University of Rome

Coordinates: 41°54′12″N 12°30′57″E / 41.90333°N 12.51583°E / 41.90333; 12.51583

Sapienza University of Rome
Sapienza – Università di Roma
Latin: Studium Urbis
Motto	Il futuro è passato qui
Motto in English	The future is past here or The future has passed here
Established	1303
Type	State-supported
Rector	Prof. Luigi Frati
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, officially Sapienza - Università di Roma^[1], commonly known as Università di Roma "La Sapienza", is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy. It is the largest European university and the oldest of Rome's three state-funded universities; Sapienza was founded in 1303, more than six centuries before Tor Vergata and Roma Tre. In Italian, sapienza means "wisdom" or "knowledge". According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities published by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Sapienza University of Rome ranks among the top 30 European universities.

History

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

Sapienza University of Rome was founded as La Sapienza 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.^[2] The pope established it so that Rome might become the fruitful mother of science.^{[citation needed]}

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 and the professors dispersed; some were killed. Pope Paul III restored the university shortly after his ascension to the pontificate in 1534.

Entrance to the university's main campus

In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza, meaning wisdom, a title it retains 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.

University students were newly animated during the 19th-century Italian revival. 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, 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 2007-2008 academic year, Sapienza University of Rome possesses twenty-one faculties and 140,250 students. The Alessandrina University Library, built in 1670, is the main library, housing 1.5 million volumes. Sapienza University has many campuses in Rome, but its main campus is the Città Universitaria, which covers 439,000 square meters near Termini Station. The university has four satellite campuses outside of Rome, in Civitavecchia, Latina, Pomezia, and Rieti.

Sapienza Today

Today, Sapienza is by far the largest university in Rome. In order to cope with the ever-increasing number of applicants, the Rector has signed off on a new plan^{[citation needed]} to expand the Città Universitaria, reallocate offices and enlarge faculties, as well as create new campuses for hosting local and foreign students, in collaboration with the city of Rome. The university has improved its research programs in the fields of engineering, biomedical sciences and humanities, through the "Sapienza Innovation" program. Recent cooperation with major British and American universities has resulted in scholarships for Sapienza students through large multicultural exchange programs, for many faculties.^[3]

Admission

Applicants to Sapienza must take an admission test. Eligibility for the test depends on a student's academic record; if eligible, the student is allowed to sit the examination. Some programs have a strictly limited number of spots available, and the Academic Senate is responsible for setting the maximum number of students per program.

The admission test varies from faculty to faculty; for example, the Engineering exam is divided into several parts, each one pertaining to a different general subject: Logic and General Knowledge; Mathematics and Physics; English and Italian Language.

Many international students are drawn to Sapienza thanks to the rich multicultural life of Rome. In order to gain admission to the international program, students must present an equipollenza (or equivalence) of their diploma, and must sit the same entry test as the Italian students. In order to promote cultural diversity, Sapienza has created some English-only faculties.^[3]

Organization

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

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) Centre for Research on the Performing Arts [1][2]
• 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]

People

Faculty

Sciences

• Lucio Bini and Ugo Cerletti, psychiatrists
• Corrado Böhm, computer scientist
• Daniel Bovet, pharmacologist, Nobel prize winner (1957)
• Benedetto Castelli, mathematician
• Andrea Cesalpino, physician and botanist
• Federigo Enriques, mathematician
• Maria Montessori, physician and paedagogist
• Paola S. Timiras, biologist
• Vito Volterra, mathematician

Physicists

• Via Panisperna boys:
  • Enrico Fermi, Nobel prize winner (1938)
  • Edoardo Amaldi
  • Oscar D'Agostino
  • Ettore Majorana
  • Bruno Pontecorvo
  • Franco Rasetti
  • Emilio G. Segrè, Nobel prize winner (1959)
• Giovanni Battista Beccaria
• Marcello Conversi
• Giovanni Ciccotti
• Giovanni Jona-Lasinio
• Francesco Guerra
• Luciano Maiani
• Giorgio Parisi
• Nicola Cabibbo, President of the Pontifical Academy Of Sciences

Humanities

• Luigi Ferri, philosopher
• Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, jurisconsult;
• Umberto Cassuto, Hebrew language and Bible scholar
• Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, poet
• Count Angelo de Gubernatis, orientalist
• Predrag Matvejevic, writer and academic
• Santo Mazzarino, leading historian of ancient Rome and ancient Greece
• Giuseppe Tucci, orientalist
• Mario Liverani, orientalist
• Paolo Matthiae, director of the archeological expedition of Ebla
• Marcel Danesi, language scientist
• Giuliano Amato, law professor and twice Prime Minister of Italy
• Diego Laynez, second general of the Society of Jesus;
• Giulio Mazzarino, politician and cardinal
• Pierluigi Petrobelli, musicologist
• Bernardino Varisco, philosopher

Alumni

• Severino Antinori, embryologist
• Sergio Balanzino, ambassador
• Pietro Belluschi, architect
• Bernardo Bertolucci, director
• Maurizio Cheli, astronaut
• Domenico Comparetti, classic literature scholar
• Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet
• Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy
• Cristina Ali Farah, writer
• Carlo Fea, archaeologist
• Massimiliano Fuksas, architect
• Romaldo Giurgola, architect
• Umberto Guidoni, astronaut
• Antonio Monda, film director
• Luca di Montezemolo, CEO
• Scott O'Dell, novelist
• Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe, cardinal
• Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, president and prime minister of Somalia

Points of interest

• Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza", a botanical garden
• Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

See also

• Category:University of Rome La Sapienza alumni
• Category:University of Rome La Sapienza faculty
• ESDP-Network
• List of Italian universities
• University of Rome Tor Vergata
• University of Roma Tre

References

External links

• (Italian) University of Rome La Sapienza Website