Italian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic studies, law, medicine, philosophy, and science. Employing some of the foremost scholars of the time—including Pietro Pomponazzi, Andreas Vesalius, and Galileo Galilei—the Italian Renaissance university was the prototype of today's research university. This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive study of this most influential institution.
In this magisterial study, noted scholar Paul F. Grendler offers a detailed and authoritative account of the universities of Renaissance Italy. Beginning with brief narratives of the origins and development of each university, Grendler explores such topics as the number of professors and their distribution by discipline, student enrollment (some estimates are the first attempted), famous faculty members, budget and salaries, and relations with civil authority. He discusses the timetable of lectures, student living, foreign students, the road to the doctorate, and the impact of the Counter Reformation. He shows in detail how humanism changed research and teaching, producing the medical Renaissance of anatomy and medical botany, new approaches to Aristotle, and mathematical innovation. Universities responded by creating new professorships and suppressing older ones. The book concludes with the decline of Italian universities, as internal abuses and external threats—including increased student violence and competition from religious schools—ended Italy's educational leadership in the seventeenth century.
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The Universities of the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic studies, law, medicine, philosophy, and science. Employing some of the foremost scholars of the time—including Pietro Pomponazzi, Andreas Vesalius, and Galileo Galilei—the Italian Renaissance university was the prototype of today's research university. This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive study of this most influential institution.
In this magisterial study, noted scholar Paul F. Grendler offers a detailed and authoritative account of the universities of Renaissance Italy. Beginning with brief narratives of the origins and development of each university, Grendler explores such topics as the number of professors and their distribution by discipline, student enrollment (some estimates are the first attempted), famous faculty members, budget and salaries, and relations with civil authority. He discusses the timetable of lectures, student living, foreign students, the road to the doctorate, and the impact of the Counter Reformation. He shows in detail how humanism changed research and teaching, producing the medical Renaissance of anatomy and medical botany, new approaches to Aristotle, and mathematical innovation. Universities responded by creating new professorships and suppressing older ones. The book concludes with the decline of Italian universities, as internal abuses and external threats—including increased student violence and competition from religious schools—ended Italy's educational leadership in the seventeenth century.
Italian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic studies, law, medicine, philosophy, and science. Employing some of the foremost scholars of the time—including Pietro Pomponazzi, Andreas Vesalius, and Galileo Galilei—the Italian Renaissance university was the prototype of today's research university. This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive study of this most influential institution.
In this magisterial study, noted scholar Paul F. Grendler offers a detailed and authoritative account of the universities of Renaissance Italy. Beginning with brief narratives of the origins and development of each university, Grendler explores such topics as the number of professors and their distribution by discipline, student enrollment (some estimates are the first attempted), famous faculty members, budget and salaries, and relations with civil authority. He discusses the timetable of lectures, student living, foreign students, the road to the doctorate, and the impact of the Counter Reformation. He shows in detail how humanism changed research and teaching, producing the medical Renaissance of anatomy and medical botany, new approaches to Aristotle, and mathematical innovation. Universities responded by creating new professorships and suppressing older ones. The book concludes with the decline of Italian universities, as internal abuses and external threats—including increased student violence and competition from religious schools—ended Italy's educational leadership in the seventeenth century.
Paul F. Grendler is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto, and former president of the Renaissance Society of America. He is the editor-in-chief of the prize-winning Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and author of several books including Schooling in Renaissance Italy, winner of the American Historical Association's Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History, also available from Johns Hopkins.
Paul F. Grendler is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto and former president of the Renaissance Society of America. He is the editor-in-chief of the prize-winning Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and author of nine books, including Schooling in Renaissance Italy and The Universities of the Italian Renaissance, both winners of the American Historical Association's Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History and both published by Johns Hopkins.
