The Pope’s Universities: Sources and Research Perspectives on Finances and Funding in the Early Modern Period in Bologna

Abstract

The contribution aims to propose a first overview on the founding universities subject in the Papal State during the 16th–18th centuries. Although there were nine universities in the Church State in this period, the research is going to focus on the most relevant and ancient of them: Bologna, Perugia and Rome. The history of these three Studia is well known, but the specific topic concerning finances and founding has not been broadly analysed. In particular, regarding this topic, the focus will be on the feature that distinguish the situation in the University of Bologna, during the early modern period, when the tradition of political autonomy of the town conditioned the development of the University. The condition of the sources will be a focal point in the essay. These three cases could therefore offer the opportunity to compare different situations and to verify the action of the State towards an increasing uniformity.