Universities of the Italian Renaissance

Paul F. Grendler is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto, and former president of the Renaissance Society of America. He is the editor-in-chief of the prize-winning Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and author of several books including Schooling in Renaissance Italy, winner of the American Historical Association's Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History, also available from Johns Hopkins.

Drawing on a lifetime of scholarship devoted to the history of schooling in late medieval and Renaisssance Europe, Grendler presents a magisterial study of the Italian universities... elegantly written. Choice A nuanced overview... Grendler offers a perceptive discussion of the effects of the Counter Reformation. -- Robert Black American Historical Review An important work of great erudition, an essential work for anyone wishing to understand Renaissance education. -- Duane J. Osheim Sixteenth Century Journal Erudite as well as entertaining; an instructive treatise as well as a useful reference tool for anyone interested in the topic. Catholic Historical Review For those interested in Renaissance intellectual history and the history of higher learning, this will be the quintessential study for some time. -- Mark Jurdjevic Canadian Journal of History No brief review can do justice to Paul A. Grendler's elegant study of Italian Renaissance universities. The Universities of the Italian Renaissance requires close reading and will doubtless become the definitive analysis of higher education in the period. Grendler blends the same depth of archival knowledge, familiarity with the secondary literature, organization, and clear writing that characterize his earlier works on Renaissance education. -- Michael J. Galgano History: Reviews of New Books Paul Grendler's comprehensive, methodical, and immensely learned study of the seventeen universities in Renaissance Italy is an enormous contribution to historians and scholars... A wide-ranging and authoritative study that will be a benchmark for years to come. -- Christopher Carlsmith H-Italy, H-Net Reviews This will certainly become the standard work on the subject. -- Darin Hayton Cithara This formidable erudite, beautifully presented and magisterial work is a reliable guidebook to one of the golden ages of university history. Between the early fifteenth and late sixteenth centuries, Italian universities were unrivaled in Europe except in theology. Grendler has produced a splendid framework within which to understand one of the great flowerings of intellectual life in European history. -- Diarmaid MacCulloch History of Education 2003 A recognized authority on the subject of education in the Italian Renaissannce, Paul Grendler has produced a magnificent study of Italian higher education in the period 1400-1600. -- David A. Lines Isis A vast, highly informative, and wide-ranging account... This monumental study, beautifully produced, crystal clear, and breathtakingly encyclopedic in scope, contains a wealth of valuable information and high-level scholarship. -- Jonathan Woolfson Modern Language Review 2003 Will remain a basic source of reference for all future work on Italian Renaissance universities. -- Alison Brown History 2003 Grendler's work is likely to remain for long an indispensable, and interdisciplinary, 'benchmark'. -- John Easton Law Journal of Ecclesiastical History 2004 A wide-ranging and comprehensive survey. -- Jill Kraye Times Literary Supplement 2004 Grendler succeeds in painting a picture of the Italian universities that is well founded in empirical data. His book is a great success. -- Jurgen Miethke Journal of Modern History 2004 Grendler's research provides the Renaissance scholar with a guide book to the Italian universities of the period. -- Mark A. Lewis Archivum Historicum 2005 This erudite work of scholarship will change the way that we look at the Renaissance intellectual history. -- Anthony F. D'Elia International Journal of the Classical Tradition 2005

• Contents: 1 Macerata 1540-1541 2 Salerno 1592 3 Messina 1596 4 Parma 1601 5 Incomplete Universities 6 Paper Universities 7 Conclusion Chapter 5: The University in Action 1 Organization of Instruction 2 Latin 3 Disputations 4 Civil Authority and Student Power 5 Professors 6 Student Living 7 Residence Colleges 8 The Doctorate 9 The Cost of Degrees 10 Alternate Paths to the Doctorate 11 Doctorates from Counts Palatine 12 The Counter Reformation Part II: Teaching and Research Chapter 6: The Studia Humanitatis 1 Grammar and Rhetoric in the Fourteenth-Century University 2 Humanists Avoid the University, 1370-1425 3 Humanists Join the University, 1425-1450 4 Humanistic Studies Flourish, 1450-1520 5 Court and Classroom: Changing Employment for Humanists 6 Humanistic Studies at Other Universities7 The Sixteenth Century 8 Curricular Texts 9 Teaching and Research 10 Humanists in the University: A Summation Chapter 7: Logic 1 Logic at Padua 2 Logic at Other Universities 3 Teaching and Research 4 Demonstrative Regress 5 Conclusion Chapter 8: Natural Philosophy 1 Aristotelian Curricular Texts 2 Greek Texts and Cemeteries 3 Inanimate World, Scientific Method, and the Soul 4 The Debate on the Immortality of the Intellective Soul 5 The Immortality of the Soul after Pomponazzi 6 Platonic Philosophy in the Universities 7 Continuity and Decline of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy Chapter 9: The Medical Curriculum 1 Medieval Medical Knowledge 2 The Medical Curriculum in 1400 3 Medical Humanism 4 The Anatomical Renaissance 5 Bodies for Dissection 6 University Anatomy after Vesalius 7 Clinical Medicine 8 Medical Botany 9 Conclusion Chapter 10: Theology, Metaphysics, and Scripture 1 From Medicant Order Studia to Faculties of Theology 2 Faculties of Theology 3 Doctorates of Theology 4 Theology, Metaphysics, and Scripture at the University of Padua 5 Universities Teaching Theology Continuously 6 Universities Reluctant to Teach Theology 7 Erasmus' Doctorate of Theology 8 Teaching Texts 9 The Reputation of Theology 10 Italian Convent and University Theology 1400-1600 Chapter 11: Moral Philosophy 1 Moral Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages 2 Humanistic Moral Philosophy at the University of Florence 3 Moral Philosophy in Other Universities 4 Teaching Moral Philosophy Chapter 12: Mathematics 1 Statutory Texts 2 The Renaissance of Mathematics 3 Professors of Astrology, Astronomy and Mathematics 4 Luca Pacioli 5 The Progress of Mathematics Chapter 13: Law 1 Mos Italicus 2 Teaching Texts 3 Humanistic Jurisprudence 4 The Decline of Canon Law 5 Padua and Bologna 6 Pavia and Rome 7 Siena and the Sozzini 8 Florence and Pisa 9 The Other Universities 10 Conclusion Part III: Recessional Chapter 14: Decline 1 Concern for the Universities 2 Competition from Religious Order Schools: The Jesuit School at Padua 3 Competition from Religious Order Schools: Schools for Nobles 4 Degrees from Local Colleges of Law and Medicine 5 Private Teaching and Other Pedagogical Abuses 6 Private Anatomy Teaching at Padua 7 The Shrinking Academic Calendar 8 Financial Problems 9 Faculty Provincialism 10 Student Violence 11 Positive Developments 12 A Weakened Institution Chapter 15: Conclusion Appendix: Faculty Size and Student Enrollments Bibliography