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The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It is one of the largest European universities by enrollments and one of the oldest in history, founded in 1303. The university is one of the most prestigious Italian universities in the world, commonly ranking first in national rankings and in Southern Europe. In 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 it ranked first in the world for classics and ancient history. Most of the Italian ruling class studied at the Sapienza. The Sapienza has educated numerous notable alumni, including many
Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ou ...
,
Presidents of the European Parliament President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
and
European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...
s, heads of several nations, notable religious figures, scientists and astronauts. In September 2018, it was included in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings Graduate Employability Ranking and in 2022 it was ranked best Italian University according to
ARWU The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...
.


History

The Sapienza University of Rome was founded in 1303 with the Papal bull ''In Supremae praeminentia Dignitatis'', issued on 20 April 1303 by
Pope Boniface VIII Pope Boniface VIII ( la, Bonifatius PP. VIII; born Benedetto Caetani, c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 to his death in 1303. The Caetani, Caetani family was of b ...
, as a ''Studium'' for ecclesiastical studies more under his control than the universities of Bologna and Padua, making it the first pontifical university. In 1431 Pope Eugene IV completely reorganized the studium with the bull ''In supremae'', in which he granted masters and students alike the broadest possible privileges and decreed that the university should include the four schools of Law, Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. He introduced a new tax on wine to raise funds for the university; the money was used to buy a palace which later housed the Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza church. However, the university's days of splendour came to an end during the sack of Rome in 1527, when the studium was closed, some of the professors having been killed and others dispersed.
Pope Paul III Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549. He came to ...
restored the university shortly after his election to the pontificate in 1534. In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza, meaning wisdom, a title it retains. In 1703, with his private funds,
Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI w ...
purchased some land on the Janiculum, where he created a botanical garden, which soon became the most celebrated in Europe through the labours of the Trionfetti brothers. The first complete history of the Sapienza University was written in 1803–1806 by Filippo Maria Renazzi. University students were newly animated during the 19th-century Italian revival. In 1870, ''La Sapienza'' stopped being the papal university and became the university of the capital of Italy. In 1935 the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed. On 15 January 2008 the Vatican cancelled a planned visit to La Sapienza University by Pope Benedict XVI who was to speak at the university ceremony launching the 2008 academic yearBBC NEWS , World , Europe , Papal visit scuppered by scholars
15 January 2008
due to protests by some students and professors. The title of the speech would have been 'The Truth Makes Us Good and Goodness is Truth'. Some students and professors protested in reaction to a 1990 speech that Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) gave in which he, in their opinion, endorsed the actions of the church against
Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
in 1633.


Campuses

Sapienza University has many campuses in Rome, but its main campus is the ''Città Universitaria'' (University city), which covers near the
Roma Tiburtina Station Roma Tiburtina is the second largest railway station in Rome, after Roma Termini. Located in the north-eastern part of the city, it was originally constructed during the 1860s as a terminal station. In recent years, the station has been redevelop ...
. The university has satellite campuses outside Rome, the main one of which is in Latina. In 2011 a project was launched to build a campus with residence halls near
Pietralata station Pietralata is a station on Line B (Rome Metro), Line B of the Rome Metro. It is located on Via di Pietralata, after which it is named, in the Pietralata quarter, the 21st quarter of Rome, near the Forte Tiburtino and the Autostrada A24 (Italy), Au ...
, in collaboration with the Lazio region. To cope with the ever-increasing number of applicants, the Rector also approved a new plan to expand the ''Città Universitaria'', reallocate offices and enlarge faculties, as well as create new campuses for hosting local and foreign students. The Alessandrina University Library (''Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina''), built in 1667 by
Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...
, is the main library housing 1.5 million volumes; it has some important collections including ''collezione ciceroniana'' and ''Fondo Festa''.


Points of interest

*
Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza" (12 hectares), also known as the Orto Botanico di Roma, is a botanical garden operated by the Sapienza University of Rome and located at Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, Rome, Italy. It is open ...
, a botanical garden * Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza * San Pietro in Vincoli: the cloister is part of the Engineering School *
Villa Mirafiori A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became ...
: a Neo-Renaissance palace built during the 19th century, some rooms are decorated with fine frescoes. The Department of Philosophy is located in this building.


