Gabriele Paleotti and an Unstudied 1583 Dossier on the University of Bologna

Bologna. Cultural Crossroads from the Medieval to the Baroque:Recent Anglo-American Scholarship

edited by

Gian Mario Anselmi, Angela De Benedictis, Nicholas Terpstra

Bononia University Press

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Prima edizione: gennaio 2013

AlmA mAter StudiorumuniverSità di BolognA

dipArtimento di filologiA clASSicA e itAliAniSticA - ficlit


Aknowledgments VGian Mario Anselmi

Introduction Angela De Benedictis VII Nicholas Terpstra XVII

I. Humanists, Artists and Books 1

Douglas J. OslerHumanists and Jurists at Bologna: Filippo Beroaldo and his School 3

Giancarlo FiorenzaMarcantonio Raimondi’s Early Engravings: Myth and Imitation in Renaissance Bologna 13

Caroline Duroselle-MelishA Local-Transnational Business: The Book Trade in Late Renaissance Bologna 27

II. The University and the City 43

Shona Kelly WrayLaw Faculty Wives of Trecento Bologna 45

David A. LinesGabriele Paleotti and the University of Bologna: Documents from Bologna’s Archivio Arcivescovile 57

Christopher Carlsmith Student Colleges in Early Modern Bologna 71

III. Patronage and Practice in Cinquecento Art 83

David J. DroginThe Fifteenth-Century Bentivoglio: Art Patronage, Rulership, and Emulation 85

Elizabeth CropperMalvasia and Vasari: Emilian and Tuscan Histories of Art 97

TABle of ConTenTS


Charles DempseyMalvasia’s Il Claustro di S. Michele in Bosco (Bologna, 1694) 107

Babette BohnPatronizing pittrici in Early Modern Bologna 113

IV. Social Identities and Relations in Late Medieval Bologna 127

Carol LansingPoisoned Relations: Marital Conflict in Medieval Bologna 129

Sarah Rubin BlansheiHabitus: Identity and the Formation of Hereditary Classes in Late Medieval Bologna 143

V. Kinship, Politics & Patronage In and Beyond the City 159

Elizabeth Louise BernhardtBehind the Scenes of Fifteenth-Century Marriage Schemes: Forced Marriages, Family Alliances & Power Politics in Bentivoglio Bologna 161

Jennifer Mara DeSilvaEcclesiastical Dynasticism in Early Modern Bologna:The Canonical Chapters of San Pietro and San Petronio 173

Matthew Thomas SneiderBrotherhood, Community, Territory 193

Nicholas TerpstraRepublicanism, Public Welfare, and Civil Society in Early Modern Bologna 205

Abstracts 217

Illustrations 235

The Authors 265

Index of Names 269


David A. Lines

Gabriele Paleotti and the University of Bologna:Documents from Bologna’s Archivio Arcivescovile

What issues did universities face in post-Tridentine Italy? To what extent were studia be-longing to the Papal State managed from Rome? And what insights can we gain into the practical running of universities in the late sixteenth century? These and other questions are answered by a series of documents on the Bolognese studio which I found recently in Bologna’s Archivio Arcivescovile. These include a report assembled by the archbishop of Bologna Gabriele Paleotti over the summer of 1583 and sent to Rome on 1 October of that same year. In addition, numerous other documents on the studio dating from earlier years and reaching up to around 1586 help to furnish a remarkably informed picture of the chal-lenges faced by Europe’s oldest university up to and including a radical attempt at reform by the papal legate in Bologna, Enrico Gaetani. The purpose of this article is to bring these documents to the notice of other scholars and outline their contents.

Paleotti’s dossier was occasioned by a request for information first sent to him by Filippo Boncompagni, the cardinal nephew, on behalf of the Congregation of the Coun-cil on 20 April 1583. In his letter Boncompagni asked to know to what extent the de-crees of the Council of Trent were being followed in the University of Bologna.1 The report sent to him by Paleotti is practically unknown2 and contains an unusually detailed series of memoranda by various members of the studio. The other documents contained in this register are less unified in origin; some of them are related to the correspondence Paleotti held with Boncompagni (also known as the cardinal of S. Sisto) and with vari-ous professors in the studio, while others seem to be copies of deliberations relative to the studio by the Senate or its committees. Only a few of these writings are known from

1 For details on Boncompagni’s letter, its context, and reception in Bologna see my forthcoming article Papal Power and University Control in Early Modern Italy: Bologna and Gregory XIII, «The Sixteenth Century Journal».

2 Only a few of the documents are mentioned in P. Prodi, Il cardinale Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597), I-II, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1959-1967, II, p. 224, n. 18; cfr. also P. Cicognani, Lo Studio di Bologna nella seconda metà del ’500 (dal carteggio degli ambasciatori bolognesi a Roma, Tesi di laurea, Facoltà di Magistero dell’Università di Bologna, relatore Paolo Prodi, 1963-64, pp. 247-65.


