The University of Bologna: A Brief History
In case you weren’t already overthinking going back for Grad School.
La Piazza Maggiore in Bologna
by Brian Alcamo
Students are heading back to classrooms after a summer of fun. For some, the break from the classroom has been even longer, with in-person learning being replaced by remote alternatives to circumvent pandemic lockdowns. While universities have been around for a long time, one has stood the test of time longer than all the others. Italy’s University of Bologna, l’Universitá di Bologna, is both the oldest and longest-functioning university in the western world, and its storied history is fascinating. Find out more below!
The Beginning
The University of Bologna is considered by most to be the first Western university, with scholarly activity dating all the way back to 1088 C.E. First founded as the (private) School of Bologna, the historic place of learning coincided with the establishment of the Studium of Bologna. Because of a collective of a few dedicated students, the School of Bologna’s ascent as a leading site of learning began to coincide with the city’s growth as an economic powerhouse. By the 12th Century, the city had transformed from being known as La Dotta (The Learned) to La Grassa (The Fat), due to its rapid rise in wealth. Once il Comune (the municipality) realized that the school was attracting young wealth, it began to enact policy aiming to protect and favor the school. Private homes, monasteries, and public areas were rented out to provide adequate space for the droves of new learners. This created a robust, geographically decentralized network of educational nodes, differing from the typical “campus” model that many Americans are familiar with today.
Bologna’s Archiginnasio, which was not yet built at the university’s start
The 13th century saw the University's graduates’ reputations on the rise, especially its Law School and Art School students, who were seen as providing foundational legal and cultural foundations for an emerging European society. Law School students formed organizations meant to establish a system of mutual support. These were originally based on students’ place of origins (known as Nationes) which slowly turned into guilds known as Universitates.
A Change in Power Dynamics
The fourteenth century saw a tightening of student and teacher autonomy as the Comune placed more controlling decrees on the school. Teachers became public employees and their performance declined with their academic fate coinciding with the shifting economic winds of the city. During the fifteenth century, the school’s fame helped maintain its student body while its arts program was reinvigorated with Renaissance ideas. This century was also the height of Bologna’s Bentivoglio family, and teachers began to be effectively “bought out” by the wealth of the city’s de facto lords. This newfound corruption led to the erosion of both the university and the commune’s freedom.
Vocabulary for Your Next Semester in Italia
Semestre - Semester
Il programma di studio - Syllabus
Il compagno di classe - Classmate
Studiare - To study
Consulente academico - Academic advisor
Esame - test
Tema, saggio - essay
In the sixteenth century, The Council of Trent and the construction of the Archiginnasio Palace both ended up driving out students, with the Palace replacing the school’s geographically decentralized nature as a one-stop-shop location for University activity, becoming an easily governed location where Papal Rome could impose Catholicism on the student body. After these reforms, the school’s performance saw a two-century lull, with the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth century seeing little innovation and being left out of the rest of Europe’s Renaissance fun. The sad ship began to slowly (and we mean slowly) turn around with the new Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna, which provided a space for critiquing the Church and aristocracy.
The Library at the Institute of Sciences
Back in the Saddle
Interestingly enough, the University saw a Renaissance of its own when the Italian peninsula came under control of Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire. The Studium became a public university and moved its center of operations to the Palazzo Poggi, which brought a new artistic and cultural center to Bologna. Unfortunately, when the French Empire receded and the papacy was restored, many changes were repealed.
Il Risorgimento, or the Italian Unification, finally brought respect and prestige back to the Studium, when forces at the helm of the unification sought to construct the narrative of a common Italian history. Bologna had once again become one of the most important cities in the new country.
In the twentieth century, the university began to occupy historic buildings around the city, positioning itself as a fulcrum of urban life. In 1988, a celebration of the university's ninth century reinforced the school’s reputation as a location that honors the independence and freedom of teaching and its history as the Alma Mater Studiorum.
Some Famous Alumni
The University’s status as an important site of educational patrimony was further cemented in 1999 when European diplomats came to the University to sign the Bologna Declaration. This signing established the Bologna Process, a series of meetings with the purpose of establishing and maintaining higher-educational compatibility between European countries. The Process follows a qualifications framework that uses the university levels of Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees as guidelines for determining educational achievement (according to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, or ECTS).
