As the towers thickened, the great bell tower of San Pietro was added to the marvelous group of two hundred dark brick piers, built by Alberto, inzig… - Guido Zucchini

To him Aristotele Fioravanti we owe in all probability the model of the Palazzo del Podestà ordered by the Regiment in C.E.1472, since it was necessary to repair the façade towards the main square that the Burselli said it was ruinous for its antiquity. And the Municipality must have done well to entrust the study of the new works to , then the height of his fame, sought after and envied by the courts of Italy and abroad, wandering in those years between Rome, Naples (C.E.1471) and Bologna. It was better for no one than him to solve the problem of redoing the large portico and the Romanesque façade without completely demolishing either one or the other, but only covering them with new forms. (p. 83)

[...] if the decorations of the candlesticks and the capitals and moldings are due to Tuscan stonecutters, the architectural ensemble of the [del Podestà] palace appears to be the creation of a local craftsman who, in designing the model, had guided by the technical needs of the construction, the new renaissance forms and especially the design of the pilasters imported from Pagno di Lapo and finally some purely local uses, such as that of placing small circular windows in the frieze to illuminate the large and traditional flat ceiling rich in carved wood and paintings. (p. 83)

The mark left by Bentivoglio in the field of the arts was truly great: he was responsible for much of the current layout of the main streets and squares of Bologna and his desire to offer the foreigners who gathered here illustrious weddings and for splendid tournaments the view of a renewed city proud of its importance. The fortresses of the countryside and the walls and gates of the city were reinforced according to what the new science of war and the new obsidian methods required: his palace it was finished and enriched with a large tower and gardens, and rooms painted and decorated with gold ceilings (Gigli) and vast stables: the buildings of the Municipality and the Podestà at his behest they were restored and covered with new architecture: private individuals competed to erect houses and palaces so that in a short time the majority of the city was renovated and every man tried to build to the pleasure of Signor Messer Joane (Gaspare Nadi). Architects and bricklayers came from Lombardy and Veneto, sculptors from Tuscany, painters and illuminators from Ferrara and Modena; new and rich decorations in brightly colored terracotta, elegant candlesticks and boulder decorations came to adorn the facades of the houses, new paintings and frescoes enriched the churches, and Bologna was soon «bold, fantastic, shapely» (G. Carducci). (p. 81)