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 "…Veneziani gran signori,
     Padovani gran dottori,
     Vicentini magna gatti,
     Veronesi tutti matti!…”

 ("..Venetians great gentlemen,
     Padovans great doctors,
     Vicentines cat eaters,
     Veronese all crazy!….”)

This saying among the inhabitants of Italy’s Veneto region recalls stereotypes that were established hundreds of years ago. The greatness of Venice and the Venetians practically goes without saying and the puzzling references to cat-eating and insanity will perhaps never be understood, but very few people outside the Veneto (or Italy for that matter) know much about the "great doctors" of Padova. This is the story of the University of Padova, "Il  Bo":  the second oldest university in the world.

Venice, Padova’s Protective "Big Sister"
 
Founded in 1222 the University of Padova, originally known as "Il Bo", or "The Ox", took the name of a tavern used as a meeting place for intellectuals which eventually grew into the University.   When political pressure oppressed free thought at Europe’s oldest university in Bologna (1088), scholars headed north to Padova where the academic frontier was still wide open. This progressive atmosphere was made possible by the neighboring Republic of Venice, who acted as a protective big sister to the fledgling University of Padova during times of political strife and censorship. 

An enormously powerful maritime republic, Venice enjoyed a certain independence of thought from the Catholic Church’s intrusions into academics. Padova could be considered the "Left Bank" of Venice, attracting students and scholars from Europe and beyond to its intellectual atmosphere of tolerance.

Stellar Student Body

During the Renaissance (1400-1500′s), the University of Padova was at the heart of medical research and scientific studies.   Professors and students of medicine included the Englishman William Harvey, a pioneer in understanding the human circulatory system (and, for all you Royalists, a distant relative of Camilla Parker-Bowles!). The most famous is Gabriele Falloppio. This professor of anatomy and surgery is today practically a household name due to his discovery of the fallopian tubes. He also pioneered the development and promotion of the condom and his clinical trials of this device were perhaps the first in the world.

Galileo Galilee is another bright star in Padova’s academic past. Between 1592 and 1610, while a professor of mathematics and physics, he built the telescope that observed Jupiter’s moons, the Moon’s surface and the Milky Way. He also researched the theories of fellow student, Nicholaus Copernicus, a Polish-born academic who declared that the Earth moved around a stationary Sun. Eventually Galileo left Padova and published this theory which the Church wholly rejected, ordering him to immediate house arrest. Imprisoned, Galileo still pursued his studies but in a play of tragic irony, gradually became blind: he who had once seen so far into the cosmos now saw nothing.

Another poignant story, what the current University calls "one particularly proud moment" tells of the first woman graduate in history, Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopia.  A child prodigy who spoke 8 languages and played 3 musical instruments, what Elena desired was a doctorate in Theology but the Church objected and a degree in Philosophy was granted instead. Her 1678 graduation ceremony attracted so many that it was held in Padova’s main cathedral.  Until her early death in 1684 she lectured in mathematics and remained the only women graduate from University of Padova until the late twentieth century!

Inside the Old "Bo:" Anatomical Theatre’s Disappearing Act

The ancient "Palazzo del Bo" is still part of today’s University of Padova and is located in the historical center of the town. Guided tours are possible (http://www.unipd.it/ateneo/patr_artistico/palazzo_bo_visite.htm) in English and are fascinating. The palazzo’s "cortile antico" is the showy main courtyard, it’s double loggia is festooned with coats of arms of past students and professors. Going upstairs one passes a statue of Elena Piscopia and accesses the old lecture halls. In the heavily frescoed "Aula Magna" or Main Assembly Hall, Galileo’s original massive wooden lectern still stands. The most fascinating part of the tour is the world’s oldest (1594) anatomical theatre, the "Teatro Anatomico," made entirely of wood and used until the late 1800′s. Here, before crowds of 300 standing students, dissections were performed on executed criminals by candlelight at night and only in winter: time and temperature were crucial given the perishable nature and illegality of human dissection. Stories tell of the dissecting table’s trap door which could be activated in case of raids by Church authorities, dropping the corpse into the canal beneath to float 30 miles into the Venetian lagoon.

Grad Parties: Fistfuls of Flour and Fishnets

When you visit the "Bo" you may be lucky enough to see a newly graduated student suffering through the traditional "after party" with friends, held in the street in front of the old University. Scantily dressed in a generously over-stuffed bathing suit, fishnet stockings, snorkel and fins, and crowned with the baccalaureate laurel wreath, the last graduate I saw was undergoing a goodhearted but humiliating shower of fistfuls of flour, profilactics and vulgarities. If you don’t see any "after party" action, look around on walls for hand drawn posters put up by friends.  Many have portraits of the graduates that verge on obscene and all contain poetic verses detailing the student’s "accomplishments" (academic and otherwise!).

—Lisa Halderman