University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
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The historical events that affected the city naturally also involved the University, which was several times forced to close down, often for very long periods. The first time this occurred, the University was just eight years old. Activities stopped for over twenty years. Reopening was followed by harder times. Only after the D’Este Court moved from Ferrara to Modena (1598) with the subsequent establishment of the Modena Duchy, did the University acquire firmer foundations, expand and start courses not only on juridical subjects but also on Philosophy, Mathematics and Medicine. Top-ranking teachers gave prestige and lustre to the University: e.g., Bernardino Ramazzini continues, even today, to be a major figure in the field of Work Medicine. Other famous names are those of Giovanni Cinelli, teacher of the Tuscan language, Michelangelo Fardella, physicist and jurist, Giovan Battista Boccabadati, jurist and mathematician, and Lazzaro Spallanzani, physiologist. The University of Modena has also had illustrious students like the scholar and historian Lodovico Antonio Muratori and playwright Carlo Goldoni.
The University of Modena underwent a difficult period after the Unification of Italy (1861).
A national law in fact split universities into major and minor and Modena was placed among the minor. The best lecturers left because their salaries were reduced. The number of students dropped from 450 in 1860 to 201 in 1878.
Finally, a law issued in July 1887 modified the university’s inferiority status and promoted Modena into the major league. This occurrence was celebrated by a plaque which can still be seen in the entrance to the main building.
In the mid-19th century, Modena University boasted the Faculties of Medicine, Sciences, Law, a Pharmacy School independent of Medicine and Sciences and a Theology Course, suppressed in 1867, when it passed across to the Seminary, under the Bishop.
There was also a Philosophy Course, finally transformed into a grammar school in 1861 and the Higher School of Veterinary Medicine, which encountered numerous difficulties, only overcome in 1865, thanks to the intervention of the Provincial Authorities, which prevented it from being closed down.
Other problems came along in 1923, the year after Fascism gained power. Modena University had to tackle the proposal for its suppression in the framework of a reorganisation of the peripheral State structures, which for Modena also meant the elimination (which did in fact occur) of the Court of Appeal. The closing of the University was motivated by the low number of students (800). The proposal was not opposed by the provincial Fascist federation, something that provoked the protests of various leading Modena figures, peremptorily invited to keep quiet by the provincial party secretary, Arangio Ruiz.
The matter came to a close with the declassification of Modena University to the "B" league, with a reduction of state funds and the suppression of the Higher School of Veterinary Medicine, as well as the elimination of the preliminary biennial of Engineering.
Thanks to the establishment of a consortium of local Bodies, private enterprises and banks, the University kept going, with a relatively low number of students, only in part replaced by a growing number of enrolments from abroad (254 out of 825 students enrolled in 1935), which put Modena in fourth place in terms of number of foreigners, after Rome, Bologna and Padua. A few students enrolled in the course in economic, political and social sciences which began in 1925/26 and came to a close at the end of the following academic year. The Faculty of Economics only opened in 1968.
The University was promoted into the "A" league by Royal Decree dated 29 October 1936; this can probably be put down to the fact that Modena had, for the first time after the short experience of Manfredo Fanti from Carpi, one of its fellow-citizens, the university professor Arrigo Solmi, as minister, starting in January 1935.
The Engineering biennial was re-established, but only completed, with consequent setting up of a Faculty, in 1989. The number of students did not however grow. One of the reasons being the exodus of foreign students following the international events of the late-Thirties. The number of post-graduates continued to be around one hundred a year, only fifteen of whom were women.
In 1922/23, Alessandro Pertini graduate in Law. He was an anti-Fascist, gold-medal of the Resistance, and then a director and MP of the socialist party, before finally being elected President of the Republic. Young Pertini sat his last exams in Modena and graduated with a dissertation on "The iron and steel industry in Italy"; he subsequently enrolled in the "Cesare Alfieri" Faculty of Political Sciences in Florence, where he obtained a second degree. The effects of the twenty-years of Fascism on the University were clearly felt when Hon. Guido Corni, former party secretary and former governor of Somalia, founded an Upgrade School of Colonial Diseases, afterwards transformed into Tropical Infections Clinic, and the only one in Italy, which obtained awards from the king himself. In 1936, the Pharmacy School was transformed into Pharmacy Faculty, a four-year course.
