Social Control and the Italian Universities: From Renaissance to Illuminismo
Author(s): Brendan Dooley
Source: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 1989), pp. 205-239
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1880859 .
Accessed: 16/11/2013 05:59
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Modern History.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalianUniversities:
FromRenaissanceto Illuminismo*
Brendan Dooley
Institute
forAdvancedStudy
ofthenegativeRisorgimento
viewoftheBaroquehashelped
The discrediting
outoftheperiphery
andintothemainstream
bringearlymodemItalianculture
1Beforelong,itwillbe possibleto referto a new
ofEuropeanhistoriography.
froma massof recentresearch.This
on BaroqueItalythatbenefits
synthesis
theapogeeoftheirintellectual,
synthesis
claimsthattheItalianstatesattained
inthelatesixteenth
andpoliticalvitality
cultural,
century,
justwhentheywere
Hard hit by the economicand
supposedto be slidingintoinsignificance.
recovered
politicalcrisesof theearlyseventeenth
century,
theysuccessfully
notinrelationtotransalpine
andevengainedin strength,
although
admittedly
Europe.Culturaldevelopments,
meanwhile,
followedina logicalcoursefrom
Renaissanceaccomplishments
and producedsuchnoveltiesas baroqueaesthetics,institutionalized
science,and Greekand Romanarchaeology.This
in turncalls forrevisionsin otherinterpretations
synthesis
thatdependon the
olderview.2Forexample,if theBaroquewas nota periodof decay,Italian
Illuminismo
cannothaveoriginated
in a reactionto theactualdefectsof the
Baroque.An institution
whosestorythroughout
theearlymodemperiodmay
appearinan entirely
different
lightas a resultofthissynthesis
is oneto which
even theinnovative
historians
of theperiodhave notyetdevotedmuchattention:
theuniversities.
So far,theuniversities
of earlymodemItalyhavebeen analyzedmainly
accordingto whatmightbe called,to use a termthatfrequently
recursinthis
historiography,
thesocial controltheory(controllosociale). Duringthecourse
of thelate sixteenth
century,
accordingto thistheory,
theuniversities
were
transformed
by the pettytyrants,
tinyoligarchies,or foreignpowersthat
emergedas the absoluterulersof the statesof Italy.These governments
eliminated
thelibertiesof themedievalcorporations
of students
and thefree
circulation
ofideasto avoidthreats
to theirownauthority.
In theirplace,they
introduced
strictdisciplineand a closelywatchedcurriculum
permeated
with
* My thanksto KeithBakerforhis helpfulcomments
on an earlierversion.
1 Justone example:RosarioVillari,Elogio della dissimulazione
(Bari, 1987).
2
Eric Cochrane,Italy,1530-1630,ed. JuliusKirshner
(Oxford,1988) providesa
startforall subsequent
histories
of theBaroque.
[JournalofModernHistory61 (June1989): 205-239]
C 1989 by The University
of Chicago.0022-2801/89/6102-0001$01.00
All rightsreserved.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
206
Dooley
withthenotionof divinerightto rule.Fromthe
religiousideas in harmony
to staff
of functionaries
universities
proceededa newgeneration
transformed
onethatwas notonlyobedienttotheircommands
bureaucracies,
theirgrowing
intotheirpoliticalideology.Thusitwas thatthey
butalso fullyindoctrinated
hegemonyforthe
managedto exercisecompletepoliticaland intellectual
duration
of theItalianold regime.In otherwords,socialcontrolwas notjust
a policy;it was also a successfulpolicy.3
bysixteenthoftheuniversities
ofthistakeover
cultural
effects
Thelong-term
were
whollynegtheory,
social
control
according
to
the
century
governments,
and
scientists
serious
in
the
universities,
With
vitality
stifled
intellectual
ative.
expressoughtrefugeoutside,intheacademies.Yetthecultural
menofletters
to evade control.They
sionstheycreatedtherewerescarredby theirefforts
asserts,
the
social
control
theory
oftheirservitude,
couldescapetheconditions
dissimreality
with
replaced
that
onlyat thecostof creatingan environment
for
good
necessary
ulationandfalsehood,exactlytheoppositeoftheattitudes
has longbeenthebawhoseattendance
meanwhile,
scienceandart.Students,
numbers.In most
success,stayedhomein increasing
rometer
foruniversity
positiveinfluence
onceagainbegantoexertanimportant
places,theuniversities
from
Illuministi
divorced
absolutism
whenthelateeighteenth-century
onculture
thewrongsoftheold regime.4Butbythentheunireligionandsetouttoright
function
themtotheirproper
thattorestore
hadbeenso fartransformed
versities
differ-ortheLeft's
herethehistorians
theRisorgimento-and
calledforeither
accessionto powerin the 1870s.5
fitswellenoughwitholderviewsofthedownward
The socialcontroltheory
of Italianculturein theearlymodernperiod.Thatis whyvirtually
trajectory
been
workthathas recently
of monographic
all oftheconsiderable
quantities
likePadua,Bologna,Pisa, NaItalianuniversities
doneon themoreimportant
theless
ofworkconcerning
ples,Rome,Turin,andPavia,andeventhetrickle
Modena,Urbino,
ones-Sassari, Catania,Florence,Siena,Ferrara,
important
to fitits specificsubjectsintothe
Parma,Piacenza,Genova-has attempted
Forexample,thedeclineinenrollofthesocialcontroltheory.6
largercontext
MariaClaudia TonioloFascione,"Aspettidi politica
formulation:
3 An exemplary
del Collegiodella Sapienzaa
culturalee scolasticanell'etadi CosimoI: L'istituzione
Pisa," Bollettinostoricopisano 49 (1980): 75.
4 An exemplary
MarinaRoggero,"La scuolasecondarianelPiemonte
formulation:
di VittorioAmedeo II e Carlo EmmanueleIII," Bollettinostorico-bibliografico
subalpino72 (1974): 487, 491.
by AdrianaLa Penna,"Universitae istruzione
S The latteris thethesissupported
pubblica,"Storia d'Italia, vol. 5, I documenti,2 parts,pt. 2 (Turin,1973), pp.
1739-79.
6 Just
a fewofthemorerecenttitles,inadditiontothoseaboveandthosementioned
Principe,Gesuiti:La politicafarnesiana
later:Gian Paolo Brizziet al., Universitd,
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 207
oftheteachmentatPaduais associated,a priori,withthe"abstract. . . nature
of the
exploitation
derivedfromthesupposedgovernment
ing" inductively
have repeatedthe social control
at synthesis
The few attempts
university.7
removefromtheevidence.8
work,addinga further
themesofthemonographic
thetheory
havenotyetquestioned
Oddlyenough,thesesocialcontroltheorists
up to commonsense.
insteadto leave itsdefinition
itselfand havepreferred
THEORETICAL WEAKNESS
the conceptof social controloutsidethe
surrounding
The controversies
thatcommonsensemaybe at best
demonstrate
of universities
historiography
thisnotion.In the olderstructuralan ambiguousguide forunderstanding
it,theconcept
borrowed
sociologicalusagefromwhichhistorians
functionalist
phaseis thatin whichpoliticaland culturalinimpliedtwophases.The first
capableof interacting
producesocializationby makingindividuals
stitutions
peacefullyin a social system.The second phase is thatin whichthe inwiththe otherelementsin the structural-functionalist
contribute,
stitutions
model,to thesurvivalof thesocial system.Commonsense seemsto agree
thattoo muchcontrol,in the
of universities
withthesocial controltheorists
is a bad thing.For thisreason,Marxistfirstphase of thisformulation,
suchas Douglas Hay and E. P. Thompsonin the1960s
historians
influenced
thathadbeenthefocus
awayfromthemajorinstitutions
turned
theirattention
a Parmae Piacenza, 1545-1622,CentroStudi"Europa delle Corti,"
dell'istruzione
Bibliotecadel Cinquecento(Rome, 1980); RodolfoDel Gratta,"Un episodiodi vita
universitaria
pisana nel Cinquecento,"Bollettinostoricopisano 46 (1977): 243;
e il principe:Gli studidi Siena e di Pisa tra
GiovanniCascio Pratilli,L'universitd
(Florence,1975); Nicola Carranza,MonsignoreGasRinascimento
e Controriforma
delle riforme
di Pisa nel Settecento
(Pisa,
dell'Universitd
pare Cerati,provveditore
Istruzione
e controllosociale
e la grammatica:
1974);G. P. Brizzi,ed., II catechismo
nel Settecento(Bologna, 1985); G. Zanetti,Profilo
nell'area emiliana-romagnola
storico dell'Universitadi Sassari (Milan, 1982); Maria Rosa Di Simone, La
universitaria
e insegnamento
del
Organizzazione
"Sapienza" romananel Settecento:
diritto(Rome, 1980).
7 S. De Bemardin,
dellaRepubblicadi Veneziae l'Universita
"La politicaculturale
di Padovanel XVII secolo," Studiveneziani16 (1974): 490.
8 This is thecase, in addition
and Lisa Jardine,
Grafton
to La Penna,of Anthony
and
Educationand theLiberalArtsinFifteenthFromHumanismto theHumanities:
Europe (Cambridge,Mass., 1986), p. xiv; Marina Roggero,
Sixteenth-Century
inStoriad'Italia: Annali4
nelleuniversita
tracrisie riforme,"
"Professori
e studenti
(Turin,1981), p. 1046; GiuseppeRicuperati,"Universitae scuola in Italia," in La
letteratura
italiana, vol. 1, ed. AlbertoAsor Rosa (Turin,1982), p. 993; Gino
e poterenell'Italiadella Controriforma
Benzoni,Gli affanidella cultura:Intellettuali
e barocca (Milan, 1978).
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
208
Dooley
and not
claimingthattheseproducedrepression
of structural-functionalists,
or
of
alternative
roles
and
purposes
on
the
instead
concentrated
and
stability,
agreed
like.
They
and
the
rebels,
society-mobs,
of
segments
deviant
thatitwas an enemyto be shunned.
thatsocialcontrolexistedbutmaintained
withsimilarclaims: social
approach
non-Marxist
a
offers
Michel Foucault
sensealso saysthe
common
However,
are dehumanizing.9
controlstructures
thathuman
suggests
Experience
opposite:thatsocialcontrolis neverenough.
society
civilized
peaceful
a
and
neverproducethedesiredresult,
institutions
in
least
words-at
other
in
mirage.Institutions,
seemsto be an ever-receding
be
model-neverseemto
in thestructural-functionalist
thesenseunderstood
abandonedthe
have accordingly
able to controlsociety.Systemstheorists
schemes
andadvancedto alternative
altogether
conceptof institution
familiar
are and whattheirso-calledrole
just whatthesecollectivities
forexamining
could be.'0
framework
in a givenchronological
tothesameproblems
The conceptofsocialcontrolis subject,furthermore,
modelin general.In thesecond
of evidenceas thestructuralist-functionalist
phase,forexample,thetendencyof humansocial systemsto procuretheir
own survivalis provableonly by analogywiththe survivalof biological
thecourse
concerning
basedon hindsight
species;orelse itis a generalization
or
periodtoovastforinvestigation
overa chronological
ofsocialdevelopment
in thefirst
phase
roleof institutions
whoseend is notin sight.The particular
consensusthatcouldbe proven
oftheprocessimpliesa collectiveinstitutional
all the
by methodsthatcan be imagined,suchas interviewing
scientifically
butthatneveris.
members,
couldbe appliedto thesocialcontrol
It is easy to see howthesecriticisms
intothesametwophasessugDividingtheargument
theoryof universities.
of universities
gestedbytheconceptof socialcontrolin general,thefunction
the
in thesecondphase was to help thesocial systemsurvive.Admittedly,
do nottakethelongestviewof thesecondphaseof thisprocessby
theorists
assertingthatsocial controlis the functionof all education;theylimit
to theperiodof theold regime,and withintheconfinesof that
themselves
periodthetheorysimplytellsus thatthestatesmanagedto lastto theendof
9 A convenientbibliography
Michel Foucault'sSurforthe debatesurrounding
veilleret punir(Paris, 1975) is in StanleyCohenand AndrewSkull, "Introduction:
Social Controlin HistoryandSociology,"in Social Controland theState:Historical
and ComparativeEssays, ed. StanleyCohen and AndrewSkull (London, 1983),
pp. 1-16.
10 For example,WalterBuckley,Sociologyand ModernSystemsTheory(EngleEdgarMorin,La methode,3 vols. (Paris,
wood Cliffs,N.J., 1967); morerecently,
viewis
1977-81). The mostrecentextendedcritiqueof thestructuralist-functionalist
Action,trans.ThomasMcCarthey
Habermas,TheoryofCommunicative
thatofJurgen
(Boston,1987), vol. 2.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
-
Social Controland theItalian Universities 209
theeighteenth
century-atruism.Moreover,no one has yetdeviseda wayto
prove that the states' survivalwas not, say, due to favorableclimatic
in thefirstphase,accordingto this
conditions.The function
of universities
theexecutionof
was to reinforce
theory,
particular
politicalregimesthrough
Yet thereis reasonto doubt
deliberate
policiesaimedat producing
stability.
used any
thatany government
of the old regimecould have successfully
institution
forexecutinga policyof social control.A recentstudyof law
enforcement
in late seventeenthand earlyeighteenth-century
Englandpublishedin an anthology
dedicatedto socialcontrol,forexample,notesthatthe
countryreallyconstituted
"a web of tenuouslyconnectedand necessarily
self-supporting
groupings"overwhichanyformalcontrolbycentralgovernment,at leastin thesenseusuallyunderstood
bythesocial controltheorists,
was whollyimpracticable.
