedral, begun by the Countess Matilda in 1099, is a very fine building, in what is called the Lombard style of architecture. Its bell-tower, or Ghirlandina, as it is named, from the bronze garland which surrounds the weathercock, is lined with marble, and attains a height of 315 feet. The worm-eaten Secchia, or wooden bucket, which, taken by the Modenese