Giovanni II Bentivoglio He did not neglect to make friends of the people with lavish celebrations and tournaments and splendid banquets and courtship… - Guido Zucchini

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)

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)

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, inzigniero of the Municipality and the Chapter in pure Romanesque style: at his feet the bishop Enrico della Fratta raised his episcopal seat by adorning it with a very high portico with round columns and circular arches. (pp. 38-39)