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other sources, such as the series Assunteria di Studio in the Archivio di Stato di Bologna (hereafter ASB).

The documents in question are contained in Bologna’s Archivio Arcivescovile (here-after AAB), Miscellanee Vecchie, 802 (olim L. 87). This volume is a zibaldone composed of numerous fascicles and loose papers. Fascicle 33 contains the report that Paleotti put together in 1583. It is followed by several loose documents on the studio, dating approxi-mately from 1577 to 1586. Taking these sources together it is possible to determine the views on the studio by its members, its overseers, the archbishop, and the papal legate at a time in which the University of Bologna was facing several acute problems. Of particular importance and interest are the comments of Ulisse Aldrovandi and of other university professors. I will start with Paleotti’s dossier and will then consider the other documents relative to the studio contained in the same register.

1. Paleotti’s Dossier

Shortly after receiving Boncompagni’s letter in April 1583, Paleotti seems to have begun canvassing various members of the studio for comments about areas potentially in need of change or reform in the University. Fascicle 33 contains the originals of the documents gathered by Paleotti. In all likelihood these were then copied into a uniform script and sent to the Congregation as a single report. The original dossier included eight items, which today we might call «documentary appendices»:3

(a) printed statutes of the universitas of the (student) Jurists, with some marginal an-notations (this item is not present in fasc. 33);4

(b) recommendations (avvertimenti) sent by a deputation of the Law students (ff. 1r-11v);

3 A separate folder, labelled «Le cose del Studio di Bologna», contains a one-page listing (in all likeli-hood, a table of contents for fasc. 33) which specifies: «mandati a Roma all’Ill<ustrissi>mo S. Sisto, primo octob<re> 1583:

• statuti dell’Università dei Legisti stampati con qualche annotatione in margine • fol. primo, Avvertimenti dati dai deputati dei Signori scholari leggisti • Decreti, bolle et statuti con varie declarationi et provisioni date dai Signori Leggisti, fol. 13• Statuti reformati dati da i deputati de i scholari Artisti, divisi in due parti, la prima fol. 25, la seconda fol.

41• Avvertimenti dati dall’eccellente dottore A<ldrovandi>, fol. 51• Altri avvertimenti d’un altro dottore, fol. 70• Altri avvertimenti d’un altro dottore, fol. 80• Altri avvertimenti d’un altro dottore, fol. 84».4 Since the statutes were printed, bulky, and probably only lightly annotated, there was no need for Pale-

otti to retain a copy of them. The statutes were probably those of 1552, confirmed by Julius III on 22 October 1552; see ASB, Assunteria di Studio, 1, busta s. n. («1552»).


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(c) a series of decrees, bulls, and statutes sent by the student Jurists along with various notices and deliberations (ff. 13r-24r);

(d) revised statutes sent by a deputation of the students of Arts (ff. 25r-49v);(e)-(h) four different recommendations given by various professors in the studio, spe-

cifically Ulisse Aldrovandi (ff. 50r-69r), Ercole Borsato (ff. 70r-78v), Federico Pendasio (ff. 80r-83v), and Carlo Sigonio (f. 84r).

There were therefore two main parts to the dossier: the first one contained student statutes, reports, and recommendations (three from the students of Law, one from those of Arts), whereas the second represented the views of various doctors or professors (one Jurist, three from Arts and Medicine). These writings deal with many different aspects of the studio, such as the rights and privileges of both students and professors, the role of the student rector, and various points concerning teaching. In all likelihood the fascicle sent to Rome also included a cover letter by Paleotti. This does not survive in fascicle 33, nor have I so far been able to locate it in the Vatican Secret Archive, but we shall see that the archbishop’s views can be gathered from other sources. First it will be useful to see how students and professors viewed the situation of the studio in 1583.

1.1. Student ViewsThe Avvertimenti of 28 June 1583 in item (b) were put together by a committee of four deputies (assunti) specifically appointed by the student Jurists of both Civil and Canon Law to respond to Boncompagni’s invitation, as transmitted by Paleotti.5 The document covers three main topics: matters relating to the student rector and his lieutenant (vice-rettore) (ff. 1r-2v), to the students (ff. 2v-7v), and to various issues connected with teaching (ff. 8r-21r). None of the topics themselves was really new (the 1432 statutes contain long sections about them),6 but several of them had been given new relevance by recent events. In May 1583, for example, a long-standing tussle between Rome and Bologna concerning student rectors had apparently resulted – according to the Avvertimenti – in a prohibition against the students’

