PARMA UNIVERSITY

Parma 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	962 A.D.
City	Parma
Founder	Emperor Otto I
Where	Regnum Italiae
Originary subjects	law and Roman right

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	NOWADAYS
State	Italy
Name	University of Parma (Alma - Universitas Studiorum Parmensis)
Seates	Parma city
Degree programs	every scientific and humaninties disciplines
Library	Palatine Library
Collegium	Collegio dei Nobili
Alumni	Alumni e Amici dell’Università di Parma
Famous teachers	Ugo Gualazzini , St. Pier Damiani , Anselmo da Besate , Donizone di Canossa , Drogone di Parma , Pope Innocent IV , Pope Martin IV , Fra' Giovanni Buralli da Parma , Riccardo Malombra , Bartolo da Sassoferrato , Gabrio Zaninoni , Niccolò de Tedeschi , Angelo Mazza, Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi , Pietro Rubini , Macedonio Melloni , Pietro Giordani , Giacomo Tommasini , Bernardino Ramazzini , Cristiana De Filippis
Famous scholars	Lamberto il Seniore , Giovanni Petrarca , Francesco Accarigi , Etienne Bonnot de Condillac , Claude François , Xavier Millot , Paolo Maria Paciaudi , Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni , Prospero Valeriano Manara , Angelo Mazza , Carlo Castone di Rezzonico , Giandomenico Romagnosi , Cesare Beccaria , Verri brothers , Beppo Levi , Marta Catellani , Piero Mozzi
Awards	Honorary Professor, established in 2015 A.D. by the University of Parma

Parma University is among the oldest of Europe! What is the Università degli Studi di Parma foundation year? The schola for Roman law was open by the Emperor Otto I 'said the great' in 962 A.D. with an authorization decret to the bishop Uberto to found a Studium generale to educate to the higher public managers of Reich Empire. Parma was a Roman colonia since 183 B.C. and has always had a political importance thanks to its central geographical position among the Po Valley, Liguria and Tuscany regions on the ancient roman way Via Aemilia, passing through Bologna to end in Arles, a location that has favoured intense economic and socio-cultural exchanges. For this reason Parma maintained a relevant position both during the Lombards and the Carolingian epochs: so tells the news of the meeting in Parma between the Emperor Charlemagne and the learned monk Alcuin in 781 A.D., alluding to a cultural vocation of the city as seat of a future Palatine School within the Regnum Italy, the first contribution to the cultural and political renaissance of the West.

In early Middle Ages there were already schools of liberal arts in the Commune of Parma, gradually showing a propensity for the deepening of legal culture in relation of the cathedral church: the historian of law Gualazzini recognized in the granting of the "potestatem eligendi sive ordinandi sibi notarios" by Emperor Otto I to local Bishop (the diploma is currently preserved in the bishop's archive), the institutionalization of public high schools of right. A vocation confirmed by the presence in Parma of prominent masters, documented later in time (12th century) by the writings of illustrious intellectuals as St. Pier Damiani (pupil and teacher in Parma schools), Anselmo da Besate (called 'the Peripatetic') and Donizone di Canossa. For example, verses of the latter in the 'Vita Mathildis' of 1115 A.D. assume a particular importance: "As Greeks do, Parma is still called Crisopoli, which in Latin means city of gold, as if to say that it excels in grammar and that all seven arts are cultivated with passion in it". Therefore, the German historian Ernst Dümmler rightly states that the city has been the celebrated seat of studies in Europe since the XI century, when students from Italy or beyond the Alps flocked there: this was the case of Lamberto il Seniore, who came from the Diocese of Liège to complete his studies with Drogone di Parma, and subsequently with Sinibaldo Fieschi (the future Pope Innocent IV) and Simone de Brion (the future Martin IV).