Nowadays in the twenty-first century, the university has expanded outwards into Bologna’s suburbs, moving the locations of its course offerings. It also has created the first multicampus in italy, with satellite campuses throughout Emilia-Romagna.
Thanks for Reading!
Want to go back to school? Learning Italian provides you with the skills you need to make education in Italy a real possibility. Comment your study plans below, and be sure to share this post with a friend!
Scopa: A Simple and Fun Italian Card Game
Discover a game that’s both easy to learn and easy to argue about.
by Brian Alcamo
Italy is a land of many national pleasures. Limoncello, opera, and tiramisu are just three examples of the myriad Italian treasures. But the country has cultural mainstays that go beyond globally recognizable exports. Italy is home to more than just highly refined handicrafts. In fact, this bel paese is home to not just one, but three, national card games. While they might not evoke the same cultural reverie as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, giochi di carte (card games) have sustained their presence in Italy through the centuries.
Card games are a big part of Italian culture, and they’re a great way to spend more time around the dinner table after the eating is over. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend an evening with a friend’s host family in Florence. We played Scopa, an Italian card game, after dinner and before dessert. By the end of playing, my Italian was way better than it was during the meal. Without food in our mouths, we were able to have a more fulfilling conversation that wasn’t happening in between bouts of chewing.
Scopa, Italian for “broom,” is a fishing-style card game that involves “capturing” cards from the table by matching table cards with the cards in your hand. Along with Briscola and Tressette, Scopa is an Italian card classic. The game is fast-paced, easy to learn, and hard to master. It makes for a perfect night of relaxing with friends and family around a table. Read on to learn more!
Italian Decks of Cards
Before you play Scopa, you have to make sure you have the right deck of cards. Decks of cards, or mazzi di carte, are a little bit different in Italy. For starters, these decks typically only have 40 cards. They eschew the 11, 12, and 13 values of Jack, Queen, and King for suits that end at 10.
Speaking of suits, very few Italian decks of cards use suits that are “Italian” in origin. Most in the North use French suits, and most in the South use Spanish suits. Italian suits are only prominent in the Northeast of the country around Veneto. In a typical 40-card Southern Italian deck: 4 suits: spade (swords), coppe (cups), ori/denari (coins), and bastoni (batons). Italian and Spanish suited share the same names, but use different pictures. Each region uses its own special set of cards.
Your cards probably won’t be this antique, but it’s worth aspiring to this level of authenticity anyway.
In cities north of and including Florence, most players use French cards. French cards are the 52-deck playing cards that most Americans and Brits are used to using. To adhere to the game play of Italian card games, players remove 3 cards from each suit, paring the 52-card deck down to a 40-card one. The Italian names of French suits are: Cuori (Hearts), Quadri (Diamonds, directly translated as “squares”), Fiori (Clubs directly translated as “flowers”), and Picche (Spades, literally "Pikes").
Unless you own an Italian deck of cards already, you’ll probably have to take out cards from a pack you already own. Once you’ve gotten yourself a Scopa-appropriate deck, it’s time to play!
Playing
Scopa is played for points. At the beginning of each game, players must agree on the winning number of points. A common goal score is 21.
To start, the dealer gives each player 3 cards (face-down) and places 4 cards (face-up) in the middle. Players try to capture cards from the face-up cards in the middle. They can either make a direct match, or (even better) match the value of one of their cards with the sum of multiple cards on the table. For example, if there are two cards on the table that add up to 8, and a player has an 8, that player can take both cards to create a match.
If you take all 4 cards on your turn, congratulations! You get 1 point for a successful scopa. Once everyone runs out of cards, the dealer deals players three new ones. A hand ends when the deck of cards runs out. This is when you score points.
Don’t be fooled by the game’s simple rules! Things can get competitive.
Scoring
1 point for each scopa
The player with the most cards gets 1 point. In the case of a tie, no one gets points.
The player with the most diamond (or coin) cards gets 1 point. In the case of a tie, no one gets points.
The player with the 7 of diamonds (Il Settebello) gets 1 point. In the case of a tie, no one gets points.
