The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in state ownership, owned by the state or receives significant government spending, public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private unive ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 departments. It was Europe's first university dedicated to training secular administrative staff, and is one of the oldest academic institutions in continuous operation. Federico II is the third University in Italy by number of students enrolled, but despite its size it is still one of the best universities in Italy and the world, in southern Italy it leads 1st Ranking since it started, being particularly notable for research; in 2015 it was ranked among the top 100 universities in the world by citations per paper. The university is named after its founder Frederick II. In October 2016 the university hosted the first ever

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

IOS Developer Academy and in 2018 the

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

Digital Transformation Lab.

History

The university of

Federico II was founded by emperor of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

Frederick II on 5 June 1224. It is the world's oldest state-supported institution of higher education and research. One of the most famous students was Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

Political project of Frederick II

Frederick II had specific objectives when he founded the university in Naples: first, to train administrative and skilled bureaucratic professionals for the ''curia regis'' (the kingdom's ministries and governing apparatus), as well as preparing lawyers and judges who would help the sovereign to draft laws and administer justice. Second, he wanted to facilitate the cultural development of promising young students and scholars, avoiding any unnecessary and expensive trips abroad: by creating a State University, Emperor Frederick avoided having young students during his reign complete their training at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

, which was in a city that was hostile to the imperial power. The University of Naples was arguably the first to be formed from scratch by a higher authority, not based upon an already-existing private school. Although its claim to be the first state-sponsored university can be challenged by

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half ...

(which was founded by the Castilian monarch c.1212), Naples certainly was the first chartered one. The artificiality of its creation posed great difficulties in attracting students;

was one of the few who came in these early years. Those years were further complicated by the long existence, in nearby

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

, of Europe's most prestigious medical faculty, the

Schola Medica Salernitana The Schola Medica Salernitana ( it, Scuola Medica Salernitana) was a Medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose ...

. The fledgling faculty of medicine at Naples had little hope of competing with it, and in 1231 the right of examination was surrendered to Salerno. The establishment of new faculties of theology and law under papal sponsorship in Rome in 1245 further drained Naples of students, as Rome was a more attractive location. In an effort to revitalize the dwindling university, in 1253, all the remaining schools of the university of Naples moved to Salerno, in the hope of creating a single viable university for the south. But that experiment failed and the university (minus medicine) moved back to Naples in 1258 (in some readings, Naples was "refounded" in 1258 by Manfred Hohenstaufen, as by this time there were hardly any students left). The Angevin reforms after 1266 and the subsequent decline of Salerno gave the University of Naples a new lease on life and put it on a stable, sustainable track.

Academics

The university has 13 faculties: * Agriculture * Architecture * Biotechnology * Economics * Engineering * Law * Letters and philosophy * Mathematical, physical 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 repeat ...

* Medicine and surgery *

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 medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

Political sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

* Sociology *

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 ...

Ranking

Noted people

Notable alumni

Among those who have attended the University of Naples Federico II are Italian presidents

Enrico De Nicola Enrico De Nicola, (; 9 November 1877 – 1 October 1959) was an Italian jurist, journalist, politician, and provisional head of state of republican Italy from 1946 to 1948. Afterwards, he became the first president of Italy on 1 January 194 ...

Giovanni Leone Giovanni Leone (; 3 November 1908 – 9 November 2001) was an Italian politician, jurist, and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the President of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. He ...

and

Giorgio Napolitano Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...

; mayors of Naples

Luigi de Magistris Luigi de Magistris may refer to: *Luigi De Magistris (cardinal) Luigi De Magistris (23 February 1926 – 16 February 2022) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Pro-Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary from ...

and Gaetano Manfredi; CEO Fabrizio Freda; and philosophers

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a ...

and Nicola Abbagnano. * Samantha Cristoforetti, astronaut and commandor of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

Saint Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

, philosopher and theologian * Leonardo Bianchi, physician and politician * Amadeo Bordiga, politician and political theorist *

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmolo ...

, philosopher, Dominican friar, mathematician and astronomer * Renato Caccioppoli, mathematician * Antonio Cardarelli, physician and politician *

Ernesto De Martino Ernesto de Martino (1 December 1908 – 9 May 1965) was an Italian anthropologist, philosopher and historian of religions. He studied with Benedetto Croce and Adolfo Omodeo, and did field research with Diego Carpitella into the funeral rituals ...

, historian of religion and folklore scholar *

Francesco De Martino Francesco de Martino (31 May 1907 – 18 November 2002) was an Italian jurist, politician, lifetime senator (1991–2002) and former Vice President of the Council of Ministers. He was considered by many to be the conscience of the Italian Socia ...

