Description
Book SynopsisA longstanding tradition holds that universities in early modern Italy suffered from cultural sclerosis and long-term decline. Drawing on rich archival sources, including teaching records, David Lines shows that one of Italy's leading institutions, the University of Bologna, displayed remarkable vitality in the arts and medicine.
Trade ReviewWith this contribution, Lines provides students and scholars with an excellent summary of the organization of university life in early modern Bologna, and he fosters the pursuit of new studies to shed light on the dynamics of teaching and learning that are yet to be unveiled. -- Silvia M. Marchori * History of Universities *
This is foundational scholarship at its best. Joining great scope with precise detail, Lines offers a sweeping account of an institution central to European education and thought over many centuries. Through his eyes, we see the dynamism, energy, and innovation that characterized life at one of Europe’s greatest universities. -- Ann Moyer, author of
The Intellectual World of Sixteenth-Century Florence: Humanists and Culture in the Age of Cosimo IAn impressively researched book on
Bologna la dotta. David Lines puts to rest the image of the early modern Italian university as an institution in relentless decline. Instead, he demonstrates how the civic and religious government of Bologna, along with its dynamic community of learned professors, repeatedly reinvented the university to meet their needs. -- Paula Findlen, author of
Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern ItalyDavid Lines skillfully reframes the history of the University of Bologna, revealing a dynamic institution with numerous links to cultural life in Italy and beyond. This book is essential reading for historians of science and medicine, intellectual historians of humanism, and anyone interested in understanding the social contexts of education from the late Middle Ages to the modern age. -- Craig Martin, author of
Subverting Aristotle: Religion, History, and Philosophy in Early Modern Science