"Atall levels,"notesthisstudy,"a fluidexchange
of supportand information
was obstructed,"
betweensectorsof thecountry
and,insteadofthegovernment,
namedWhitney.. . claimed
"a highwayman
1l One
effective
controlovera sizeableportion"oftheareaaroundKempsey.
problemwiththeconceptof social controlas used by historians
is thatit is
frequently
supported
by references
to administrative
actsand decreeswhose
successat thelevel of executionis difficult
to ascertainbecauseof serious
lacunaein knowledgeaboutearlymodernsocial conditions.Fromthefew
studiesthathavebeendone,it seemsapparentthatmanysocial programs
of
thepast, fromtheclearingof the streetsin sixteenth-century
Rome to the
clearingoftheFensinearlyseventeenth-century
England,weredismalfailures
in spiteof theimpressive
utopiasthatcouldbe inferred
fromthegovernment
actsalone.12 Theproblemoftheroleoftheuniversities
inItalyprovidesa test
case fortheusefulness
of thistheoryforearlymodernEuropeanhistory.
so much of the antiquarianand philologicalfootwork
Unfortunately,
remainsstillto be done in thewidelydiffused
centerswheretheevidenceis
locatedthatanyattempt
torefute
thesocialcontroltheory
ofItalianuniversity
historyfindsthe easiest path-namely,the historyof students-entirely
blocked.It is almostimpossibleto determine
withanyaccuracywhether
the
realeffectof university
teachingwas, as thesocial controltheorists
assert,
13
submission,
obedience,and agreement
witha particular
politicalideology.
" Paul Rock, "Law, Orderand Powerin Late
Seventeenthand EarlyEighteenthEngland,"in Cohenand Skull,eds. (n. 9 above), pp. 191-221.
Century
12 The clearingof theFens is describedin KeithLindley,FenlandRiotsand the
EnglishRevolution
(London,1982); and theprojectsin Romeare describedin Paolo
Simoncelli'scontribution
to Timoree carita: I poverinell'Italiamoderna:Attidel
convegno"Pauperismoe AssistenzanegliAntichiStatiItaliani" (Cremona,28-30
Marzo 1980), ed. GiorgioPolitiet al. (Cremona,1982).
13 Aloneamongthesocialcontrol
theorists,
Grafton
andJardine
havetakenstepsin
thisdirection
in chaps. 3 and4.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
210
Dooley
More quantitative
researchon Italianstudents
mustbe undertaken,
perhaps
alongthelinessuggested
byresearchon theuniversities
oftheNetherlands.
14
So far,all thathas emergedfromthestudiesof thetwo Italianuniversities
whosepopulationshave been submitted
to any kindof analysiscorrelating
educationwithcareers-thoseof Turinand Florence-are a fewdrylistsof
law students
whowentintothebureaucracy.
l5 Otheruniversities'
populations
havebeenquantified-those
of Rome,Padua,andFerrara-butonlyto show
16 The only
yearlyenrollment
figures
andthegeographical
originsofstudents.
scholarto attempta synthesiswas forcedto admitthateven to the basic
questionof studentattendance"thereis no preciseanswer" because the
"matriculation
registers. . . are so spotty."',7Indeed,thenewlypublished
documentation
constitutes
a mountain
of promising
data,butit has yetto be
digestedintoworkabletheses.'8Enoughis known,however,aboutadministrativebehaviorand teachingpatterns
to pointout significant
weaknessesin
thefactualaccountproducedbythesocial controltheorists,
to suggesta few
tentative
conclusionsabouttheeffects
ofgovernment
to
policies,and,finally,
advancea new hypothesis
on theroleof earlymodernItalianuniversities
in
thecultureof theirtimethatmaybe moredefensible
thanthesocial control
boththeoretically
and philologically.
theory,
14
analysisto dateoftheuniversities
to themostelaboratecliometric
I am referring
La societeneerlandaiseet ses gradues:Une
of any area, thatof WilhelmFrijhoff,
1981).
(Amsterdam,
seriellesur le statutdes intellectuels
recherche
15 Armando
3
1473-1506: Ricerchee documenti,
F. Verde,Lo studiofiorentino,
di
vols. (Florenceand Pistoia,1973-77); FrancaFiscaroVercelliet al., L'universita
di Torino,
Giuridicodell'Universita
Torinonei secoli 17 e 18, Memoriedell'Istituto
ser.2, no. 145 (Turin,1972).
di Padova
16 M. Saibante,C. Vivarini,
all'Universita
andG. Voghera,"Gli studenti
dalla finedel Cinquecentoai nostrigiorni(studiostatistico),"Metron4 (1924-25):
di Ferrara
dell'Universita
163-223; Carlo Pinghini,"La popolazionestudentesca
dalle originiai nostritempi,"Metron7 (1927): 120-68; C. Cagno, "Gli studenti
il tempo,"Metron9 (1932): 151-70. Moreover,
di Roma attraverso
dell'Universita
betweenvariousregionsimpossibleby
theauthorsof thesestudiesmadecomparison
universities
successivelyin severaldifferent
registered
failingto accountforstudents
academica.
peregrinatio
accordingto thecustomary
du
europeennes
17 R. Kagan,"Universities
inItaly,1500- 1700," inLes universites
XVIe au XVIIIe siele, vol. 1, Boheme,Espagne,EtatsItaliens,Pays germaniques,
ed. DominiqueJuliaet al. (Paris, 1986), p. 155.
Pologne,Provinces-Unies,
18 Charles B. Schmittsurveyssome of the new sourcesin "Three Important
4 (1984): 179-85.
Publicationsfor UniversityHistory,"Historyof Universities
havelongbeenavailablefortheMiddleAges andearlier
Sourcesat leastforgraduates
Renaissance,althoughlittleof a statisticalnaturehas been done withthem;e.g.,
Pataviniab anno1406 ad 1450
C. ZontaandI. Brotto,eds., ActagraduumGymnasii
(Padua, 1922).
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 211
GOVERNMENT POLICY
of Italyand of theone-timecapitals
The archivesof thevariousuniversities
of the statesin whichtheywere situatedare packed withadministrative
policies.Althoughit is
relevantto government
recordsand correspondence
do, thattheadministrative
hazardousto assume,as thesocialcontroltheorists
of theactualeffectsof government
a good demonstration
recordsconstitute
atleastthe
policies,itoughttobe possibletouse suchrecordsfordetermining
havedirected
Yetthesocialcontroltheorists
maingoalsoftheadministrators.
centuryonwardat the
towardevidencefromthe sixteenth
theirattention
evidenceconcerning
less voluminous,
admittedly
although
expenseofsimilar,
behind
ofthepurposesthatwereevidently
thepreviousperiod.A comparison
policiesintheearlierRenaissancewiththoseofthelate
university
government
revealstheanalysisand
bythisdocumentation
as suggested
sixteenth
century
change presentedby the social control
periodizationof administrative
theorists
to be largelyfanciful.
policieswas
of sixteenth-century
claimthatthenovelfeature
The theorists
andprofessors
tocontrolthepersonsandmindsof students
a deliberate
effort
The
of themedievaluniversity.
and democracy
theautonomy
by eliminating
of
ofsuchpolicieswas madepossible,theysay,bytheemergence
elaboration
the notionof absolutisthegemonyundera theoryof divine right.Yet
policies were nothingbut the extensionof
university
sixteenth-century
alike, in the mid-fifteenth
policies begun, in republicsand principalities
of theRenaissance
a periodbeforeeven themostdaringhistorians
century,
and
realhegemony
asserttheexistenceof anypoliciescapableof producing
in which theoriesof divine righthad no currencyin Italy.19Usually
ofgovernment
interference
policiesdidnotinvolvethefirst
sixteenth-century
weresubject
almostfromtheirinception
in university
theuniversities
affairs;
to the whims of local potentates.Giangaleazzo Visconti,for example,
insistedon havinghispersonaladvisorsdrawup theannuallistsofprofessors
of Pavia;and thecitycouncilof Bolognamade
andcoursesat theUniversity
Withinthe
ofthestudents.20
constant
to infringe
upontheprivileges
attempts
into hierarchiesaccordingto their
universities,
studentswere distributed
19 An exceptionis LauroMartines(Powerand Imagination:
inRenaisCity-States
sance Italy [New York, 1979], p. 40), who dates the establishment
of a "middle
class" intellectual
and social hegemony
fromthethirteenth
century.
20 WalterSteffen,
"Il poterestudentesco
a Bolognanei secoli XIII e XIV," Universitae societanei secoliXII-XVI,NonoConvegnoInternazionale,
Pistoia,20-25
settembre,
1979(Pistoia,1982),p. 185; MariaCarlaZorzoli,"Interventi
dei Duchie
del senatodi Milanoperl'universita
di Pavia," ibid., p. 559.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
212
Dooley
geographical
and social origins.The notionof autonomyand democracyin
medievaluniversities
is largelya productof post-1968utopianism.21
The policiesofthelateQuattrocento
governments
represented
a qualitative
change,but not in the directionsuggestedby the social controltheorists.
Whatevermay have been the actual effectsof these policies, theywere
conceivednot as instruments
of social controlbut as extensionsinto the
university
of thesamepoliciesof organizing
and improving
thepatronage
of
theartsand sciencesthatgovernments
carriedout in all theirothercultural
programs.The policiesof theVenetiangovernment,
forexample,aimedat
turning
theUniversity
of Padua intoa modelof Renaissanceadministration.
The government
increasedtheuniversity's
revenuesby creatingnew sources
of income in the city of Padua-taxes on cloth transportation,
for
example-and by demanding
contributions
fromothersubjectcitiessuchas
Bergamoand Treviso.22It added to its internaltranquillity
by enforcing
professorialattendanceand improvedits relationswith the town by
to beararms.It estababolishing-though
onlybriefly-therightof students
affairs
lisheda voluminous
abouttheseand otheruniversity
correspondence
in Padua. Meanwhile,withtheparticular
withthelocal representative
urging
ofsuchpatrician
humanists
as LauroQueriniandPietroBembo,itensuredthat
of studiesin Greekbegunby Georgeof Trebizondwould be
the tradition
school-civic humanismcontinuedand thatthe mostrecenthumanistic
wouldbe represented.23
wereinformed
The policiesof therestof theItaliangovernments
by the
andpatronage.Lorenzo
of expertadministration
samehumanist
combination
inPisa at Florence'sexpense
de' Medicireestablished
themedievaluniversity
21
di Padova
More detailsare in my "The Quaderniper la storiadell'Universita
5 (1985): 169-85.
ofPadua," HistoryofUniversities
oftheUniversity
andtheHistory
has beenexploredby,amongothers,
in medievaluniversities
The mythofdemocracy
JacquesPaquet,"Coiutd'etudes,pauvreteet labeur:Fonctionset metiersd'etudiants
2 (1982): 15-52.
au moyenage," Historyof Universities
22 The Venetian
withothersources
less successfully
also experimented
government
of revenuesuchas taxeson publicwhores.This and otherprojectsare examinedby
Ronald Edward Ohl, "The Universityof Padua, 1405-1509: An International
of Pennsylvania,
of Studentsand Professors"(Ph.D. diss., University
Community
1980), p. 43.
23 Fran,oisDupuigrenet
di Padovadal 1405al Concilio
Desroussilles,"L'Universita
diTrento,"inStoriadellaculturaveneta,5 vols.,vol. 3, pt.2, Dal PrimoQuattrocento
al Conciliodi Trento(Vicenza, 1980),pp. 616-24; AgostinoPertussi,"L'umanesimo
grecodalla finedel secolaXIV agli inizidel secoloXVI," Storiadella culturaveneta,
vol. 3, Dal primoQuattroentoal Conciliodi Trento,3 parts,ed. GirolamoArnaldi
andManiloPastoreStocchi(Vicenza,1980), 1: 231-33; LuciaGualdoRosa, "Un docdi Padova 4 (1971): 6-7. The
umentoinedito,"Quaderniper la storiadell'Universita
is theargument
in themid-Quattrocento
to civichumanism
conversion
government's
N.J., 1986).
Humanism(Princeton,
of MargaretKing's Venetian
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 213
there.To
withhis representatives
and set up a voluminouscorrespondence
goal of
cancelanysuspicionsthathis policieshad onlythepurelypragmatic
preof thetown,he kepta humanist
thevanquishedinhabitants
mollifying
LandinoandAngeloPoliziano
schoolin Florence,whereCristoforo
paratory
in
GiovanniII Bentivoglio
rebirth.24
philosophical
to a Florentine
contributed
Bologna began a periodof stabilityby throwinghis weightbehindthe
of scholarsthatwas makingthecityone of thegreat
gravitation
spontaneous
of SixtusIV includedthe
humanistcentersof the time.The government
Romeintoa Renaissancecity.Even
of Rome in plansforturning
University
ofthehumanist
margins
in Naples,at theextreme
theAragonesegovernment
bringing
byrevivingtheuniversity,
thenewdynasty
inaugurated
movement,
of FrancescoFilelfosuchas Alessandrod'Alessandrointo
students
humanist
by professors.25
attendance
thelaw school,and enforcing
in harmony
wereperfectly
The announcedpurposesof thesegovernments
the
LionelloD'Este in Ferrararesuscitated
withtheideas of thehumanists.
educatorGuarinoGuariniattheheadof
andputtherenowned
localuniversity
in orderto bringback "bonae litterae"that
department
thenew humanities
AmbrosianRepubliccreateda
had been "bellis quassatae."The short-lived
in thecityof Milan and dedicatedit to humaniststudiesnew university
assumedwouldteachsubjects"how thisrepublicmust
whichitautomatically
respondedwithenthusiThe humanists
be conductedand administrated."26
24
Gene Brucker,"A Civic Debate on Florentine
HigherEducation,1460," RenaissanceQuarterly
34 (1981): 526; ArthurField, "The StudiumFlorentinum
Controversy,
1455," Historyof Universities
3 (1983): 31-60; StefanoDe Rosa, "Studi
sull'universita
di Pisa. I. Alcunefontiinedite,Diari, letteree rapportidei bidelli,
1473-1700," Historyof Universities
2 (1982): 104; and, for the philosophical
renaissance,
EugenioGarin,"La culturafilosofica
fiorentina
nell'etamedicea,"Idee,
istituzioni,
scienzeed arti nella Firenzedei Medici (Florence,1980), pp. 83-112.
The authoritative
workon theFlorentine
Studiumis Verde(n. 15 above), vols. 1-2
and vol. 3, on which I take accountof the criticismof Paul Grendler,"The
Universityof Florence and Pisa in the High Renaissance," Renaissance and
Reformation
18 (1982): 158-65; and Rodolfo Del Gratta,"Spigolaturestoriche
di Pisa nel 1400 e 1500," now publishedin Universita
sull'Universita
e societanei
secoliXII-XVI, CentroItalianodi Studidi Storiae d'Arte,Pistoia(Pistoia,1982),
pp. 285-91.