5 See [f. ir]: «Cum superioribus diebus, Cardinalis illustrissime ac Reverendissime, epistola Sanctissimi Domini Nostri circa reformationem studii in Universitate nostra lecta fuerit, ac pariter nomine tuo ab Uni-versitate petitum, ut cogitaret quae huic studio et scolaribus magis utilitati, honorique esse possent, et de-nique illa peteret; ideo Universitas elegit quattuor assumptos, videlicet D. Comitem Ioannem Lieber Baronem Alemannum, qui in eius locum substituit D. Iulium Caesarem Fracavallum Cremonensem, D. Constantium Maranches dolanum Burgondum, D. Bartholomeum Stellam Brixiensemque in eius locum substituit D. Iu-lium Lanam Brixiensem, et D. Ioannem Baptistam Galeanum de Nicia Provincialem, qui in termine decem dierum viderent statuta summariae, extrahendo utilia, addendoque ea que illis necessaria fore viderentur. In executionem itaque istius ordinis in fine termini, infrascripta ab illis in Universitate lata fuere, quae denique unanimi consensu approbata, nunc amplitudinem tuae afferunt, ut illis visis, incredibili sapientia tua defectibus inexpertae iuventutis suppleas».

6 Statuti delle università e dei collegi dello Studio bolognese, a cura di C. Malagola, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1888, passim.


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electing any. It is unclear whether such a decree, not otherwise known except by the allusion to it in this document, was actually published, or whether the notion of its existence (or con-sideration) was due to some kind of misunderstanding.7 In any case, the students released a terse affirmation of their right to appoint a rector;8 they then went on to describe various aspects of the rector’s office, including his privileges, salary, and responsibilities.

The document’s section on students also comments on other contemporary issues: for instance, a severe shortage of appropriate student housing led the students to ask that their needs in this area be attended to.9 Another section, entitled De immunitate gabellarum et datiorum (f. 4r-v), extends the privileges listed in the 1432 statutes (where students are given the right to bring into the city as much grain as they like)10 to all kinds of food, drink, clothing, and books, thus rendering students exempt from any custom taxes. Also, whereas the 1432 statutes say little about carrying weapons, except that they should not be brought into meetings of the universitas,11 in this document students assert their right to carry, by day or night, whichever offensive weapons are considered appropriate (licita et honesta, f. 5v) – this at the very same time when violence in Bologna was so rife that papal legates were trying to disarm the citizenry.12

In addition to confirming the earlier statutes and insisting that the students’ freedom should not be curtailed, except in matters determined by the Council of Trent or by the pope (f. 11r). The third part of the Avvertimenti is full of concrete and interesting details about teaching. The Jurists protests against certain plans to curtail or even abolish private lessons, since the opportunity to learn and dispute in private, with their teachers, is a sig-nificant draw to students from outside Bologna. They do, however, request that private lessons not take place when public lectures are being delivered. Students are also quite con-cerned about noise during ordinary lectures (i.e., the lectures offered by senior professors and typically required for graduation): they suggest that church bells not be allowed to ring while they are taking place, and that noisy street traffic be prohibited (f. 8r-v). Students also offer specific recommendations about what should be taught: citing the example of other studia, they stress the need for two repetitors of Bartolus (one of the main texts for Civil

7 It is relevant to compare the Jurists’ report with Aldrovandi’s comments on this point; see below.8 F. 1r: «Quod Universitas possit eligere suum Rectorem vel Vicerectorem, nec possit prohiberi per lega-

tos, vicelegatos ut prout fuit prohibita de anno 1583 de mense Maii». So far I have been unable to locate any trace of such a decree.

9 See section De hospitiis scholarum, ff. 3r-4r.10 Statuti delle università, p. 161.11 Statuti delle università, p. 130. An universitas traditionally referred to a student guild, although in the

sixteenth century the meaning of the term broadened out, increasingly referring to the institution or studio, as “university” does today.

12 For the political situation in Bologna during this period see A. Gardi, Lo Stato in provincia: L’amministrazione della Legazione di Bologna durante il regno di Sisto V (1585-1590), Bologna, Istituto per la Storia di Bologna, 1994; Id., Lineamenti della storia politica di Bologna: da Giulio II a Innocenzo X, in Storia di Bologna, III, 1, Bologna nell’età moderna (secoli XVI-XVIII). Istituzioni, forme del potere, economia e società, a cura di A. Prosperi, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2008, pp. 3-59.


