LEUVEN UNIVERSITY

Leuven University has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the UNIVERSITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

	FOUNDATION
Year	1425 A.D.
City	Leuven ,
Founder	Pope Martin V
Where	Duchy Burgundy and Flandres (Reich Empire)
Originary subjects	arts , Canon law , civil law , medicine , theology

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	NOWADAYS
State	Belgium
Name	Old University of Leuven (Université Catholique de Louvain ex-Studium Generale)
Seates	Campus Louvain-la-Neuve , Bruxelles Saint-Louis , Bruxelles Woluwe , Bruxelles Saint-Gilles , Mons , Tournai , Namur , Charleroi
Degree programs	74 degrees and 72 master specialization and 143 masters courses and PhD offers for any kind of Scientific and Humans disciplines
Library	Bibliothèques Learning Centers
Collegium	Grand College de Burcht , het Varken , de Lelie , de Valk , of Theology of Saint-Yvo , of Saint-Donatian , Houterlé , Winckele , Arras , Standonck , Three Tongues , Pontifical , Saint-Anne , Savoye , Duite , van Daele , Viglius , Craendonck
Alumni	Alumni Louvain
Famous teachers	Michael Baius , Petrus Peckius the Younger , Grégoire de Saint-Vincent , Descartes , Cornelius Jansen (Jansenius) , Johannes Molanus , Joan Lluís Vives , Petrus Stockmans , Johannes van Neercassel , Josse Le Plat , Van Espen , John Sullivan , Charles Joseph van der Stegen , Jean-Pierre Minckelers , Jean-Baptiste Liebaert
Famous scholars	Rudolph of Beringen , Jan Standonck , Pope Adrian VI , Erasmus , Johannes Sturm , Gerardus Mercator , Andreas Vesalius , Charles Lambrechts , John Dee , cardinal St Robert Bellarmine , John of St. Thomas , Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim (Febronius) , Henri-Jacques Le Grelle
Awards	4 Nobel prizes

Leuven University is among the oldest of Europe, even if closed in 1797 A.D. after the cession of the Austrian Netherlands and the City of Liège to the French Republic then refounded in early XIX century A.D. as Catholic University of Leuven by the new Kingdom Belgium. The founder had been Pope Martin V who issued a papal bull in 1425 A.D. for the Studium Generale, formally institutionally independent of the local ecclesiastical hierarchy and always adopting Latin as the sole language of instruction for theology, civil law, Canon law, medicine and arts.

The Old University of Leuven (or Louvain) is the name historians give to the university founded originally in Brabant (Leuven city was capital fo the ancient fief of the Hainaut family), at that time part of the Duchy Burgundy and Flandres (ruled by the Borgognoni dinasty) before to be joined to the Reich Empire in 1477 A.D.. The Primus Academiae Conditor Johanne IV Duke of Brabant received the founding act at the end of the year by Oddone Colonna, who some year before had been elected pontifex maximus to put and end to the Western Schism within the Catholic Church.

Things changed under rule of the Hapsburg dinasty: Albertus Risaeus studied theology at Leuven University, where participated in the pro-Protestant movement before to flew to the United Provinces, while Michel de Bay (Michaël Baius) was professor and rector at the Old University of Louvain where founded the doctrine of 'Baïanisme', precursor of Jansenism led by Cornelius Jansen, also rector and professor of Leuven University. In the same epoch, Erasmus discovered in the city some texts essential for his reseatch, like 'Utopia' of his friend Thomas More, and supported the foundation of the Collège des Trois-Langues (Latin, Greek, Hebrew) that became an european site for the new movement of Humanisme. Vésale revolutioned the atomic knowledge with his treaty 'De humani corpore fabrica' that could benefit of the learning at the Old University of Louvain, where Mercator had just published the systen of projection taking his name that was useful to design the first chart of Europe.

Leuven University got the centre of the intellectual scene in 1637 A.D. when René Descartes enounced the 'Discours de la méthode' (before moving to the University of Amsterdam), to start the debate on the moderne physis teached in the programmes of courses of the 2 faculties of arts and medicine: it had been the successful epoch of the Old University of Louvain that could count 40 collèges and a new hosting organization for teachers and students similar to the model of Oxford, Bologna and Paris. During 17th and 18th centuries, Leuven University had been a great European centre of Jansenism, bastion and the hub of the Augustinian theology with professors like Jansenius, Petrus Stockmans, Johannes van Neercassel, Josse Le Plat and especially the famous Van Espen and his disciple Febronius (Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim) founder of Febronianism. More over Charles Lambrechts, professor of canon law and rector of the University of Louvain in 1786 a.D., was a freemason member of the lodge 'the true and perfect Harmony' in Mons and Minister of Justice of the French Republic during the Revolution of Thermidor year. In 1755 A.D. Leuven University opened the first laboratory for physis sperimental of Europe.

But everything finished during the Napoleon epoch: only in 1816 A.D. the Old University was restablished under the Netherlands Kingdom and its faculties became mathematic and natural sciences and a new botanic garden was inaugurated, while it was built a great auditoire (la Grande Rotonde) used for meetings and all the academic events. After that the Faculty of medicine was doted of a modern amphitheatre for the anatomic studies, while the central biblioteque was enlarged and could conserve more than 50.000 opere. All what remained of the university's movables and books were requisitioned for the École centrale in Brussels, that had been the immediate official and legal successor and inheritor of the Old University of Louvain, before to be closed on its turn in 1802 A.D.. The first attempt to found a successor atheneum in the XIX century was the secular State University of Leuven (1817–1835 A.D.), where a dozen professors of the old Leuven University taught, followed by the private Catholic University of Leuven established in 1835 A.D. and founded with the intention of restoring the confessionally Catholic pre-Revolutionary traditions of learning in Leuven: in 1968 A.D., at the time of the Univeristarian Revolt, it was split to form the 2 current institutions the Dutch language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French language Université catholique de Louvain.

Leuven University had a great father in the rector Paulin Ladeuze, a great exegete of the Gospel who contributed in eleving the Faculty of theology of the catholic academy at the main level international plain, rebuilding the university seat at the end of the First World War and creating new instituts, as Les Halles and the Biblioteque. Thanks to the United Nations and the european countries of France and Greece, with the support of Japan, he could receive an execptional donation of manuscripts, books and arts handcrafts that formed the historic treasure cultural of Leuven University. In 1966 A.D. was founded C.O.R.E., an excellence centre for scientific international cooperation among universities. Then Les Kots project (KAP) emerged in Louvain-la-Neuve space to stimulate the student mobilitation for a benefit projcet: rapidly exported on the Campus de Woluwé it became a fundamental project on the thematic of durable development. Nowadays, parts of KAP are reunited on the platform KAP en Transition (l’Alterékot, le Dévlop’Kot, le Dépakot, le Kapsla, le Kap Vert, le Kot Oasis, le Kot Oxfam, le Kot Planète Terre, le Kout’Pouce and le KoTextile).

The international action of the Catholic Leuven University count on the engagement of all university members, subscripted into a collective dynamic of cohésion assured by the Conseil de l'Action Internationale (CAI), with the support of the specific Administration des relations internationales (ADRI): a series of internationals actions are managed in collaboration with the ONG Louvain Coopération.

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