25 CarloDe Frede,Studenti
e uominidi leggia NapolinelRinascimento:
Contributo
alla storiadella borghesiaintellettuale
nel Mezzogiorno(Naples, 1957), pp. 35-50;
AngelaDe Benedictis,"Quale 'corte' perquale 'signoria'?A propositodi organizzazionee immagine
del poteredurante
la preminenza
duiGiovanniII Bentivoglio,"in
Bentivolorum
magnificentia:
Principee culturaa Bologna nel Rinascimento,
ed.
Bruno Basile (Rome, 1984), p. 28; Charles Stinger,The Renaissancein Rome
(Bloomington,
Ind., 1982), p. 142.
26 Zorzoli (n. 20 above), p. 564, cites the "Grida di apertura
dell'universita,"
September
5, 1448. The phraseon Ferrarais fromEugenioGarin,"La concezione
dell'universita
in Italia nell'etadel Rinascimento,"
Les universites
du
europeennes
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
214
Dooley
asm. Guicciardini,for example,praisedLorenzo de' Medici for having
"sought gloryand excellencemore than anyoneelse" in his university
policy.27
Italianwarsdelayedreform
and earlysixteenth-century
The latefifteenthstable
relatively
of thefirst
establishment
in mostplaces. Butthesubsequent
those
and
that
remained
those
governments
both
Italianstatesystemprovided
the
up
once
again
to
take
thatwerenewlyestablishedwiththeopportunity
in
a decisivemove the
did notrepresent
Theirreforms
questionof reform.28
hadmodified
Sincenothing
bythesocialcontroltheorists.
direction
suggested
notionthatequatedpoliticalglorywithpatronageof thearts,
theprevailing
exactlythesamecultural
pursuing
therewas noreasonforthemnottocontinue
In so doing,theydidnotcontrolthe
previousreform.
ideasthathadmotivated
anymorethantheyhad in theQuattrocento.
and professors
livesof students
and mostefwiththebest-organized
Instead,theyendowedtheuniversities
structure
theyhad everpossessedin a periodof vigorous
institutional
ficient
century.
of theseventeenth
thatlasteduntilthebeginning
development
architectural
reforms,and the creationof
projects,statutory
University
administrative
bodies wereequatedwithgood politicsin
specialuniversity
was exemplary.
Almostas soon
everyItalianstate.The Venetiangovernment
ithad
as ithadregainedPaduain 1517alongwithmanyoftheotherterritories
reform
withthesame
lostat Agnadello,ittookup thequestionof university
unioperations.It centralized
energythatit appliedto all otherTerraferma
beendiffused
betweenthesenhadpreviously
administration-which
versity
andfaculty
inPadua,andnumerous
separatestudent
governor
ate,theVenetian
dello Studio.
a singlemagistracy,
thethreeRiformatori
representatives-into
in turnconsolidatedall universityactivitiesinto one
The Riformatori
locationby convertingthe Palazzo del Bo into a classroom
magnificent
building.They coordinatedthe relationsbetweenthe variouspartsof the
an expandededitionof thestudent
including
statutes,
university
by ordering
And, by the 1570s, their
new chapterson professorsand administrators.
fromtheselectionofprofessors
hadbecomeso wide-ranging,
responsibilities
againstthetown,that
to thehearingoftheacademiccommunity's
grievances
whatbeganas a "not too . . . timeconsuming"office,in thewordsof one
job.29
memberof theMaggiorConsiglio,becamea fulltime
xivemeau xviiiemesiecle, Institutd'Histoirede la Facultedes lettresde Geneve
(Geneva, 1967), p. 89.
in Opere,ed. Vittorio
analysisis in Istoriefiorentine,
27 FrancescoGuicciardini's
de Caprariis(Milan, 1961), pp. 192-93.
28 Cochrane
of theItalianWarsinItaly:1530-1630,chap.2,
analyzestheaftermath
"The New PoliticalOrder."
29 The quote is fromDesroussilles,p. 642. So well regardedwas the officeof
thatcandidateswere oftencatapultedfromit intothe dogeship,notes
Riformatori
dello Studiodi Padova: Indirizzidi politica
SandroDe Bernardin,"I Riformatori
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 215
had reorganized
theadministrative
structure
Once theItaliangovernments
thelatterwerefreedonce and forall
and externalaspectof theuniversities,
fromthefinancialpreoccupations
thathad plaguedtheirmedievalpredecesand dutieson goods
sors.The governments
supplemented
student
payments
forthefirsttimewithregularsubsidiesand orderedthatdetailedbooks be
prepared
andsubmitted
forannualapproval.Theymadesurethatincreasesin
university
outlayskeptup at leastin somemeasurewithrisinginflation.
The
ofNaples,forexample,raiseditscontribution
from900 to4,000
government
ducatsbetween1519and 1612. Andoncetheywereable to guarantee,
as did
Veniceduringmostof thesixteenth
thatsalarieswouldbe paid on
century,
time,theycould promisestudents
thathighlyqualifiedprofessors
wouldbe
willingto remainformorethana fewyears.30
TheItaliangovernments
thenwentabouttranslating
thelatestintellectual
developments
intostillmoreeducationalreforms.
Theymade umanitaa fullbranchofhigherstudybycreating
fledged
chairsexpressly
foritinsteadofexas CarloSigonioandFrancescoRobortellototeachfrom
pectingsuchfigures
thechairsof "rhetoric"and"poetry"inwhichthatdiscipline
hadfirst
entered
thecurriculum.3'
Theytransformed
thelawfaculties
byhiring
thebestprofessorsofthelatestschoolofhumanist
jurisprudence,
thatofAndreaAlciato.They
instituted
newchairson Justinian's
Digestwhoseincumbents
couldmakeuse
32 Theytransformed
ofTorelli'srecenteditionoftheFlorentine
manuscript.
the
culturale
di Padova,"Storiadella culturaveneta,vol. 4, I Seicento,pt.
nell'universita
2 (Vicenza, 1984), pp. 63-64. Similarpoliciesin otheruniversities
are analyzedin
MariaClaudiaTonioloFascione,"Aspettidi politicaculturalee scolasticanell'etadi
CosimoI: L'istituzione
del collegiodella Sapienzadi Pisa," Bollettino
storicopisano
49 (1980): 61-86; StefanoDe Rosa, Una bibliotecauniversitaria
del secondo
Seicento:La libreriadi Sapienza dello studioPisano, 1666-1700 (Florence,1983),
and "Studi sull'universita
di Pisa. II. La riformae il paradosso:Girolamoda
Sommaja, Provveditore
dello Studio pisano," Historyof Universities
3 (1983):
101-24; AlessandroD'Alessandro,"Materialiperla storiadello Studiumdi Parma,
1545-1622," in Brizziet al. (n. 6 above), p. 21; GiuseppeErmini,Storiadell'Universitddi Perugia, 2 vols., 2d ed. (Florence, 1971), 1:210; N. Spanio, Storia
dell'Universitadi Roma (Rome, 1935), pp. 15-20; Mario Caravale and Alberto
Caracciolo,Lo statopontificio
da MartinoV a Pio IX (Turin,1978), pp. 310-35.
30 The financial
recordspertaining
to Padua are containedin Documenti
finanziari
della Repubblicadi Venezia,ser.2, Bilancigenerali,3 vols. (Venice,1903-12). In
addition,Desroussilles,p. 639; Spanio, p. 20; N. Cortese, "L'eta spagnola," in
N. Corteseand M. Schipa,Storiadell'Universitd
di Napoli (Naples, 1924), p. 224.
31 Umberto
Dallari,Rotulidei lettoridello Studiodi Bologna, 5 vols. (Bologna,
1888-1929), 1:107;2 (1889): 190; AngeloFabroni,HistoriaeAcademiaePisanae, 3
vols. (Pisa, 1792), 2:471; Carlo De Frede,I lettoridi umanitd
nellostudiodi Napoli
duranteil Rinascimento
(Naples, 1960), p. 193.
32 Pratilli
(n. 6 above),pp. 93, 147, 153; PaulOskarKristeller,
"The University
of
Bologna and the Renaissance,"Studi e memorieper la storia dell'Universitadi
Bologna 1 (1956): 313-23; Zorzoli(n. 20 above), p. 570.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
216
Dooley
mathematics,
ofanatomy,
newprofessorships
byestablishing
medicalfaculties
and
andbyopeningformalanatomicaltheaters
andnaturalhistory
chemistry,
inthelocal
innovations
gardensofsimples.Anditwas byjustsuchcurricular
thatat leastone city,Messina,managedto commandan important
university
landscapeforthefirsttime.33
partof theItalianintellectual
whatthey
conceivedofremediestocounter
Finally,theItaliangovernments
perceivedto be the mostseriousrecentthreatof all to the vitalityof the
inItaly
fromotheruniversities
intheirstates-namely,
competition
universities
legislationexcludingsubjects
Europe. They introduced
and in transalpine
And whenpractically
practice.34
with"foreign"degreesfromprofessional
toward
in Europehad been caughtup in themovement
everygovernment
begana campaignto bringback the
theItaliangovernments
protectionism,
ofTuscany,forexample,sentdiplomats
The government
transalpine
students.
forPisandegreesequal to thatalreadygranted
to Spainto requestrecognition
to thosefromBologna,Rome,andNaples.Whentheirtaskwas complicated
the
afterPius IV beganenforcing
particularly
divergences,
by confessional
in thegranting
of degreesfrom
of orthodoxy
forattestations
requirements
institutions
thatwereaccreditedby thechurch-almosteveryone in ItalytheSapienzaat Siena
bysimplyconverting
theTuscangovernment
responded
withprincely
hostelintoa separatebodyforGermanstudents
froma student
of Urbinosoughtto obtainforthelocal
The government
recommendations.
students
theabilityto conferdegreeson all transalpine
collegeof physicians
bytheancientprivilegeoftheCountsPalatine.AndtheVenetiangovernment
createda separatecollege, the Collegio Veneto, for awardingdegrees
Veneta.35
auctoritate
at the
no one protested
If something
valuablewas lostby thesereforms,
at Padua immediately
recognizedthevalueof appealtime.Indeed,students
in theircauses againstthelocal citizens.36
Moreover,
ingto theRiformatori
a MessinafraCinquee Seicento:Vicende
3 RosarioMoscheo,"Scienza e cultura
di FrancescoMaurolico,"La rivoltadi Messina,
autografi
dei manoscritti
e dispersione
nella secondametadel Seicento,ConvegnoStorico
1674-8 e il mondomediterraneo
Messina 10-12 ottobre,1975, ed. Saveriodi Bella (Naples, 1978),
Internazionale,
in science curriculais Charles
on modifications
pp. 435-74. The chiefauthority
Schmitt,whosevariouspaperson the subjectare now collectedin The Aristotelian
(London,1984).
Traditionand RenaissanceUniversities
is thedecreeofFrancescoSforzainMilan,October7, 1522,Memorie
34 Exemplary
di Pavia, 3 vols., 2d ed. (Bologna, 1970),
per la storiadell'Universitd
e documenti
2:17.
35 De Bernardin,
"La politicaculturaledel governoveneziano" (n. 7 above),
453.
p.
betweengovernment
correlation
36 Ohl (n. 22 above), chap. 2, findsa constant
as earlyas thelateQuattrocento.
and risingenrollments
reforms
administrative
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 217
theuniversities
thatfaredtheworstin theRenaissancewerejustthosewhose
governments
neglectedthemin favorofotherswithintheirterritories.
Thatof
Siena, forexample,suffered
whentheMedicigovernment
gaveup on it and
startedconcentrating
all its attention
on theUniversity
of Pisa; and thatof
PiacenzadeclinedwhentheFarneseconcentrated
on theuniversity
in closest
proximity-that
ofParma.Forcedtorelyentirely
on thelocal community,
the
professors
therecompetedforattention
witha few logiciansin the local
conventsandcomplainedincessantly
abouttheirmorefortunate
colleaguesin
the capital. Wheregovernments
did not take charge,no amountof local
enthusiasm
sufficed
to bringa university
intoexistence-and
spontaneously
so theUniversity
of Lucca remaineda dream.37
Nordid anyonehaveanyreasonto believethepurposesof theseprojects
wereanydifferent
fromthoseof thepreviouscentury-toadd gloryto the
respectivegovernments,
independently
of the possibilityof social control.
Lelio Torelli,the celebratedjuristrecruitedas an advisoron all Tuscan
university
affairs,noted that "it . . . is all for the public good and
contentment
of thecitizensto sustaintheuniversity
(of Siena)."38The new
viceroyalgovernment
in Naples explainedthat"it seemedfitting
thatwe
attendto thegovernment
andgoodadministration
of [theuniversity],
without
whichthedivineand humansciencescannoteasilybe served"because"his
Highnessis highlyinterested
in theincreaseandconservation
oftheRepublic
of thishis cityand Kingdom."39
Indeed,thesereforms
wereso farfromevincinga desireto installsome
kindof social controlthatevengovernments
withabsolutelynothing
to gain
by suchcontrol-namely,
thosethathad acquiescedto titularsubjectionby
othergovernments-followed
all theothersin demonstrating
theirdesirefor
gloryby similarreforms.The senatein Bologna, freedfromBentivoglio
dominatio
andleftto itsowndevicesbya busypapacy,replacedtherectorof
students
witha newAssunteria
allo Studiocomposedof fourof itsmembers
and laid thefoundations
fora new Palazzo delle Scuole to rivaltheBo in
Padua. The Milanese senatedemonstrated
its magnanimity
to the Spanish
viceroyby turning
Pavia once and forall intothecentraluniversity
of the
territorial
stateand doingeverything
in itspowerto ensurethat"all doctors
and scholarsofeverynation. . . can cometo live,remain,andconverse."40
37 Paolo Barsanti,
II pubblicoinsegnamento
in Lucca dal s. 14 alla finedel s. 18
(Lucca, 1985),p. 88; A. del Fante,"Appuntisullastoriadellostudiodi Piacenza,"in
Brizziet al. (n. 6 above), p. 100.
38 L. Torellito CosimoI, 1574, quotedin Pratilli,
p. 181.
39 NinoCortese,"L'Eta Spagnola,"in Corteseand Schipa(n. 30
above), p. 272,
decreeof 1507 by GiovanniD'Aragona,luogotenente.