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Law) for the morning and evening slots; as is the practice in Padua, they want someone to read the Pandects according to the French fashion (more ultramontanorum). Students also attack specific obstacles to their studies occasioned by their professors: first of all, their dedication to the private practice of law (which has deleterious consequences for the studio and should be prohibited), and second the widespread encouragement of associatio, also known as corteggio. Senior professors liked to be accompanied by a crowd of students on their way from home to their classrooms and back, apparently competing with each other for numbers.13 Students seem to have been all too willing to gratify their vanity, perhaps in the hope of showing their loyalty and being admitted to professors’ private teaching. But attending the corteggio often meant missing lectures that were being offered by other teachers at the Archiginnasio, so this document suggests that the practice be abandoned. Other recommendations seem fairly minor, but are worth mentioning since they are often repeated in later statutes and directives: the school bell is to ring on the hour, and teachers are to be prompt in both leaving and entering their classrooms (f. 9v); public disputations (circuli) are to take place in the large lecture-hall (scola magna) and are to be supervised by the rector or vicerector, who will ensure that both the proponent and the respondents are well visible and audible to the students (f. 10r).

Documents (c) and (d), coming respectively from the student Jurists and the Artists, are strong reminders of the sense of entitlement that continued to permeate the student universitates in the late sixteenth century, as they are primarily concerned about a possi-ble threat to their established privileges. In item (c) the law students offer a survey (ff. 13r-24r) of otherwise hard-to-find documents concerning their universitas from 1563 to 1583. They seem to fear that occasional problems such as student violence or aspects of their governance may attract attention and further regulation from the outside. The re-vised statutes presented by the student Artists reflect similar sentiments. This section (ff. 25r-49v), among the lengthiest of Paleotti’s dossier, dedicates twenty chapters (ff. 41r-49v) to outlining student privileges on a number of issues (for example, bearing arms), while also recommending sanctions for those who abuse their rights. Some of the suggestions or complaints are remarkably cheeky. Like the student Jurists, the Artists too point to signifi-cant noise due to neighbors, merchants, and street traffic.14 They propose that carts not be allowed to pass along the facing street (presently Via dell’Archiginnasio, the passage be-tween Piazza Galvani and Piazza Maggiore) during the hours of ordinary lectures, and that there be no obstacles to students wishing to get through while going to or returning from lectures. (This presumably has reference to keeping free the entrance to the Archiginnasio.) They even suggest that leather workers – who exercise their activity in the porticos below,

13 A new building, the Archiginnasio, meant to house all the studio’s lectures had been commissioned by the papacy and completed in 1563. The project, which was strongly opposed by the citizenry, is often seen by historians as a means of enforcing control over the university, but the practice of corteggio shows that professors found creative ways to use it to their own advantage.

14 Pars II, cap. 17, De scolis, ff. 47v-48r.


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creating disgusting smells especially during the summer – be moved elsewhere, since the students cannot stand the bad odors. Other proposed requirements are that people desist from activities creating dust during lecture times, and that the neighbors and shopkeepers below mop the floor of the porticos at least once a week. What is interesting here, apart from the specific proposals (some of which would have been hard to enforce), is the stu-dents’ consciousness of the pivotal role they play in the city’s self-perception and economy. They clearly see their own learning activities as paramount when compared with the inter-ests of neighbouring residents or merchants. If students indeed began to lose many of their hard-won privileges during the early-modern era, as several scholars have argued,15 there is no clear sign that they had lost their sense of self-importance.

1.2. Professors’ Views: Ulisse Aldrovandi and His ColleaguesThe second section of Paleotti’s dossier gathers a series of observations and recommenda-tions by various doctors and professors: Ulisse Aldrovandi, Ercole Borsato of Mantua, Fed-erico Pendasio, and Carlo Sigonio all have suggestions as to how the University of Bologna can revert to its former glory.

Aldrovandi’s recommendations in item (e) are given pride of place in Paleotti’s series of documents, perhaps because they are more lengthy, detailed, and formal than those of his colleagues. Aldrovandi had direct experience of teaching in the Bolognese context (par-ticularly in logic and natural philosophy) since 155416 and was therefore no newcomer to the problems besetting the studio. His De Bononiensis Gymnasii innovatione animadver-siones Ulyssis Aldrovandi (ff. 50r-69r), written in Latin and divided into 16 chapters, was explicitly penned at the behest of Paleotti (who was among his close friends) and is dated 21 June 1583.17 Although several of Aldrovandi’s comments overlap with those also offered by others, what is particularly interesting in Aldrovandi’s piece is the detail of the explana-tions in relationship to the high number of professors in Arts and Medicine, how this development occurred, and how Aldrovandi proposes to remedy the situation (mainly by following the Paduan system of splitting particular teachings between a principal teacher and a competitor).18

15 See, for example, A. De Benedictis, Governo cittadino e riforme a Bologna nel Settecento, in Famiglie senatorie e istituzioni cittadine a Bologna nel Settecento. Atti del Iº colloquio, Bologna, 2-3 febbraio 1980, Bolo-gna, Istituto per la Storia di Bologna, 1980, pp. 9-54; G.P. Brizzi, Lo Studio di Bologna fra orbis academicus e mondo cittadino, in Storia di Bologna, III, 2, Bologna nell’età moderna (secoli XVI-XVIII). Cultura, istituzioni culturali, Chiesa e vita religiosa, a cura di A. Prosperi, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2008, pp. 5-113, especially pp. 62-63.

