These ground-breaking essays, all based on original archival research, consider the evolving interest in Bolognese art in seventeenth-century Italy, particularly focusing on the period after the death of Guido Reni in 1642. Edited by Bolognese specialists Raffaella Morselli and Babette Bohn, the studies collected here focus on the taste for Bolognese art within Bologna itself and in other parts of the Italian peninsula, including Mantua, Ferrara, Rome, and Florence. Essays examine the roles of gender, class, and the social status of the artist in early modern Bologna; approaches to exhibiting artworks in noble Bolognese collections; the reputations of local women artists; the popularity of Bolognese quadratura painting; and the relative success of both contemporary and earlier Bolognese artists with Italian collectors.

[Babette Bohn](https://finearts.tcu.edu/faculty_staff/babette-bohn/), professor of art history, Texas Christian University, has published widely particularly on Bolognese art, including books on Guido Reni, Ludovico Carracci, and Federico Barocci. Her current book project is entitled *Women Artists, their Patrons, and their Publics in Early Modern Bologna*.[Raffaella Morselli](http://www.raffaellamorselli.com/), professor of art history at Teramo University, has published extensively on Bologna, including books on seventeenth-century collecting of Reni, Albani, and Cantarini and the social history of artists. Her current book project is *Bologna distretto delle arti. La società artistica felsinea nel XVII secolo*.

Chapter One - Babette Bohn and Raffaella Morselli, IntroductionChapter Two - Raffaella Morselli, Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani's Correspondence and Considerations on Art (1627-1659)Chapter Three - Joyce de Vries, Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi's Drawings and Paintings by Local MastersChapter Four - Babette Bohn, Collecting Women's Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and RealityChapter Five - Roberta Piccinelli, Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers PeriodChapter Six - Barbara Ghelfi, Bolognese Painters in Private Collections in Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in ForlìChapter Seven - Elena Fumagalli, Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600-1675)BibliographyIndex