The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
of the city of
Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
in the
Emilia-Romagna
egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title ...
region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the University of Ferrara, with more than 500 students, was the best attended of the free universities in Italy. Today there are approximately 16,000 students enrolled at the University of Ferrara with nearly 400 degrees granted each year. The teaching staff number 600, including 288 researchers. It is organized into 12 Departments.
History
The University of Ferrara was founded on March 4, 1391 by Marquis
Alberto V D'Este
Alberto (V) d'Este (27 February 1347 – 30 July 1393) was lord of Ferrara and Modena from 1388 until his death.
He was associated in the lordship of the House of Este by his brother Niccolò in 1361, becoming the sole ruler of Ferrara and ...
with the permission of
Pope Boniface IX
Pope Boniface IX ( la, Bonifatius IX; it, Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope of the Western Schism.Richa ...
. The Studium Generale was inaugurated on
St. Luke
Luke the Evangelist (Latin: '' Lucas''; grc, Λουκᾶς, '' Loukâs''; he, לוקאס, ''Lūqās''; arc, /ܠܘܩܐ לוקא, ''Lūqā’; Ge'ez: ሉቃስ'') is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of t ...
's Day (October 18) of that year with courses in
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
and
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
.
After the
unification of Italy
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...
, Ferrara University became a free
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
with faculties of Law and
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, a three-year course in
Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
(reduced to two years in 1863-64), as well as Schools of
Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
(abolished in 1876), Pharmacy, and for public Notaries.
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it started to be state-supported and this allowed the opening of many faculties and research departments. The most remarkable growth took place between the '70s and the '80s, when Prof.
Antonio Rossi
Antonio Rossi (born December 19, 1968) is an Italian sprint canoer who has competed since the early 1990s. Competing in five Summer Olympics, he won five medals which included three golds (K-1 500 m: 1996, K-2 1000 m: 1996, 2000), one silver ( ...
was in charge of it as
Rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
.
Some notable instructors include:
*
Giovanni Bianchini
Giovanni Bianchini (in Latin, Johannes Blanchinus) (1410 – c. 1469) was a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Ferrara and court astrologer of Leonello d'Este. He was an associate of Georg Purbach and Regiomontanus. ...
, professor of astronomy
*
Cesare Cremonini, professor of natural philosophy between 1573 and 1590
Research and international collaboration
The CIVR (Comitato di Indirizzo per la Valutazione della Ricerca, or Directory Committee for the Evaluation of Research), according to a public report of 2007, has rated the University of Ferrara as the best Italian university for the applied exploitation of research. In order to produce these results, the CIVR has taken into consideration numerous data such as patents registered in Italy and abroad, the research collaborations between the university business and academic spin-offs.
Starting in 2000, the University of Ferrara has collaborated across the faculties of economics, architecture, medicine, jurisprudence and engineering in the main industrial areas of China, that is, Guangdong, in research and experimentation with the Chinese universities and important local businesses. Collaborations have begun between the Faculty of Economics of Ferrara and the South China University of Technology, an agreement that has permitted the faculty in Ferrara to undertake a research project about the industry of Guangdong and has allowed the Faculty of Medicine to open in 2006 a permanent office near the Capital University of Medical Sciences of Beijing. This has allowed the implementation of a master's degree of the second level in clinical Neurophysiology, with consent to the young Chinese neurologists, to expand the applied techniques and their studies of neuroscience. Institutions participating in the master’s program include the department of neurophysiology of the University of Ferrara, the Neurological institute of Milan and to Beijing.
Another active master’s program with its seat in Ferrara is that of the aesthetics and cosmetology signed to Canton through the Ferrara Center of Cosmetology and the Chinese academy Ginzza International Beauty and Hair Academy.
Organization
These are the 8 faculties which the university is divided into:
* Faculty of
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
* Faculty of
Economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
* Faculty of
Engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
* Faculty of
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
* Faculty of
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
* Faculty of
Mathematical
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
Physical
Physical may refer to:
*Physical examination
In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...
and
Natural Sciences
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
* Faculty of
Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
and
Surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...
* Faculty of
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...
As of 2014, there are 12 PhD courses, organized around a special Institute for Advanced Studies, IUSS-Ferrara 1391.
Generally speaking, research departments
do not coincide with faculties (as is usual in Italy). Specifically, literature, history, philosophy are independent of one another. Furthermore, biologists, physicists, and geologists work in different institutions. Medical research is carried out in cooperation with the city hospital, which offers some of its buildings for use as a teaching hospital.
Famous alumni and professors
*
Ludovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...
*
Patrizio Bianchi
Patrizio Bianchi (born 28 May 1952) is an Italian economist and academic, current chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Education, Growth and Equality. He served as minister of education in the Draghi Cabinet from 2021 to 2022.
Biography
Early l ...
*
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic Church, Catholic cano ...
Doctor of Canon Law (''Nicolaus Copernich de Prusia, Jure Canonico ... et doctoratus'')
["Nicolaus Copernicus Gesamtausgabe Bd. VI: Urkunden, Akten und NachrichtenDocumenta Copernicana – Urkunden, Akten und Nachrichten, alle erhaltenen Urkunden und Akten zur Familiengeschichte, zur Biographie und Tätigkeitsfeldern von Copernicus, 1996, ', pp. 62–63.]
*
Michele Ferrari
Michele Ferrari (born 26 March 1953) is an Italian physician, cycling coach and author, who is mostly known for his role in supplying bicycle racers with performance-enhancing drugs, notably EPO. His most famous client was Lance Armstrong.
Biog ...
*
Theodorus Gaza
Theodorus Gaza ( el, Θεόδωρος Γαζῆς, ''Theodoros Gazis''; it, Teodoro Gaza; la, Theodorus Gazes), also called Theodore Gazis or by the epithet Thessalonicensis (in Latin) and Thessalonikeus (in Greek) (c. 1398 – c. 1475), wa ...
*
Marcella Hazan
Marcella Hazan (née Polini; April 15, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was an Italian cooking writer whose books were published in English.
Her cookbooks are credited with introducing the public in the United States and the United Kingdom to the ...
*
William Latimer
*
Paracelsus
Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.
He w ...
*
Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci (; born January 16, 1964) is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the '' Rationally Speaking Podcast'', and former editor in chief for the online magazine ''Scientia Salon''. He is a critic o ...
*
Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of ...
Points of interest
*
Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea
*
Orto Botanico dell'Università di Ferrara
See also
*
ESDP-Network
The European Spatial Development Planning or ESDP-Network seeks to promote education, research and professional training in spatial planning across European countries, in collaboration with many partners in other regions of the world. To this pur ...
*
List of Italian universities
This is the list of universities in Italy, sorted in ascending order by the name of the city where they are situated.
List of universities
Source: MIUR, ''Anagrafe Nazionale Studenti'' (Academic year 2012/2013)
Regional distribution
Sou ...
*
List of medieval universities
The list of medieval universities comprises universities (more precisely, '' studia generalia'') which existed in Europe during the Middle Ages.Rüegg 1992, pp. XIX–XX It also includes short-lived foundations and European educational ins ...
References
External links
Official websiteUnifeon
Google+
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Ferrara
Ferrara, University of
1391 establishments in Europe
Ferrara, University of
Ferrara, University of
Education in Ferrara
Buildings and structures in Ferrara
Universities and colleges in Emilia-Romagna