16 For a rapid sketch of his career see D.A. Lines, Natural Philosophy in Renaissance Italy: The University of Bologna and the Beginnings of Specialization, in Science and Universities of Early Modern Europe: Teaching, Specialization, Professionalization, ed. D.A. Lines, special issue of «Early Science and Medicine», 6.4 (Winter 2001), pp. 267-323, especially p. 314, item 170.

17 This document adopts the Roman dating system of 10 Kalends of July.18 For further information on Aldrovandi’s proposals see D.A. Lines, Reorganizing the Curriculum: Teach-


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In chapters 13-16 Aldrovandi also has several comments to offers about students. He notes the lack of adequate student housing, which is of particular frustration for noblemen coming from distant lands and leads some to leave Bologna after just one or two months. He suggests that the Senate should set apart lodgings for them, and that the students’ ancient immunities and privileges be respected, something that is apparently not happening, particu-larly in matters related to the gabella (ch. 13). In the following chapter, Aldrovandi recognizes the need to reexamine the statutes of the students’ colleges, to see whether some points are by now obsolete, and whether others need to be revised according to the deliberations of the Council of Trent. Chapter 15 deals with the issue of the student rector. Aldrovandi observes that rectors were, in the past, called upon to spend considerable amounts of money while at the same time their rights and privileges were increasingly ignored. According to Aldrovandi, this situation is behind the recent lack of student readiness to serve in this office. He therefore proposes that rectors be better remunerated and that their expected contributions be more clearly specified. Aldrovandi’s final chapter deals with poor students coming to Bologna. Since they are often, despite their good morals and learning, forced to abandon their studies, he suggests that a place be appointed in which they can dedicate themselves, not only to Arts and Medicine or to Law, but also to spiritual matters; this would be a kind of seminarium in which to tend these “plants” with potential usefulness for Christendom.

Borsato was not a professor and had only just received his doctorate in Civil and Canon Law in December 1582.19 The fact that his comments in item (f ) are the only ones included in Paleotti’s fascicle from a doctor of law may be due to the fact that most of the irregularities in Bologna’s studio were taking place in the faculty of Arts and Medicine. Nonetheless, Bor-sato has interesting and general points to make concerning the studio, particularly on three issues. First of all, Borsato recommends that a special city magistrate take charge of all the civil controversies and problems affecting students, dedicating two days a week to such mat-ters (71v-72v). This suggestion is surprising because students usually expected to be judged internally, by university officials, and not to be subject to civil courts. But perhaps Borsato’s comment reflects the remarkable violence present in Bologna during these years, something against which several legates had to struggle. Borsato’s set of recommendations is also nota-ble for insisting on the importance of hiring the most outstanding professors, whether these be native or foreigners. To a modern ear this may seem self-evident, but Bologna had expe-rienced some opposition on this point, and the recent scarcity of new posts had led some to suggest that it might be best to restrict new appointments to Bolognese citizens only.20 (De-spite occasional protests, Bologna retained an insistence that four eminent chairs – in Civil

ing and Learning in the University of Bologna, c. 1560-c. 1590, «History of Universities», 26/2 (2012), pp. 1-59, especially pp. 8-16.

19 M.T. Guerrini, «Qui voluerit in iure promoveri…». I dottori in diritto nello Studio di Bologna (1501-1796), Bologna, CLUEB, 2005, p. 305, item 3087.

20 A. De Coster, Foreign and Citizen Teachers at Bologna University in the 15th and 16th Centuries: Stat-utes, Statistics and Student Teachers, «Annali di storia delle università italiane», 12 (2008), pp. 329-55.


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Law, Canon Law, Medicine, and Philosophy – be occupied by the best foreign professors available.) Borsato also has points to make about the oversight of the University: he suggests that four or six well-regarded people be considered «protettori o reformatori del studio» with «ampia authorità d’admetter, chiamar, salariar et cassar, sì essi lettori come i scolari et ogni officiale del studio eccettuato il Rettor dell’Università» (ff. 72v-73r)21 and about the number of professors, which he thinks should be limited (f. 73r-v). Finally, Borsato’s section on lessons has, in addition to the usual set of recommendations on private vs. public lectures, various comments of a religious flavour, for example suggesting that lectures in theology be offered in the evening for everyone’s benefit, and that a sermon at the beginning of the aca-demic year exhort all students to live in concord. Several of these points are echoed by other commentators, including Aldrovandi and Paleotti, but especially interesting is Borsato’s point about the supervisors of the studio because he seems to wish to combine the functions of the Riformatori and the Assunti dello Studio into a single body, which will finally have the necessary standing and authority to manage the studio effectively.

