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University of Pisa
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The University of Pisa (Italian Università di Pisa) is one of the most renowned Italian universities. It is located in Pisa, Tuscany. It was formally founded on the September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century. The University has Europe's oldest academic botanical garden (Orto botanico di Pisa), founded 1544.
The University of Pisa is part of the Pisa University System, together with the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.
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The University of Pisa (Italian Università di Pisa) is one of the most renowned Italian universities. It is located in Pisa, Tuscany. It was formally founded on the September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century. The University has Europe's oldest academic botanical garden (Orto botanico di Pisa), founded 1544.
The University of Pisa is part of the Pisa University System, together with the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. It offers a wide and renowned range of courses, but it is especially known for its science and engineering branches, which manage extremely good courses at the BSc, MSc and PhD level. The Computer Science course at University of Pisa was the first one in the area to be activated in the whole Italy, during the 1960s. The university now has about 57,000 students (of which 53,000 in undergraduate and postgraduate studies and 3500 in doctoral and specialization studies).
History
The University of Pisa was officially established in 1343, although a number of scholars claim its origin dates back to the 11th century.
The earliest evidence of a Pisan “Studium” dates to 1338, when the renowned jurist Ranieri Arsendi transferred to Pisa from Bologna. He along with Bartolo da Sassoferrato, a lecturer in Civil Law, were paid by the Municipality to teach public lessons.
The papal bull ‘In supremae dignitatis', granted by Pope Clement VI on 3 September 1343, recognized the ‘Studium' of Pisa as a ‘Studium Generale'; an institution of further education founded or confirmed by a universal authority, the Papacy or Empire. Pisa was one of the first European universities that could boast this papal attestation, which guaranteed the universal, legal value of its educational qualifications.
The first taught subjects were: Theology, Civil Law, Canon law and Medicine. In 1355 Francesco da Buti, the well-known commentator of Dante's Divine Comedy, began teaching at the “Studium”.
Pisa and its ‘Studium' underwent a period of crisis around the turn of the 15th century: the Florentines' conquest of the town led to the university's closure in 1403. In 1473, thanks to Lorenzo de Medici, the Pisan Studium resumed its systematic development and the construction of a building for holding lessons was provided for in 1486. The building – later known as Palazzo della Sapienza (The Building of Knowledge) - was located in the fourteenth-century Piazza del Grano. The image of a cherub was placed Above the Gate “Dell'Abbondanza” (the Gate of Abundance), leading to the Piazza, still today the symbol of the University.
Following the rebellion against Florence in 1494 and the war following, the Pisan Studium suffered a period of decline, and was transferred to Pistoia, Prato and Florence. The ceremonial re-opening of the University, on 1 November 1543, under rule by Duke Cosimo I de Medici, was considered as a second inauguration. The quality of the University was furthered by the statute of 1545 and the Pisan Athenaeum became one of the most significant in Europe for teaching and research. The chair of “Semplici” (Botany) was held by Luca Ghini, founder of the world's first Botanical Gardens, succeeded by Andrea Cesalpino, who pioneered the first scientific methodology for the classification of plants and is considered a forerunner in the discovery of blood circulation. Gabriele Falloppio and Marcello Malpighi lectured in Anatomy and Medicine.
Galileo Galilei, who was born and studied in Pisa, became professor of Mathematics at the Pisan Studium in 1589.
The University's role as a state institution became ever more accentuated during the Medici Grand Duchy period. A protectionist policy ensured a consistent nucleus of scholars and teachers: laws issued by Cosimo I, Ferdinando I and Ferdinando II obliged those who intended to obtain a degree to attend the Studium of Pisa. This period sees various illustrious figures lecture at Pisa, especially in the field of law and medicine.
The University's development continued under the Lorenas. They completed the construction of the astronomic observatory (a project initiated by the Medicis), as well as enriching the University Library with important publications, developing the Botanical Gardens and Natural Science Museum and they established new chairs, such as Experimental physics and Chemistry.
The annexation of Tuscany to the Napoleonic Empire resulted in the transformation of the Studium into an Imperial Academy: the Athenaeum became a branch of the University of Paris and the courses and study programs were structured following the French public education model. Five new faculties were established (Theology, Law, Medicine, Science and Literature), along with examinations, different qualification titles and graduation theses. In 1813 ‘La Scuola Normale Superiore' was established, as a branch of the 'École Normale Supérieure' in Paris.