Academics

Since the 2011 reform, Sapienza University of Rome has eleven faculties and 65 departments. Today Sapienza, with 140,000 students and 8,000 among academic and technical and administrative staff, is the largest university in Italy. The university has significant research programmes in the fields of engineering, natural sciences,
biomedical sciences Biomedical sciences are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science, or both, to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health. Such disciplines as medical microbio ...
and humanities. It offers 10 Masters Programmes taught entirely in English.


Ranking

As of the 2016 ''
Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ...
'' (ARWU), Sapienza is positioned within the 151–200 group of universities and among the top 3% of universities in the world. In 2016, the Center for World University Rankings ranked the Sapienza University of Rome as the 90th in the world and the top in Italy in its ''World University Rankings''. According to the QS Graduate Employability Ranking 2020, Sapienza places first amongst Italian universities for the indicator on Alumni Outcomes thanks to the number of university graduates employed in large companies and in managerial positions. In 2022, Sapienza University of Rome ranked 177th in the world in '' QS World University Rankings''. The subject Classics and Ancient history of Sapienza is ranked the 1st in the world by ''QS World University Rankings'' by subject. As the same ranking, the subject Archaeology ranks the 10th. The subject Physics & Astronomy of Sapienza is ranked 36th, Arts and Humanities is ranked 39th, and Psychology is ranked 70th.


Admission

To cope with the large demand for admission to the university courses, some faculties hold a series of entrance examinations. The entrance test often decides which candidates will have access to the undergraduate course. For some faculties, the entrance test is only a mean through which the administration acknowledges the students' level of preparation. Students that do not pass the test can still enroll in their chosen degree courses but have to pass an additional exam during their first year.


Notable people


Some of the notable alumni and professors


Faculty and staff

Among the prominent scholars who have taught at the Sapienza University of Rome are architects
Ernesto Basile Ernesto Basile (31 January 1857 – 26 August 1932, in Palermo) was an Italian architect and an exponent of modernisme and Liberty style, the Italian variant of Art Nouveau. His style was known for its eclectic fusion of ancient, medieval and m ...
and
Bruno Zevi Bruno Zevi (22 January 1918 – 9 January 2000) was an Italian architect, historian, professor, curator, author, and editor. Zevi was a vocal critic of "classicizing" modern architecture and postmodernism. Early life Zevi was born and died in ...
; chemist
Emanuele Paternò Emanuele Paternò, 9th Marquess of Sessa was an Italian chemist and is credited with the discovery of the Paternò–Büchi reaction. Biography He was born in Palermo in 1847 as the Marquess of Sessa, in a branch of the House of Paternò. He stu ...
; jurists Antonio Salandra, Sabino Cassese and
Giuliano Amato Giuliano Amato (; born 13 May 1938) is an Italian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Italy, first from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2000 to 2001. Later, he was Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted t ...
; mathematician Vito Volterra; pharmacologist and Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Daniel Bovet; chemist and Nobel Laureate Giulio Natta; philosophers
Luigi Ferri Luigi Ferri (June 15, 1826 – 1895) was an Italian philosopher born in Bologna. His education was obtained mainly at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where his father, a painter and architect, was engaged in the construction of the Théâ ...
and Augusto Del Noce; physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
; political scientist
Roberto Forges Davanzati Roberto Forges Davanzati (23 February 1880, Naples1 June 1936, Rome) was an Italian journalist, academic and politician. Initially a syndicalism, syndicalist, he later became a nationalism, nationalist and fascism, fascist. Life and career After ...
. *
Carlo Costamagna Carlo Costamagna (21 September 1881, in Quiliano – 1 March 1965, in Pietra Ligure) was an Italian lawyer and academic noted as a theorist of corporatism. He worked closely with Benito Mussolini and his fascist movement. Path to fascism After ...
* Cardinal Mazarin *
Mario Oriani-Ambrosini Mario Gaspare R. Oriani-Ambrosini (26 October 1960 – 16 August 2014) was an Italian constitutional lawyer and politician who was a Member of Parliament in South Africa with the Inkatha Freedom Party. Early life Oriani-Ambrosini was born in Rom ...
* Corrado Gini, statistician *
Lucio Bini Lucio Bini (1908 – 1964) was an Italian psychiatrist and professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. Together with Ugo Cerletti, a neurophysiologist and a psychiatrist, he researched and discovered the method of electroconvuls ...
and Ugo Cerletti, psychiatrists * Corrado Böhm, computer scientist * Benedetto Castelli, mathematician * Andrea Cesalpino, physician and botanist * Federigo Enriques, mathematician * Maria Montessori, physician and paedagogist *
Paola S. Timiras Paola S. Timiras, born Paola Silvestri, (July 21, 1923, Rome – September 12, 2008, Berkeley, California) was an endocrinologist studying stress. Background and education Paola Silvestri was born on July 21, 1923, in Rome, Italy, just after ...
, biologist * Barnaba Tortolini, mathematician * Andrea Zitolo, physical-chemist * Edoardo Amaldi *
Oscar D'Agostino Oscar D'Agostino (29 August 1901 – 16 March 1975) was an Italian chemist and one of the so-called ''Via Panisperna boys'', the group of young scientists led by Enrico Fermi: all of them were physicists, except for D'Agostino, who was a chemist. ...
* Ettore Majorana * Bruno Pontecorvo * Franco Rasetti * Giovanni Battista Beccaria * Giovanni Jona-Lasinio * Luciano Maiani * Domenico Pacini * Antonio Signorini (physicist), Antonio Signorini * Nicola Cabibbo, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences * Cora Sternberg * Carlo Franzinetti, physicist * Alessandro Piccolo (agricultural scientist), Professor at University of Naples Federico II, Humboldt Prize in Chemistry *Bruno Luiselli, professor emeritus of Latin literature, studied the Barbarian. *Salvatore Dierna, architect, professor of environmental design