Furthermore, a number of masters left Parma University to teach in the European universities since XIII century: among them we must cite Giovanni Buralli who, ex-reader dialectics in Parma in 1230 A.D., became one of the most distinguished professors of the University of Paris with the name of Fra 'Giovanni da Parma. The various editions of the municipal statutes provide in several points to regulate the activities of schoolchildren, teachers, doctors, thus witnessing the solid roots of Parma as city of study, whose legitimacy, according to doctrine, is guaranteed by a 'privilegio ab immemorabili'. Alerady in 1225 A.D. the law school of Parma University is considered an high school attended by lots of students from every side of Europe to start the notary profession, even if with the crisis of the municipal institutions and the affirmation of various lordships during XIV century, the Studium Generale suffered heavy repercussions so the jurist Riccardo Malombra, as well as Bartolo da Sassoferrato, defended its survival and qualification. The reworking of the statutes of the doctoral and student colleges and the regular drafting of matriculation dates date back to the first half of the XV century: in this period, distinguished professors hold chairs of law and among them the canonist Niccolò de Tedeschi (known as 'Abbas Panormitanus').

The presence in Parma of Francesco Petrarca, who in the 1340 A.D. enrolled his son in the Studium under the guidance of the jurist Gabrio Zaninoni, also demonstrates the cultural qualification of the city which was a constant destination for intellectuals. Once becoming part of the Duchy of Milan, Parma University saw its Studium suppressed by Galeazzo Visconti in 1387 A.D., who clearly favored the University of Pavia. Only under the domination of Niccolò III d'Este there had been a rebirth of Parma University, however, short-lived following the return of the city under the Visconti and Sforza dominations: but the cultural 'humus' is so consolidated that humanists such as Beroaldo, Ugoleto, Grapaldo, artists such as Correggio and Parmigianino still worked in Parma, where the art of typography also establishes itself.

When Parma passed definitely under rule of the Farnese family (after 1545 A.D.), there has been a great revival of the city cultural policy. The magnificence of the new dukes favoured the design and construction of architectural works aimed at transforming Parma into a European capital: the Studium, now run by the Jesuits, is endowed with enormous means, privileges for teachers and students, efficient structures, including the Collegio dei Nobili intended for the training of the ruling class not only from Parma. An institution that saw its maximum splendor in the 18th century, with the influx of students from all over Italy (among them we can remember Cesare Beccaria and the Verri brothers). The Bourbon dynasty, which succeeded the extinct Farnese house in 1748 A.D. and a brief Austrian interregnum, not only continued the cultural policy of its predecessors but through the issuance of the 'Constitutions for new royal studies' (1768 A.D.) gave complete regulation to the entire education sector, from primary schools to universities; it also founded the institutions indispensable for develop the civil society, such as the Palatine Library, the Museum of Antiquities, the Botanical Garden, the Meteorological Observatory, the Academy of Fine Arts.

The University was equipped with physics cabinets, anatomy theaters, a Veterinary School. At the time of Don Filippo, Don Ferdinando and Minister Du Tillot the city (called 'the little Athens of Italy') saw intellectuals with a European profile at work: Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Claude François, Xavier Millot, Paolo Maria Paciaudi, Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, Prospero Valeriano Manara, Angelo Mazza, Carlo Castone di Rezzonico. During the Napoleon epoch Parma University underwent the vicissitudes of other university institutions: Giandomenico Romagnosi, who graduated from that atheneum, was called in 1805 A.D. to hold the chair of Universal Public Law in the Faculty of Law. With the succeeding Restoration epoch and the settlement of the Duchess Marie Louise of Habsburg in 1816 A.D. (wife of the franch emperor) Parma University resumed its traditional configuration. Her enlightened government added the institutes of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Obstetrics to the existing ones, strengthening the Veterinary school. The University boasted illustrious professors such as the philologist and poet Angelo Mazza, the orientalist Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi, the doctor Pietro Rubini, the physicist Macedonio Melloni, the scholar Pietro Giordani, the physiologist Giacomo Tommasini and others. It is the period in which the city is also enriched by the Bodoni printing house, the graphics of Paolo Toschi, the pedagogy of Giuseppe Taverna, the music of Giuseppe Verdi and other composers.

