BO2022: The European space. Transnational and translocal mobility

Giulia Zornetta

Since its foundation around 1222, the University of Padua has been one of the most important stages of the peregrinatio academica. During the Middle Ages and the early modern period, wandering from one university to another was a common practice among European students, especially among the ultramontani (i.e. those coming from the other side of the Alps). Consequently, many students from both the Italian peninsula and the wider European area spent one or more years in the city to study Law, Arts and Medicine, or Theology.

This research project is part of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the University of Padua and aims at identifying the main mobility flows of the students during the late medieval period. It takes into account both the push and pull factors and the political choices and contingencies. The project is linked to a research team currently engaged in building a database to map the academic population from the late Middle Ages to the modern period.