F E R 
Byng, one of his contemporaries at college :— u So well 
did he improve the time, that befide the knowledge which 
he had gained in the principal of the weftern languages, 
Low and High Dutch, Italian, French, and Spanilli, he 
was able to make relation obfervable of the mod remark¬ 
able palTages which had been incident to any of thofe 
places where he had made any confiderable abode ; as 
myfelf, with many others who had the happinefs to hear 
him difcourfe thereof, can give due teftimony.” Befide 
the languages in which he had fo well qualified hintfelf 
both for writing and difcourfe, his attentive mind was 
directed with afliduify to laws, manners, cuftoms, doc¬ 
trines; practice?, civil, ecclefi.iftical, and medical ; trades, 
arts, military and naval affairs, revolutions, See. Thus 
was travelling, by Mr. Ferrar, directed to much wiferand 
better purpofes, than it has been by the far greater part 
of thofe who, in thefe days, make what is called the tour 
of Europe. 
Mr. Ferrar appears to have been always determined for 
the Chriftian miniftr'y, and probably alfo for celibacy ar.d 
the afcetic life : but when he returned to England, in 
x6i8, with his mind cultivated and improved,'he met 
with very particular engagements of a domeftic, and alfo 
of a public nature, requiring that aflifhtnce which he was 
able to give, and which he was willing to beftow. His 
family flood high in the mercantile line, and were con¬ 
nected with affairs of great importance to the nation. His 
father died foon after his arrival, having appointed his foil 
Nicholas his foie executor. “ This (fays his biographer) 
was a great addition to the bufinefs already lying on him : 
but he had abilities equal to any 1 thing, with firmnefs of 
mind and integrity equal lo liis ability.” The great pub¬ 
lic concern which employed him, was the Virginia com¬ 
pany, in which feveral adventurers, under the protection 
of government, were embarked. This event difplayed, 
to much advantage, the abilities of Mr. Ferrar, natural 
and acquired, and alfo his fidelity and rectitude of mind. 
He was ioon afterward called to parliament, and fiill pur- 
fued the objeCt which he had undertaken for the Virginia 
company. His labours were indefatigable ; one proof of 
which, among others, was his having fecured attefied 
copies, tranferibed at his own expence, of the original 
papers which had been all violently feized by the order 
of a capricious monarch. Thefe tranferipts were care¬ 
fully preferved: but whether they are now in being, ap¬ 
pears uncertain. 
The diAblution of the company feems to have been re¬ 
garded by Mr. Ferraras the hint for difengaging hintfelf 
from fociety : he now determined to carry into execution 
the plan on which he had long fet his heart, to bid fare¬ 
well to the bufy world, and fpend the remainder of his 
days in religious retirement and devotion. He fettled 
with his mother and other branches of the numerous fa¬ 
mily, at Little Gidding, in the county of Huntingdon, in 
1625, where he continued to the time of his death, which 
was in 1637. - Some part of the time, in this retreat, was 
allotted to furgery and medicine, of which the neighbour- 
liood occafionally received the benefit. Mr. Ferrar alfo 
compafed difeourfes on different fubjefts, together with 
dialogues, hiftories, fables, and effays, for the ufe of the 
family : but one principal occupation was that of forming 
harmonies of the feriptures, in Englifh, and in feveral 
other languages. Mr. Ferrar’s devotion, though miftaken, 
was not of an illiberal kind ; it breathed good will to all 
men. We confider it as a proof of his mild and candid 
piety, that, among many other books which he tranfiated, 
one was; The one hundred and ten Gonfiderations of Val- 
deffo, a noble Spaniard, who was thought to lean to the 
doftrines of the Unitarians, in oppofition to the Trinita¬ 
rian fyltem. Tef after all that may be alleged in praife 
ot Mr. Ferrar, whofe ability, acquirements, and worth, 
we efiimate as of a fuperior kind, we can never concur in 
the views which he entertained of religion, nor in what 
he and fome others (much inferior indeed in all refpects 
to.him) call ferving God : which numbers regard as con- 
Vol. Vil. No. 430. 
F E R 329 
filling in certain mere forms and notion?, that have no 
ufeful influence on the heart. True and rational piety is 
an excellent principle, which, in proportion to its preva¬ 
lence, extends to every part of our conduct, forming the 
foul to virtue, and the life to all that is amiable and ufe¬ 
ful. Righteous, benevolent, and upright, practice, is the 
lure effect and evidence of real religion. Such efficacy it 
had with Mr. Ferrar, though he eflentially miltook as to 
the peculiar modes by which he contrived to exprefs oc 
thought to improve it. Poffibly, that knowledge which 
he had attained of the world, and that inconfiftency which 
he obferved between the dibfates of truth and virtue and 
the cuficrms of public life, efpecially in what are called 
its higher ranks, might incline him to that reclufe, auftere, 
and fuperditions, line, which appeared to be the object 
of his choice. 
FERRA'RA, a city of Italy, and capital of the Fer- 
rarefe, fituated on a branch of the Po, on the frontiers 
of'tlie late Venetian States. In 585, it was fortified by 
Smaragdus, patrician and exarchate of Ravenna ; and in 
657, h was credited into a bifhopric by pope Vitalian, who 
removed the fee from Vicovenza to this place. It was 
enlarged at feveral times, and became celebrated under 
the princes of the houfe of Efie; but when it loft its 
dukes, it declined in its magnificence and riches. It 
is about four miles in circumference, and defended by 
a, citadel, ftrong walls, and baftions. The ftreets arc 
handfome, with fome magnificent palaces and beautiful 
churches. The cathedral is remarkable for its antiquity. 
They reckon one hundred churches, thirty-eight convents, 
and hardly 14,000 inhabitants. The environs are marshy, 
and the air unwholefome, confequent'.y thinlyinhabitcd. 
In 1735, it was eredfed into an archbiftioprrc. Ariofto lies 
buried here, in a Benedidtine convent; and in the hofpi- 
tal of St. Ann, belonging to the city, TalT’o was confined 
as an ideot. Here is an univerfity, founded in 1390, by 
Albert marquis of Ferrara. The pope has a legate at Fer¬ 
rara, who refides in a palace, fituated in the midft of the 
town, furro.unded with walls, flanked with towers and 
ditches. This city was taken by the French republican 
army, and is, with its territory, now united with Bologna, 
Modena, and Reggio, to form the Ciipadana republic : it 
was formally ceded by the pope on the 19th of February, 
1797 : ftxty-leven miles north of Bologna, and forty fouth- 
eaft of Mantua. Lat. 44. 51. N. Ion. 29. 17. E. Ferro. 
FERRARE'SE, a province of Italy, in the ftate of the 
Church ; bounded on the north by the Polefino, on the 
eaft by the Gulf of Venice, on the fouth by the Romagna 
and Bolognefe, and on the weft by the Mantuan and Mo- 
debefe. The whole country is fertile, but low and marfliy, 
being frequently overflowed by feveral branches of the 
Po, and other rivers which run through it, lo that tra¬ 
velling is fometimes dangerous 'without guides. This 
country was a long time an independent duchy, granted 
by the emperor Frederic II. to the houfe of Efte, who, 
at the fame time, poffeffed the duchies of Modena and 
Reggio, and the Polefino'. The Polefino was leized by 
the Venetians, in the year 1500, and has from that time 
been confiaered as a part of their dominions. Alphonfo II. 
the laft legitimate prince of the houfe of Efte, dying, in 
1597, without male heirs, Caefar, foil of Alphonfo, of 
the Efte family, marquis of Montechio, laid claim to the 
duchy as next of kin ; but as his father, was born ot a 
clandeftine marriage contradted by Alphonfo I. with the 
daughter of a citizen of Ferrara, after the death of his 
firft wife, the pope declared Ctefar incapable of fucceed- 
ing'to the duchy of Ferrara, which was from this circum- 
ftance feized by the apoftolic chamber, fince w hich time 
it became a province of the ftute ot the Church, and is 
governed by a legate of the pope. It contains but few" 
towns, and, though in itfelf fertile, is badly cultivated, 
and.thinly inhabited. The principal places are,Ferrara 
and Coniachio. 
FERRA'RI (Louis), an ingenious Italian mathemati¬ 
cian, inventor of the firft method of reloiving biquadratic 
4 p equations. 