Humanities

* Glauco Benigni, Author, journalist * Anna Maria Bisi, archaeologist * Cesare Borgia, Cardinal, condottiero and politician of the 15th century * Piero Boitani, literary critic, writer and academic * Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, jurisconsult * Silvia Berti, historian * Lazarus Buonamici, renaissance humanist * Umberto Cassuto, Hebrew language and Bible scholar * Marcel Danesi, language scientist * Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, poet * Count Angelo de Gubernatis, orientalist * Predrag Matvejević, writer and academic * Santo Mazzarino, leading historian of ancient Rome and ancient Greece * Giuseppe Tucci, orientalist * Mario Liverani, orientalist * Paolo Matthiae, director of the archeological expedition of Ebla * Antonio Nibby, archaeologist * Diego Laynez, second general of the Society of Jesus; * Giulio Mazzarino, politician and cardinal * Alessandro Roncaglia, economist * Giulio Salvadori, literary critic and poet * Giuseppe Scaraffia, literary critic * Ugo Spirito, philosopher * Giuseppe Ungaretti, poet * Bernardino Varisco, philosopher * Musine Kokalari, Albanians, Albanian writer


Collaboration

The university entered into a collaboration with the Bahraini government and established the King Hamad Chair in Interfaith Dialogue and Peaceful co-existence in November 2018. The chair was established for entailing direct funding from the Bahraini government to La Sapienza. In July 2021 Italian MP Laura Boldrini and chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Human Rights wrote a letter criticizing the collaboration. In her letter, Boldrini stressed the human rights situation in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The letter was a follow-up to a hearing that took place on 14 June 2021, addressing the systematic violation of human rights, the death penalty, and the condition of detention of the prisoners of conscience in the country. Boldrini drew a contrast between the values of Bahrain and that of a democracy, like Italy.


See also

* European Spatial Development Planning ESDP-Network * List of medieval universities


Notes


References


External links

*
Sapienza University of Rome Italian Website

Sapienza University of Rome English Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rome Sapienza Sapienza University of Rome, 1303 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in the Papal States Educational institutions established in the 14th century Universities and colleges in Rome Rome Q. VI Tiburtino