The University of Pisa: A Historical Overview of Programs and Legacy

The University of Pisa (Italian: Università di Pisa, UniPi) stands as a testament to centuries of academic excellence and innovation. Established in the 14th century by Pope Clement VI, it is one of Italy's oldest public educational institutions and among the 20 oldest surviving universities worldwide. Recognized internationally for its research centers, the university prides itself on being the first in Italy to launch a computer science degree. Located in a city with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, the University of Pisa offers an enjoyable campus life experience.

A Foundation Rooted in History

While officially founded in 1343, some scholars trace the University of Pisa's origins back to the 11th century. By the mid-12th century, Pisa undoubtedly had a "Universitas," a gathering of students around masters. Leonardo Fibonacci was born and worked during this period. On September 3, 1343, Pope Clement VI issued the papal seal "In Supremae dignitatis," granting the Studium in Pisa the title of Studium Generale, complete with exclusive privileges and universal recognition. In medieval times, the Studium Generale was a higher institute of education founded or confirmed by a universal authority, namely the papacy or the empire. Pisa was among the first European cities to vaunt a papal attestation, followed by Prague in 1347 and Heidelberg in 1386.

The late 14th and early 15th centuries were a period of decline for Pisa and its Studium. However, in November 1473, the Studium began to develop systematically at the request of Lorenzo dei Medici. In 1486, construction began on a dedicated building for lessons: the Palazzo della Sapienza, still the heart of the University today, located in the 13th-century Piazza del Grano. The image of the Cherub, representing an angelic being with a clearer vision of God (absolute knowledge), was placed above the gateway.

Revival and Expansion

In 1497, the Pisan institute suffered another decline and was moved to Florence for nine years. The rise of Duke Cosimo I dei Medici marked a new era. The formal reopening of the university on November 1, 1543, was considered a second founding. Cosimo's 1545 Statute raised the quality of teaching, making the University of Pisa one of the most important in Europe for both teaching and research.

Duke Cosimo I established the Chair of Simples (Semplici in Botany) and appointed Luca Ghini. The Garden of Simples, the first botanical garden in the world annexed to a university Studium, was founded between 1543 and 1544. Decades later, the garden was moved to its present location near Piazza dei Miracoli, covering approximately three hectares with 6,000 cultivated plants and seeds exchanged with 400 other structures worldwide.

The Influence of Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei, born in Pisa on February 15, 1564, is universally regarded as the founder of modern science and the modern experimental method. He was initially a student and then a teacher of Mathematics at the University of Pisa before moving to Padova.

Transformation and Modernization

The decline of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Medici) in the mid-18th century led to the downfall of the Studium in Pisa, which only recovered with the Lorraine dynasty. The annexation of Tuscany to the Napoleonic Empire at the beginning of the 19th century transformed the Studium into an imperial Academy, a subsidiary of the University of Paris, though it retained some autonomy. During this time, five faculties (Theology, Law, Medicine, Science, and Arts), exams, different academic qualifications (bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees), and degree theses were established. The Scuola Normale Superiore was established between 1810 and 1813.

The Restoration period led to a reconsideration of the organization within the Studium, but not a complete revocation of the Napoleonic experience. In 1826, lessons on Egyptology were introduced at the University of Pisa, a first in Europe and the world, leading to the renowned French-Tuscan expedition to Egypt between 1828 and 1829. In 1839, Pisa hosted the first congress of Italian scientists, with over 400 scholars and 300 experts from different states of the peninsula participating.

Liberal and patriotic ideals emerged in the university and the city, culminating in teachers and students forming a university battalion and joining the battle of Curtatone and Montanara in 1848, a significant event in the Italian Risorgimento.

The University in the Kingdom of Italy

With the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the University of Pisa, with around 560 matriculated students, re-emerged with all the faculties then present in the regulations and was acknowledged through the university reform of 1862, as one of the six principal national universities together with Turin, Pavia, Bologna, Naples and Palermo.

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The consolidation and expansion of the university, especially between the late 1800s and early 1900s, directly impacted the urban development of the city, even though student numbers increased only moderately (891 in 1912). The university gradually welcomed female students, and in 1877, Ernestina Paper graduated in Medicine.

