War of Ferrara - The Treaty of Bagnolo

The Treaty of Bagnolo

The war came to a conclusion with the Treaty of Bagnolo, signed on 7 August 1484. Ercole ceded the territory of Rovigo in the Polesine, lost at an early stage of the fighting, and the Venetian forces that were occupying Ferrara-owned territory withdrew. Ercole had successfully avoided the absorption of Ferrara, seat of the Este, into the Papal States.

Sixtus was rendered more eager to sue for peace by the series of victories by Venetian forces, who seized the opportunity to forward their territorial ambitions and had been hasty to declare war on Ferrara on a minor pretext. Florence, Naples, Mantua, Milan, and Bologna stood by Ferrara. While the papal forces were holding in check the Neapolitans who sought to move north to aid Ferrara, and with the Roman Campagna being harassed by the Colonna, and Milan engaged in combat with Genoa, the Venetians had besieged Ferrara into starvation. With the Venetians ready to take over Ferrara, the Pope, fearing his erstwhile allies, suddenly changed sides: he made a treaty with Naples, and permitted the Neapolitan army to pass through his territories, giving them the chance to convey supplies to Ferrara and neutralize the siege. At the same time the Pope excommunicated the Venetians, and now urged all Italy to make war upon them.

The Peace of Bagnolo checked Venetian expansion in the terra firma, ceding to it the town of Rovigo and a broad swath of the fertile delta of the Po. This acquisition agreed upon at Bagnolo marked the high-point of Venetian territory; never again would Venice control so large a territory nor have so much influence as it did in the last half of the 15th century.

Nevertheless, Sixtus was not pleased with the terms reached without consulting him:

"The news of it literally killed Sixtus. When the ambassadors declared to him the terms of the treaty he was thrown into a violent rage, and declared the peace to be at once shameful and humiliating. The gout from which he suffered reached his heart, and on the following day— 12 August 1484— he died."

The war was the subject of an anonymous poem entitled La guerra di Ferrara