The Financing of Perugia University (14th-15th Centuries)

Abstract

This paper aims to illustrate the funding mechanisms of Perugia University in the Middle Ages, and how they have influenced the origins and the functioning of the institution itself. Perugia University was founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century by the local government, which in the second half of the thirteenth century had already established public Lectures of Physics and Law at the expense of the municipality. Starting from a general insight about the relationship between the city government and the local University, the present essay will analyse two different aspects of the University’s funding: 1) the relationship between the city’s economic and political situation and the University’s funding; 2) the more technical questions, such as the records this funding study is based upon.