The space of libertas. Religious, political and intellectual freedom

Dennj Solera

The project aims to analyse the theme of libertas patavina, intended as an incentive to the mobility of people, knowledge and ideas towards the University of Padua, in particular between the second half of the 16th and the early 17th century, at the sunset of the University’s “Golden Age”, in the years of Galileo Galilei and Cesare Cremonini. The study focuses both on social life and on the confessional and political climate, to understand how these mobilities have contributed to create a more or less favourable context for the development of knowledge and research in the early modern age. The main goal is to understand the impact that political and institutional choices had in expanding or contracting the movement of the academic and student population and in the development of networks of knowledge useful for scientific debate. For this reason, I am implementing the database (Padua 2022) containing all the profiles of Paduan students for the 16th-18th century period, when the Counter-Reformation and the confessional divisions risked blocking the Paduan Studium.