of German students at Bologna; miniature of 1497. The date of the University of Bologna's founding is uncertain. The university was granted a charter (
Authentica habita) by
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by
Giosuè Carducci traced the founding of the university back to 1088, which would make it the oldest continuously operating university in the world. However, the development of the institution at Bologna into a university was a gradual process. Paul Grendler writes that "it is not likely that enough instruction and organization existed to merit the term
university before the 1150s, and it might not have happened before the 1180s." The university arose around
mutual aid societies (known as
universitates scholarium) of foreign students called "
nations" (as they were grouped by nationality) for protection against city laws which imposed
collective punishment on foreigners for the crimes and debts of their countrymen. These students then hired scholars from the city's pre-existing lay and ecclesiastical schools to teach them subjects such as liberal arts, notarial law, theology, and
ars dictaminis (
scrivenery). The lectures were given in informal schools called
scholae. In time the various
universitates scholarium decided to form a larger association, or
Studium—thus, the university. The
Studium grew to have a strong position of
collective bargaining with the city, since by then it derived significant revenue through visiting foreign students, who would depart if they were not well treated. The foreign students in Bologna received greater rights, and collective punishment was ended. There was also collective bargaining with the scholars who served as professors at the university. By the initiation or threat of a
student strike, the students could enforce their demands as to the content of courses and the pay professors would receive. University professors were hired, fired, and had their pay determined by an elected council of two representatives from every student "nation" which governed the institution, with the most important decisions requiring a majority vote from all the students to ratify. The professors could also be fined if they failed to finish classes on time, or complete course material by the end of the semester. A student committee, the "Denouncers of Professors", kept tabs on them and reported any misbehavior. Professors themselves were not powerless, however, forming
collegia doctorum (professors' committees) in each faculty, and securing the rights to set examination fees and degree requirements. Eventually, the city ended this arrangement, paying professors from tax revenues and making it a chartered
public university. '', main seat of the University between 1563 and 1803 The university is historically notable for its teaching of
canon and
civil law; indeed, it was set up in large part with the aim of studying the
Digest, a central text in
Roman law, which had been rediscovered in Italy in 1070, and the university was central in the development of
medieval Roman law. Until modern times, the only degree granted at that university was the doctorate.
Bettisia Gozzadini earned a law degree in 1237, being one of the first women in history to obtain a university degree. She taught law from her own home for two years, and in 1239 she taught at the university, becoming the first woman in history to teach at a university. In 1711,
Luigi Ferdinando Marsili convinced
Pope Clement XI to provide funds to establish the
Observatory of Bologna, the first public astronomical observatory in Italy. It was a center for research by astronomers such as
Eustachio Manfredi,
Giovanni Battista Guglielmini, and
Eustachio Zanotti in the 18th century, and physicists like
Guido Horn d'Arturo and
Luigi Giuseppe Jacchia in the 20th century.
Laura Bassi was born into a prosperous family of Bologna and was privately educated from the age of five. Bassi's education and intellect was noticed by Prospero Lorenzini Lambertini, who became the Archbishop of Bologna in 1731 (later
Pope Benedict XIV). Lambertini became the official patron of Bassi. He arranged for a public debate between Bassi and four professors from the University of Bologna on 17 April 1732. In 1732, Bassi, aged twenty, publicly defended her forty-nine theses on
Philosophica Studia at the Sala degli Anziani of the
Palazzo Pubblico. The University of Bologna awarded her a doctorate degree on 12 May. She became the first woman to receive a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn a philosophy doctorate after
Elena Cornaro Piscopia in 1678, fifty-four years prior. She was by then popularly known as Bolognese
Minerva. She became the first salaried woman lecturer in the world, thus beginning her academic career. She was also the first woman member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the
Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732. Bassi became the most important populariser of
Newtonian mechanics in Italy. In 1971, the Hellenist Benedetto Marzullo in company with
Umberto Eco, Renato Barilli, Adelio Ferrero instituted within the Faculty of Letters and Arts the DAMS (
acronym of
discipline delle arti, della musica e dello spettacolo, "Discipline of
Arts,
Musics and
Performance"). It was the first degree course of this type to be opened in Italy. Between December 26, 1982, and November 29, 1983, there occurred the DAMS murders (in
Italian:
Delitti del DAMS), dealing with four victims who were students or professors of the DAMS: Angelo Fabbri (a brilliant student of
Umberto Eco), Liviana Rossi, the dancer Francesca Alinovi (who was stabbed for 47 times), and Leonarda Polvani. ==Organization==