Text in English & Italian. The present volume contains the Acta of the International Conference on the Patronage of the Este Family, Copenhagen 1987. The special situation in the Duchy of Ferrara offers an element of dynastic continuity in the various phases of Humanistic and Renaissance culture which makes it nearly unique in European history. The approaches chosen by the contributors in various disciplines -- music, theatre, pictorial arts, literature, history of ideas -- make it possible to analyse the interaction between the cultural policy of the "Signori" and the intellectuals of their court, covering the historical period from 1441 to the passing of the Duchy of Ferrara into the hands of the Papal State in 1598.