The wonderful edifice whose facade is in corso Vittorio Emanuele° dates back to the XVII century, though its present appearance is due to Pietro Termanini, a Modenese architect of the late XVIII century. The owner at the time was Paolo Rango D’Aragona, member of a noble Neapolitan family.
Nowadays the palace is occupied by the Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, a prestigious cultural institution founded in the XVII century with the name of ‘Accademia dei Dissonanti’.
The palace has an amazing ‘imperial’ grand staircase with three flights, decorated with stucco works and paintings. The rooms on the main floor, particularly the one called ‘del Presidente’, are a profusion of stucco works and mirrors, proclaiming the richness of the Modenese aristocracy, just a few metres from the Ducal Palace°°.
Thousands of books belonging to the ‘Accademia’ line the walls. Among them, a unique edition of Luigi Pulci’s Morgante (1481).
[Images by the Author with the kind permission of the Accademia]
