Universities were driving forces of change in late Renaissance Italy. The Gonzaga, the ruling family of Mantua, had long supported scholarship and dreamed of founding an institution of higher learning within the city. In the early seventeenth century they joined forces with the Jesuits, a powerful intellectual and religious force, to found one of the most innovative universities of the time.
Paul F. Grendler provides the first book in any language about the Peaceful University of Mantua, its official name. He traces the efforts of Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga, a prince savant who debated Galileo, as he made his family's dream a reality. Ferdinando negotiated with the Jesuits, recruited professors, and financed the school. Grendler examines the motivations of the Gonzaga and the Jesuits in the establishment of a joint civic and Jesuit university.
The University of Mantua lasted only six years, lost during the brutal sack of the city by German troops in 1630. Despite its short life, the university offered original scholarship and teaching. It had the first professorship of chemistry more than 100 years before any other Italian university. The leading professor of medicine identified the symptoms of angina pectoris 140 years before an English scholar named the disease. The star law professor advanced new legal theories while secretly spying for James I of England. The Jesuits taught humanities, philosophy, and theology in ways both similar to and different from lay professors.
A superlative study of education, politics, and culture in seventeenth-century Italy, this book reconsiders a period in Italy's history often characterized as one of feckless rulers and stagnant learning. Thanks to extensive archival research and a thorough examination of the published works of the university's professors, Grendler's history tells a new story.
List of IllustrationsList of TablesPrefaceAbbreviationsValues of Some Coins and Monies of Account ca. 16251. The Place and the PeopleI. The Duchy of MantuaII. The Economy and the PeopleIII. MonferratoIV. Jesuit Attempts to Enter Italian Universities2. The Jesuits Come to MantuaI. The Founding of the Jesuit CollegeII. Blessed Luigi GonzagaIII. Growth of the College and School3. Ferdinando Gonzaga and the Jesuits Create a UniversityI. University DreamsII. Gonzaga Support of LearningIII. The Education of Ferdinando GonzagaIV. Duke Ferdinando GonzagaV. The Jesuit Part of the UniversityVI. The Public Academy of Mantua4. Doctor MartaI. Early Life and WorksII. Ecclesiastical and Civil JurisdictionIII. A Spy for James IIV. The Supplicatio ad imperatorem...contra Paulum QuintumV. Was Doctor Marta a Doctor?VI. The Compilatio totius iuris ex universi orbisVII. The Move to Mantua5. Fabrizio Bartoletti and Other ProfessorsI. Fabrizio BartolettiII. The Encyclopaedia hermetico-dogmaticaIII. The Courting of BartolettiIV. More Searches6. The Peaceful University of MantuaI. Final Preparations and CrisesII. FinancesIII. The Pacifico Gymnasio Mantuano BeginsIV. Students7. Medicine, Law, and TacitusI. Botanical MedicineII. Chemical MedicineIII. Bartoletti's Research on Angina PectorisIV. Law Professors and Marta's ResearchV. The Tacitus Professorship8. The Jesuit ProfessorshipsI. The Jesuit Curriculum and TeachingII. The Career Paths of Jesuits and Lay ProfessorsIII. Two Academic Cultures9. The End of the University of MantuaI. The Crisis of the Mantuan SuccessionII. The ContendersIII. War, Plague, and the Sack of MantuaIV. The Imprisonment and Death of Doctor MartaV. The End of the University of MantuaVI. After the SackAppendix: Jesuit Professors at Mantua, 16241630BibliographyIndex
""Reading Grendler's reconstruction of this courtly and intellectual adventure, we get the impression that we are witnessing a complex and carefully arranged experiment for testing the compatibility of the most representative elements of a cultural milieu.""
