The Municipal Library and the Archiginnasio Palace (Bologna). History on the walls.

Last visit : February 2024

My rating : 8/10

Web : https://www.archiginnasio.it/

Among the main monuments of the historic center of Bologna there is one that is definitely worth a visit for the uniqueness and spectacularity of its content; it is the Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, home for centuries to the oldest University in the World, where the history of the Studio is literally written on the walls.

The Archiginnasio Palace, one of the most significant monuments of papal Bologna, is a work that stands at the crossroads of multiple historical, political and urban dynamics of the second half of the sixteenth century. Inaugurated in 1563, the palace was built by order of the cardinal legate Pier Donato Cesi, an emblematic figure of papal authority in Bologna, sent by Pius IV with the specific intent of strengthening the control of the Papal State over a rebellious and essentially pro-imperial city. Cesi, a refined humanist but also an energetic ruler, carried out his mandate with an iron fist and did not hesitate to centralize power, both political and cultural, and the construction of the Archiginnasio responded exactly to this strategy.

The construction of the Archiginnasio in Bologna and the political context

The Archiginnasio project was part of a process of ecclesiastical normalization that followed the end of the tumultuous communal and seigneurial period and accompanied the definitive return of Bologna under the direct control of the Holy See (1506). The idea of reuniting all the university faculties, until then dispersed in various private or conventual locations, in a single monumental building, responded to the need to exercise disciplinary control over teaching and students. The new building thus became the seat of the University, called Alma Mater Studiorum , at a time when the Protestant Reformation had put academic and religious authority into crisis: it was a question of affirming, through architecture, the centrality of knowledge controlled by the Church. The construction of the statue of Neptune was also part of the same urban-ideological project.

A “political” urban gesture: the Archiginnasio against San Petronio

There is, however, another line of interpretation – suspended between legend and historical truth – according to which the location of the Archiginnasio, right next to the basilica of San Petronio , was not accidental. The enormous Petronian construction site, begun in 1390, was supposed to give life to a church capable of equaling (or surpassing) St. Peter's in Rome, the very symbol of papal Christianity. It is said that the construction of the Archiginnasio – with its imposing mass – was a maneuver by the papal authority to block the expansion of the original project of San Petronio, effectively reducing it. If not confirmed by documents, this interpretation harmonizes perfectly with the strategy of the legate Cesi, aimed at taming every form of civic and religious autonomy of the city.

In a manuscript by Cesi himself addressed to the Pope, and now preserved at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, the vice legate, praising the progress of the works and the magnificence of the square (now Piazza Galvani) created by the demolition of some buildings to create space in front of the façade of the Archiginnasio, sarcastically laments the fact that the square cannot be made larger due to the presence of San Petronio which unfortunately “cannot be moved”.

Truth or legend, the fact remains that the view from Via dell'Archiginnasio of the nave of San Petronio, which was left incomplete during the construction of a window a few metres from the façade of the Archiginnasio, is undoubtedly evocative.

The architect: Antonio Morandi known as Terribilia

The one who gave shape to this program was Antonio Morandi, known as Terribilia , a Bolognese architect who was also active in the factory of San Michele in Bosco and in numerous noble palaces. His nickname – “Terribilia” – derives from his ability to design imposing and structurally bold spaces. The palace, on two floors, develops around an elegant porticoed courtyard with Tuscan columns and round arches. The external façade is sober, almost austere, but the interior, with its scenographic arrangement and heraldic proliferation, becomes an expression of the power and prestige of the institutions.

A unique heraldic decoration in Europe

One of the most characteristic elements of the Archiginnasio is the heraldic decoration of the walls, unique in quantity and variety. There are over 6,000 coats of arms, sculpted, painted or frescoed, belonging to the rectors, professors and students, in particular those who held representative positions. Every academic year, the rectors of the two “Nations” – lawyers and artists – left their own emblem, often accompanied by Latin mottos, encomiastic inscriptions or personal symbols. The set of these decorations constituted a secular pantheon of knowledge, which celebrated the academic reputation in a city then considered one of the European capitals of legal and philosophical study.

The custom of placing coats of arms on the walls of the University had indeed originated at the end of the 1400s in Padua, where even today the Palazzo del Bo displays around 3,000 coats of arms; it is however true that the University of Padua itself was born from the diaspora of some professors and students who moved from Bologna to Padua in search of better conditions for studying, bringing with them academic and goliardic traditions.