Chapter 5: The University in Action 1 Organization of Instruction 2 Latin 3 Disputations 4 Civil Authority and Student Power 5 Professors 6 Student Living 7 Residence Colleges 8 The Doctorate 9 The Cost of Degrees 10 Alternate Paths to the Doctorate 11 Doctorates from Counts Palatine 12 The Counter Reformation
Part II: Teaching and Research
Chapter 6: The Studia Humanitatis 1 Grammar and Rhetoric in the Fourteenth-Century University 2 Humanists Avoid the University, 1370-1425 3 Humanists Join the University, 1425-1450 4 Humanistic Studies Flourish, 1450-1520 5 Court and Classroom: Changing Employment for Humanists 6 Humanistic Studies at Other Universities7 The Sixteenth Century 8 Curricular Texts 9 Teaching and Research 10 Humanists in the University: A Summation Chapter 7: Logic 1 Logic at Padua 2 Logic at Other Universities 3 Teaching and Research 4 Demonstrative Regress 5 Conclusion Chapter 8: Natural Philosophy 1 Aristotelian Curricular Texts 2 Greek Texts and Cemeteries 3 Inanimate World, Scientific Method, and the Soul 4 The Debate on the Immortality of the Intellective Soul 5 The Immortality of the Soul after Pomponazzi 6 Platonic Philosophy in the Universities 7 Continuity and Decline of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy Chapter 9: The Medical Curriculum 1 Medieval Medical Knowledge 2 The Medical Curriculum in 1400 3 Medical Humanism 4 The Anatomical Renaissance 5 Bodies for Dissection 6 University Anatomy after Vesalius 7 Clinical Medicine 8 Medical Botany 9 Conclusion Chapter 10: Theology, Metaphysics, and Scripture 1 From Medicant Order Studia to Faculties of Theology 2 Faculties of Theology 3 Doctorates of Theology 4 Theology, Metaphysics, and Scripture at the University of Padua 5 Universities Teaching Theology Continuously 6 Universities Reluctant to Teach Theology 7 Erasmus' Doctorate of Theology 8 Teaching Texts 9 The Reputation of Theology 10 Italian Convent and University Theology 1400-1600 Chapter 11: Moral Philosophy 1 Moral Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages 2 Humanistic Moral Philosophy at the University of Florence 3 Moral Philosophy in Other Universities 4 Teaching Moral Philosophy Chapter 12: Mathematics 1 Statutory Texts 2 The Renaissance of Mathematics 3 Professors of Astrology, Astronomy and Mathematics 4 Luca Pacioli 5 The Progress of Mathematics Chapter 13: Law 1 Mos Italicus 2 Teaching Texts 3 Humanistic Jurisprudence 4 The Decline of Canon Law 5 Padua and Bologna 6 Pavia and Rome 7 Siena and the Sozzini 8 Florence and Pisa 9 The Other Universities 10 Conclusion
Part III: Recessional Chapter 14: Decline 1 Concern for the Universities 2 Competition from Religious Order Schools: The Jesuit School at Padua 3 Competition from Religious Order Schools: Schools for Nobles 4 Degrees from Local Colleges of Law and Medicine 5 Private Teaching and Other Pedagogical Abuses 6 Private Anatomy Teaching at Padua 7 The Shrinking Academic Calendar 8 Financial Problems 9 Faculty Provincialism 10 Student Violence 11 Positive Developments 12 A Weakened Institution Chapter 15: Conclusion Appendix: Faculty Size and Student Enrollments Bibliography
A magnificent achievement. Paul Grendler has written a stunningly comprehensive, detailed, and insightful history of the Italian universities from their origins to the eighteenth century. It will unquestionably become the standard work on the subject and remain so for a very long time. More than an institutional history, it is also a history of Italian culture over a span of five hundred years. Law, medicine, humanism, mathematics, philosophy, theology, and science all receive lucid and informative treatment.—John Monfasani, State University of New York at Albany
John Monfasani
A magnificent achievement. Paul Grendler has written a stunningly comprehensive, detailed, and insightful history of the Italian universities from their origins to the eighteenth century. It will unquestionably become the standard work on the subject and remain so for a very long time. More than an institutional history, it is also a history of Italian culture over a span of five hundred years. Law, medicine, humanism, mathematics, philosophy, theology, and science all receive lucid and informative treatment.
— John Monfasani, State University of New York at Albany