40 Memoriee documenti
per la storiadell'Universita
di Pavia, 2:17-18, petition
datedAugust27, 1541. Senatorialpowersin Milan are explainedin detailin Ugo
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
218
Dooley
It mightbe said thatbehindthisbenignhumanist
fagadelurkeda desirefor
of sucha desireoughtto existin
socialcontrol.If so, clearermanifestations
policiesmoredirectlyconcernedwiththedaily activitiesof universitiesespeciallyteaching.
WHO CONTROLS THE CURRICULUM
fromtheRenaissanceto theEnlightOne feature
ofearlymodemuniversities
enmentthathas long providedsupportforthe social controltheoryis the
of
the implementation
constantrepetition
of statutesenforcing
apparently
medicaland legal curricula.The conclusionthatis
staticand unchanging
is thatthe universities
respondedto
usuallydrawnfromthis continuity
officials'desiresto preserveand propagatethesafesetof moral
government
in orderto enforce
and intellectual
valuessuggestedin thetextsof antiquity
acceptthetop-downorganisocial control.41
Yet thesocial controltheorists
in whattheycall "absolutist" government
as a tacit
zationof authority
theconsiderable
evidencethattheexecutionof policy
ignoring
assumption,
betweenvariouscentersof authority.
involveda complexinterplay
the
century,
Whenmostof thecurriculawerecodifiedin the fourteenth
withineach branchof studywas fully
of considerable
innovation
possibility
had to decide,forexample,whomto follow
takenintoaccount.Professors
on a
authorsas Avicennaand Galen differed
whentwo such authoritative
wereobscure,theyhadto resortto
theauthorities
point.Whenever
particular
to solve thedifficulty.
theirown ingenuity
They could even call upon the
ina particular
field-in physics,
guidanceofsomeofthemorerecenttreatises
treatisesas GiovanniSacrobosco's
for example, such thirteenth-century
Piccola Chirurgia.42
MoreSphaeraeor,inmedicine,Brunoda Longoburgo's
oftexts
commentaries
versionsofthestandard
ofprinted
over,theavailability
removedfromprofessorsthe burdenof providingstudentswith all the
ed eserciziodel poterenel ducato
giuridiche
Il Senatodi Milano:Istituzioni
Petronio,
di Milano da Carlo V a GiuseppeII (Milan, 1972). For Bologna, Luigi Simeoni,
Storia dell'Universitadi Bologna, 2 vols. (Bologna, 1941), 2:3-9; P. Colliva,
"Bologna dal 14s al 18s: 'Governo misto' o 'signoria senatoria'?" in Storia
dell'EmiliaRomagna,ed. A. Berselli(Bologna, 1977), pp. 13-31.
is easytofindin,e.g., CarloMalagola,ed., Statutidelle
41 The standard
curriculum
e dei collegidello studiobolognese(Bologna, 1888).
universitai
42 Bianca Betto,I Collegidei notai,dei giudicidei medicie dei nobiliin Treviso,
sec. 13-16, Deputazionedi StoriaPatriaaper le Venezie,Mescellaneadi Studi e
Memorie,vol. 19 (Venice, 1981), p. 239; Charles B. Schmitt,"Science in the
Italian Universitiesin the Sixteenthand Early SeventeenthCenturies,"in The
Europe,ed. MauriceCrosland(New York,1976),
of Sciencein Western
Emergence
pp. 35-56.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 219
themto experiment
materialtheymightneed about a textand permitted
insteadwiththeirown views.43For professorsof law, the additionof a
separatechairof glossesin generalor of Bartoloin particular
releasedthem
fromthenecessityto add theseto theircommentary.44
However,in spiteof
to be thatof
theselatitudes,mostof themtook theirmajorresponsibility
infusing
students
withtheelementsof theancientmedicaland legallearning
in muchthesamewaythattheprofessor
ofhumanities
infusedthemwiththe
elementsof ancientrhetoricaltechniques.At Bologna, says one recent
scholar,a "preliminary
examination"of theextantlessonsshowsthatthey
constitute
"an Aristotelian
continuum."45
A significant
witha thesisthatsees thiscurricular
as a
difficulty
continuity
demonstration
of successfulintellectual
is thatthe
hegemony
bygovernments
decisionsmostdirectly
affecting
thecurriculum
weretheresponsibility
notof
government
butrather
ofthecolleges(thatis, theguilds)ofphysicians
andof
judges and notariesconstituting
the regulatory
bodies forthe professions.
Thesecolleges,tobe sure,hadan important
influence
on government
inmost
of the statesof Italy.The collegesof lawyerscustomarily
editedlaws and
evaluatedclaimsofnobility
andcitizenship
forlocaljobs. In
byall candidates
at leasttwoplaces,thekingdomof Naplesand theSavoystates,thelawyers
also managedto monopolizethe jobs themselves.46
Elsewhere,boththe
collegesof law and thoseof physicians
competedforauthority
amongmany
groups.In thecityofFlorence,theysharedwithall theothermajorguildsthe
righttoprovidelistsofeligibleofficials,
andlawyerscompetedforspecialized
jobs withthearistocrats.47
In thecityof Venice,membersof thecolleges,
43 Anthony
Grafton,"Teacher,Text,and Pupilin theRenaissanceClassroom:A
Case Studyfroma ParisianCollege," Historyof Universities
1 (1981): 37-40.
44 Biagio Brugi,"L'universita
dei giuristiin Padova nel Cinquecento,"Archivio
veneto-tridentino,
ser.4, 1 (1922): 19.
45 GabrieleBaroncini,
"La filosofia
naturale
nelloStudiobolognese(1650-1750),"
inScienzae letteratura
nella culturaitalianadel Settecento,
ed. RenzoCremante
and
WalterTega (Bologna, 1984), pp. 289-90.
46 EnricoStumpo,"2 modellidiversi:Nobiltapiemontese
e patriziatotoscano,"
andGiovanniMuto,"Gestionedel poteree classi socialinel Mezzogiorno,"inI ceti
dirigenti
in Italia in eta modernae contemporanea,
ed. AmelioTagliaferri,
Attidel
Convegno,Cividaledel Friuli,10- 12 settembre
di Storiadell'Univer1983,Istituto
sitadi Udine,Seriemonografica
di Storiamodemae contemporanea,
8 (Udine,1984),
pp. 287-302, 151-98; GiulioVismara,"II patriziato
milanesenelCinque-Seicento,"
in Poteree societaneglistatiregionaliitalianifraCinquecento
e Seicento,ed. Elena
Fasano Guarini(Bologna, 1978), pp. 153-70; MarinoBerengo,Nobilie mercanti
nella Lucca del Cinquecento
(Turin,1965), pp. 54-55.
47 Forthecollegesin Florence,I relyuponKatharine
Park,Doctorsand Medicine
in Early RenaissanceFlorence (Princeton,N.J., 1985), pp. 15-46; and Lauro
Martines,Lawyersand Statecraft
in RenaissanceFlorence(Princeton,
N.J., 1968),
pp. 11-61.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
220
Dooley
patriciatewas excluded,achieved
office-holding
fromwhichthe statutory
or attachingthemselvesto the nobilityor by
influenceby infiltrating
obtainingthe bureaucraticjobs for which citizenshipwas a sufficient
however,
In spite of these connectionswithgovernment,
qualification.48
separatefromtheir
membersof thecollegeskepttheirofficialdutiesstrictly
antiquity
of the
college activities.They defendedthe authority-conferring
rights.Theycalleduponthepower
thatgavethemtheirindependent
statutes
And
rulesthattheyhadmadethemselves.
ofthegovernment
onlytoreinforce
the
that
of
examining
was
of
most
tenaciously
they
defended
one therights
very
qualifito
midst,
those
their
of candidateswishing enter
qualifications
weresupposedto supply.Thus,
cationsthatthecurriculaof theuniversities
the onlybodies in a positionto exerciseany kindof controlthroughthe
universitycurriculumdid so for reasons that had nothingto do with
forpurposesof social control.
hegemony
intellectual
directly
the
boardswereina positionto influence
Notall collegeexamining
to a candidate's
university
curricula.Most of thempaid farmoreattention
and abstention
suchas familyties,lengthof citizenship,
otherqualifications
frommanual labor than they did to his masteryof legal or medical
he had attended
a "famousuniversity"
knowledge.49
Theyinquiredwhether
theadjectivewas neverenforced);andtheythuslefttheevaluation
(although
boardin thetownwheresuch
achievement
ofintellectual
up to theexamining
towns
was located.The examiningboardsin theseuniversity
a university
members,
colleges' mostprominent
weremadeup of thelocal professional
who werejust as concernedto defendtheirancientprivilegesas weretheir
cities. They valued theiruniqueprivilegeof
peers in othernonuniversity
competencethatwould qualifycandidatesfor
examiningthe professional
bothin theirown and in any othercolleges in nonuniversity
membership
towns.The knowledgewhoseacquisitiontheywishedtojudgewas thesame
calleduponlaw students
thattheyhadacquiredas students.
Theyaccordingly
to discussa "sufficiently
glossed" law fromtheDigestand upon medical
of
to explaina passagefromGalen's Ars medicaand an Aphorism
students
48
on themedicalcollegein Venice,I consultedGuido Ruggiero,
Forinformation
"The Statusof Physiciansand Surgeonsin RenaissanceVenice," Journalof the
Historyof Medicine36 (1981): 168-84; and on thejudges and notaries,Gaetano
Cozzi, "La giustiziae la politicanellaRepubblicadi Venezia,"Repubblicadi Venezia
e stati italiani:Politica e giustiziadal secolo XVI al secolo XVIII (Turin,1984),
pp. 81-216.
49 R. BurrLitchfield,
mediceo,"in
"Ufficialied ufficia Firenzesottoil granducato
Poteree societaneglistatiregionaliitalianidel '500 e '600, ed. ElenaFasanoGuarini
(Bologna, 1970), pp. 133-51; Danilo Marrara,Risedutie nobilta:Profilostoricodi un oligarchiatoscanonei secoli 16-18 (Pisa, 1976), p. 135; Betto,
istituzionale
pp. 133-50, 223-44.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 221
Hippocrates.50 They insistedon performing
the examinationwithoutany
assistancefromtheseparatedivisionsof theircollegeor theentirely
separate
collegesdevotedto theuniversity
professors,
exceptin medicine,wherethey
askedone or twoprofessors
to sitin.5' Thus,thefewcollegesthatwerein a
positionto affecttheuniversity
curriculamade no pretenseto updatingthe
examsortomakingmoreexplicitordescriptive
thestatements
concerned
with
theirregulation
andenshrined
forall timeinthecollegestatutes.
As lateas the
first
decadeof theeighteenth
century,
a typicalexamining
boardin medicine
andphilosophy
calledforanexplanation
ofAphorism
8 ofHippocrates
andDe
anima 'lib. 2 tex. 67' (i.e., 418b2) of Aristotle.52
TheRenaissanceItaliangovernments,
havingstripped
themembers
ofthese
collegesofmanyoftheothermajorprivileges
theyhadonceenjoyed,suchas
thatof selectingcandidatesforuniversity
positions,werewell disposedto
helpingthempreserve
theremnants
oftheirdignity.
The Tuscangovernment,
forexample,promisednotto interfere
in theiraffairs.It thendid everything
it could to add its own authority
to thatof theirstatutesin protecting
their
privileges
byresponding
totheirprotests
abouttheadmissionofnonprofessors
and by enforcing
therulesrequiring
disputations
to be heldin Latinby full
professors.SAndtheTuscanandtheVenetian
governments
andall thosethat
followedtheirexampleemitteddecreeafterdecreereminding
to
professors
teachthestandard
textsrecommended
bythecollegestatutes
andemployedby
theexamining
boardsinsteadof fillingstudents'headswithuselessideas.54
Of course,social controlcould havebeen an unintentional
by-product
of
thesecompromises
betweenthecorporations
and thegovernment
combined
withthehumanist
policiesofadministrative
reform.
Ifso, itseffects
inno way
resembledthosesuggestedby thesocial controltheorists.
50 Two easilyconsultableexamples:VirginiaCorderodi Montezemoloand Ugo
Gualazzini,eds., CorpusStatutorum
AlmiStudijParmensis(saec. XV) (Milan, 1946),
p. 52; Malagola,ed., p. 385.
51 RobertPalmer'sstatement
that"thecollegesofartsandmedicinewereinfactthe
civic collegesof physicians"seems inexact,in "Physiciansand theStatein PostmedievalItaly,"in The Townand StatePhysicianin EuropefromtheMiddleAgesto
theEnlightenment,
ed. AndrewW. Russell (Wolfenbuttel,
1981), p. 50. The best
discussionof thedocuments,whichcontainconsiderablelacunaefortheimportant
cases of Padua and Bologna,is in Betto,pp. 234-37.
52 Venice,
Biblioteca
NazionaleMarciana(BNM), MSS lat.cl. 8:157(= 2734),cc. nn.
53 De Rosa, "Studi sull'Universita
di Pisa: II: La riforma
e il paradosso"(n. 29
above), p. 107; the statuteof 1544, chap. 53, is quotedby Pratilli(n. 6 above),
p. 132; and thestatement
bycollegeof law in 1573 is quotedin RodolfoDel Gratta,
"Spigolaturestorichesull'Universita
di Pisa," p. 297.
54 DecreeoftheTuscangovernment,
quotedinDaniloMarrara,
Lo Studiodi Siena,
nelleriforme
dei GranducaFerdinando,
1589e 1591 (Milan,1970),p. 163. Similarly,
theBolognesesenate,in 1591,Memoriee documenti
per la storiadell'Universitd
di
Pavia (n. 34 above), 2:20.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
222
Dooley
INTELLECTUAL STERILITY
Evidencethatcastsdoubton theintellectual
sterility
of thepost-Renaissance
period,one of the majorpremisesof the social controltheoryof Italian
university
history,
is no longerdifficult
to findin thepages of historians
of
scienceandphilosophy.