The Restoration wasn't able to cancel the effects of the Napoleonic experience. The first Congress of Italian Scientists was held in Pisa in 1839. 421 scientists and over 300 experts of various disciplines discussed zoology, comparative anatomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, agronomy, technology, botany, vegetation physiology, geology, mineralogy, geography and medicine.
In 1839 – 1840 the Director of Education, Gaetano Giorgini, brought about the most important reform in the University of Pisa by raising the number of faculties to six (Theology, Law, Literature, Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences) and created the world's first chair of Agriculture and sheep farming.
In 1846 the Scuola Normale was re-opened. Meanwhile, liberal and patriotic ideals were spreading at Athenaeum and a battalion of the University – composed of lecturers and students – distinguished itself in the Battle of Curtatone and Montanara in 1848.
During the ‘Second Restoration', in 1851, Leopoldo II united the universities of Pisa and of Siena in a unique Etruscan Athenaeum motivated partly by economic reasons, but primarily for political control. The faculties of Theology and Law rested at Siena; while those of Literature, Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences remained at Pisa. Following the Florentine insurrection and the fleeing of the Grand Duke in 1859, one of the initial measures imposed by the Provisory Government was the restitution to the city of Pisa of its Studium with all six of its faculties.
With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, the University of Pisa became one of the new state's most prestigious cultural institutions. Between the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries the following prestigious lecturers taught at Pisa: the lawyers Francesco Carrara and Francesco Buonamici, philologists Domenico Comparetti and Giovanni D'Ancona, historians Pasquale Villari, Gioacchino Volpe and Luigi Russo, philosopher Giovanni Gentile, economist Giuseppe Toniolo and mathematicians Ulisse Dini and Antonio Pacinotti. The first European institute of Historical Linguistics was founded in Pisa in 1890.
During the years of fascism the Pisa Athenaeum was an active centre for political debate and antifascist organisation.
After the second world war the University of Pisa returned to the avant-garde in many fields of knowledge. To the faculties of Engineering and Pharmacy, established pre-war, were added Economics, Foreign Languages and Literature and Politics. In 1967 the ‘Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento S. Anna' was founded which, together with ‘La Scuola Normale', formed a highly prestigious learning and teaching centre.
Today the University of Pisa boasts eleven faculties and fifty-seven departments, with high level research centres in the sectors of agriculture, astrophysics, computer science, engineering, medicine and veterinary medicine. Furthermore the University has close relations with the Pisan Institutes of the National Research Council, with many cultural institutions of national and international importance, and with industry, especially that of information technology, which went through a phase of rapid expansion in Pisa during the nineteen sixties and seventies.
Notable alumni and faculty
- Francesco Accarigi, professor of civil law
- Giuliano Amato, politician and former Prime Minister of Italy
- Andrea Bocelli, singer
- Philippe Buonarroti, revolutionary
- Andrea Camilleri, writer (ad honorem)
- Giosuè Carducci, poet, Nobel Prize winner
- Bonaventura Cavalieri, mathematician
- Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former President of the Italian Republic
- Pope Clement XII
- Massimo D'Alema, politician and former Prime Minister of Italy
- Enrico Fermi, physicist, Nobel Prize winner
- Galileo Galilei, scientist
- Giovanni Gentile, philosopher and minister
- Giovanni Gronchi, former President of the Italian Republic
- Girolamo Maggi, 16th century scholar
- Guido Fubini, mathematician
- Mario Monicelli, movie director
- Alessandro Natta, former secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI)
- Carlo Rubbia, physicist, Nobel Prize winner
- Adriano Sofri, writer
- Tiziano Terzani, journalist and writer
- Elio Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome
- Vito Volterra, mathematician
Organization of the University
Nowadays the University of Pisa consists of 11 faculties and 56 departments. These faculties offers a notable amount of courses in their related field of studies:
PhD studies are instead usually offered and arranged by the departments themselves. The lectures are mostly given in Italian, except for a number of courses at the faculty of Foreign Languages & Literatures and some scientific programmes, such as the international MSc in aerospace engineering (EuMAS). The 51,000 students who study at the UniPi have at their disposal also a Linguistical Centre, where they can attend to many courses of foreign languages, a Sports Centre (Cus Pisa), who also arrange for many Sports Intramural Leagues and allows to make the sports practice in almost all the disciplines available in Italy, and three University Refectories (Mense universitarie).
The University of Pisa is not organized in the form of one unique campus, but its many buildings are scattered in the whole Pisa area, especially in the city centre.
See also
- Category:University of Pisa alumni
- Category:University of Pisa faculty
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