The comments offered by Pendasio, who had taught philosophy in Bologna since 1571,22 show a special concern for the behaviour of professors and students.23 The former should, he stresses, be mindful of their pastoral responsibilities toward their charges, for whom they should be mirrors of virtue («specchi di virtù»). For their part, students should re-member why they have come to university in the first place; he encourages them to behave modestly, with respect for the city (f. 83r); they may latch onto particular doctors and learn from them, but should not therefore think that everyone else should follow the ones they do. Pendasio suggests that they talk among themselves as brothers, avoiding seditions. Elsewhere in his comments he explicitly praises the Congregazione della Perseveranza (a religious university association in whose formation Paleotti had been involved)24 and its function of instilling piety in the students. But especially unusual seems to be his consid-eration (f. 83v) that university matters may need to be reviewed every few years, just as Church synods are meant to identify problems and abuses at regular intervals.

The detail of Pendasio’s suggestions contrasts with the terseness of Sigonio, a professor of the humanities and one of the figures closest to Paleotti in the Bolognese studio.25 Sigonio offers only a terse list of fourteen points that should be considered in rehauling Bologna’s

21 The Riformatori dello Studio already figured among the studio’s overseers, but they changed annually, so Borsato presumably is aiming for a more long-term direction.

22 Lines, Natural Philosophy in Renaissance Italy, pp. 316-17, item 181.23 This is item (g), ff. 80r-83v. The document is affected by bad bleeding, which makes sections of it impos-

sible to read. 24 For further details on the Congregazione della Perseveranza see N. Fabrini, Le congregazioni dei Gesuiti

a Bologna, Roma, Stella Mattutina, 1946, pp. 17-20, and Prodi, Il cardinale Gabriele Paleotti, II, pp. 215-20.25 For biographical details see A. Biondi, Insegnare a Bologna. Le esperienze di un grande maestro: Carlo

Sigonio, in L’Università a Bologna, II, a cura di G.P. Brizzi – L. Marini – P. Pombeni, Bologna, Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, 1988, pp. 87-95, and W. McCuaig, Carlo Sigonio: The Changing World of the Renais-sance, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1989.


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teaching programme.26 It is unclear whether these were original with Sigonio or were meant to bring together all (or perhaps emphasise some) of the suggestions put forward by others, but what they underline is that there was a considerable lack of discipline, order, and respect for authority in the Bolognese studio, which expressed itself particularly in the way in which teaching took place. Sigonio recommends, for instance, that no more than three professors should teach the same subject at the same hour, that private teaching – as well as disputations (academie) – should not clash with ordinary teaching, that students should not make noise during lessons, and that professors not teach outside of their area of expertise.

2. Other Documents in AAB, Miscellanee Vecchie, 802

With the professors’ views, the fascicle put together by Paleotti and sent to Rome con-cludes, and in the present state of research it is not possible to ascertain what response (if any) it received from the Congregation of the Council.27 However, as mentioned above the same volume in the Archivio Arcivescovile also contains other materials on the studio. These are of great interest and cover over a decade of discussions in Bologna about how to go about reforming or reorganizing the University.

The earliest document is probably the original holograph version of Aldrovandi’s In-formatione del Rotulo del Studio di Bologna di Philosophi et Medici, dated 26 September 1573 (incipit «Sapendo che Vostra Signoria Illustrissima et Reverendissima desidera sapere l’ordine et il numero delle classi che hora nel Studio nostro di Bologna si ritrovano […]»). This sheaf of 14 folios, which at my last sighting rested loosely (and, I believe, out of or-der) at the start of fasc. 33, is an information brief by Aldrovandi to his friend Paleotti about the teaching of Arts and Medicine in the studio, apparently written in response to a proposal to free the third morning hour from its glut of classes by moving some of them (including Aldrovandi’s) to other times. A copy of this document in Bologna, Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, B3803 is known to scholars and has been remarked upon.28 Aldrov-andi’s comments are particularly important for an understanding of how the class schedule was arranged in 1573 and how it had been changing during the previous years.29

Other documents that survive among Paleotti’s papers tend to be shorter and of more

26 Sigonio’s suggestions, entitled Per riformare lo Studio, are on f. 84r and are item (h) of this collection of documents.

27 The fondo Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Congregazione del Concilio is only partially inventoried and re-quires a thorough investigation.

