BOLOGNA, UNIVERSITY OF

A coeducational state institution of higher learning in Italy, enjoying administrative autonomy and financially supported by the state and by student tuition.

Early History. The origin of a school at Bologna is so closely linked to the rebirth of the study of law after the 11th century that it is just as impossible to fix a precise date for its foundation as it is to fix a date for the philosophical movements that are identified with it.

The tradition of the commentators (those masters who labored over the interpretation of the text of Roman law—in particular the Digest, the most important part of the Justinian collection, which came to their hands by ways no less mysterious than their reasons for meeting in Bologna) refers to a certain Pepo, the predecessor of

irnerius, who according to tradition headed a school in Bologna around 1080. It was only in the first part of the 12th century, however, that the Bolognese school is thought to have assumed, under Irnerius, that distinctive feature that would remain peculiar to it—the isolation of the study of law from the study of the other arts. This was a decisive step in the history of the school, the fame of which was already so widespread at the middle of the 12th century that it attracted the attention of the emperor Frederick I. He called the four famous Bolognese doctors, Bulgaro, Martino, Ugo, and Jacopo, to Roncaglia to decide the prerogatives of the emperor in regard to the cities. Again, according to tradition, each of the masters had a different approach to philosophy and juridical research. Nevertheless, if they and their assembly at Roncaglia can be considered as part of the myth that surrounds the Bolognese school, the famous privilege granted to the students there by Frederick I in 1158 is certainly not a myth. This privilege granted students the right to be judged by their masters (privilegium scholasticum ), a privilege that spread from Bologna and was later inserted in the code of Roman laws, where it is still referred to as the Habita.

Organization. By the middle of the 12th century students were flocking to Bologna not only from the various regions of Italy but even from the farthest parts of Europe. The organization of the school, although originally dependent on the name and worth of its masters, really depended on the student organizations, which chose the masters and paid their fees. In its earliest organization the school consisted of groups of students gathered around a master who taught in his home and was recompensed by a collection taken up among his disciples. The city later taking notice of the importance of the school tried to interfere in education—the first step being taken in 1180 when the city of Bologna obliged all masters to swear they would not teach outside the city. The students then organized both to facilitate their living problems and to protect their interests and privileges in dealing with the city and civil authority. In this manner, there arose two great organizations, the so-called cismontanes and the ultramontanes, each headed by a rector who was a student. Later the associations subdivided into nations according to the nationality of the single groups. In 1217 the cismontanes (the Italians) split into three groups: Lombards, Tuscans, and Romans, the last of which also included students from Sicily and Campania, later called Illi de regno. In 1265 the nations of the ultramontanes (the foreigners) were 13 in number with students from France, Spain, Provence,

England, Picardy, Burgundy, Poitou, Tours, Maine, Normandy, Cataluna, Hungary, Poland, and Germany. In 1432 with the growth of the school the number of nations increased to 16.

Contrasts and strife between masters and groups of students and between students and the civil authorities led to an increase in the network of new university centers outside Bologna. Universities arose in France, in Montpellier and Orléans; in Spain, in Salamanca; and in Italy, in Vicenza (1204), Arezzo (1215), Padua (1222), Vercelli (1228), Siena (1321), Florence, Pisa, Modena, Perugia, Rome (1303), Pavia (1361), Ferrara (1391), Parma, Turin, Messina, and Catania.

Canon and Civil Law. In the meantime, in the mid-12th century, instruction in canon law was introduced by Gratian, a monk of the Bolognese monastery of SS. Felix and Nabor. About the year 1140 he worked to unify canon law in the Decretum that was to be the basis of Church legislation in the 13th century. (see gratian, de cretum of.) As the genius of Irnerius appeared in the separation of the study of civil law from that of the other arts, so the genius of Gratian was manifested in the distinction he introduced between canon law and theology. This work completes and perfects the plan of medieval studies with the union of Roman law and canon law in a unique system—l'utrumque ius, an ideal form for the new civilization advancing toward the second millennium of Christianity.

These two great branches of 13th-century medieval culture are found distinct at the Bolognese school in two colleges—the Ius Canonicum, composed of 12 members, and the Ius Civile sive Casesareum, with 16. These groups gathered together the masters or their representatives from the various colleges for the final examination of a candidate or in exceptional cases held a common meeting.

Expansion. The restoration of Aristotelian philosophy in the 13th century gave a new impulse to the teaching of mathematical, liberal, and mechanical arts, a fact confirmed by the establishment of a third college—Collegium artistarum et medicorum —for instruction in philosophical and technical subjects.

These three colleges, which unite the masters, canonists, lawyers, artists, philosophers, and doctors, can be compared to the ancient student organizations of cismontanes, ultramontanes, and nations. The course of study lasted six years for canon law, eight years for civil law, and four years for arts and medicine. The doctorate was obtained by successfully carrying on a discussion on a topic assigned on the eve by the professors who themselves held the opposition. Those who were successful could obtain the doctorate by giving a lecture in the presence of the academic body, the rectors of the universities, and their colleagues. Since 1219 the formal conferring of the doctorate has been the prerogative of the archdeacon of the Cathedral of Bologna, acting as papal delegate. This formality made the doctorate received at Bologna not simply a licentia docendi (an authorization to teach) but rather a licentia ubique docendi (an authorization to teach anywhere).

The organization of the university based on three colleges of masters and three "universities" of students remained unchanged until the end of the 18th century. In the late 16th century the various schools were united in one building, the Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, provided by the city, in keeping with the civil authorities' plan to assume authority over the university.

During the French Revolution and especially during the Napoleonic era (1800–15), the ancient organization of the university was transformed. It emerged from this period as a modern state university. The Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio was abandoned, and the university moved to the Palazzo Poggi where it still functions.

The bull of Leo XIII, Quod divina sapientia, of Aug. 28, 1824, raised the University of Bologna to the status of a Pontifical University, placing it side by side with the University of Rome with the right to confer both the licentiate and the doctorate. Since 1860 (when it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy) the University of Bologna has conformed to the organization of institutes of higher learning in the new Italian State.

Bibliography: a. sorbelli, Enciclopedia Italiana di scienzi, littere ed arti, 36 v. (Rome 1929–39;) 7:347–348. s. d'irsay, Histoire des universités, 2 v. (Paris 1933–35) v. 1. h. rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. f. m. powicke and a. b. emden, 3 v. (Oxford 1936). Chartularium studii Bononiensis, 13 v. (Bologna 1909–40). Studi e memorie per la storia dell' Università di Bologna, ser. 1, 18 v. (Bologna 1907–50); NS 1–2 (1956–61).

[g. orlandelli]