The coats of arms that can be seen today on the walls of the Archiginnasio may seem, to an inexperienced observer, to be the result of a disorderly stratification over the centuries; a certain capacity for observation is necessary to discern the pattern with which the various groups of coats of arms were formed, year by year, to pay homage to the representatives of the nationes of each academic year or to the professors of some subject. In fact, once students enrolled at the university they had to register in the register of freshmen and had to swear loyalty to the rector; later they enrolled in the nationes, corporations of students that in theory represented the geographical origin of the students (Sicilians, Lombards, Portuguese, Hispanics, etc.); this geographical division was not so rigorous, however, and so it may happen to find a member of the Visconti family, Antonio, from Milan, registered for the nativio of the Portuguese.

Contemplating the coats of arms of the Archiginnasio requires a slow pace to savour the liveliness of the heraldic representations, to reflect on how much history emanates from these walls, how many lives of young people who left from the most remote places on the planet (there are also students from South America) to come here to receive the highest form of education that could be received at the time, how much Knowledge has spread within these walls, and how much political and ecclesiastical Power have tried to influence it over the centuries.

The two lecture halls: Lawyers and Artists

On the upper floor are the two large halls: the Aula dei Legisti and the Aula degli Artisti, respectively intended for the studies of law (civil and canon) and those of philosophy, medicine, mathematics, natural sciences. The two halls reflect, in their layout and decoration, the academic hierarchy of the time: that of the lawyers, larger and more sumptuous, represents the centrality of law in the status of the University of Bologna; that of the artists (students of the so-called "arts": medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, logic, rhetoric...), although more intimate, was still richly decorated with wooden stalls and mural paintings. The Aula degli artisti is today used as a reading room of the library, but deserves a cautious and respectful visit, because it is undoubtedly the most spectacular room and steeped in history; from the Aula dei Legisti it is also possible to glimpse the perspective flight of the rooms that were once used as classrooms and are now used as book storage, not open to visitors. The Hall of the Lawyers (also known as the “Stabat Mater” because the first performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater was held here) can normally be visited and is often used for temporary exhibitions.

The Anatomical Theatre: knowledge and spectacle

One of the most famous spaces in the Archiginnasio is the Teatro Anatomico, built in 1637 by Antonio Levanti based on a design by Ercole Lelli, in the full Baroque spirit of scientia spectaculum. Covered entirely in fir wood, it is dominated by the statue of Apollo , god of medicine, and by the spectacular Flayed Men at the sides of the chair, wooden anatomical figures created by Lelli, extraordinary examples of scientific sculpture. This space, dedicated to public dissections, combines the empirical study of the human body with an almost theatrical staging of knowledge, in line with the era in which medicine was beginning to emancipate itself from pure Aristotelian doctrine.

Modern anatomical science, in fact, began in Bologna with the works of Mondino de' Liuzzi, who brought as much prestige to the University of Bologna with his studies of anatomy as Irnerio did with his studies of law. The study of anatomy then reached its peak with the work of Andrea Vesalius in Padua, where the other important Italian anatomical theatre is located. In the transition from humanism to the Renaissance, the study of anatomy reflected the synthesis of homo faber with homo sapiens and the representation of dissections in a real theatre not only fulfilled the functional needs of students and teachers, but also a real dramatic representation with broad symbolic connotations.

The Teatro Anatomico was dramatically damaged during the Allied bombings of 29 January 1944, when the historic centre of Bologna was severely devastated; one bomb missed the Torre Garisenda by a few metres and another hit the Teatro Anatomico squarely. The restoration, carried out in the post-war period with meticulous philological attention, returned the theatre to its original appearance thanks to the use of archive photographs and drawings, in a rare example of complete reconstruction of a Baroque wooden interior.

The Archiginnasio Municipal Library: Memory and Knowledge

After the University moved to its modern premises, the Archiginnasio was destined to house the Municipal Library, established in 1838. Currently the Municipal Library of the Archiginnasio is one of the most important in Italy, with a collection of over 900,000 volumes, including medieval manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century books, geographical maps and iconographic collections.

Today the library is not only a place of consultation but also a driving force of the city's memory, promoting exhibitions, conferences and cultural activities that enhance the historical identity of Bologna.