Nevertheless, following the riots of 1831 A.D., to which students and teachers of Parma University (Gallenga, Melloni, Sanvitale) adhered, the Duchess suspended teaching activities, moved the Faculty of Law to Piacenza and divided the Faculty of Philosophy into 2 sections. Only decades years later Parma University resumed its activities in full, even if some Faculties were mutilated by decree of the pro-dictator Luigi Carlo Farini. A phase of adjustment followed and saw once again the City committed to protecting its atheneum: by having regained the qualification of first grade university in 1887 A.D., the Faculties of Law, Medicine and Surgery, Physical, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Veterinary and Pharmacy were active in Parma until the XX century. Parma University began its further development process, which grew decisively during the Twenties, overcomed the moments of difficulty that occurred in the Fascist period, and resumed development with force after the Second World War, also thanks to the active and constant work of the City in defense of its University institution. In fact, there has been a significant and progressive increase in the training offer and it is in recent years that Parma University has started a progressive diffusion in the city fabric, from the main location of the courses in the headquarters in via Università.

In 1965 A.D. the Faculty of Economics and Commerce (founded 20 years before) moved to its current location in via Kennedy thanks to the donation of the land by the Municipality of Parma, while the Faculty of Education had been founded the year before and later became of Letters and Philosophy. In 1986 A.D. the Faculty of Engineering was established, more recently those of Agriculture (followed by the Parma University of Horticulture​), Architecture, Psychology and Political Sciences. Also worth mentioning the establishment in 1998 A.D. of the European College of Parma (now the European College Foundation). Between the Seventies and the Eighties the University od Parma proceeded with the acquisition of the agricultural area of 77 hectares, in the southern area of the city, on which the current Science and Technology Campus would rise thanks to the first structures intended as halls and laboratories for the Chemistry, Physics and Biology hubs built there with important state fundings.

In particular, the generosity of the entrepreneur and patron Pietro Barilla helped the Campus of the Faculty of Engineering developed: he donated 8 billion Lire (the highest private individual donation to a public university in the history of Italy) for the construction of the teaching center of the faculty, which since then has trained highly professional technicians capable of promoting and managing technological innovation. Over time, the Campus has been enriched with numerous complexes for advanced teaching and research, study spaces, libraries, canteens and sports facilities. Today the Science and Technology Campus is the heart of development and innovation for the whole territory: there are 4 scientific departments (Engineering-Architecture; Food and Drug; Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability; Mathematical, Physical and Computer Sciences), various research centers, the Technopole of the University, essential for the connection between research and production fabric (the "labs" of the University's partner companies also find space in research activities), and numerous sports facilities managed by the University Sports Center (CUS Parma) available to students and citizenship.

In its millenary activity, in the evolution that has characterized its development, in the perspectives that outline its future, Parma University constantly manifested its institutional mission: to be a place of study and research oriented both to education and training of young people and the harmonious development of the society in which it is involved. As regards the training offer, the constant increase in attractiveness is particularly significant, also due to the important process of requalification and expansion of the number of courses (even the famous quoted University of Parma english courses), started on the basis of a continuous dialogue with the world of work, at the local, national and international level. In line with this concept, some of the new courses of study activated were carried out through a strong synergy with other universities in the Emilia-Romagna Region. We must also mention the wide diffusion of cultural initiatives for scientific dissemination defined as "Third mission" and the intense cooperation activity within the European Union programs and other international projects, with a strong impulse towards internationalization. All this, the numerous services for students (advising and guidance, computer labs, the language center, libraries and study halls, foreign language courses, the possibility of studying abroad and several online services), attention to quality teaching, innovation, research quality and the needs of the labor market make the University of Parma one of the most important and well-known university centers in Europe.