The 20th Century and Beyond

The reform called for by minister Giovanni Gentile in 1923 further confirmed the university's prominent position at the national level when it was placed among the ten universities totally funded by the state. Despite the aim to make Pisa a great "centre of university fascist culture," antifascist unrest remained alive in both the academic community and among students. The application of racial laws, first signed by King Vittorio Emanuele III in 1938 at San Rossore, near Pisa, affected foreign and Italian students and university teachers severely.

The physical and moral destruction caused by the Second World War was soon overcome, and the University of Pisa, with matriculated students increasing from 768 in 1945 to 1,292 in 1950, was able to lead in many areas of knowledge, adapting to the new demands of social, civil, and economic life. The faculties of Economics and Business Studies (1948), and later Foreign Languages and Literature (1969) and Political Science (1970) joined the faculties present before the conflict - Engineering and Pharmacy - and accompanied the arrival of the university for the masses (between 1961 and 1972 student numbers in Pisa went from around 9,000 to 27,000).

At the start of the sixties, the University of Pisa established the first Italian Chair of Film History and Criticism. In 1969, the degree course in Computer Science (Informatics) was set up. It was the first in Italy and followed the creation of the Pisan Electronic Calculator (CEP), designed in the mid-1950s and sponsored by Nobel Prize winner and graduate of the University of Pisa, Enrico Fermi. Also in 1967, during a period of protests, the "Tesi della Sapienza", one of the milestones of the 1968 student movement in Italy, were compiled in Pisa.

From the end of the 1970s, the University's Natural History Museum moved to the enchanting 14th-century Charterhouse of Calci, a building of priceless historic and architectural worth. The Ruberti reform of 1989, which envisaged the statutory autonomy of universities, forced the university to approve a new Statute, whose overall structure was only called into question with the so-called "Gelmini reform" in 2010.

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Programs and Structure Today

Today, the university is divided into 20 Departments, offering around 150 first and second-level degree courses, single-cycle degree courses, more than 20 doctoral courses, 50 schools of specialization, and more than 60 postgraduate courses. There are more than 1,500 members of teaching staff and a slightly higher number of administrative personnel, technicians, foreign language assistants, and librarians. With around 50,000 students enrolled in a city of approximately 90,000 inhabitants, Pisa is a true city campus. The students come mainly from Tuscany and Liguria, with a significant intake from many other regions, especially from the south of Italy. In 2025, the university signed an agreement with the Shiology Centre of Beijing's Renmin University, making it the first European university to reach such an agreement.

The lectures are mostly given in Italian, except for a number of courses at the faculty of foreign languages and literature, some scientific programs, such as the international MSc in aerospace engineering (EuMAS), Master in Business Informatics, the Master of Science in Space Engineering and the Master in Computer Science and Networking, jointly offered with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. Students also have at their disposal a language center, where they can attend courses in foreign languages, a sports center (Cus Pisa) that arranges for many sports intramural leagues and allows sports practice in almost all the disciplines available in Italy, and six university refectories (Mense universitarie).

Notable Alumni and Faculty

Prominent scholars who have taught at the University of Pisa include Anatomists Lorenzo Bellini and Marcello Malpighi, Chemist Robert Schiff, Computer scientist Egon Börger, Engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, Mathematicians Eugenio Beltrami, Enrico Bombieri, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Sergio Campanato, Benedetto Castelli, Corrado De Concini, Ennio De Giorgi, Luigi Guido Grandi, Alessandro Marchetti, Claudio Procesi, Leonida Tonelli, Pathologist Angelo Maffucci, Physicians Pietro Grocco and Paolo Mascagni, Physicists Bernard H.

Partnerships and Global Engagement

The university has an arrangement to share facilities and exchange academics with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, which together form a consortium of higher education institutions in the town, called the Pisa University System. The university has also built strong ties with prestigious Pisan Institutes of the National Board of Research and the growing information technology industry, which flourished in Tuscany over recent decades. The partnership with TROY University also allows students to experience the archaeology museum.

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