The Italian Reform Reconsidered: A Look at Italophone Studies for the Estensi Domains

ABSTRACT This study has four goals. To study the Italian Reform from the 1530s to the 1560s on a regional and local level, limited to the Estensi domains, using a comparative method, and evaluating its three main cities: Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio whose experiences were very different. Reggio was largely traditional and less affected by the Reform. Ferrara was the site of intense political rivalry between the dukes of Ferrara and the popes. Modena was one of the Italian cities most impacted by ‘Lutheran’ ideas. To base the study mostly on italophone research that has not been translated into English. To examine differences between ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and Italian historiography and to shift the study of the Italian reform from church history to Italian history. To examine the relationship between the Renaissance and Reform, using the concept of a ‘rivoluzione mancata,’ a missed revolution, thereby connecting the Italian Reform to the Risorgimento and greater Italian history.