In the period after the Second World War, the University of Modena witnessed a sharp rise in the number of its students (from around three thousand in 1967 to over six thousand in 1973). It was enhanced by the completion of the Faculty of Sciences: in 1947 with degree courses in Mathematics and Physics, in 1958 with the establishment of the degree course in Geological Sciences and, the year after, in Biological Sciences. In 1970, the degree course was established in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery underwent substantial renovation, following the opening in 1963 of the Polyclinic which, with its Clinics and university Institutes, has considerably made its influence felt on the life of the city.
In the Sixties, alongside the Polyclinic, the Via Campi university complex saw the light. This brought together the majority of scientific faculties and institutes.
In 1968, the Faculty of Economics opened on the basis of an agreement with the City Council, the Province and the Chamber of Commerce of Modena. This was nationalised in 1982.
In 1989, the Faculty of Engineering was completed. The Faculty of Letters and Philosophy saw the light in 1999, with a degree course in European Languages and Cultures and a degree course in Culture Sciences. In the 2004/2005 academic year, the Faculty of Biosciences and Biotechnologies was established which also incorporated the Biological Sciences degree course of the Sciences Faculty.
Alessandro Squadroni, a jurist of the "Board" of Reggio Emilia, which today we would call University, was one of the city’s paramount citizens.
In his book Fasciculum Laudum Regti Lepidi, published in 1619, Squadroni indicated that the University was established in the Charlemagne period. Because many other European Universities (such as Paris, Pavia and Parma) had similar origins, we can find some truth in the legend mentioned by Squadroni. In actual fact, a particular type of school (what we could call today pre-University) was created starting with an imperial privilege given to the bishops who needed some experts to administrate the city. Medieval studies were based on these schools requested by the bishops.
In the 12th century, rectors, politicians and philosophers studied at Reggio. Among them was Anselmo di Besate, a member of the imperial court and famous pupil of Sichelmo, one of the first teachers at Reggio.
A new social structure was introduced by means of "Free Commune" development. This change required and caused an impressive technification of the law, due among other things to the discovery of Justinian’s "Corpus Iuris". The work of the judges during the government of Matilde di Canossa quickly influenced other Italian cities. Reggio, being very close to Canossa, was one of the first cities to avail itself of this new teaching method. Traditionally, the foundation of the University is said to date back to 1188. At that time, Jacopo da Mandra made an agreement with the authorities of the "Commune" to move to Reggio with his scholars to teach law with an enormous advantage for the city. These officials, trained under the government and control of the bishops, brought new resources for the administration of the city and for managing diplomacy.
A "Board" of judges and lawyers was created at Reggio. Alberto Cambiatori, representative of the city at Constance for the peace treaty, became a member of this board.
Cultural activities in the city thrived in the period before the establishment of Reggio University, in 1752. Ever since 1732, the Board of Doctors and Judges of Reggio, by privilege of Charles V, had been entitled to grant the title of doctor in canonical and civil law. It was by official act dated August 1752 that the Duke of Modena, Francesco III announced the forthcoming opening of Reggio University, which began operating in November of that same year. Four faculties were set up in palazzo Busetti: Theology, Law, Medicine and Philosophy.
The existence of Reggio University lasted until 1772, the year it was forbidden from granting degrees. It remained open as a Liceo with the right to grant professional titles only.
In 1998, the University of Reggio Emilia once again began operating as the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia following the establishment of the location-network model.
Reggio currently has a Faculty of Agriculture, a Faculty of Engineering, a Faculty of Communication and Economic Sciences, a Faculty of Sciences and the two degree courses of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (in Nursing and medical X-ray technologies – images and radiotherapy).
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