The player with the best primiera (prime) scores 1 point. A primiera is a set of 4 cards, one from each suit. If you don’t have one card from each suit, you’re not eligible to score a primiera. A primiera can be scored in multiple ways. Two common ways are whoever has the most 7s and who has the highest score based on a hard-to-remember chart that you can find here.
If no one has enough points to win, gameplay continues, and the deck is shuffled and dealt again. Play until one player has enough points to score.
Play With Friends!
Scopa is a fun and easy-to-learn card game that will keep you and your friends up into the wee hours of the night. Modify the rules as you see fit, and maybe even buy one of those beautiful Italian decks of cards to upgrade your game. Don’t forget to practice your Italian around the table as you play!
What’s your favorite card game? Comment below, and share this post with a friend.
(Thumbnail photo by Inês Ferreira)
The La Spezia-Rimini Line: Where Italian Varieties Collide
Where in the boot is your favorite dialect?
by Brian Alcamo
Two Italian families. Irreconcilable differences. Stop me before I start performing the entire plot of Romeo and Juliet. Epic theater aside, the set up for the iconic Shakespeare piece is also a good way to begin looking at the linguistic makeup of the Italian peninsula. Here’s what I mean.
Italian is a divided language. It is not a language defined by its country’s borders. The country’s culture is often described as campanilismo, which roughly translates to “a culture defined by bell towers.” This is to say that Italian culture and language can be highly fractured, all the way down to the neighborhood level. This is s the reason so many American travelers struggle to find a good cannolo north of Sicily. But it’s also part of the reason why Italy’s linguistic variation takes on a sharp divide a few miles north of Florence.
The La Spezia Rimini Line
A map of Italian dialects, with the La Spezia-Rimini Line in Black
The La Spezia-Rimini Line runs between the Italian towns of, you guessed it, La Spezia and Rimini. This line is an isogloss, which is a fancy word for a geographical boundary between linguistic features. The line is also sometimes referred to as the Massa-Senigallia Line, depending on whether or not the person wants to draw the line along traditional regional boundaries.
Languages north of the line exhibit features more similar to Western Romance languages (which include Spanish, French, and Catalan), while languages south of the line exhibit features more similar to Southern and Eastern Romance languages (Italian and Romanian, in particular).
Other less familiar languages that fall along these lines are Lombard, Venetian, and Piedmontese on the Western Romance side. Standard Italian, Neapolitan, and Roman fall on the Eastern Side. These languages can be divided further into two separate families, one being Gallo-Italic (North of the Line) and the other being Italo-Dalmatian (South of the Line).
This linguistic division is found in a few ways speakers pronounce words, with one of the largest distinctions being double consonants. Double consonants, or geminates, are a big part of standard Italian. They’re found in words like gemelli (twins), accademia (academy), and troppo (too much). Geminates can be kind of a pain for English-native Italian learners. They’re difficult to identify with the untrained ear, and are even harder to reproduce with an untrained mouth. If anyone ever comments on your mispronounced consonanti doppie, just tell them that your practicing your Lombard. North of the La Spezia-Rimini Line, these double consonants often become single. Other differences that you might pick up on north of this isogloss include: the dropping of word-final vowels (mano becomes man), forming plurals using the letter -s instead of changing the vowel, and pronouncing the letter c as an -s instead of a “ch” before the vowels i and e.
All of these differences are only present on the dialect level for the most part. Dialects are not the same as accents, so an Italian speaker from Milan will still form their plurals by changing a word’s final vowel. They’ll also most likely perfectly pronounce a double consonant if given the chance.
What Does This Mean For Italian?
As Italian standardizes and the world globalizes, these distinctions continue to erode. However, they provide a fun way to begin to think about the connection between geography and language. Italian is a young country, having only become a nation-state in 1861. There are still traces of its regional past everywhere. Although there won’t be any fanfare when you cross the La Spezia-Rimini line, be sure to pay more attention to the speech differences depending on where your conversation partner is from. In addition to practicing your listening skills, you’ll be sure to feel like a linguistic detective.
Thanks For Reading!
Where’s your favorite Italian speaker from? Do you think their dialect might be a little different from “textbook” Italian? Comment below, and be sure to give this post a heart!