The University of Parma promotes a number of actions to strengthen its international dimension through the strengthening of collaborative relationships with universities and other national, European and international institutions, with the aim of developing teaching, research and third mission. Participation in the main mobility and exchange programs (ERASMUS) is extended with other Programs promoted and financed by the University (WIDE, OVERWORLD). The EnRHEd project (ERASMUS+ CBHE) is approved qithin the ERASMUS+ programme "Azione KA2 -Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education", that substain modernization, accessibily and internazionalization of the high schools in the partner countries, such as the Ruanda. The EnRHEd project define as its goal the improving of curricula, governance and strenghtening of relations between the european e ruandese high school system. The EU4EU Project ("European Universities for the EU - Italy"), coordinated by the Università di Roma La Sapienza is financed by the Erasmus+ Programme "Azione Chiave 1- Istruzione Superiore": it promotes mobility for tirocine focused on european projecting for the students enrolled in the 13 consorziated universities of Roma La Sapienza, Perugia, Padova and Parma and Politechnics of Marche, Tuscia, Roma Tor Vergata, Teramo, Naples Federico II, Cagliari, Foggia, Bari and Catania. The universitary consortium is coordinated by the Centro di Ricerca Impresapiens di Roma Sapienza, with the support of EuGen-European Generation, in the role of Intermediarian Organism.

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Strictly related to Parma University and the city there is the near University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, dating back to around 1175 A.D. when Pillio da Medicina, a lawyer active in Bologna, was invited to Modena by the ruling families of the ancient roman Commune to open a school of legal education focused on Roman law. It is therefore one of the oldest universities in Europe, after Bologna and Paris even if the formal recognition (Studium) came through a 'brief' by Pope Honorius III, whereby the bishop of Modena was endowed with jurisdiction over the scholars in 1224 A.D.. Several generations of lawyers took turns at teaching, including some of the most prominent such as Uberto from Bobbio, Omobono Morisi from Cremona, Martino del Cassero from Fano, Guido from Suzzara, Alberto Galeotti from Parma, the Frenchman Guglielmo Durante and Niccolò Matarelli from Modena. In the meantime, in Reggio Emilia, unofficially, between the 11th and 12th centuries, there were active law schools led by prominent personalities such as Jacopo Colombi, Accursio from Reggio, Jacopo d'Arena, as well as the aforementioned mentioned Uberto from Bobbio, Omobono Morisi and Guido from Suzzara.

Despite the richness of university life, documented among other things by the existence of a Modena College of Doctors and a Universitas scholarium (the students' corporate association), the advent of the Este dinasty dominion at the beginning of the XIV century A.D. led the school to an irreversible crisis, culminating in 1391 A.D. when the University of Ferrara was founded and all duchy subjects were forced to pursue a degree. In Modena and Reggio, however, there were still some active private Academies that prepared students for obtaining a PhD in Ferrara, allowing a certain continuity of cultural life and specialised training. After 1598 A.D., the year of Ferrara’s ‘devolution' to the Church State, the project to reopen the Studium took shape in Modena, the new capital of the Duchy: after several attempts by the municipality to finance the departments, also thanks to the contribution of charitable works and private donations, it was at the College of the Congregation of St Charles, at end of XVII century, that the first academic year of the renewed Athenaeum could begin. On that occasion, the opening speech was read by Bernardino Ramazzini, the physician from Carpi universally considered the founder of occupational medicine. Duke Francis II issued the Statutes, considered necessary to give the public Studio di San Carlo the rank of University, that is, of an institution capable of providing a recognised degree also outside the small duchy.

The renewed college began its activities with 8 chairs: 3 in Philosophy (Logic, Physics, Metaphysics), 2 in Law (Institutions and Civil Law), 2 in Theology (Moral and Scholastic), one in Medicine and others were later added (Mathematics, Canon Law, Feudal Law, Hebrew and Greek language, 2 more chairs in Medicine, and a second chair in Theology). The institution was strengthened by initiatives carried out by Don Cristoforo Borghi (1601-1677), a native from Formigine, who in his last will arranged some lectures to be held at the University. Among the most illustrious lecturers of this period there were Francesco Torti, a distinguished clinical physician and anatomist, Lazzaro Spallanzani, a well-known naturalist, and Giovan Battista Venturi, a physicist with multifaceted interests. Lastly, by the time they were in a reform era, two initiatives are worth mentioning due to endowments specifically set up by lawyer and minister Giuseppe Maria Bondigli, who was strongly influenced by his friend Ludovico Antonio Muratori, who were both graduates of the Modena College: with the first (1757 A.D.) the chair of Criminal Institutions was created; with the second (1768 A.D.) that of Public and common Law held by the lawyer Bartolomeo Valdrighi, one of the main creators of the Italian Code.