28 P. Findlen, The Formation of a Scientific Community: Natural History in Sixteenth-Century Italy, in Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe, eds. A. Grafton – N. Siraisi, Cam-bridge, MIT Press, 1999, p. 369; P.F. Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, p. 249.

29 I offer extensive comments on Aldrovandi’s proposals in my Reorganizing the Curriculum.


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variable interest for understanding the workings of (or debates about) the studio in these years. In the following I have, whenever possible, rearranged them in chronological order and offered a few notes about their contents and importance:

(1) a copy of a one-page 1447 Privilegium concessum clericis scholaribus Bonon<iae> ut possint vacare Juri civili (not otherwise known to me, this privilege must have been pro-claimed under Pope Nicholas V);

(2) a small fascicle reporting the privileges conceded to the studio by earlier popes in-cluding Martin V (not an unusual kind of document, of which there are many examples in ASB, Assunteria di Studio);

(3) Alcuni avvertimenti circa lo Studio di Bologna by Paleotti; there are at least four versions of this document, including drafts, reworkings with corrections, etc. Especially interesting is the letter sent by Paleotti to his friend Gian Battista Castagna, the archbishop of Rossano and new governor of Bologna, on 30 January 1577 (inc. «Gli abusi et difetti che hora si conoscono in questo studio sono assai»)30 and another letter addressed to the rector of the studio (undated, but probably from 1579, inc. «Difetti de’ dottori. Nessun dottore entra all’hora sua»). These documents offer precious clues to Paleotti’s perception of the problems experienced by the studio during these years and are complemented by a one-page «Additione» with comments about doctors, students, and servants.

(4) Alcuni ricordi per lo custode delle scuole (1 page, 29 January 1579, inc. «Primamente tenere netti tutti i muri»), possibly by Paleotti and sent to Achille Butrigario, «deputato allo Studio». The document mainly consists of instructions that the schools be kept clean, that students not play ball there and not write on the walls, etc;

(5) Memoria d’alcune cose per S. Illustre S. rettore del Studio (anonymous and undated, 3 pages, possibly by Paleotti c. 1579, inc. «1º Deve sua S. Illustre persuadersi»). This is a series of twelve instructions for the rector; all of them have a strongly religious flavour. The rector is encouraged, among other maters, to give strong support to the Congregazione della Perseveranza;

(6) a nearly unreadable one-page note (inc. «Die 15a mensis Martii 1580 Ill<ustrissi>mus Cardinalis Paleottus») acknowledging the receipt by Paleotti of certain letters;

(7) a 2-page Memoria per le cose dello Studio by Paleotti (7 December 1585, inc. «Mons<igno>re Ill<ustrissi>mo Card<inale> Paleotto Arcivescovo per debito dell’Ufficio suo»). This document was apparently prepared as the Senate was considering introducing certain changes to the studio. Given that Paleotti refers to himself as “archbishop” the draft of the document must in any case be from after December 1582. The document is very close to one in ASB, Assunteria di Studio, no. 1, busta s. n. (“1585, 1586”), beginning «In-tendendosi che dagli Illustri Signori Quaranta si è al presente per fare provisione a diverse cose dello studio […]».

30 I have published and translated this document in Reorganizing the Curriculum, pp. 36-41.


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While most if not all of the items listed above were probably authored by Paleotti, other documents in this second section of the volume are original documents written to him:

(8) a small folder contains an original letter from the Senate to Paleotti, dated 15 May 1583 (inc. «Pax Christi»), inviting him on the part of the Senate to a secret meeting in order to discuss a request received by the Senate from cardinal Boncompagni for informa-tion on the studio; there is also a one-page Nota delli disordini che sono nell’Università by the Riformatori dello Studio and the Assonti di Studio (no date, but attributable to 1578-79 on the basis of the names of the Riformatori indicated in the document, inc. «1º, li rumori grandi»), on practical challenges faced in the studio including distracting noise-levels, in-sults, obscene writings and drawings, and the difficulty of finding adequate lodgings for foreign noblemen;

(9) original letters from Boncompagni to Paleotti on 20 April 1583 (instructing him, on behalf of the Congregation of the Council, to provide a report on the implementation of the Council’s directives in the Bolognese studio), 1 June 1583 (reminder letter of the aforementioned request), and 29 June 1583 (communication that the same request was also being made of the Senate);

(10) an untitled 3-page memorandum, dated October 1585, on possible improve-ments in the studio’s spiritual atmosphere and teaching of theology (by a certain P. Portug<alensis?>, inc. «Ad illustrissimum et reverendissimum Dominum / Haec videntur pro spirituali augmento Bononiensis Academiae in memoriam reducenda»);

(11) a 6-page memorandum (inc. «Essendo la materia delli Feudi molto utile») with proposals regarding the teaching of Law by Professor Vezza (1586);