(Thumbnail photo by Dominik Dancs)
How To Make Tiramisu - A Simple & Delicious Recipe
Is it a pudding? Is it an Italian cake? Whatever it is, it’s delicious.
by Brian Alcamo
Ti-ra-mi-su. Four syllables. Six ingredients (on average). The iconic Italian dessert holds a special place in the hearts of many people. It’s a perfectly light treat for the end of a meal, and goes great with an espresso and some post-meal conversation. When you read a recipe for tiramisu, the list of ingredients doesn’t necessarily help to convey what the end result will taste like. For this reason, some have described it as having a “mutant flavor”. One ingredient you won’t need? Liquor. While the flavor might be mutant, that’s exactly why we like it.
Photo by Vika Aleksandrova
Origins of Tiramisu
Tiramisu, like many other cultural staples, has a contested point of origin. While the sources of its beginnings are not as far as salsa’s, they are not entirely agreed upon. The narrowest point of origin that people can agree upon is Italia settentrionale, or Northern Italy. The regions where it most likely came from are Veneto, Friulia Venezia Giulia, or Piemonte.
(the regions Piemonte, Veneto, and Friulia Venezia Giulia are part of the larger Northern Italy)
A Sentence with No Spaces
The origin of the word tiramisu comes from a strung-together Italian sentence. Tirami su.
Tirare means to toss or throw, mi is the direct object pronoun “me,” and su means above or over. Tirare is conjugated in the imperative mood, which allows the speaker to place the direct object pronoun after the verb instead of before it.
The whole sentence (and now word) translates to “Pick me up,” which might have to do with the caffeine content of a key ingredient.
Originally, though, the word wasn’t Italian at all. At least, not the Standard Italian that many of us at JP Linguistics know, love, and study. Many people credit its beginnings to the city of Treviso in Veneto, a region in Northern Italy (Venice’s region). In the Treviso regional language the word was “tireme su.”
Photo by Vika Aleksandrova
Our Simple Tiramisu Recipe
Didn’t get a chance to tune into our Live Workshop with TimeIn New York? That’s okay. We’ve got our recipe right here (certo in inglese e in italiano).
Ingredienti per 4-6 persone (Ingredients for 4-6 people)
4 uova intere (4 whole eggs)
300 gr. di zucchero bianco (1.5 c of white sugar)
500 gr. di mascarpone (2.5 c of mascarpone)
40/45 biscotti savoiardi (40/45 ladyfingers)
300 cc. di caffè amaro e forte lasciato raffreddare (1 ¼ c of chilled, strongly brewed coffee)
100 gr. di spolvero di cacao amaro (½ c of dark chocolate powder)
Procedimento (Instructions)
Preparare preventivamente il caffè e lasciarlo raffreddare.
Prepare the coffee beforehand and let it cool.
Porre in una terrina 3 albumi di uovo e montarli a neve con un pizzico di sale.
Place 3 egg whites in a bowl and beat them stiff with a pinch of salt.
Con una frusta sbattere i 3 tuorli e l’uovo intero assieme allo zucchero quindi, aiutandosi con una spatola, aggiungere il mascarpone e mescolare piano piano dal basso verso l’alto fino a formare una crema.
With a whisk, beat the 3 egg yolks and the whole egg together with the sugar then, with the help of a spatula, add the mascarpone cheese and stir slowly from bottom to top until it forms a cream.
Infine aggiungere gli albumi montati a neve e amalgamare il tutto mescolando sempre molto piano, dal basso verso l’alto, per non smontare la crema.
Finally add the egg whites whipped to stiff peaks and mix everything, stirring always very slowly, from the bottom to the top, so as not to dismantle the cream.
Sul fondo piatto di una terrina o di una pirofila adagiare uno strato di savoiardi, inzuppati nel caffè, sgocciolati e leggermente spremuti con una forchetta per eliminare il liquido in eccesso.
On the flat bottom of a bowl or an ovenproof dish lay a layer of ladyfingers, soaked in coffee, drained and lightly squeezed with a fork to eliminate the excess liquid.
Sullo strato di savoiardi stendere uno strato pari alla metà della crema preparata.
On the layer of ladyfingers spread a layer equal to half of the prepared cream.