, eminent jurist, intellectual and politician * Fabrizio de Miranda, structural engineer * Gaetano Filangieri, jurist and philosopher * Marta Filizola, computational biophysicist * Nicola Fusco, mathematician * Pietro Giannone, historian, philosopher and jurist * Nunziante Ippolito, physician and anatomist *

Antonio Labriola Antonio Labriola (; 2 July 1843 – 12 February 1904) was an Italian Marxist theoretician and philosopher. Although an academic philosopher and never an active member of any Marxist political party, his thought exerted influence on many p ...

, philosopher * Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

* Vangjel Meksi, Albanian physician, translator and philologist * Attilio Micheluzzi, comics author-artist, graduate in architecture * Giuseppe Mingione, mathematician *

Giuseppe Moscati Giuseppe Moscati (25 July 1880 – 12 April 1927) was an Italian doctor, scientific researcher, and university professor noted both for his pioneering work in biochemistry and for his piety. Moscati was canonized by the Catholic Church in 198 ...

, Roman Catholic saint, physician, educator, and scientist * Francesco Saverio Nitti, economist and politician *

Umberto Nobile Umberto Nobile (; 21 January 1885 – 30 July 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships in the years between the two World Wars. He is primarily remembe ...

, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer * Luigi Palmieri, physicist * Luca Parmitano, astronaut * Raffaele Piria, chemist * Roberto Saviano, journalist and novelist * Athanas Shundi, Albanian pharmacist and politician *

Vincenzo Tiberio Vincenzo Tiberio (May 1, 1869 – January 7, 1915) was an Italian researcher and medical officer of the Medical Corps of the Italian Navy and physician at the University of Naples. Observing that people complained of intestinal disorders after th ...

, physician * Anna Tramontano, computational biologist * Cinzia Verde, marine biochemistry researcher *

Giambattista Vico Giambattista Vico (born Giovan Battista Vico ; ; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationa ...

, philosopher, historian, and jurist * Giuseppe Zaccagnino, diplomat and art collector

Presidents of the Italian Republic

Notable professors

* St. Thomas Aquinas, influential philosopher, saint, influential theologian * Leonardo Bianchi, physician and politician * Renato Caccioppoli, mathematician * Antonio Cardarelli, physician and politician *

Domenico Cotugno Domenico Felice Antonio Cotugno (January 29, 1736 – October 6, 1822) was an Italian physician. Biography Born at Ruvo di Puglia ( Province of Bari, Apulia) into a family of humble means, Cotugno underwent physical and economic hardships to g ...

, physician * Nicola Fusco, mathematician * Antonio Genovesi, philosopher and economist * Giovanni Filippo Ingrassia, physician * Stefania Filo Speziale, first woman to graduate in architecture in Naples *

Ettore Majorana Ettore Majorana (,, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 14 December 2019 ; born on 5 August 1906 – possibly dying after 1959) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. On 25 March 1938, he disappeared under mysteri ...

, physicist * Macedonio Melloni, physicist *

Giuseppe Mercalli Giuseppe Mercalli (21 May 1850 – 19 March 1914) was an Italian volcanologist and Catholic priest. He is known best for the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquake intensity. Biography Born in Milan, Mercalli was ordained a Roman C ...

, volcanologist * Vincenzo Monaldi, physician and physiologist. First Italian Minister of Health * Francesco Saverio Nitti, economist and politician * Luigi Palmieri, physicist and meteorologist * Alessandro Piccolo, Italian chemist and agricultural scientist *

Nino Salvatore Gaetano "Nino" Salvatore (28 July 1932 – 25 June 1997) was an Italian endocrinologist known for his extensive research on the thyroid gland. He spent the majority of his career in Naples' Stazione Zoologica and the University of Naples Federico II ...

, physician * Giosuè Sangiovanni, zoologist, founder of the Faculty of Natural Sciences *

Filippo Silvestri Filippo Silvestri (22 June 1873 – 10 June 1949) was an Italian entomologist. He specialised in world Protura, Thysanura, Diplura and Isoptera, but also worked on Hymenoptera, Myriapoda and Italian Diptera. He is also noted for describing an ...

, entomologist *

, philosopher, historian, and jurist

Honoris Causa graduates

* John Nash * Franco Modigliani * Richard Meier * Umberto Veronesi * Louis Ignarro * Riccardo Muti * Takaaki Kajita * Paolo Sorrentino * Tim Cook

References

External links

University of Naples Federico II Website
* Girolamo Arnaldi
Studio di Napoli
in '' Enciclopedia Federiciana'', Rome, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2005. {{authority control Universities and colleges in Naples 13th-century establishments in the Kingdom of Sicily Naples Federico II, University of 1224 establishments in Europe Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor