The Sapienza University of Rome that is also termed as the Sapienza – Università di Roma is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy. It is one of the largest European universities and the oldest of Rome’s three state-funded universities. The university was founded in 1303. The meaning of sapienza in Italian language is “wisdom” or “knowledge”. As according to an international ranking of the educational institutes, the Sapienza is placed at among the top 30 European universities. In 2010 QS World University Rankings placed the city in overall at the 190th spot in the overall ranking in the world.
The university was founded when the supremae praeminentia dignitatis was issued on 20 April 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies beneath his control more than the universities of Bologna and Padua. In 1431 Pope Eugene IV entirely approved the stadium with the bull. In supremae, in which he granted masters and students alike the broadest possible privileges and decreed that the university for having the four faculties of Law, Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. He therefore to meet out there introduced a new tax on wine so to raise funds for the university. That money later on employed as and housed the Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza church. When the sacking of Rome occurred in 1527, the studium was closed and some professors were dispersed. Pope Paul III revised the university immediately after his ascension to the pontificate in 1534.
In the 1650s the university renamed as Sapienza, meaning wisdom, and to the date is yet known by the same title and name. In 1870, La Sapienza dethroned from the status of the papal university and became the University of the Capital of Italy. In 1935, the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed. On 27 October 1935 the university became an aggregate of all the institutions of higher learning of university rank in the city of Rome. Since 1935 Sapienza University is under the control of the Italian Government. At present by far it is the largest university in Rome and is a leading center of research and academic guidance in every field of knowledge and learning. The university has improved its research programmes in the areas of engineering, natural sciences, biomedical sciences and humanities. It has recently has gone into the collaboration with the British and American universities for education and learning.