The freedom conquered [by the Bolognese] against the Viscontis, the desire to seal the new republican regime with a grandiose construction, dedicated… - Guido Zucchini

The forty-two years, in which Giovanni II Bentivoglio with the name of gonfaloniere for life, granted to him by the conventions of Paul II (C.E.1465), he was a true lord, mark an era of splendor never reached again in the history of the city [of Bologna]. Giovanni's prudent and shrewd lordship led to immediate benefits and a notable degree of prosperity and independence. (p. 79)

The formation of the Italian kingdom favored the development of an eclectic architecture and the renewed consciousness of our people soon led to grandiose building renovations and the applications of recent hygienic and sanitary conquests: but perhaps one day the regret will be great in thinking about which the master plans of Italian cities were entrusted to inexperienced hands. The sudden desire for demolitions and the sudden love for large spaces and large streets mathematically straight and intersecting at right angles prevented the coordination of the needs of traffic and hygiene with those of history and art and of preserving together with the fruits of new arts, the witnesses of the past and the picturesque aspects and the reasons for these aspects. (p. 164)

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)