The University of Parma () is a public university located in

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

, Italy. Organized into nine departments, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. As of 2016, it had approximately 26,000 students.

History

During the 13th-14th centuries there was an educational institution, ''studium'', in Parma, but it was closed in 1387 by

Gian Galeazzo Visconti Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan (1395) and ruled that late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò V ...

, Duke of Milan. The university was opened in 1412 by

Niccolò III d'Este Niccolò III d'Este (9 November 1383 – 26 December 1441) was Marquess of Ferrara from 1393 until his death. He was also a condottiero. Biography Born in Ferrara on 9 November 1383, Niccolo was the son of Alberto d'Este and Isotta Albaresan ...

, and, although no papal bull was issued, the degrees were granted. In 1420

Filippo Maria Visconti Filippo Maria Visconti (3 September 1392 – 13 August 1447) was the duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan from 1412 to 1447. Reports stated that he was "paranoid", but "shrewd as a ruler." He went to war in the 1420s with Romagna, Republic of Florenc ...

closed it again. Although there were several attempts to revive the university, it functioned only as a "paper university", granting degrees without teaching. In 1601, the university was finally reopened by

Ranuccio I Farnese Ranuccio I Farnese (28 March 1569 – 5 March 1622) reigned as Duke of Parma, Duke of Piacenza, Piacenza and Duchy of Castro, Castro from 1592. A firm believer in absolute monarchy, Ranuccio, in 1594, centralised the administration of Parma and ...

, and the papal bull was given. It was a joint institution with a

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, and a third of staff were teachers from a local Jesuit school, who taught in a separate building and by Jesuit curriculum. There were usually about 27–32 teachers and 300–400 students in the 17th century. Logic, natural history, mathematics and theology were taught by Jesuits and law and medicine by civil teachers. Among the most important Jesuits who taught in Parma should be mentioned

Giovanni Battista Riccioli Giovanni Battista Riccioli (17 April 1598 – 25 June 1671) was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion of ...

, and

Daniello Bartoli Daniello Bartoli (; 12 February 160813 January 1685) was an Italian Jesuit writer and historiographer, celebrated by the poet Giacomo Leopardi as the "Dante of Italian prose" Ferrara He was born in Ferrara. His father, Tiburzio was a chemist as ...

. In 1768, Ferdinand I expelled Jesuits and the curriculum was modernized. Student protests resulted in closure of the university by

Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma Marie Louise (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Theresia Josepha Lucia; 12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death in 1847. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French a ...

, in 1831; only in 1854 did

Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois (21 September 1819 – 1 February 1864) was a duchess and later a regent of Parma. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, younger son of King Charles X of France, and Princess Caroline ...

re-open it. The university then comprised faculties of theology, law, medicine, physics and mathematics, philosophy, and literature, as well as schools of obstetrics, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. After the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...

, the government of newly united Italy divided the universities of the country into two grades. In 1862, the University of Parma was declared grade B, its financing was reduced, and the quality of education degraded. It was equalized with grade A universities only in 1887.

Notable people

* Francesco Accarigi (c. 1557–1622), professor of civil law *

Cesare Beccaria Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (; 15 March 1738 – 28 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, economist, and politician who is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of the ...

(c. 1738–1794), economist and criminologist *

Attilio Bertolucci Attilio Bertolucci (18 November 1911 – 14 June 2000) was an Italian poet and writer. He was the father of film directors Bernardo and Giuseppe Bertolucci. Biography Bertolucci was born at San Lazzaro (province of Parma), to a family of agric ...

(1911–2000), poet *

Alberto Broggi Alberto Broggi is General Manager at VisLab srl (spinoff of the University of Parma acquired by Silicon-Valley company Ambarella Inc. in June 2015) and a professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Parma in Italy. Research in compu ...

(born 1966), engineer * Marta Catellani, chemist * Flavio Delbono (born 1959), economist and politician *

Vittorio Gallese Vittorio Gallese is professor of Psychobiology at the University of Parma, Italy, and was professor in Experimental Aesthetics at the University of London, UK (2016–2018). He is an expert in neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, social neu ...

(born 1959), neuroscientist *

Dario Item Dario Item (born June 28, 1972) is a Swiss and Antiguan and Barbudan diplomat and lawyer. He is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Antigua and Barbuda to Spain, the Principality of Monaco, and the Principality of Liechtenste ...

