page_title: University of Bologna
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Bologna / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Students enter the „Natio Germanica Bononiae“, the german nation at the university of Bologna, image from the 15th century Français&#160;: Incorpration des etudiants dans la section allemande de la université de Bologne, la „Natio Germanica Bononiae“, 15ième siècle Deutsch: Aufnahme in die „Natio Germanica Bononiae“, die deutsche Nation an der Universität Bologna, Darstellung aus dem 15. Jahrhundert
context_page_description: The University of Bologna is a research university in Bologna, Italy.
  Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students, it is the oldest university in the world, as well as one of the leading academic institutions in Italy and Europe. It is one of the most prestigious Italian universities, commonly ranking in the first places of national, European and international rankings both as a whole and for individual subjects.
  It was the first place of study to use the term universitas for the corporations of students and masters, which came to define the institution located in Bologna.
  The university's emblem carries the motto Alma mater studiorum and the date A.D. 1088, and it has about 86,500 students in its 11 schools.
  It has campuses in Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna and Rimini and a branch center abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It also has a school of excellence named Collegio Superiore di Bologna. An associate publisher of the University of Bologna is the Bononia University Press.
context_section_description: The date of the University of Bologna's founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088. The university was granted a charter (Authentica habita) by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by Giosuè Carducci traced the founding of the University back to 1088, which would make it the oldest continuously-operating university in the world. However, the development of the institution at Bologna into a university was a gradual process. Paul Grendler writes that “it is not likely that enough instruction and organization existed to merit the term university before the 1150s, and it might not have happened before the 1180s.”
  The university arose around mutual aid societies (known as universitates scholarium) of foreign students called "nations" (as they were grouped by nationality) for protection against city laws which imposed collective punishment on foreigners for the crimes and debts of their countrymen. These students then hired scholars from the city's pre-existing lay and ecclesiastical schools to teach them subjects such as liberal arts, notarial law, theology, and ars dictaminis (scrivenery). The lectures were given in informal schools called scholae. In time the various universitates scholarium decided to form a larger association, or Studium—thus, the university. The Studium grew to have a strong position of collective bargaining with the city, since by then it derived significant revenue through visiting foreign students, who would depart if they were not well treated. The foreign students in Bologna received greater rights, and collective punishment was ended. There was also collective bargaining with the scholars who served as professors at the university. By the initiation or threat of a student strike, the students could enforce their demands as to the content of courses and the pay professors would receive. University professors were hired, fired, and had their pay determined by an elected council of two representatives from every student "nation" which governed the institution, with the most important decisions requiring a majority vote from all the students to ratify. The professors could also be fined if they failed to finish classes on time, or complete course material by the end of the semester. A student committee, the "Denouncers of Professors", kept tabs on them and reported any misbehavior. Professors themselves were not powerless, however, forming collegia doctorum (professors’ committees) in each faculty, and securing the rights to set examination fees and degree requirements. Eventually, the city ended this arrangement, paying professors from tax revenues and making it a chartered public university.
  The university is historically notable for its teaching of canon and civil law; indeed, it was set up in large part with the aim of studying the Digest, a central text in Roman law, which had been rediscovered in Italy in 1070, and the university was central in the development of medieval Roman law. Until modern times, the only degree granted at that university was the doctorate.
  Bettisia Gozzadini earned a law degree in1237, being one of the first women in history to obtain a university degree. She taught law from her own hoe for two years, and in 1239 she taught at the university, becoming the first woman in history to teach at a university.
  In 1477, when Pope Sixtus IV issued a  papal bull, authorizing the creation of Uppsala University in Sweden, the bull specified that the new university would have the same freedoms and privileges as the University of Bologna - a highly desirable situation for the Swedish scholars. This included the right of Uppsala to establish the four traditional faculties of theology, law (Canon Law and Roman law), medicine, and philosophy, and to award the bachelor's, master's, licentiate, and doctoral degrees.
  Laura Bassi was born into a prosperous family of Bologna and was privately educated form the age of five. Bassi's education and intellect was noticed by Prospero Lorenzini Lambertini,
caption: The entry of some students in the Natio Germanica Bononiae, the nation of German students at Bologna; miniature of 1497.
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