Oil on copperplate by anonymous Flemish painter (half of the XVIII century. Collection of Carisbo, bank foundation in Bologna).
The painting represents the Ghisileri's estate, outside Porta Lame (Bologna): it depicts an ancient agrarian landscape which could be found in reclaimed and cultivated lands, comprised between the town walls (eastern side) and the Reno river.
It is a rural landscape based on the "seminativo arborato", arable land with parallel trees rows, which was the most common agricultural system (agoroforestry system we would say now!) in the Emilia-Romagna region since the Roman times until the '50 of the XX cen.
The Ghisileri family gave the name also to the irrigation dicth (dated 1473) through which they could convey the water from the Reno river to irrigate the lands and power water mills. The Ghisileri's properties were transferred to the Caprara family starting from 1506.
![](http://europeanagroforestry.eu/files/pub/news/img_af_padania.jpg)