In 1772 A.D. Duke Francesco III carried out an important university reform that, like other Italian and European initiatives, gave the atheneum the task of specialised training for the new ruling class, assuming direct control of its operation and finally providing funding. The high calibre scientists Michele Rosa and Antonio Scarpa, both doctors, were called to teach in Modena: its University also ran a two-year preparatory 'philosophical' course. The inauguration took place with a speech held by Agostino Paradisi, president of the philosophical class and one of the first professors in Italy (after Antonio Genovesi and before Cesare Beccaria) to teach Civil Economics. In the same span of time, the Botanical Garden, the Anatomical Theatre at the Grand Hospital as well as the Natural History Museum were created at the ducal gardens.

Francis III's attempt in 1753 A.D. to provide the city of Reggio with an autonomous university institution, in homage to the imperial privileges of doctoral conferral granted to the College of Lawyers in 1531 and the College of Physicians in 1571 A.D. as well as the fruitful experience of the seventeenth-century Academies and Seminary Schools, was contradicted by the general reform of the University of Modena implemented, as mentioned, although it may be an interesting first precedent of what was to become, almost 250 years later, a networked university model. The years of French occupation and then submission to the Italian Republic (1802 A.D.) led to the University's closure, as it was transformed into a departmental high school, just as Giuseppe Luosi, who graduated in law in Modena, became Minister of Justice for the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.

The University of Modena was re-established in 1814 A.D., with the return of the Este family, who, however, despite the presence of high-profile professors, such as the mathematicians Paolo Ruffini and Antonio Araldi, as well as the physicist and optician Giovanni Battista Amici, always viewed free teaching with suspicion. When the first student uprisings of Carbonari origin took place, the Faculty of Law was closed and split into four boarding schools distributed throughout the duchy. The boarding school experience was also introduced for doctors and aspiring engineers, who in 1823 A.D. gathered in the Boarding school for Cadets of the royal Corps of pioneers (the former Napoleonic School of Engineering), under the guidance of a colonel. However, these tensions did not prevent the endowment of further facilities: the Cabinet of Medical Matters, the Zootechnical Museum and Astronomical Observatory, the Zoo Institute. Even after dramatic break of "1848 people motos" significant developments took place, such as the establishment of a Veterinary School and the removal of the two-year preparatory course for university admission from Jesuit control.

After the war at the advent of the Republic, the University of Modena underwent a profound process of reorganisation and revitalisation led by prominent figures such as Giuseppe Dossetti, who was involved in drafting the Republican Constitution and served as a professor of Canon Law in Modena. Notable milestones from this period include the establishment of the Institute of Forensic Application in 1948 A.D., the introduction of the degree programme in Geological Sciences 10 years later, followed by Biological Sciences, the founding of the Policlinico and the creation of the Faculty of Economics and Business. In the Seventies, the University of Modena comprised 5 faculties (Law; Medicine and Surgery; Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Sciences; Pharmacy; and Economics and Commerce) and 20 specialisation schools within the Faculty of Medicine. Additionally, it housed several specialised centers, including the School of Obstetrics, the School for Cardiology Technicians, the Supplementary Course in Practical Hygiene, and the Oncology Center within the Institute of Radiology. In 1990 A.D., the atheneum inaugurated its sixth faculty, Engineering, completing the already existing two-year preparatory programme. In 1998 A.D., the University of Modena adopted the name University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, structuring itself according to a network-based campus model, a rare example in Italy characterised by a complementary development plan, unified management and equal status of both the academic centres. At the same time, new faculties were established in Reggio Emilia, including Communication Sciences, Agriculture and a second Faculty of Engineering, while in Modena the Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy was inaugurated.

Modena hosts also in the Ducal Palace the Military Academy for infantry and Carabinieri armies since 1860 A.D. (year after the annexation to Kingdom of Italy) which prepares and graduates the Officers commanders of the Italian Army togerther with the Savoia Military Academy of Turin, indeed founded in 1678 A.D. and considered the most ancient military academy in the world!

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