Thesehistorians
haveshownthatthebest-remembered
figures
in scienceand philosophy
werenotcompletely
isolatedin Italyafter
the Renaissance.PietroPomponazzi'sAristotelian
successorsat sixteenthcentury
Paduapreparedtheway,in theseventeenth
century,
forsuchAristoCartesiansas AlessandroMarchettiand MichelangeloFardellaand such
Cartesio-Newtonians
as GeminianoMontanari.55
Meanwhile,Galileo obtainedmanyinsights
fromprofessors
ofAristotelian
logicandhumanist
mathematics.in the Collegio Romano and drew further
inspiration
from"the
oftheuniversities
in [his]lifetime.'"56
continuing
vitality
His followers,
moresuchas PietroCastelli,GiovanniBorelli,and MarcelloMalover,scientists
pighi,trainedsturdygroupsof disciplesfromtheirprofessorships
at Padua,
Bologna,Pisa, andMessina.The mostrecentevidencesuggeststhatGalileo's
disciplespursuedbiologyrather
thancosmologynotbecausesuchfieldswere
safefromtheinterference
ofecclesiasticalauthorities-indeed,
manyoftheir
unorthodox
theories
ofhumanandanimalgeneration
werehotlycontested
by
on thesubjectin thebook
concerned
withinterpreting
theologians
statements
of Genesis-but because of an impasse in the mathematical
theorythat
and becauseof severalkeytechnologiunderlayastronomical
investigations
57
workcontinued
cal developments
suchas themicroscope.57
to be
Important
done in the wake of Galileo's condemnationat least in part because
intellectual
university
activityneverreallyslowed down. And it was the
voluminousnessof this work and the apparentexistenceof a public
in readingaboutitthatconvincedItalianprinters
to maketheirfirst
interested
to thegenreof scientific
contributions
and literary
journalismthathad been
in Italy by
inauguratedin transalpineEurope and thatwas represented
55 Sergio Rotta, "Scienza e 'pubblica felicita'in GeminianoMontanari,"in
MiscellaneaSeicento,Universitadi Genova, Istitutodi Filosofiadella Facolta di
Letteree Filosofia,Pubblicazioni,vol. 2 (Genova, 1971), pp. 63-208; MariaLaura
nella scuola di
dell'Aristotelismo
Soppelsa,Genesidel metodogalileianoe tramonto
Padova (Padua, 1974).
and
inKinematics
intheLateSixteenth
56 Christopher
Lewis,TheMertonTradition
Centuries(Padua, 1980), p. 7; WilliamWallace,Galileo and His
EarlySeventeenth
N.J., 1984); but see myreview,Journalof Religion(1989, in
Sources(Princeton,
press).
57 Forexample,Ugo Baldini,"La scuolagalileiana"and "L'attivita
del
scientifica
primoSettecento,"in Storia d'Italia, Annali3, Scienza e tecnica(Turin,1980),
pp. 383-551.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 223
of theseventeenth
variousgiornalidei letterati.58How theaccomplishments
centurywere connectedto those of the late eighteenth-century
scientific
revivalof AlessandroVolta,Luigi Galvani,and Lazzaro Spallanzaniis still
obscure.But evidencefromsome new documentsseems to suggestthat
scientifictraditions
formedin the Renaissancestill retainedconsiderable
vitality.59
The social controltheorists
havean explanation
forcontinuedintellectual
vitalityin such an unpromising
atmosphere
as thatof the controlledand
therefore
in the earlymodem
decadentuniversities.
University
professors
period,theyargue,nevertooktheirinstitutional
contextseriouslyenoughto
letit influence
theirwork.Theyoccasionallybecameinvolvedin intellectual
controversies
withopposingphilosophical
schoolsandin socialconflicts
with
ofthesmallworldtheyinhabited;
opposingsegments
buttheseconflicts
were
no different
ineffect
fromtheonesthatbothered
theirmedievalpredecessors,
and they,like them,could usuallycontinuetheirlearnedaccomplishments
without
In theaspectof theprofessors'
hindrance.
activities
wheretheywere
mostlikelyto come intocontactwiththeproblemsof theworldoutsidenamely,theirteaching-theydemonstrated,
say boththehistorians
of ideas
andthesocialhistorians,
themostcompleteindifference
ofall bydevoting
to
it as littletimeas possible.60
One possibledefenseforthisview is thatit corresponds
to themethodological presuppositions
of a still-authoritative
historiographical
approach,
one thatsees thehistory
of scienceand philosophy
as nothingotherthana
seriesofattempts
bydisembodied
mindsto solveman'sperennial
intellectual
puzzles.However,research
onthemanuscript
evidenceforclassroomteaching
at universities
in everyotherpartof Europeshowsthatprofessors
madetheir
lessonsan important
partof theirlives by takinggreatpains to inculcate
students
withwhattheythought
wouldbe usefulnewideas almostas soonas
such ideas had been raised to the level of knowledgeeitherby empirical proof or by explanatoryelegance. ChristianWurstisentaughtthe
Copemicansystemat theUniversity
of Basel. JeanDu Hameltriedto give
58
This is one of thethesesI sustainin myrecentdissertation,
"Science, Politics
and Societyin Eighteenth-Century
Italy:The Giornalede' letterati
d'Italia (171040)" (University
of Chicago, 1986).
59Two new volumesincludeeditionsof seventeenthand eighteenth-century
scientific
works:Scienziatidel Seicento,ed. Maria Luisa AltieriBiagi and Brunc
Basile (Milan, 1980); and Scienziatidel Settecento,
ed. M. L. AltieriBiagi and
B. Basile (Milan, 1984); and some progresshas been made towardanalyzingtheir
culturalcontextin thecollectivevolumesScienzae letteratura
nella culturaitaliana
del Settecento
and Lazzaro Spallanzanie la biologia del Settecento,
ed. Giuseppe
Montalenti
and Paolo Rossi (Florence,1982).
60
So says Ricuperati
(n. 8 above), p. 992.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
224
Dooley
Cartesianisma fair hearingfroman Aristotelianpoint of view at the
of Paris.JeanChouetintroduced
University
almostunadulterated
CartesianismintotheCollegeofGeneva.6'So seriously,
indeed,didtheprofessors
take
theireducational
dutiesthatsomeofthemappeartohaveseenlittledifference
betweenthetaskof preparing
lessonsand thatof preparing
scientific
tracts.
Thosefortunate
enoughto teachin theirfieldsof researchtherefore
polished
theirlessonsfromtimeto timeforpublication.62
New evidenceis now availablethatItalianprofessors,
manyof whom
activities
toendowtheiruniversity
libraries
thought
enoughoftheiruniversity
withthemanuscripts
oftheirlessons,behavedinexactlythesamewayas their
was exactly
transalpine
counterparts.
Moreover,thereactionof government
theoppositeofwhatitshouldhavebeenaccording
tothesocialcontroltheory.
WHAT WAS TAUGHT
to anygroupa policy
The mostseriousproblemwitha theorythatattributes
forsocialcontrolis that,ifsuch
as instruments
ofusingtheItalianuniversities
byoneofthemostpersistent
thwarted
a policyeverexisted,itwascontinuously
texts,
tothestandard
abusesoftheearlysixteenth
century.
Insteadofadhering
someprofessors
in theperiodbeganto adopta newapproachto theirjobs by
of previousperiodsin
commentators
goingfarbeyondthemostadventurous
expoundingtheirown personalideas in class.63PietroPomponazzitaught
and De
whathe believedto be thereal meaningof Aristotle'smetaphysics
of divine
of thesoul and thefiniteness
anima-and thatmeantthemortality
Tomitano
lessonsat Padua. Bernardino
power-in hisearlysixteenth-century
devotedhisPadualessonson logicto newmethodsof reasoningadaptableto
and naturalphilosohumanists
used by mid-sixteenth-century
thearguments
in
his
medicalteaching
Da
asserted,
Giambattista
Monte
audaciously
phers.
orcomplexio-that
ofthesameperiod,thattheGalenicnotionoftemperatura
61
Chouet
Jean-Robert
and theEnlightenment:
MichaelHeyd,BetweenOrthodoxy
of CartesiansCeince in theAcademyof Geneva (The Hague,
and theIntroduction
im 17
1982); WolfgangRother,"Zur Geschichteder baslerUniversitatsphilosophie
2 (1982): 169; L. W. B. Brockliss,"Aristotle,
Historyof Universities
Jahrhundert,"
of Paris,
Descartesand the New Science: NaturalPhilosophyat the University
1600-1740," AnnalsofScience38 (1981): 46.
62 ThomasWillis,e.g., incorporated
of the
his Oxfordlectureson thefunctions
(1672); see ThomasWillis'
brainand neurologicaldiseases in De anima brutorum
OxfordLectures,ed. and trans.KennethDewhurst(Oxford,1980).
notesFederico
century,
63 The practice
bytheearlyseventeenth
was wellentrenched
di esso
de' Linceiper adempimento
Cesi, Del naturaldesideriodi sapereet istituzione
and Jardin(n. 8 above), pp. 61(1616?), in Scienziatidel Seicento,p. 50. Grafton
alreadyto the late
in thehumanities
63, tracethechangeamonga few professors
Quattrocento.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 225
is, thebalanceof thefourqualitiesof hot,cold, wet,and dry-was identical
an opportunity
withsubstantial
formandthuswiththesoul,givinghimself
to
Andhe spokeforall therest
theories
ofmatter.
expoundthelatestcorpuscular
whenhe explainedwhyitwas worthwhile
formof
to adhereto thetraditional
thecommentary
ofan ancientauthor-inthiscase, Avicenna:"Someonemay
say. . . , 'whyareyouexpounding
a bookthatyouattackso vigorously?'"
thewholebook,butonlythose
henoted."In thefirst
place,I amnotattacking
thingsin it thatseemto me reprehensible;
besides,I am notdoinganything
new.ForGalenneverwrotebettercommentaries
thanthoseon booksthathe
reprehended."64
The innovative
behaviorof isolateduniversity
acrossthepeninprofessors
sula receivedparticular
encouragement
fromthesystematic
practicesof their
colleaguesinone university-level
institution
thatwas notatall responsible
for
students
witha professional
providing
preparation
in civillaw and medicine,
and in which professorsthereforecould freely introducecurricular
innovations-the
CollegioRomano.TheseJesuitprofessors
wentfarbeyond
otherJesuitsin following
theRatiostudiorum
injunction
to return
"as often
as possible"totheoriginal
GreekwordsofAristotle
andtouse "reason"rather
thantorelyonlyon scholastictraditions.65
Indeed,itwas tothemthatGalileo
Galileiturned,
around1590,forideas aboutwhatto teachuniversity
students
in his firstlessonsas professor
in themedicalfacultyat Pisa.66By theearly
seventeenth
century,
theinnovative
approachtoteaching
hadbecomeso widespreadin Italythattheverygenreof commentary
on an ancienttextbeganto
falloutof favoras a literary
formin scientific
publishing.67
64Nancy G. Siraisi,"RenaissanceCommentaries
on Avicenna'sCanon,"History
ofUniversities
4 (1984): 63; hertranslation.
Theotherreferences
aretoAntonioPoppi,
in PietroPomponazzi,Corsi ineditidell'insegnamento
"Introduzione,"
padovano,I,
Super libello de substantiaorbis expositioet quaestionesquattuor(1507), ed.
A. Poppi (Padua, 1966), p. xv; GiustinaSimionato,"Significatoe contenuto
delle
'lectiones' ineditedi logica di BernardinoTomitano,"Quaderniper la Storia
di Padova 6 (1973): 119; Wallace,pp. 228, 93.
dell'Universitai
65 Wallace,passim;and AdrianoCarugoand Alistair
Crombie,"The Jesuitsand
Galileo'sIdeas of ScienceandofNature,"Annalidell'Istituto
e Museodi Storiadella
Scienza 8, no. 2 (1983): 3-68. The passage fromtheRatio studiorum
(1599) is in
EdwardA. Fitzpatrick,
ed., St. Ignatiusand the "Ratio studiorum"(New York,
1933), pp. 171-72.
66 AdrianoCarugo, "L'insegnamento
della matematicaall'Universitadi Padova
primae dopo Galileo," in Storiadella culturaveneta,vol. 4, Il Seicento,2 parts,ed.
GirolamoArnaldiand ManiloPastoreStocchi(Vicenza, 1984), p. 191. This conclusionis documented
tosomeextentbyoneofthefewlessonsofGalileothought
tohave
survived,labeledby AntonioFavaro"Frammenti
di lezioni" and includedby himin
his NationalEditionof theOpere (1932), 2:277-84. Carugoand Crombieagreein
identifying
thisas a university
lesson(p. 15).
67 Siraisi,p. 49.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
226
Dooley
The innovativebehaviorof university
professorseverywhere
received
additionalimpetusfroman unlikelyquarter-thoseverygovernments
that
wereengagedin an energetic
campaignto improvetheinstitutional
contextin
which the colleges of lawyersand physiciansoperated.By the early
seventeenth
century,
some of theproblemscaused by theevolutionof the
territorial
statesin theirchargehad grownfartoo complexforeitherthe
citizen-statesmen
of the past or the trainedbureaucratsof the present.
Challengessuch as theeconomicdepressionof the 1590s or theplagueof
1630 made theinadequaciesof previoussolutionsstillmoreevident.They
therefore
soughtpermanent
sourcesforspecializedtechnicalexpertise.Yet
theysoonfoundthatfewof theculturalinstitutions
ofthetimewerecapable
of servingthispurpose.
Thesegovernments
gotno helpfromtheRenaissanceacademies.Mostof
theseacademiesweremainlydevotedto theexerciseby amateursof their
humanistic
skills.Thosefewthatclaimedspecialization
in one or anotherof
the variousbranchesof knowledge,such as the military
academiesof the
Venetian
andscientific
Terraferma,
thephilosophical
Accademiadei Linceiof
Rome,andthedictionary-making
AccademiadellaCruscaofFlorence,turned
outto be collectionsof amateurs
Nordid theyprove
justlikeall theothers.68
tobe likelyplacesto meetup withtheexpertswhocameandwentat irregular
intervals
todeliverlectures
orconverse.Notbychance,mostoftheacademies
remainedunsubsidizedand entirely
uninfluenced
by government
throughout
thesixteenth
and seventeenth
centuries.