(born 1972), ambassador *

Beppo Levi Beppo Levi (14 May 1875 – 28 August 1961) was an Italian mathematician. He published high-level academic articles and books on mathematics as well as on physics, history, philosophy, and pedagogy. Levi was a member of the Bologna Academy of S ...

(1875–1961), mathematician *

Macedonio Melloni Macedonio Melloni (11 April 1798 – 11 August 1854) was an Italian physicist, notable for demonstrating that radiant heat has similar physical properties to those of light. Life Born at Parma, in 1824 he was appointed professor at the local Uni ...

(c. 1798–1854), physicist *

Giuseppe Mingione Giuseppe Mingione (born 28 August 1972) is an Italian mathematician who is active in the fields of partial differential equations and calculus of variations. Scientific activity Mingione received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Na ...

(born 1972), mathematician *

Piero Mozzi Piero Mozzi (30 January 1950) is an Italian doctor and naturopath. He graduated at University of Parma, and in the 1990s he founded the Mogliazze Biological Community. He is a convinced theorist of the blood type diet The blood type diets are ...

(born 1950), medical doctor and naturopath *

Bernardino Ramazzini Bernardino Ramazzini (; 4 October 1633 – 5 November 1714) was an Italian physician. Ramazzini, along with Francesco Torti, was an early proponent of the use of cinchona bark (from which quinine is derived) in the treatment of malaria. His most ...

(c. 1633–1714), professor of medicine and father of Occupational Medicine *

Giacomo Rizzolatti Giacomo Rizzolatti (born 28 April 1937) is an Italian neurophysiologist who works at the University of Parma. Born in Kyiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, UkSSR, he is the Senior Scientist of the research team that discovered mirror neurons ...

(born 1937), neuroscientist *

Cesare Zavattini Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema. Biography Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, o ...

(1902–1989), screenwriter

Organization

The university is now divided into 9

departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. * Department of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

Life Sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

and Environmental Sustainability * Department of Economics and Management * Department of Engineering and Architecture * Department of Food and Drug * Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries * Department of Law, Politics and International Studies * Department of Mathematical, Physical and Computer Sciences * Department of Medicine and Surgery * Department of Veterinary Science From 2012 to 2016 the university was divided into 18 departments: * Department of Arts and Literature, History and

Social Studies In many countries' curricula, social studies is the combined study of humanities, the arts, and social sciences, mainly including history, economics, and civics. The term was coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as ...

* Department of Biomedical, Biotechnological and translational Sciences * Department of Chemistry * Department of Civil, Environmental, Land Management, Engineering and Architecture - DICATEA * Department of Classics,

Modern Languages A modern language is any human language that is currently in use as a native language. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead clas ...

, Education, Philosophy (A.L.E.F.) * Department of Clinical and experimental Medicine * Department of Economics * Department of

Food Science Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...

* Department of

Industrial Engineering Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

* Department of

Information Engineering Information engineering is the engineering discipline that deals with the generation, distribution, analysis, and use of information, data, and knowledge in electrical systems. The field first became identifiable in the early 21st century. Th ...

* Department of Law * Department of

Life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

* Department of Mathematics and

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

* Department of

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

* Department of

Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

* Department of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and earth sciences “Macedonio Melloni” * Department of Surgery The university was formerly divided into 12

faculties Faculty or faculties may refer to: Academia * Faculty (academic staff), professors, researchers, and teachers of a given university or college (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a large department of a university by field of study (us ...

: * Faculty of Agriculture * Faculty of Architecture * Faculty of Arts and Philosophy * Faculty of Economics * Faculty of Engineering * Faculty of Law * Faculty of Mathematics,

and

Natural Science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

. * Faculty of Medicine and Surgery * Faculty of

* Faculty of

Political Sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

* Faculty of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

* Faculty of

Veterinary Medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

Research Labs in the Department of Engineering and Architecture # Industrial Automation Laboratory # IoT Lab

References

Books

* * *

External links

University of Parma Website

Itinerari medievali: risorse per lo studio del Medioevo

Scholars and Literati at the University of Parma (1412–1800)Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae – RETE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parma, University of Veterinary schools Universities and colleges in Emilia-Romagna Schools in Parma Buildings and structures in Parma

University of Parma The University of Parma () is a public university located in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Organized into nine departments, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. As of 2016, it had approximately 26,000 students. History During the ...

962 establishments Veterinary medicine in Italy

History

Notable people

Organization

See also

References

Books

See also

External links