The University of Parma () is a public university located in
Parma
Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
,
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...
, Italy. Organized into nine departments, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. As of 2016, it had approximately 26,000 students.
History
During the 13th-14th centuries there was an educational institution, ''studium'', in Parma, but it was closed in 1387 by
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan (1395) and ruled that late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò V ...
, Duke of Milan. The university was opened in 1412 by
Niccolò III d'Este, and, although no papal bull was issued, the degrees were granted. In 1420
Filippo Maria Visconti
Filippo Maria Visconti (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447) was the duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan from 1412 to 1447. Reports stated that he was "paranoid", but "shrewd as a ruler." He went to war in the 1420s with Romagna, Republic of Florenc ...
closed it again.
Although there were several attempts to revive the university, it functioned only as a "paper university", granting degrees without teaching. In 1601, the university was finally reopened by
Ranuccio I Farnese
Ranuccio I Farnese (28 March 1569 – 5 March 1622) reigned as Duke of Parma, Duke of Piacenza, Piacenza and Duchy of Castro, Castro from 1592. A firm believer in absolute monarchy, Ranuccio, in 1594, centralised the administration of Parma and ...
, and the papal bull was given. It was a joint institution with a
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...
, and a third of staff were teachers from a local Jesuit school, who taught in a separate building and by
Jesuit curriculum. There were usually about 27–32 teachers and 300–400 students in the 17th century. Logic, natural history, mathematics and theology were taught by Jesuits and law and medicine by civil teachers. Among the most important Jesuits who taught in Parma should be mentioned
Giovanni Battista Riccioli
Giovanni Battista Riccioli (17 April 1598 – 25 June 1671) was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion of ...
, and
Daniello Bartoli.
In 1768,
Ferdinand I expelled Jesuits and the curriculum was modernized. Student protests resulted in closure of the university by
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, in 1831; only in 1854 did
Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois
Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois (21 September 1819 – 1 February 1864) was a duchess and later a regent of Parma. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, younger son of King Charles X of France, and Princess Caroline ...
re-open it. The university then comprised faculties of theology, law, medicine, physics and mathematics, philosophy, and literature, as well as schools of obstetrics, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.
After the
Risorgimento
The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...
, the government of newly united Italy divided the universities of the country into two grades. In 1862, the University of Parma was declared grade B, its financing was reduced, and the quality of education degraded. It was equalized with grade A universities only in 1887.
Notable people
*
Francesco Accarigi (c. 1557–1622), professor of civil law
*
Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (; 15 March 1738 – 28 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, economist, and politician who is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of the ...
(c. 1738–1794), economist and criminologist
*
Attilio Bertolucci (1911–2000), poet
*
Alberto Broggi (born 1966), engineer
*
Marta Catellani, chemist
*
Flavio Delbono (born 1959), economist and politician
*
Vittorio Gallese
Vittorio Gallese is professor of Psychobiology at the University of Parma, Italy, and was professor in Experimental Aesthetics at the University of London, UK (2016–2018). He is an expert in neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, social neu ...
(born 1959), neuroscientist
*
Dario Item (born 1972), ambassador
*
Beppo Levi (1875–1961), mathematician
*
Macedonio Melloni (c. 1798–1854), physicist
*
Giuseppe Mingione
Giuseppe Mingione (born 28 August 1972) is an Italian mathematician who is active in the fields of partial differential equations and calculus of variations.
Scientific activity
Mingione received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Na ...
(born 1972), mathematician
*
Piero Mozzi (born 1950), medical doctor and naturopath
*
Bernardino Ramazzini
Bernardino Ramazzini (; 4 October 1633 – 5 November 1714) was an Italian physician.
Ramazzini, along with Francesco Torti, was an early proponent of the use of cinchona bark (from which quinine is derived) in the treatment of malaria. His most ...
(c. 1633–1714), professor of medicine and father of Occupational Medicine
*
Giacomo Rizzolatti (born 1937), neuroscientist
*
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, o ...
(1902–1989), screenwriter
Organization

The university is now divided into 9
departments
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
* Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
.
* Department of
Chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
,
Life Sciences
This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...
and Environmental Sustainability
* Department of Economics and Management
* Department of Engineering and Architecture
* Department of Food and Drug
* Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries
* Department of Law, Politics and International Studies
* Department of Mathematical, Physical and Computer Sciences
* Department of Medicine and Surgery
* Department of Veterinary Science
From 2012 to 2016 the university was divided into 18 departments:
* Department of Arts and Literature, History and
Social Studies
In many countries' curricula, social studies is the combined study of humanities, the arts, and social sciences, mainly including history, economics, and civics. The term was coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as ...
* Department of Biomedical, Biotechnological and translational Sciences
* Department of Chemistry
* Department of Civil, Environmental, Land Management, Engineering and Architecture - DICATEA
* Department of Classics,
Modern Languages, Education, Philosophy (A.L.E.F.)
* Department of Clinical and experimental Medicine
* Department of Economics
* Department of
Food Science
Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...
* Department of
Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...
* Department of
Information Engineering
Information engineering is the engineering discipline that deals with the generation, distribution, analysis, and use of information, data, and knowledge in electrical systems. The field first became identifiable in the early 21st century.
Th ...
* Department of Law
* Department of
Life sciences
This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...
* Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
* Department of
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...
* Department 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 medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
* Department of
Physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and earth sciences “Macedonio Melloni”
* Department of Surgery
The university was formerly divided into 12
faculties:
* Faculty of Agriculture
* Faculty of Architecture
* Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
* Faculty of Economics
* Faculty of Engineering
* Faculty of Law
* Faculty of Mathematics,
Physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and
Natural Science
Natural science or empirical 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 ...
.
* Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
* 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 medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
* Faculty of
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 ...
* Faculty of
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
* Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...
Research Labs in the Department of Engineering and Architecture
# Industrial Automation Laboratory
# IoT Lab
See also
*
European College of Parma
*
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
The symbol * denote online universities.
Source: MIUR, ''Anagrafe Nazionale Studenti'' (Academic yea ...
*
List of medieval universities
The list of Medieval university, medieval universities comprises University, universities (more precisely, ''studium generale, studia generalia'') which existed in Europe during the Middle Ages.Rüegg 1992, pp. XIX–XX It also includes ...
*
ICoN Interuniversity Consortium for Italian Studies
*
Library assessment
References
Books
*
*
*
See also
*
List of Jesuit sites
This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association.
Nearly all these sites have be ...
External links
University of Parma Website
Itinerari medievali: risorse per lo studio del Medioevo
Scholars and Literati at the University of Parma (1412–1800)Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae – RETE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parma, University of
Veterinary schools
Universities and colleges in Emilia-Romagna
Schools in Parma
Buildings and structures in Parma
University of Parma
The University of Parma () is a public university located in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Organized into nine departments, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. As of 2016, it had approximately 26,000 students.
History
During the ...
962 establishments
Veterinary medicine in Italy