Peace of Bagnolo

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With the Treaty of Bagnolo, signed August 7, 1484, the War of Ferrara (1482–1484) between Ercole d'Este I and the papal forces mustered by Ercole's personal nemesis, Pope Sixtus IV and his Venetian allies, came to a conclusion. Ercole ceded the territory of Rovigo in the Polesine, lost at an early stage of the fighting, and the Venetian forces that were occupying Ferrara withdrew. Ercole avoided the absorption of Ferrara, seat of the Este, into the Papal States.

Sixtus may have been rendered more eager to capitulate by the series of victories by Venetian forces, who seized the opportunity to forward their territorial ambitions and had been hasty to declare war on Ferrara on a minor pretext in the first place. Florence, Naples, Mantua, Milan, and Bologna stood by Ferrara. While the papal forces were holding in check the Neapolitans who sought to pass north to aid Ferrara, and with the Roman Campagna being harassed by the Colonna, and Milan engaged combatting Genoa, the Venetians had besieged and overwhelmed the defenses of Ferrara, forcing the city to starvation. With the Venetians in Ferrara, the Pope, fearing his erstwhile allies, suddenly changed sides: he made a treaty with Naples, and permitted the Neapolitan army to pass through his territories, and they availed themselves of the opportunity to convey supplies to Ferrara and neutralize the siege. At the same time the Pope excommunicated the Venetians, and now urged all Italy to make war upon them.

The Peace of Bagnolo checked Venetian expansion in the terra firma, ceding to it the town of Rovigo and a broad swath of the fertile delta of the Po. This acquisition agreed upon at Bagnolo marked the high-point of Venetian territory; never again would Venice control so large a territory nor have so much influence as it did in the last half of the 15th century.

Nevertheless, Sixtus was not pleased with the terms arrived at without consulting him:

"The news of it literally killed Sixtus. When the ambassadors declared to him the terms of the treaty he was thrown into a violent rage, and declared the peace to be at once shameful and humiliating. The gout from which he suffered flew to his heart, and on the following day— August 12, 1484— he died."