Bologna, University of

one of the oldest European universities. Located in Bologna, Italy.

The core of the University of Bologna was established in the 11th century by an association of students who had come from various places to study jurisprudence. The first legal act pertaining to the University of Bologna was its charter, promulgated in 1158 by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. From the 12th through the 15th centuries, the University of Bologna was very popular; during the 13th century the number of its students reached 10,000. The distinguishing feature of the University of Bologna was that it was essentially a legal education institution whose principal subjects of instruction were Roman and canon law. The philosophy, medicine, and theology faculties were founded only in the 14th century. At first the university was almost completely independent of the church and the municipal authorities. By the 15th century, however, a system had been established under which the teachers were paid by the municipal authorities. Subsequently, the university gradually lost its autonomy and fell under the influence of the Catholic Church. In the 20th century the University of Bologna yielded its leading position to larger Italian universities—Rome and Naples—but it continues to be one of the country’s important teaching and research centers.

During the academic year 1969–70 there were 12 faculties: jurisprudence, political science, economics and commerce, philosophy and the arts, mathematics and physics and the natural sciences, pedagogy, medicine, pharmacology, industrial chemistry, engineering, agriculture, and veterinary medicine. There were 29,500 students enrolled in the university and more than 200 professors working there. The University of Bologna’s library (founded in 1712) contained more than 750,000 volumes in 1969.