Quindi stendere sopra di essa un secondo strato di savoiardi, inzuppati e trattati come i precedenti.
Then spread a second layer of ladyfingers on top of it, soaked and treated like the previous ones.
Spalmare sopra la rimanente crema.
Spread the remaining cream on top.
Riporre il dolce in frigorifero per 12 ore e gustarlo dopo averlo spolverato con il cacao amaro aiutandosi con un colino.
Place the dessert in the refrigerator for 12 hours and enjoy it after sprinkling it with bitter cocoa using a sieve.
That’s all there is too it! Only a few ingredients, but a lot of "wrist work” (whisking, whipping, and sprinkling) and a lot of waiting will get you that delicious flavor that only comes from a properly made tiramisu. Now all you need is the limoncelo…
Grazie!
Make sure you give this blog a heart, and share it with your friends. Tried the recipe? Let us know how it turned out in the comments section.
(Thumbnail Photo by Vika Aleksandrova on Unsplash)
Culture + Cheese = Parma
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced February 16th that Parma would be the Italian Capital of Culture in 2020.
Culture + Cheese = Parma
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced February 16th that Parma would be the Italian Capital of Culture in 2020.
The northern city swept the competition including Agrigento, Bitonto, Casale Monferrato, Macerata, Merano, Nuoro, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Treviso. Parma has been regarded as "a virtuous and extremely high-quality example of local culturally based planning".
The city was at the center of several wars in the peninsula during the 14th and 15th centuries and became part of the Papal States, only to be detached from them in 1545 by Pope Paul III. During the Napoleonic Wars, Parma was annexed to France, was a center of resistance to fascism, and boasts one of the oldest universities in the world.
On a culinary level, Parma is famous for its ham and (surprise, surprise) parmigiano cheese. In Emilia-Romagna, where Parma lies, there is more origin-protected food and drink than any other region in Italy, and in the plains around Parma you'll be able to find amazing prosciutto, salami, cheese and porcini mushrooms. It is no surprise that Parma was also named a UNESCO Creative City for Gastronomy in 2015.
As part of its candidacy Parma has pledged to further broaden its cultural attractions, commissioning installations outside the city centre and inviting artists from elsewhere in Italy and the world to give their own creative view of the city.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about how Culture + Cheese = Parma! Looking to make a trip to the cultural hub of Parma? Our immersive group classes with native instructors will ensure that you are ready to experience everything Parma has to offer!
The Hidden Gems of Italy
There is a way to get in on an exclusive Italian experience once every year, so before you spend all of your hard earned money on that ticket to Italy, read on...
The Hidden Gems of Italy
If you had to make a list of places you visit every time you make a destination trip, would you happen to include a museum? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone, especially in Italy. Italian state museum revenues increased by almost 50 million euros between 2013-2016 and has seen an increased visitor rate of almost 19%. With the vast exhibitions, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, however it does mean that museums can be increasingly difficult to peruse without feeling like you’re standing cheek to cheek with strangers on the NYC transit system (which is your favorite pastime, right?).
There is, however, a way to get in on a more exclusive experience once every year, so before you spend all of your hard earned money on that ticket to Italy, read on.
The Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) or National Trust of Italy hosts an annual “Spring Days” event in March that opens up many hidden gems of Italy including: buildings, villages, and gardens to visitors that are usually closed to the public.
This event includes 1,000 sites in 400 towns.
Among these, the art schedule includes 260 buildings and villas, 51 villages, 79 castles and towers, 90 small museums, 40 parks and natural areas, 20 archaeological areas, 7 military establishments and 20 academies, schools, and institutions, 16 industrial and business museums, 14 theaters and amphitheaters, 8 cemeteries, and 2 former psychiatric hospitals.
Arguably one of the most impressive hidden gems of Italy is the Brisighella Convent, which is so large that the nuns use scooters to get around. This alone is reason enough to start booking that trip.
To see the full list of the true hidden gems of Italy, feel free to check out the official FAI website here. This website is in Italian, however, so it would be recommended to have a translator handy! If you would like to be able to make your trip sans translator, there's no better accompaniment to experiencing these hidden gems than with your knowledge of Italian! Grazie!