The educational institution which we now call "
Alma Mater" began to take shape in
Bologna at the end of the eleventh century, when grammar, rhetoric and logic scholars began to make studies in the area of law. The first scholars whose evidence is now available were
Pepone and
Irnerio.
In 1158,
Frederick Barbarossa I promulgated the Costitutio Habita and the University became by law a place where knowledge and research could develop autonomously from any other political power. Since the fourteenth century, in addition to the school of law, the University of
Bologna hosted a school of "artists" and in 1364 theology became one of its branches of learning.
Important scholars, writers, philosophers and poets such as
Dante Alighieri,
Francesco Petrarch,
Guido Guinizelli,
Cino da Pistoia,
Cecco d'Ascoli,
Re Enzo,
Salimbene da Parma and
Coluccio Salutati spent periods of study in
Bologna during their life.
In the fifteenth century, the University opened a school of Greek and Hebrew language and in the following century became a centre of new Aristotelian studies. Among the other, teachers such as
Robortello and the philosopher
Pietro Pomponazzi stand out during this period.
In
Cesena , the birth of a university centre was probably connected to the foundation of the
Collegio dei Giuristi (College of Jurists), which was a concession of
Pope Julius II in 1504.
The foundation of this early school of jurists was only the beginning of a long series of acknowledgements, which are testimony to the efforts in achieving the objective of creating a public university in this small city of
Romagna. In 1534, the statute, the privileges and the decrees of the College of Jurists were definitively approved by the Papal State authority; subsequently, in 1561 Pope Pius IX also established a School of Physicians and of Philosophers in the city, while in
Bologna, during the sixteenth century,
Gaspare Tagliacozzi carried out the first studies on plastic surgery.
In 1675,
Pope Clement X enacted a
motu proprio by which he confirmed the privileges of "
Universitatis Caesenae eiusque Collegiorum et Collegium Juristarum amplioribus facultatibus decoratur". This was a confirmative act rather than a decree for the foundation of the University of
Cesena . This educational centre actually existed for a long time as it was evidenced by its title, even though the papal decrees had never mentioned it before. The same colleges, that of the Jurists and that of the Physicians and of the Philosophers, had changed their form, overcoming the early structure of town colleges, and had acquired all the features of a university college. This evolution was unique and certainly different from the experiences of similar institutions such as the
Collegio dei Giuristi of
Forlì.
Later, in 1796, Pope Pius VI made the degrees granted by the University in
Cesena equal to the degrees released by other universities in the Papal State. But on 17th November 1800 a radical change took place: the privileges by which the right of granting a degree was established were declared as null and fully forfeited. By that moment, the university of
Cesena could be considered as definitively closed and the fact gave rise to a weak opposition and to a few scattered protests.
Once the early traditional corporative structure was suppressed,
Cesena had neither the opportunity nor the capacity of activating a university centre until so late as the year 1989, when a degree course on Information Science was opened as a detached study course of the most prestigious University of
Bologna. The activation of the first degree course has been promoted by the
Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena, which has supplied through SER.IN.AR. S.p.a. (a company specifically founded for this purpose) the financial resources required to the creation of laboratories, a library and other educational infrastructures.
The new reality has then represented a significant example for a further development of the University of Bologna towards the
Romagna territory, which had no university structures at the time. In the last decades, thanks to the commitment of the University of
Bologna and to the contribution of local entities, the teaching offer of
Cesena has gradually expanded in accordance with the acquisition and the creation of new infrastructures for the location of classrooms, offices and high-tech laboratories.
In 2001, as a consolidation of this process, the
Polo Scientifico-Didattico of
Cesena has been founded within the
Multi-Campus Project of the University of Bologna, in order to enhance the educational offer and the activation of a research activity well-rooted in the territory.
At present, the University seat of
Cesena provides for projects aimed to increase the quality of education, to guarantee suitable facilities for students, to support the development of research activities and to encourage the relations between university and companies, with the intention of facilitating the access of newly graduates to the job market.
In the next future, the university shall become a University Campus as planned in the "Campus Project". The new university structure will develop within the area of the former sugar refinery of the city. The former premises will be restored within an urban recovery program to host guestrooms, residential areas, classrooms, offices and other facilities for all the students and teachers of the local Faculties of Engineering and Architecture.
With the realization of the Campus and the restoration of
Palazzo Urbinati,
Palazzo Romagnoli,
Villa Almerici,
Palazzo ex Arrigoni, the University centre of
Cesena will assume a unified though complex configuration, comparable to that of a qualified polytechnic centre, characterized by functional infrastructures and shared services connected to the historical centre of
Cesena .