Thepapalgovernment,
attimestothe
aloneamongall thoseinItaly,turned
Jesuitcolleges.Forexample,duringthecourseof discussionsregarding
one
ofthemajorengineering
oftheday,thecontinued
disastrous
problems
flooding
at the
of the Ferrareseplain, it establisheda special chairof mathematics
thesurveying
and
withcompetence"in matters
collegeofFerrara
concerning
of water,theconstruction
ofdams,and similarthings."69
Governregulation
68
Federico
e prattica':
di contemplatione,
universale
GiuseppeOlmi," 'In essercitio
inItalia e inGermania
accademiee societdscientifiche
Cesi e i Lincei,"in Universita,
StoricoItaloed. LaetitiaBoehm,Annalidell'Istituto
al Settecento,
dal Cinquecento
gave
inTrento,Quademo9 (Bologna,1981),p. 173n,showsthatmembers
Germanico
and
astronomy,
botany,mathematics,
metaphysics,
"lessons" in Platonicphilosophy,
in the Early
history;J. R. Hale, "MilitaryAcademieson the VenetianTerraferma
Studiveneziani15 (1973): 273-95. All recentstudiesof the
Century,"
Seventeenth
shouldbe readwithcaution,says Eric Cochrane,"The
Italianacademicmovement
RenaissanceAcademiesinTheirItalianandEuropeanSetting,"inTheFairestFlower:
The Emergenceof LinguisticNationalConsciousnessin RenaissanceEurope, ed.
Accademiadella Crusca(Florence,1985), pp. 21-39.
69 Ferrante
Borsetti,Historiaalmi Ferrariaegymnasii,2 vols. (Ferrara,1737),
1:310,fromthepapal decree:"Il bisognoche ha questoPubblicodi persone,che ne
di
di Livellazioni,o regolamenti
in congiuntura
eruditeaffinche
sianosufficentemente
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 227
mentsin theotherstatesof Italy,however,couldnotrelyon thelocal Jesuits
forexpertassistance.MostofthemfoundtheJesuits
tobe farmoreinterested
in teachingthanin providing
in anyprofessional
consultation
subjectsexcept
theology.
Afterall, onlytheCollegioRomanoenjoyedthepresence,however
brief,of practically
all thebestJesuitphilosophers,
and menof
scientists,
lettersin theorder.And governments
could do littleto encouragethebest
Jesuitprofessors
to stayin theirstatesagainstJesuitpolicies.
Nothing
buttheuniversities
remained.True,governments'
relianceon the
universities
forexpertisewas no new thing.In the MiddleAges theyhad
reliedon themforlegal opinions;and in theRenaissancetheybeganto rely
on themalso for providingtheirpoliticalideas with philosophicaljustification.70
But duringthecourseof the seventeenth
century
governments
began turningto the universities
morefrequently
thanever before.They
establishedspecial chairsof hydraulicengineering
foraidingin decisions
thesafetyof local agricultural
affecting
landand in thecreationof new land
outof swamps.Theyturnedto thetopprofessors
of medicineforassistance
in timesof plague.71 The papal government
used university
architects
and
engineersto completetwo of the greatengineering
projectsof the early
modernperiod:thedraining
ofthePontinemarshesandtheconstruction
ofan
aqueductsystemthatbegan,alreadyintheearlyseventeenth
century,
tobring
1,700 litersof freshwaterperpersonperday fromthecountryside
and that
remainedthechiefsourceuntil1850.72Andat leastone government,
thatof
Venice,turnedtheconsultation
ofthelocal university
intoa regularpolicy.It
calledupontheprofessors
ofGreekandorientallanguageswhenever
ithadto
reviewtextsforpublication
thatits officialscould notunderstand.
It called
uponthechieftheologianswheneverit enteredintodisputeswiththepapal
acque, costruzioni
di arginature,
e similialtreoccorrenze,
possanoservirecon profitto
alla patria[e purtroppo
frequente]."
70 Forexample,FrancescoSforzaturned
to rhetoricians
at theUniversity
of Pavia;
AgostinoSottili,"L'universitadi Pavia nella politicaculturalesforzesca,"in Gli
Sforzaa Milano e in Lombardiae i loro rapporticon gli statiitalianied europei
(Milan, 1982), pp. 557-60.
71 In general,Carlo Cipolla, Public Health and the Medical Profession
in the
Renaissance(Cambridge,1976); EdgardoMorpurgo,"Lo Studiodi Padova,le epidemie,e i contagidurante
il governodellarepubblica
veneta,"Memoriee documenti
per
la storiadell'Universita
di Padova 1 (1922): 159; Elia Lombardini,
Dell'Originee
progressodella scienzaidraulicanelMilaneseed inaltrepartid'Italia (Milan, 1860).
72 JeanDelumeau,Vie e'conomique
et sociale de Romedans la secondemoitie'du
XVIsiecle,2 vols. (Paris,1957-59), 1:338-39; 2:580-81. Benedetto
Castelli'sDella
misuradelleacque correnti,
written
whileon a visiting
professorship
attheUniversity
of Rome in connectionwiththe aqueductprojectand providingan exegesis of
Frontinus'sDe aquaeductu,is reprinted
in Scienziatidel Seicento(n. 59 above),
pp. 181-212.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
228
Dooley
hierarchy
inRome.Anditdependedon thephysicsprofessors
forinformation
on how to keep thelagoon healthyand on themathematics
professors
for
and ballistics.73
adviceon fortifications
To support
thispolicyofrelying
on theuniversities
fortechnical
assistance,
theItaliangovernments
oftheprofessional
riskedjeopardizing
theinterests
and
professorial
colleges.Withtheexceptionofthegovernment
ofMilan,theyignoredself-serving
requestsvotedbymajorities
in theuniversities'
component
collegesto makepromotions
onlyfromwithinor fromthepool of local candidates."If [yourhighness]
choosesliterary
menfromhisownstate,"oneprofessoradvisedthegranddukeinFlorence,"thegloriousreputation
ofyourTus"74 They all used practically
cany will be preserved.'
everydevice thatthe
oftheirrepresentatives
diplomatic
ingenuity
all overItalycoulddevisetobring
inthebestcandidates
fromoutside.The granddukewentaheadandcompeted
withall theotheruniversities
todrawtheNeapolitanBorelliawayfromtheUniversity
ofMessina.Likewise,theVenetian
senatecompeted
withthegrandduke
fortheservicesof Galileo;andtheBolognesesenatecompetedwithPisa and
Venicefortheservicesof therestof Galileo's disciples.
in thebestand mostinnovative
had brought
Once theItaliangovernments
todemonstrate
theirfavortothem.At
candidates,
theytookeveryopportunity
Bologna,theyeven issueda decreeencouraging
privatelessonsso thatthe
could preparetheirtinygroupsof discipleswithoutinterferbestprofessors
students.And theofficials'actionswereopenly
ence fromexam-conscious
applaudedbytheprofessors.
"Bologna [hasalwayshad its]good,mediocre,
. . . " wroteMarcelloMalpighi,"but experiencehas
and weak [professors]
alwaysshownthatamongthisgroupthereare alwaysa few who support
and thencoddlingthemostinnovative
Bolognaand Italy."75 In appointing
73 Material
is scatgovernment
bytheVenetian
commissioned
theprojects
concerning
75-78, 179inparticular,filza
diStato,Riformatori,
Venice,Archivio
teredthroughout
in ManiloPastoreStocchi,"II
87. The roleof Galileo andhis disciplesis mentioned
periodovenetodi GalileoGalilei,"Storiadellaculturaveneta,vol. 4, I Seicento(n. 66
AntonioFavaro,"I succesabove)2:37-66; Carugo,pp. 151-99; and,indispensably,
n.s. 3, 33-34 (1917):96- 182.
veneto,
soridiG. GalileonelloStudiodiPadova,"Archivio
74 PietroAccolti's Parere per riformare
lo Studio di Pisa (1611) is quoted in
di Pisa nel XVII secolo,"
GiulianaVolpi,"Lineamentiperuno studiosull'Universita
della
dellaFacoltadi Giurisprudenza
inScrittiinonoredi Dante Gaeta, Pubblicazioni
bythegovernment
encountered
di Pisa (Milan, 1984), p. 670. Difficulties
Universita
di Bolognae il Collegiodi Spagna:
byC. Piana,L' Universitd
inBolognaarerecorded
2 vols. (Bologna, 1976), 1:144.
Nuovidocumenti,
of Marcello Malpighi,5 vols.
75 Howard B. Adelmann,ed., Correspondence
Borghese,July13, 1689. The relative
(Ithaca,N.Y., 1975), 4:1478, to Marcantonio
is fromAntonFeliceMarsili,"Memoriaperripararei pregiudizi
numberof students
riforma"
degli Studidi Bologna e ridurlaad una facilee perfetta
dell'Universita
(1689), in Memorie intornoa Luigi FerdinandoMarsili, ed. EttoreBortolotti
(Bologna,1930), pp. 383-471.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 229
to becomethechiefcenters
alloweduniversities
professors,
thegovernments
adminforscientific
and legal speculationin Italyand turnedtheuniversity
intosomeof thebestapologistsforexactlythesameversionof the
istrators
new science thatthe most innovativeItalian scientistsconsideredto be
consonantwithGalileiantraditions."It mightbe a good idea just to say
theprospectof introducing
notedan officialat Pisa concerning
Chemistry,"
the new discipline into the medical program."To call it chemical
medicine,"however,wouldbe to suggesttheanimistandvitalistideasof the
transalpine
Paracelsians,whichwere "damned in all the universities"of
notedyet
Italyin favorof a purelymechanicalapproach.76Nevertheless,
discoveriesof othercountriesdo not
anotherofficial,"the mostillustrious
and this,he
takelongto come to thenoticeof theuniversity
professors,"
said, "has had a considerableinfluence
on perfecting
themethodused . . .
in teaching."77
It was thusinevitablethattheteachingof at leastsomeprofessors
in the
universities
shouldbecomealmostentirely
ofthe
detachedfromthemoorings
statutes
and earlyeighteenth
duringthecourseof theseventeenth
centuries.
Thistrendfirst
affected
thenatural
philosophy
sideofthemedicalcurriculum.
Claude Berigard,who immigrated
fromParisto teachat Pisa from1627 to
1639 and thenat Padua untilhis deathin 1663, triedto abolishthe old
Aristotelian
textson whichdisputation
questionswereusuallybased and to
introduce
a whollynew set of authors-thePresocratics.
These, he maintained,were far more authoritative
because of theirgreatantiquity;and
Aristotle
had criticized
themonlyoutof "levitaset invidia."78Yet "thereis
else we can do," he said,to discovertheideasoftheseauthors"than
nothing
to inquirewhattheyoughtto have thought,"since Aristotle,withall his
distortions,
was the only source.79That lefthim perfectly
freeto fitin
Galileo's critiqueof qualitativephysics,Descartes's notionof particles
De Rosa, "Studisull'Universita
di Pisa, II" (n. 29 above),quotingGirolamoda
Sommaja,p. 105.
77 Carranza,Monsignor
Gaspare Cerati,provveditore
di Pisa nel
dell'Universita
Settecento
delle riforme
(n. 6 above), quotingCerati,p. 251.
78 Circuluspisanus Claudii BerigardiiMolinensis,olim in Pisano, iam in lyceo
PatavinoPhilosophiprimiparis: De veterietperipatetica
philosophia(Udine,1643),
p. 16. I cite fromthefirstedition,emittedin threeseparateparts:In prioreslibros
physiciAristotili;
In octavumlibrum
physicorum
Aristotili;
De ortuetinterritu,
instead
offromtherevisedandelaborated
latereditionof 1661-62, sincetheearlierone more
clearlyreflects
hisPisandebatesinthecircoliin spiteoftheinvented
interlocutors.
He
is principally
knownforhis oppositionto Galileo's cosmography,
whichis thebasis
forrecentstudieson himbySoppelsa(n. 55 above),pp. 92-112; andGiorgioStabile,
"II primooppositoredel Dialogo: Claude Berigard,"in Novitacelestie crisi del
sapere,Attidel ConvegnoInternazionale
di StudiGalileiani,marzo1983,ed. Paolo
Galluzzi(Florence,1984), pp. 277-82.
79 Circuluspisanus:In prioreslibrosphysiciAristoteli,
p. 17.
76
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
230
Dooley
andmotionas thebasis of all matter,
and WilliamHarvey'sdiscoveryof the
of theblood.80GeminianoMontanari,at Bologna and Padua in
circulation
the 1680s, used the difficulties
raised in recent researchconcerning
Aristotle'sMeteorologiaand De coelo as an occasion to expand his
astronomy
courseintoa generaldiscussionof theprinciples
of science.8'He
cautionedagainstuncritical
acceptanceof thepopularsystemof Descartes,
whohad identified
fourelementary
typesof particles,explainedtheirorigin,
and tracedall perceptiblephenomenato theirconstantmotion.He even
rejectedGalileo's cautiousassertionthatsome indivisiblepointlikeatoms
without
extension(partinonquante)mustexist.82"It is notphilosophical
to
determine
whatpreciseshapetheseparticlesmighthave," he noted,"if we
83 He praisedBoyle
do nothaveotherconjectures
to backup ourargument.'
fornothavinggonebeyondthosefewconclusionsthatcouldsafelybe drawn
on the basis of the empiricaldata against the four elementsof the
Aristotelians
and the threeprinciplesof the chemicalphilosophers.That
method,he said, was exactlytheoppositeof themethodof Aristotle,
who
fromthebeginning
"attachedhimself
tothoseconclusions
thathe shouldhave
endedup with."84
By theearlyeighteenth
century,
GiovanniPoleniat Paduaretainednothing
in hisphilosophy
titles-for
ofAristotle
lectureseriesexcepttheAristotelian
example, "Physica, bk. 8.",85 In the lessons themselveshe mentioned
ofmatter,
andthe
thestructure
Aristotle
onlyto showmistakesincosmology,
mechanics
ofbodies.Theauthorities
on whomhereliedwerereallyDescartes,
tothe
Newton,NicolasHartsoecker,
FrancisHaukesbee,andthecontributors
Saggi di naturaliesperienzeof theAccademiadel Cimento,theMemoiresde
l'Academiedessciences,thePhilosophicalTransactions
oftheRoyalSociety,
some elementary
d'Italia. He even performed
and theGiornalede'letterati
airpressure.In the
inclass, suchas thoseofMariotte
experiments
concerning
80
pp. 63-67; Circuluspisanus:
Circuluspisanus:In librum2 de animaAristoteli,
pp. 104-7.
