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The University of Pavia (Italian: Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or Università di Pavia; Latin: Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the oldest universities in the world. It was the sole university in the greater Lombardy region until the end of the 19th century. Currently, it has 18 departments and 9 faculties. It does not have a main campus; its buildings and facilities are scattered around the city, which is in turn called "a city campus". The university caters to more than 20,000 students who come from Italy and all over the world.
The university offers more than 80 undergraduate programs; over 40 master programs, and roughly 20 doctoral programs (including 8 in English). About 1,500 students who enter the university every year are international students.
The university operates multiple cultural and scientific museums, including the University History Museum, a botanical garden, research centers, university libraries and a university press. The university is also affiliated with Policlinico San Matteo, at which hundreds of medical students from the university perform clinical rotations during their clinical years.
The University of Pavia is a member of the COIMBRA Group , EC2U and European University Association. It also participates in the Erasmus Programme, which allows student exchanges between the University of Pavia and various universities in Europe.
An edict issued by the Frankish king of Italy, Lothar I (ruled 818–55) mentions the existence of a higher education institution at Pavia as early as AD 825. This institution, mainly devoted to ecclesiastical and civil law as well as to divinity studies, was then selected as the prime educational centre for northern Italy.
In 1361, the institution was officially established as a studium generale by the Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, who granted the same teaching privileges enjoyed by the University of Paris and Bologna, allowing the institution to teach canon and civil law, philosophy, medicine and liberal arts. It was then expanded and renovated by the duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, becoming the sole university in the Duchy of Milan until the end of the 19th century. Gian Galeazzo worked tirelessly to consolidate the institution and in 1389, he obtained a permission from Pope Boniface IX to teach advanced theology courses. It was divided into two distinct universities — of jurisprudence (teaching civil and canon law courses) and of arts (teaching medicine, philosophy and liberal arts courses). A rector was elected every year, normally a student who was over twenty years old. The institution offered bachelor, licentiate and doctoral degrees. Despite the politics and hardships due to wars and pestilence, it experienced great growth and the institution was considered to be prestigious as evidenced by the influx of foreign students at the time. In 1412, Filippo Maria Visconti further consolidated the universities, invited prominent scholars to teach there and declared an edict giving serious penalties aimed at preventing students from going elsewhere to study.
Towards the 15th century, prominent teachers such as Baldo degli Ubaldi, Lorenzo Valla, Giasone del Maino taught students in the fields of law, philosophy and literary studies. In the same years, Elia di Sabato da Fermo, personal doctor of Filippo Maria Visconti, was the first professor of medicine of the Jewish religion at a European university, while from 1490 a teaching of Hebrew was established at the university. Not many years later, probably in 1511, Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy together with Marcantonio della Torre, professor of anatomy at the university.
During the ongoing Italian War of 1521–6, the authorities in Pavia were forced to close the university in 1524. However, during the 16th century, after the university was re-opened, scholars and scientists such as Andrea Alciato and Gerolamo Cardano taught here. During the period in which the duchy of Milan was governed by the kings of Spain, the research and educational activities of the university stagnated, but there were still prominent scholars such as Gerolamo Saccheri who was still involved with the university.
The rebirth of the university was, in part, due to the initiatives led by Maria Theresa and Joseph II of the House of Austria, in the second half of the 18th century. The initiatives included massive renovations to the teaching programs, research and structure rehabilitations, which were still retained by the university until now.
Throughout its history, the university had benefited from the presence of many distinguished teachers and scientists who wrote celebrated works and made important discoveries — chemist Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli, mathematician Girolamo Cardano (born in Pavia, 1501–76), physicist Alessandro Volta (chair of natural philosophy 1769–1804), poet Ugo Foscolo (chair of eloquence 1809–10), playwright Vincenzo Monti, jurist Gian Domenico Romagnosi, naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani (chair of natural history 1768-1799), mathematician Lorenzo Mascheroni and anatomist Antonio Scarpa.
In 1858, the university was the scene of intense student protests against Austrian rule in northern Italy (through the kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia). The authorities responded by ordering the university's temporary closure. The incidents at Pavia were typical of the wave of nationalist demonstrations all over Italy that immediately preceded the Unification (1859–66).
During the 19th century, the medical, natural science and mathematics schools were graced by prominent scientists who propelled the status of the university to new heights. Three Nobel Prize winners taught in Pavia — physician Camillo Golgi (at Pavia from 1861), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1906 for his studies on the structure of the nervous system, chemist Giulio Natta (at Pavia between 1933 and 1935) and physicist Carlo Rubbia. In addition, distinguished mathematicians Eugenio Beltrami, Felice Casorati and Luigi Berzolari were regular teachers in Pavia. It was also in the University of Pavia, in 1912, Carlo Forlanini discovered the first successful cure for tuberculosis — artificial pneumothorax. In the 1960s, the Faculty of Economics and Commerce as well as Engineering were added to the current lineup of faculties.
During the 20th century, teaching and research activities were carried out by additional prominent scholars such as Pasquale Del Giudice and Arrigo Solmi for law history; Contardo Ferrini and Pietro Bonfante for Roman law; Luigi Cossa and Benvenuto Griziotti for economy, Giacinto Romano for medieval and modern history and Plinio Fraccaro for ancient history.
Also critical to the university's reputation was its distinguished record of public education, epitomized by the establishment of private and public colleges. The oldest colleges, the Collegio Borromeo and Collegio Ghislieri, were built in the 16th century, and in more recent times others were founded through both public and private initiatives — the Collegio Nuovo, the Collegio Santa Caterina and the other eleven colleges managed by EDiSU. In 1997 the IUSS, was established, a Higher Learning Institution(Italian: Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori) similar to the Scuola Normale Superiore and Istituto Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa. The IUSS is the federal body that links the colleges of Pavia which constitute the Pavia University System.
In 1989, Luca Bardi (violinist) and Franco Gerevini (pianist, oboist, and conductor) established the Camerata de' Bardi, the academic orchestra of the University of Pavia in Italy. As of 2016, Nicola Bisson served as the orchestra's conductor.
Today, the university continues to offer a wide variety of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary teaching. Research is carried out in departments, institutes, clinics, centres and laboratories, in close association with public and private institutions, enterprises, and factories.
The university has eighteen departments and two faculties.
The city of Pavia is essentially a city campus, so the campus buildings are located all around the city. The campuses for Faculty of Political Science and Law are located at Old Campus at Via Strada Nuova, near Pavia Cathedral. The campuses for Faculty of Engineering, Pharmacy, Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences are located at Via Ferrata, about 3 km away from the city center, in a building complex called Polo Cravino. The campuses for Faculty of Economics, Department of Psychology and Department of Philosophy are located at the Monastery of San Felice. The campus for Department of Musicology is located at Palazzo Raimondi, Cremona. The campuses for Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine and Surgery are located at Via Taramelli and Via Golgi, near Policlinico San Matteo.
The entrance to the Old Campus, which hosts the Faculty of Political Science and Law, is located at Via Strada Nuova. The palace has 9 courtyards — Cortile dei Caduti, Cortile di Volta, Cortile delle Statue, Cortile di Atilia Secundina, Cortile del Miliario, Cortile delle Magnolie, Cortile dei Tassi, Cortile Sforzesco, Cortile Teresiano. The palace also hosts more than 40 lecture theatres, including 8 lecture theatres for Faculty of Law and 10 lecture theatres for the Faculty of Political Science. The largest lecture theatre in the university is called Aula Magna, where inauguration ceremonies for graduations, white coat ceremonies and conferment of Medaglio Teresiana are held.
The palace dates back all the way to the 15th century. Originally, lessons by the university were held in private houses, in convents which provide suitable premises or in the same place as the municipal building. At the end of the 15th century, Ludovico il Moro assigned a building in Strada Nuova that belonged to Azzone Visconti to the university. Between 1661 and 1671, a major renovation was carried out under the guidance of the architect Ambrogio Pessina. During the 18th century, Maria Theresa of Austria wanted to make some improvements both to the education system and the building, thus she assigned the architect Giuseppe Piermarini and Leopoldo Pollack to oversee the renovations. Giuseppe Piermarini was in charge of the building facade and the courtyards, while Leopoldo Pollack was in charge of the lecture halls.
During the 19th century, the university also incorporated the former monastery of Leano, which was donated by Joseph II of Lorena Habsburg and expanded to Via Mentana, these works were entrusted to the architect Giuseppe Marchesi, who also constructed the Aula Magna.
In 1932, the university acquired a vast 15th century complex which belonged to San Matteo Hospital, thus completing its expansion. This complex now houses the Department of Molecular Medicine, which is in charge of the health courses.
The land where Polo Cravino was built was purchased by the university at end of 1960. The complex was designed by an architect Giancarlo De Carlo. In 1980, the buildings for Faculty of Engineering, Department of Genetics, lecture halls, laboratories as well as a complex for Institute of Molecular Genetics, under the National Research Council were completed. In 1990, buildings for Department of Mathematics, Department of Earth and Environmental Science and a Computer Center were added.
The Health Campus (Italian: Campus della Salute), inaugurated in September 2023, is a 13,000-square-meter facility that serves as the primary hub for the University of Pavia's Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Located in the former Clinical Medicine pavilion of the San Matteo Hospital, the campus centralizes 22 degree programs and accommodates approximately 2,100 students.
The campus infrastructure includes 16 multimedia classrooms, 12 study rooms, and a health sciences library housing 200,000 volumes. A signature feature is the advanced Clinical Simulation Center, which utilizes 3D-printed organs, anatomical manikins, and virtual simulators to provide innovative practical training for future medical professionals. Clinical electives for medical students are held in nearby IRCCS San Matteo, Fondazione San Maugeri, Neurological Institute C. Mondino and other local hospitals in the Regional Hospitals Agency like Istituto di Cura Città di Pavia
Text from the Wikipedia article “University of Pavia”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.