(12) an undated an anonymous 2-page response (inc. «Circa il primo capitolo») to a document concerning the studio, most likely a reaction (possibly by a professor of Law) to the 1586 draft of the Ordinationi by the papal legate Enrico Gaetani (see below);

(13) the printed Ordinationi fatte et stabilite dall’illustrissimo et reverendissimo monsig-nor il Card. Caietano Legato et molto Ill. Sig. Quaranta… (Bologna, per Alessandro Benacci, 1586); this is a document containing controversial directives by the young papal legate Enrico Gaetani, who had just recently taken up his position in Bologna; several copies of the Ordinationi survive in the Bolognese archives;31

(14) an undated Provisione che si dà ai lettori nello studio di Roma.

This article has focused on a series of documents relative to the Bolognese studio found among Paleotti’s papers. We have seen that they contain an unsuspected wealth of docu-mentation on changes that were afoot in Bologna during a crucial time of crisis and reform

31 Gaetani’s Ordinationi are discussed in D.A. Lines, The University of the Artists in Bologna, 1586-1713, in Galileo e la scuola galileana nelle Università del Seicento, a cura di L. Pepe, Bologna, CLUEB, 2011, pp. 141-53.


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initiatives. New documents have come to light, not only from members of the studio, but also from its overseers and from the cardinal nephew. What is especially unexpected is to see Paleotti take such an active interest in the studio’s affairs. He was not simply the colla-tor of a number of memoranda by various personalities and groups within the university who wished to discuss the institution’s current state of affairs. This was something that any (arch)bishop might have done, particularly one who, like Paleotti, had played a leading part in drafting the decrees of the Council of Trent and was a member of the Congregation of the Council. But Paleotti’s involvement in the studio’s affairs went much deeper than a sense of duty: he wrote letters and memoranda to university officials, received reform proposals from various professors, promoted the Congregazione della Perseveranza, and in general was keen to see spiritual change take place in his alma mater and former institution of employment.32

Paleotti did not hold any official position within the studio. The (arch)bishop of Bolo-gna did not have the same function in the life of the university as did, say, the archdeacon, who actually conferred degrees. His only formal role was that of receiving the oaths of doc-tors who were swearing allegiance to the Catholic Church. It may thus seem all the more surprising that the archbishop’s archive contains so much material relative to the university. But in Paleotti’s case there was a strong element of historical accident. Partly because of his own background as a university professor, Paleotti happened to have several close friends (especially Sigonio and Aldrovandi) who were taught in the studio and who, it seems, often shared with Paleotti their ideas about how the university could best be put right. It is not clear that Paleotti’s successors in the office of archbishop shared anything like his own very close involvement with the university.

The documents mentioned in this article are remarkable in several ways. Although they are not the only ones from the AAB to deal extensively with the University of Bologna,33 they are especially valuable for the unusual insights they furnish into the life of the Bolog-nese studio in these years. Their usefulness also lies in the number of different voices that one hears: those of the students, professors, archbishop, and Congregation of the Council allow one to form a good idea of how various members of the university and observers ap-proached the difficulties being faced by the studio and what they thought should be done. Other documents in the ASB furnish a different part of the picture, as they illustrate the

32 Paleotti graduated from Bologna in Civil and Canon Law in 1546; see Prodi, Il cardinale Gabriele Pale-otti, I, p. 57; Guerrini, «Qui voluerit in iure promoveri…», no. 1107; on his teaching of Civil Law (1546-56) see Prodi, Il cardinale Gabriele Paleotti, I, pp. 67-81.

33 Other relevant material is contained especially in Misc. Vecchie 601 (information on academies and col-leges), 603 (particularly on the colleges of doctors, the Collegio di Spagna, and the seventeenth century), and 624 (including copies of various papal bulls on the studio). Documents on the Colleges of Arts and Medicine were swapped in 1940 for others held by the ASB; see the introduction to G. Cencetti, Gli archivi dello Studio Bolognese, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1938. On the AAB in general see the fundamental study by M. Fanti, L’Archivio Generale Arcivescovile di Bologna: notizie storiche, elenco dei fondi archivistici, avvertenze utili per le ricerche, «Strenna storica bolognese», 45 (1995), pp. 271-312.


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moves and reactions of the Bolognese Senate and of the Assunti di Studio, partly through their correspondence with the ambassador in Rome.34 These too should therefore be kept in mind, but Paleotti’s papers especially constitute an unexpected mine of information.

34 For further details see my Papal Power and University Control.


Gabriele Paleotti and an Unstudied 1583 Dossier on the University of Bologna

Documents

Transcript of Gabriele Paleotti and an Unstudied 1583 Dossier on the University of Bologna