Sapienza University of Rome

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Sapienza University of Rome
Sapienza Università di Roma

Latin: Studium Urbis
Motto:	Studium Urbis (the study of the city)
Established:	1303
Type:	State-supported
Rector:	Prof. Renato Guarini
Staff:	10,144
Students:	147,000
Location:	Rome, Italy
Sports teams:	CUS Roma (http://www.cusroma.org/)
Website:	www.uniroma1.it/

Sapienza University of Rome (Italian Università di Roma "La Sapienza") is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy. It is the largest European university and the most ancient of the city's three state-funded universities; Sapienza was founded in 1303, Tor Vergata in 1982, and Roma Tre in 1992. In Italian, sapienza means "wisdom" or "knowledge".

1 History
2 Controversies
3 Organization
4 Points of interest
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, by Borromini, originally a chapel of the La Sapienza see.

La Sapienza was founded in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII who issued the bull "In supremae praeminentia dignitatis" on 20 April, 1303, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies more under his control than the universities of Bologna and Padua.^[1] The pope established it in order that Rome might become the fruitful mother of science.

In 1431, Pope Eugene IV completely reorganized the studium with the bull "In supremae", in which he granted masters and students alike the broadest possible privileges and decreed that the university should include the four Faculties of Law, Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. He introduced a new tax on wine, in order to raise funds for the university; the money was used to buy a palace that later hosted the Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza church, "La Sapienza."

The university's days of splendor, however, came to an end during the sack of Rome in 1527 when the 'studium' was closed, the professors were dispersed, and some were killed. Pope Paul III restored the university shortly after his ascension to the pontificate in 1534.

In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza meaning wisdom, which title it retained until now. Pope Clement XI purchased some land, in 1703, with his private funds on the Janiculum, where he made a botanical garden, which soon became the most celebrated in Europe through the labours of the brothers Trionfetti.

During the 19th-century Italian revival, a new fervor animated university students. In 1870, La Sapienza stopped being the papal university and became the university of the capital of Italy. In 1935, the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed. On 27 October of 1935, the university became an aggregate of all the institutions of higher learning of university rank in the city of Rome. Since 1935 Sapienza University has been under the control of the Italian Government.

As of the academic year 2007/2008, La Sapienza consisted of twenty-one faculties and 140,250 students. The Alessandrina University Library founded in 1670 is the main library housing 1,500,000 volumes. Sapienza University has many locations in Rome, but is mainly situated in the Città Universitaria covering 439,000 square meter, near Termini Station. Outside of Rome the university has four campuses; Civitavecchia, Latina, Pomezia, and Rieti.

[edit] Controversies

In January 15, 2008 the Vatican cancelled a planned visit to La Sapienza University by Pope Benedict XVI who was to speak at the university ceremony launching the 2008 academic year^[2] due to protests by some students and professors.^[3] The title of speech is 'The Truth Makes Us Good and Goodness is Truth'. Some students and professors protested in reaction to a 1990 speech that Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) gave in which he, the view of some students and professors, endorsed the actions of the church against Galileo in 1633.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi said, "No voice should be stifled in our country, least of all the pope's." Papal appearances are rarely canceled, and usually for reasons of security or illness. In 1990, Pope John Paul II also faced small protests in his only visit to La Sapienza.

[edit] Organization

The main entrance of La Sapienza (on piazzale Aldo Moro)

The statue of Minerva in La Sapienza

[edit] Faculties

The university is divided into 21 faculties:

1st Faculty of Architecture Ludovico Quaroni
2nd Faculty of Architecture Valle Giulia
Faculty of Communication Sciences
Faculty of Economics
Faculty of Engineering
Faculty of Humanities
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Literature and Philosophy
Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Studies
1st Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
2nd Faculty of Medicine and Surgery
Faculty of Oriental Studies
Faculty of Pharmacy
Faculty of Philosophy
Faculty of Political Sciences
1st Faculty of Psychology
2nd Faculty of Psychology
Faculty of Sociology
Faculty of Statistics
School for Aerospace Engineering
School for Library and Archive Studies

[edit] Research centers & major research groups

There are 5 Atenei federati, 2 Scuole, and over 30 Centri di Ricerca e studio:

Ateneo Federato della Scienza e della Tecnologia (AST)
Ateneo Federato delle Scienze delle Politiche Pubbliche e Sanitarie (SPPS)
Ateneo Federato delle Scienze Umane, delle Arti e dell'Ambiente
Ateneo Federato delle Scienze Umanistiche, Giuridiche e Economiche
Ateneo Federato dello Spazio e della Società
Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, near San Pietro in Vincoli
Scuola Speciale per Archivisti Bibliotecari, in Viale Regina Elena
Center for Research in Neurobiology "Daniel Bovet"
Centro de La Sapienza per la ricerca sulla formazione e sull'innovazione didattica (CARFID)
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza Scuola del mare
Centro di Ricerca per la tutela della persona del minore
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza di Economia Internazionale (CIDEI)
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza in Studi europei ed internazionali (EuroSapienza)
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza per le Malattie sociali (CIMS)
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza sul Diritto e l'economia dei mercati (CIDEM)
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza Archivio del Novecento
Centro di Ricerca de La Sapienza per lo Studio delle Funzioni Mentali (CSFM)
Centro di Ricerca in Metodologia delle Scienze (CERMS)
Centro di Ricerca in Psicologia Clinica
Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinare Territorio Edilizia Restauro Ambiente (CITERA)
Centro di Ricerca Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea (MLAC)
Centro di Ricerca per il Trasporto e la Logistica (CTL)
Centro di Ricerca per la Sperimentazione Clinica (CRISC)
Centro di Ricerca per le Nanotecnologie
Centro di Ricerca 'Prevenzione, previsione e controllo dei rischi geologici' (CERI)
Centro di Ricerca Studi per lo Sviluppo (SPES)
Centro di Ricerca su Roma (CISR)
Centro Interdipartimentale di scienza e tecnica (CIST)
Centro Interdisciplinare di Ricerca sulle Disabilità (CIRID)
Centro Interdisciplinare per il Turismo, il Territorio e l'Ambiente (CITTA)
Centro Interuniversitario Internazionale di Studi sulle Culture Alimentari Mediterranee (CIISCAM)
Centro per le applicazioni della televisione e delle tecniche di istruzione a distanza (CATTID)
Centro Teatro Ateneo (CTA)
Interdepartmental Research Center for Models and Information Anaysis in Biomedical Systems (CISB)

Former logo of the University of Rome

Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali, responsible for the Italian rocket program, based on San Marco platform
SPES - Development Studies, research centre on Development studies at La Sapienza^[4]