De ortuet interritu,
81
Portionsof Montanari'slessons,whichexistin Verona,BibliotecaCivica, in a
entitledTrattatidi matematicae di fisica compostie dettatidal Sig.
manuscript
da
di Padova e scritti
di Meteorenella Universitd
DottoreG. M. PubblicoProfessore
meFrancescoBianchiniinquella cittaneglianni1682, 1683, havebeenpublishedby
Rotta (n. 55 above), in an appendix,which I consulted;Rotta says thatthese
perduti"(p. 205).
"possono . . . tenerluogodegliautografi
manuscripts
82
Ibid., p. 191.
83 Ibid., p. 192.
84 Ibid., p. 193.
85
whatfollows,I referthe readerto my
For moreprecisecitationsconcerning
The Case of
Century:
"Science Teachingas a Careerat Paduain theEarlyEighteenth
4 (1984): 115-51.
GiovanniPoleni,"Historyof Universities
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 231
vitalatmosphere
of investigation
createdin at least some earlyeighteenthcentury
Italianclassroomsit was easy to forgetthattherewereany norms
regarding
thecurriculum
at all.
And when this trendbegan to affectmedicine,one of the slowest
intheuniversity
disciplines
tochange,theteaching
ofatleastsomeprofessors
borealmostno resemblance
to thatof a century
before.AntonioVallisneri,
one of themostinnovative,
broughtintohis medicallessonsthehumanist
approachtothetextsoftheancientsthatGalileohadpioneeredinhisscientific
tracts-thatof referring
to themas brillianthistoricalpredecessors,
whose
methodscould profitably
be imitatedand whoserhetoric
providedsuitable
forone's ownwork.Called on to teachtheory
ornamentation
to second-year
he droppedGalenentirely
students,
fromhis titleand calledhis course"On
Generation."In fact, the textof Galen on which he was supposedto
comment-the
Arsmedica,a synopsisofGalen'sentiremedicalphilosophycontainednothingon generation.
This lefthimfreeto subdividehis course
accordingto his own ideas. All of classical antiquityprovidedhim with
to explainscientific
metaphors
phenomena.86
He correctedthe theoriesof
contemporary
Italianandtransalpine
scientists
andtheirancientpredecessors
andpresented
thelatestresultsofhisownmicrobiological
observations
to his
students.
Buthe did notexpectstudents
to comeawayfromhis lessonswith
the last word on generation.He gave thema warningconcealed in a
humanistic
parable."The disciplesof Pythagoras,"
he noted,"so venerated
theoraclesof theirpreceptor,
thatwhentheywereaskedwhytheyargueda
certainway,theyrepliedthathe himself,i.e., Pythagoras,
had said it." He
hoped theywould come away withsomethingmore usefulthana little
information
thatwouldbe outof dateanywayin a fewyears."I do notwish
you to be so tiedto theauthority
of yourmaster,"he said. "When you are
asked[thesame question],you shouldbe able to say,nothe himselfsaid it,
butnaturesaid it."87 That,he believed,was thereal methodof theancient
naturalphilosophers
(whichhad been misunderstood
by thescholastics)and
theone mostusefulforscientific
innovation.
One disadvantage
of theincreasing
innovativeness
of someprofessors
was
thatitposedconsiderable
difficulties
forstudents
whoweremoreinterested
in
passingexams thanin obtainingthe mostup-to-date
descriptions
of their
physicalworld.Theyconsidered
attendance
at lessonstobe an expensiveand
time-consuming
luxury;and whiletheywereimpressed
by brilliant
displays
of scholarly
and scientific
erudition,
theyhad difficulty
takingnoteson what
86
Vallisneri's
lessonsareinVenice,BibliotecaNazionaleMarciana,cod. lat.cl. X:
148 (= 6685), hereafter
Lessons,1710-11, numbered
by lesson;here,lesson 15.
87 Ibid., lesson37.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
232
Dooley
did notprovidethe
theyheard.88Whentheyrealizedthatmanyprofessors
familiarity
theyneededwiththeancienttexts,some of themdid the most
soughttutorsfromamongthe
obviousthing-theyabandonedtheuniversity,
expansionhad placed in all the
graduatesthatuniversity
manyuniversity
onlytotakeexams.Others
totheuniversity
smalltownsofItaly,andreturned
neverreturned.In the late sixteenthcenturythese studentswere usually
Afterthedepression
so totalswerenotaffected.
replacedbynewmatriculants,
were
andplagueof 1620-30 thedeclinebegan;andbythe1640senrollments
at an all-timelow.89
of theItalianstatesdid notforcecollegesto update
Yet thegovernments
nordid
professors;
to theteachingof theinnovative
theirexamsto conform
to obey thedecreesthattheypromultheyforcethe innovativeprofessors
themto teachfromthestandard
requiring
frequency,
gated,withincreasing
could
to ensurethatstudents
texts.Instead,theydevisedvariousstratagems
in the propertexts
always obtain good, approved,informalinstruction
"The publiclessonsin theBo are no longer
somewherein theuniversity.
dello Studiodi Padova, "forprepartheRiformatori
sufficient,"
proclaimed
orderedtheyearlyselection
forthedoctorate."Theythereupon
ingstudents
of fourpuntistior coaches to help studentswithexams.90The senateof
positionsavailableforinstructors
thenumberof lower-rank
Bolognainflated
texts.Thus,at leastpart
anda knowledgeofthestandard
withfewambitions
of theuniversity
facultywas alwaysdevotedto thetextsthatthecollegesof
Finally,the
medicineand law continuedto requirein theirexaminations.
to
at lessonsbyrequiring
professors
universities
beganto enforceattendance
keeprecords.9'
It mightbe said that simplybecause they producedmore efficient
suchpoliciesmusthaveproducedsocial controlof
educationalinstitutions,
else-perhaps a
some kind,even if theirexpressedpurposewas something
whocommented,
(n. 8 above)recordthenotesofthestudent
andJardine
Grafton
"my teacherspoketoo fast" (p. 87).
89
Kagan (n. 17 above), pp. 158-59, presentsfiguresforFerraraand Padua and
forPisa havenow
on Bolognaand Pisa. Morefigures
information
somefragmentary
by Volpi(n. 74 above), pp. 765-83.
beenputtogether
90Riformatori
28, 1665. The votingis
(n. 73 above), busta 172, datedFebruary
For example,ASV, Riformatori,
century.
the seventeenth
filza
recordedthroughout
readerin surgery
182,datedMay 20, 1684,on thechoiceof Leal Leali, second-chair
in 1683, AgostinoPivati, readerin the same subject from 1681, and Angelo
readerin practicalmedicinein
extraordinary
Montagnana,who becamethird-chair
1687.
9' Between1633 and 1656 thenumber
to 128,
wentfromninety-five
of professors
I explainthesechangesmorein
aroundseventy.
remained
whereasthatofthestudents
Dallo Sbaragliaal
detail in my "La scienza in aula nella rivoluzionescientifica:
in Quaderniper la Storiadello studiodi padova.
Vallisneri,"forthcoming
88
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 233
kindof social controldifferent
fromthecontainment
of creativity
suggested
in education,at leastaccording
bythesocialcontroltheorists.
Improvements
to the structuralist-functionalist
model, aid in socializationand produce
A fewhypotheses
stability.
are possible.
THE DUAL UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
The most important
consequenceof the governments'
toleranceand the
colleges'rigidity
was theunexpected
of a newkindof university.
emergence
Neitherthegovernments
northecollegessucceededin usingtheuniversities
forexercisingsocial controlby imposingan intellectual
hegemonythrough
theirpoliciestowardteaching.University
officials
did notevenfullysucceed
in theirprojectsforusingtheuniversities
as centersforhumanist
patronage.
Their attemptsto implementsuch projectswere always conditionedby
changesintheavailability
ofcandidates
andthenecessity
tomakecompromises
withthecollegesand withprotesters
fearfulof reform.Yet theuniversities
acquireda definite
physiognomy
duringtheearlymodernperiod,one thatwas
entirelyindependent
of the ideas of any one group. This physiognomy,
complexandlittleunderstood,
mightbe calleda dualuniversity
system,since
it ensuredthatone partof the university
was alwaysdevotedto scientific
innovation
and theotherto avoidingit.
Yetanother
consequenceoftheattitudes
ofgovernment
andcollegeswas a
certainconfusion
intheemergence,
inprogress
sincethesixteenth
of
century,
a distinctprofessionof university
instructor.
At first,attemptsby the
Galileiansto installtheirideas permanently
in theuniversities
seemedlikely
to destroyforevertheprestigeof theirnoninnovative
colleagues.The productionofscientific
discoveriesseemedlikelyto gaina permanent
placein all
routinedecisions about hiringand promotion.But dissentamong the
innovators
gavegovernments
interested
in evaluating
contributions
a difficult
job.92Moreover,somemembersundermined
theirown positionby insisting
thatso-calledscientific
discoveriesconstituted
nothingmorethantherediscoveryof knowledgethathad existedat sometimein thepast.
Meanwhile,members
ofthenoninnovative
partoftheuniversity
provedto
be farmoretenaciousthantheiropponents
supposed.Theyattempted
to beat
theirinnovative
colleagueson theirown ground-scientific
publication-by
writing
elaboratetreatisesin defenseof theauthorson whichthetraditional
curriculum
was based,thereby
earningthenames"Aristotelian,"
"Galenist,"
92
The mostfamouscase in themid-seventeenth
was thequarrelbetween
century
AlessandroMarchetti
and GiovanniBorelli.Similarquarrelswereinfluential
in the
dissolutionof theAccademiadel Cimento,says Paolo Galluzzi, "L'Accademia del
Cimento:'Gusti' del principe,filosofiae ideologia dell'esperimento,"
Quaderni
storici16, no. 3 (1981): 809.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
234
Dooley
to winawayfromtheircolleaguescreditfora new
orthelike.Theyattempted
conclusionsby usingvisualtestssimilarto the
methodof provingscientific
purpose-thatofdemonstratyetaimedat a different
experiments
innovators'
And to ensurethatthese
ingtheveracityof theancientauthors'precepts.93
betweenthemselves
tacticsshouldnotweardowntoo muchthedistinctions
whodid not
andothers,theyenlistedthesupportof ecclesiasticalauthorities
have timeto reviseoutdatedviews about the necessityforphilosophical
such as those expressedin the atheisttrialsin late
homogeneousness,
Naples. They enlistedthe supportof heads of governseventeenth-century
could
of ecclesiasticalauthorities
ment,too, who believedtheappeasement
servea politicalpurpose-as did CosimoIII of Tuscanywhenhe prohibited
at Pisa in thesameperiod.94So successful,indeed,weretheir
Cartesianism
by
weresometimesdrivento defendthemselves
attacksthattheinnovators
thattheyweresimplyabiding,in a novelway,by theverystatutes
asserting
thattheyhad been ignoringforyears.95Thus, as late as the 1690s at least
shouldtake
oftheirprofession
couldclaimthatthedefinition
someinstructors
toobtaina knowledgeoftheancienttexts.
intoaccountthedesiresofstudents
cultural
At times,theyevenelevatedthisidea to a principleof international
ancient
our
medicine
our
ancient
[and]
.
.
.
sustain
"We
must
politics:
to
"in
order
to
the
Venetian
government,
one
wrote
professor
philosophy,"
when
so
that
from
of
the
transalpine
schools
different
[those
keepour
states],
betweentheir
cometheywill . . . see thedifferences
students
thetransalpine
96
schoolsand ourown.'
and college policies also had the morefavorable
The same government
No longer
of themselves.
students'definition
university
effectof broadening
did theycome merelyto preparefor the professions,whose responsible
A fewofthem,at
toenforcestrict
requirements.
eligibility
collegescontinued
93 Amongthemostadeptinthisapproach
was GiovanniBattistaRiccioli,whofilled
novum(1651) withsuch "experiments."A few are mentionedin
his Almagestum
Paolo Galluzzi, "Galileo controCopernico:Il dibattitosulla prova 'galileiana' di
G. B. Riccioli controil moto della Terraalla luce di nuovi documenti,"Annali
e Museo di Storiadella Scienza 2, no. 2 (1977): 87-148.
dell'Istituto
94 Paolo Galluzzi triesto turntheeventintoanother
1632 in "Libertascientifica,
pisanadel 1670," Attidel
educazionee ragionedi statoin una polemicauniversitaria
24 CongressoNazionale di Filosofia,L'Aquila, 28 aprile-2 maggio 1973 (Rome,
dello
ed i programmi
d'insegnamento
1974),2:404-12; Danilo Marrara,"Le cattedre
Studio di Pisa nell'ultimaeta Medicea (1712-37)," Bollettinostoricopisano 51
on theatheist
The authority
(1982): 124, places it in a moremoderateperspective.
trialsis Luciano Osbat,L'Inquisizionea Napoli: ll processoagli ateisti1688-1697
(Rome, 1974).
95 Thiswas thetacticof AlessandroMarchetti,
ed
quotedin Marrara,"Le cattedre
p. 121.
d'insegnamento,"
i programmi
96
(n. 73 above), busta430, n.d., ccnn.
Venice,Archiviodi Stato,Riformatori
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 235
least, soughtdoctoratesonly forthe honorand thenwentoffto occupy
profession-suchas thePadualawyerwhotook
in someunrelated
themselves
or
students
strictly
of playingcards.Even more,whether
up themanufacture
circlesto enhance
not,exploiteda knowledgeof ideasdiscussedinuniversity
Friulian
theirownprestigeand satisfytheircuriosity-suchas a well-known
in force,
totheuniversity
hadbeguntoreturn
By the1690s,students
miller.97
levels of thehighRenaissance.At Padua
sometimessurpassingattendance
numberof one thousandand at Pisa,
alone theyreachedtheunprecedented
thatof fivehundred.
THE END OF THE EARLY MODERN UNIVERSITY
If thesixteenth
and seventeenth
centuries
werefortheItalianuniversities
a
periodof reform,
and gradualinstitutional
toward
vitality,
the
development
creationof a systemable to accommodateincreasingnumbersof potential
studentsand an increasinguse of science for social purposes,thenthe
reformproposalscannot,as the social controltheorists
eighteenth-century
ina reaction
assert,haveoriginated
totheactualdecadenceoftheuniversities.
