Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza – Università di Roma (Italian)
Latin: Studium Urbis
Motto	Il futuro è passato qui
Motto in English	The future has passed here/the future is past here
Type	Public
Established	1303; 721 years ago (1303)
Rector	Antonella Polimeni
Administrative staff	8,000
Students	112,564[1]
Undergraduates	63,957[2]
Postgraduates	26,212[3]
Doctoral students	18,793[4]
Location	Rome , Italy
Campus	Urban, Urban
Colors	Pompeian red & gold[5][6]
Sporting affiliations	CUS Roma
Website	www.uniroma1.it/en

The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ("wisdom"), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy.^[7] It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the world's oldest universities,^[8] and with 122.000 students, it is the largest university in Europe.^[9] Due to its size, funding, and numerous laboratories and libraries, Sapienza is a major education and research centre in Southern Europe.^[10] The University is located mainly in the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers 44 ha (110 acres) near the Tiburtina Station, with different campuses, libraries and laboratories in various locations in Rome.

Sapienza was founded the 20th of April 1303 by decree from Pope Boniface VIII as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies more under more control than the free universities of Bologna and Padua. In 1431 Pope Eugene IV completely reorganized the studium and decreed that the university should expand to include the four schools of Law, Medicine, Philosophy, in addition to the existing Theology. In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza, meaning "wisdom", a title it still retains.^[11] After establishment of the Italian Republic in 1870, La Sapienza rapidly expanded as the main university of the new capital of Italy. In 1935 the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed.^[12]

Sapienza teaches and conducts research in all pure and applied sciences and humanities. It is often considered the best in the world for classics and ancient history.^[13][14] Sapienza houses 50 libraries with over 2.7 million books, most notably the Alessandrina University Library, built in 1667 by Pope Alexander VII, housing 1.5 million volumes.^[15] It in addition has 19 museums, a botanical garden, and three university hospitals.^[16] Sapienzas alumni includes 10 Nobel laureates, Italian prime ministers, one pope, Presidents of the European Parliament and European Commissioners, as well as several notable religious figures, supreme court judges, and astronauts.^[17]