Founding of Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza University of Rome was founded by Pope Boniface VIII as the Studium Urbis, a papal university for the study of theology, law, medicine and the arts. The name Sapienza, meaning wisdom, comes from the Palazzo della Sapienza, where it was housed from the 15th century, and it is linked to the biblical verse on the entrance. In the 17th century the university built the church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, designed by Borromini. After the unification of Italy it became a state university, and in the 1930s it moved to a new campus, the Città Universitaria, designed by Marcello Piacentini. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with well over a hundred thousand students. Enrico Fermi and his colleagues, the Via Panisperna boys, worked at its physics institute.

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