I Cardinali protettori e i rapporti con la Chiesa nella storia dell'Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. On the occasion of the appointment of  Cardinal Archbishop Giacomo Biffi to honorary member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, 2001, 50 pp.
Music in Bologna, musicians in Bologna.
On the occasion of the conferring of the honorary academic membership to His Very Reverend Eminence Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna, on 16 June 2001 the Accademia Filarmonica celebrated Sant’Antonio’s Feasts  with a concert of the Musical Chapel of San Petronio, conducted by Federico Salce and performing the Oratorio Panis Angelicus by Albino Varotti. On the same occasion, a wide paper describing the past history of the Accademia Filarmonica, from the origin of its ancient connections with the Bolognese Church to nowadays was published (Bollettino Amis, XVII, aprile agosto 2001, n. 44-45, pp. 46-47).

The relation with the Church has characterized the history of the Accademia Filarmonica ever since its foundation (1666). The annual feasts with Mass and Vespers in the honour of the Accademia’s Patron Sant’Antonio from Padua, held in San Giovanni in Monte, were the emblematic example of the devotional feature of the Congregation of the Philarmonics. After becoming depositary of the “osservato” style of church music, which took inspiration from Renaissance classical models, the Accademia obtained official recognition of its own Statutes by Popes Clemente XI (1716), Benedetto XIV (1749), Clemente XIV (1772), Pio IX (1847).
The institutional office of the Protector Cardinals, who from 1713 to 1860 succeeded one after the other as guide of the congregation, and contributed in a determining way to the increasing of the Accademia’s prestige and international influence, was  the symbol of the connection between the Accademia and the Church. Even after the unity of Italy (1860), when the Protector Archbishops’ institutional office ceased, the link between the Accademia and the Church has always remained strong, and the names of the Archbishops in Bologna have continued to be included in the Academic honour roll.
The historical essay on the Protector Cardinals and the relations with the Church in the history of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna is mostly based on unpublished documents kept in the Archives of the Accademia, particularly in the Recordings of the meetings and in the Collections of letters. The fascinating description which derives allows on the one hand the understanding of the primary role of the Cardinals in stating the Accademia’s international reputation; on the other hand, it reveals the institution’s great adaptating capacity in relation to the inevitable changes of society in the course of the centuries, even though the essential values which had been animating the confraternity ever since its foundation  would remain unchanged. A rich store of photographic reproductions and of biographical notes completes the volume, which represents an important contribution to the knowledge of the history of the Accademia Filarmonica.

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