1. History

2. Campuses
    Points of interest 

3. Academics

4. Ranking

5. Admission

6. Controversies

7. Notable people
    Some of the notable alumni and professors  Faculty and staff  Humanities 

8. See also

9. Notes

10. References

11. External links

The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza^[3]{{efn|Pronounced {{IPA-it|la saˈpjɛntsa|}}; Italian for "knowledge" or "wisdom".}} or the University of Rome, is a collegiate research university located in Rome, Italy. Formally known as Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", it is one of the largest European universities by enrollments^[4] and one of the oldest in history, founded in 1303. The University is one of the most prestigious Italian universities, commonly ranking first in national rankings and in Southern Europe.^[5]

Most of the Italian ruling class studied at Sapienza.^[6] Sapienza educated numerous notable alumni, including many Nobel laureates, Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commissioners, heads of several nations, notable religious figures, scientists and astronauts.^[7]. In September 2018, it was included in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings Graduate Employability Ranking^[8].

History

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, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies more under his control than the universities of Bologna and Padua,^[9] 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 in order 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 and the professors dispersed, and some were killed. Pope Paul III restored the university shortly after his ascension to the pontificate in 1534.

In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza, meaning wisdom, a title it retains. In 1703, Pope Clement XI purchased some land with his private funds on the Janiculum, where he made 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.^[10]

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.

Campuses

Sapienza University has many campuses in Rome but its main campus is the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers {{convert|44|ha|abbr=on}} near the Roma Tiburtina Station. The university has satellite campuses outside Rome, the main of which is in Latina.

In 2011 a project was launched to build a campus with residence halls near Pietralata station, in collaboration with the Lazio region.^[11] In order 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^[12] (Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina), built in 1667 by Pope Alexander VII, 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", a botanical garden
• Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
• San Pietro in Vincoli: the cloister is part of the Engineering School
• Villa Mirafiori: 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 and humanities.

It offers 10 Masters Programmes taught entirely in English.

Ranking

As of the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Sapienza is positioned within the 151-200 group of universities and among the top 3% of universities in the world.^[13][14]

In 2018, the subject Classics and Ancient history of Sapienza is ranked the 1st in the world by QS World University Rankings by subject^[15]. As the same ranking, the subject Archaeology ranks the 9th^[16].

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.^[17]

Admission

In order 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.

Controversies

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 year^[18] due to protests by some students and professors.^[19] The title of the speech would have been 'The Truth Makes Us Good and Goodness is Truth'.^[20] 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 in 1633.^[18]

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 and Bruno Zevi; chemist Emanuele Paternò; jurists Antonio Salandra, Sabino Cassese and Giuliano Amato; mathematician Vito Volterra; pharmacologist and Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Daniel Bovet; chemist and Nobel Laureate Giulio Natta; philosophers Luigi Ferri and Augusto Del Noce; physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics Enrico Fermi; political scientist Roberto Forges Davanzati

• Carlo Costamagna
• Cardinal Mazarin
• Mario Oriani-Ambrosini
• Corrado Gini, statistician
• Lucio Bini 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, biologist
• Barnaba Tortolini, mathematician
• Andrea Zitolo, physical-chemist
• Edoardo Amaldi
• Oscar D'Agostino
• Ettore Majorana
• Bruno Pontecorvo
• Franco Rasetti
• Giovanni Battista Beccaria
• Giovanni Jona-Lasinio
• Luciano Maiani
• Domenico Pacini
• Antonio Signorini
• Nicola Cabibbo, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
• Stefano Levialdi Ghiron
• Cora Sternberg

Humanities

• 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, Albanian writer

See also

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

Notes

References

External links

• {{it icon}} Sapienza University of Rome Italian Website
• {{en icon}} Sapienza University of Rome English Website

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