Theyoriginated
insteadinthedesireofthemostinnovative
scientists
andmen
of lettersto maketheuniversities
do farbetterwhattheyhad beendoingall
alongby abolishing,once and forall, thenoninnovative
part.Accordingto
Giambattista
in theteachingof all . . . disciplines,
Vico, "such disorder
and
oftensuch bad principles. . . reign" thatstudentsnevercame away with
"well-founded. . . knowledge."Accordingto ScipioneMaffei,the same
institutions
could be improvedonlyif theircurriculawerepurgedof many
elementsthathad been rendereduseless since the "barbarouscenturies."
Whattheyproposedwas nothingless thanthe introduction
of professional
scholarlystandards
intoall collegeeducationand thereplacement
of benign
tolerancewithvigilantsurveillance
by thetribunal
of scientists
and menof
letters.98
97 Paola Zambelli,"Uno, due, tre,milleMenocchio?"Archivio
storicoitaliano
137 (1979): 51-90, is a reinterpretation
of thedata suppliedby CarloGinzburg,The
Cheese and theWorms,trans.AnneTedeschiand JohnTedeschi(Baltimore,1980;
orig. ed. Turin,1976). My otherdata are froma preliminary
soundingin Venice,
Archiviodi Stato,Petizion:Inventari,
in whichb. 423, no. 88 yieldedtheinventory
of thepossessionsof DomenicoAlbinoni.Othercases abound.
98 Vico's comment
is inDe nostritemporis
studiorum
ratione,in Opere,ed. Fausto
Niccolini,La letteratura
italiana,storiae testi,vol. 43 (Milan, 1953),p. 238; Scipione
Maffei'scommentis in Biagio Brugi,"Un pareredi S. M. intornoallo studiodi
Padovasui principi
del Settecento,"
Attidell'Istituto
Venetodi Scienze,Lettereed Arti
69 (1909-10): 578. Evidenceforthecirculation
of Maffei'smanuscript
amonghigh
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
236
Dooley
fromthemomentthatthe
werereadyforreform
The Italiangovernments
of theSpanishSuccessionwarin 1700erasedtheprogressthathad
outbreak
and necessitated
back to theuniversities
thestudents
beenmadein bringing
withthenewmapofItaly.At
inconformity
arrangements
newadministrative
critics
believedthatthepurposesof theuniversity
least some governments
paralleltotheold
universities
newalternative
couldonlybe servedbycreating
of thePapal
The government
advancement.
ones and dedicatedto scientific
createdthe BologneseIstitutoand thatof Sicily at least
Stateaccordingly
because,as one official
thecreationof a similarorganization
contemplated
said, "mixingtheold withthenew is impossible."99
werenotready
however,
intherestoftheItaliangovernments,
Theofficials
and menof letters.They
by thescientists
fortheradicalsolutionsproffered
but
structure
respondedto thenew challengenotby changingtheuniversity
systemthattheir
toucheson the dual university
by puttingthe finishing
of
had createdin thelasttwo centuries.Theyset up institutes
predecessors
moreeasilythe
to introduce
physicsinorderto allowprofessors
experimental
ofNewtonthathadbeentalkedaboutforsometime,oftenequipping
theories
100Theysetup chairsof surgery
themwithmuseumsor machinecollections.
to providemedical schools withexpertisein what was fastbecominga
1? Theyestablishedin theregularartsfaculty
specialty.
scientific
legitimate
whichthe
theverydisciplinethrough
chairsdevotedto ecclesiasticalhistory,
FrenchmonkJeanMabillonand theItalianscholarBenedettoBacchinihad
thelatestand mostadvancedphilologicaland diplomatic
begunto introduce
officialsever consideredthe
techniques.'02None of these governments'
possibilityof rejectingthe benefitstheirstates receivedfromthe dual
system."Public lessons are mainlyformediocrestudentswho
university
official."The private
wantto entertheprofessions,"notedone university
membersof the Venetianrulinggroupexistsin Rovigo, Accademiadei Concordi,
concordiani,bb. 363-72, LorenzoTiepolo,letterdated"1716."
Manoscritti
99 EmmaBaeri, "II dibattito
di Catania, 1778-88,"
dell'Universita
sulla riforma
Archiviostoricoper la Sicilia orientale,ser. 4, 32 (1979): 299, quotingGiovanni
is
of theBologneseInstitute
to theformation
AgostinoDe Cosmi. The background
e nuoveaccademienellapoelucidatedby MartaCavazza, "Riformedell'universita
Marsili,"in Boehm,ed. (n. 68 above), pp. 245-82.
liticaculturaledell'arcidiacono
establishedat Pisa was exemplary.Augusto
100 The one theTuscangovernment
dello Studiodi Pisa (Pisa,
Occhialini,Notiziesull'Istitutodi Fisica Sperimentale
1914), pp. 3-4; Ermini(n. 29 above), 1:574.
at Padua in "Giornalismo,accademiee organizzareform
101 I discussUniversity
venetaall'iniziodel
un'accademiascientifica
di formare
zionedella scienza:Tentativi
Archivioveneto,ser.5, 120 (1983): 5-39.
Settecento,"
of thecareerof one of theappointees,CelestinoGaliani,
102 The latestevaluation
e culturaitaliana
Scienza,natura,religione:Mondonewtoniano
is VincenzoFerrone,
(Naples, 1982), pp. 317-441.
nelprimoSettecento
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 237
system
ones are forsublimegeniuses."l103All agreedthatthe traditional
"The aim of theunivergovernment.
servedthebestpurposesof humanist
thesciences"ofall todistribute
official,"[is] . . . first
sity,"notedanother
which he evidentlyconsideredto be staticor slowly changingsets of
[the state],especiallythosethatwill permit. . .
principles-"throughout
. . . [and] secondto keep
subjectsto exerciseablyall typesof professions;
-in otherwords,the
and preservein this[state]themostnobledisciplines"
of the specialists-and "to raise themto an
mostadvancedinvestigations
and, ifpossible,to widentheir
level of finenessand perfection
ever-greater
confines."And the way to do this, he remarked,was to "give fitting
emolumentsto exalted mindsboth to rewardthemfor theirillustrious
and to encouragethemto makeever-greater
progressand
accomplishments
ofhumanity."
forthebenefit
andornament
Exactlythesameway,
discoveries
104
in otherwords,thathad alwaysbeenpracticed.
systemof theearlymodernperioddid notsurvivethe
The dual university
second major challenge.Politicalcrises in manyof the Italian statesat
of reformers
such as BernardoTanucci
midcentury
increasedthe influence
and BartolomeoIntieriin Naples,FrancescoD'Aguirrein Turin,and Pietro
and AlessandroVerriin Milan who were less concernedthan previous
government
officialshad been to continuethe benefitsto society of
of Naples
traditional
institutions.
Followingtheircounsels,thegovernment
severelylimitedthepowersofthecollegesorguildsthatoversawexams,and
severely
thatof Milan abolishedthementirely.The same governments
circumscribed
the educationalactivitiesof the Jesuits,and thatof Parma
105 Theythusleftall decisionson higher
education
bannedtheorderentirely.
and
to thegovernment
and thereformers
officialsin chargeof universities;
officials,havingreplacedbenigntolerancewith enlightened
government
action, set about to reformthe curriculumaccordingto wholly new
standards."Bacon, Locke, Condillac, and Bonnet,and not [the Italian
103
GiulioGuderzo,"La riforma
dell'Universita
di Pavia," in Economia,istituzioni, culturain Lombardianell'eta di Maria Teresa,ed. Aldo Maddalena,Ettore
Rotelli,and GennaroBarbarisi,4 vols. (Bologna, 1982), 3:850, citingPaolo Frisi.
104Carranza,Monsignore
GaspareCerati,provveditore
dell'Universita
di Pisa nel
Settecento
delle riforme(n. 6 above), p. 239, froma reportby Gasparo Cerati,
Provveditore
of theUniversity
of Pisa.
105FrancoVenturi,
Settecento
Riformatore,
vol. 2, La chiesae la repubblicadentro
i loro limiti(1758-1774) (Turin,1976), p. 180; Eric Cochrane,Florencein the
ForgottenCenturies(Chicago, 1973), pp. 450-91; Cesare Mozzarelli,Sovrano,
societa e amministrazione
nella Lombardiateresiana,1749-58 (Bologna, 1982),
pp. 48-56, 185-213; ChristofDipper,PolitischerReformismus
und begrifflicher
Wandel:Eine Untersuchung
des historische-politischen
Wortschatzes
der Mailander
Aufklarung,
1764-96 (Tubingen,1976), pp. 13-29.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
238
Dooley
theologianSigismondo]Gerdil," insistedthe Austrianofficialin Milan,
WenzelAntonKaunitz,"must be the masters,"callingforthe fusionof
106
withtheEuropeanEnlightenment.
Illuminismo
reorganization
plans for bureaucratic
In the course of comprehensive
adopteda whollynew
theItaliangovernments
bythesereformers,
encouraged
reform.Insteadof basingtheirprojectson changes
approachto university
disciplinesand usingtheseprojectsto attractscientific
withinthescientific
expertise,theyenactedlegislationto abolish,forthefirsttime,thedistincinwhichtheydesiredtheaid ofthe
specializations
tionsbetweenthescientific
The
professors'expertiseand the disciplinestaughtin the university.
of agriculture
of Veniceinstalledat Padua a new professorship
government
andone in veterinary
inflation,
justwhengrainpriceswerecaughtin spiraling
began to insiston the benefitsof agricultural
medicineas moretheorists
It installedone in Venetianlawjustwhenitplannedto correct
diversification.
to theprovincesandone in publicecclesiasticallawjustwhen
itsrelationship
107 The governit was aboutto defendmassiveecclesiasticalexpropriations.
mentof Milan separatedthefacultiesat Pavia to makethemmorerepresentativeof the disciplinestaught-dividingtheologyfromphilosophyand
themaccordingto theAustrian
frommedicine-andreorganized
philosophy
model.It thenoverhauledthemedicalschoolto makeit supply
four-faculty
Finally,it
necessaryforpublic health,includingobstetrics.'08
everything
necessaryfor
thetheologicalschoolto makeit supplyeverything
overhauled
takenoverfromRome;andindoing
thetutelageofreligionthatithadrecently
ideasofCorneliusJansen,whichhadhitherto
theunorthodox
so itintroduced
the
of Naples introduced
avoided.The government
been, at least formally,
tradeimfirstchairof politicaleconomyto help itselfout of a devastating
states;it was soon followedin thisby thegovernbalancewithsurrounding
mentsof Modena and Bologna. More radicalyet,it brokea five-hundredthatlessonsbe given in the vernacular
by commanding
year-oldtradition
such as thoseof
insteadof in Latin.'09Finally,at leastsome governments,
inB. Peroni
di PavianelSettecento,"
dell'Universita
Baldo Peroni,"La riforma
di Pavia (Pavia, 1925), p. 149.
alla storiadell'Universita
et al., Contributi
107 The current
is PieroDel Negro,"L'Universita,"in
on thesereforms
authority
ed. GirolamoArnaldiand Manilo
Storiadella culturaveneta,vol. 5, 11Settecento,
PastoreStocchi,2 pts. (Vicenza, 1985), 2:47-76.
are analyzedbyElena Brambilla,"Tra teoriae pratica:
108 A fewof thesereforms
in Lazzaro
medichenella Lombardiasettecentesca,"
e professioni
Studiscientifici
(n. 59 above), pp. 553-68.
Spallanzanie la biologiadel Settecento
109EluggeroPii, "Le originidell'economia'civile' in AntonioGenovesi," in
Attidel convegnodi Torino,
nelSettecento,
Scienzedell'uomoe scienzedella societad
27-28 ottobre1978, estrattodalla rivistaII pensieropolitico,ed. Sergio Moravia
e praticadelle dottrine
(Florence,1979), pp. 330-34; Ugo Marcelli,"Insegnamento
106
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social Controland theItalian Universities 239
offurther
TuscanyandVenice,considered
thepossibility
curriculum
unifying
to a newliterary
andresearchbycontributing
evolved
genrethathadrecently
in transalpine
Europe-the university
journal. In doing so theyimplicitly
reformer
whonotedthat"makingone's knowledge
agreedwiththeuniversity
publicby writings
and publications"was "farmorenoble" than"diffusing
it . . . to studentlisteners,"makingone more slightcontribution
to the
110
evolutionof theprofession
of university
instructor.
Thus,ifsocialcontrol,in thesenseof theconsciousmanipulation
of institutions
forthepurposeofenforcing
intellectual
andpoliticalhegemony,
existed
in anyperiodof Italianuniversity
history,
itcouldnothavebeenputin place
beforethe late eighteenth
century.Yet even thenthe resultsof the new
government
policieswerenotwhollynegative,as theyshouldhavebeenifthe
social controltheorists
are right.The lateeighteenth-century
Italiangovernmentsand theiradvisorsfinished
thetaskof makinguniversities
important
partsofan overalleducationalprogram.
Theysucceededinbringing
backthe
students;
at Paduaaloneenrollment
doubledbetween1760and 1782.111And
theyfinished
thetaskofintroducing
as a criterion
usefulness
in theevaluation
of academicknowledge.At thesametime,theydid theirbestto providean
atmosphere
favorableto culturalexploration-scientific
and literary-inthe
midstof social conflict
and economicturmoil.Indeed,it was in partdue to
theirefforts
thatItalytookitsplace at thecenterofcultural
debatesbeginning
in the 1770s. In spiteof theirrevolutionary
methods,thepoliciesof these
governments
werefarlesscompatible
withtheidea ofsocialcontrolthanwith
theideas of theirRenaissancepredecessors.Like them,theybelievedthat
of theartsand scienceswas a value worthupholdingforitsown
patronage
sake and forthegloryit impartedto himwho upheldit in theeyes of the
public.In so doing,theyhelpedengineera continuity
fromRenaissanceto
Illuminismo
thatwas social and politicalas well as intellectual.
economiche
a Bolognanelsecolodiciottesimo:
GiacomoPistorini,
lettore
delloStudio
e consolutore
del Senato,"Studie memorie
per la storiadelloStudiodi Bologna,n.s.,
1 (1956): 487-503.
110Piero Del Negro, "I 'Pensieridi SimoneStraticosull'Universita
di Padova'
(1760)," Quaderniper la Storiadell'Universitai
di Padova 17 (1984): 32.
"' Saibante,Vivarini,and Voghera
(n. 16 above), pp. 163-223.
This content downloaded from 143.239.102.1 on Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:59:55 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions