Palazzo Bo Historical Timeline

Origins

The university was founded in 1222 by scholars who had left Bologna over academic freedom. It moved into this building, formerly an inn whose sign gave it the name Bo -- ox -- in 1493.

Turning points

In 1594 Girolamo Fabrici d'Acquapendente had a permanent anatomical theatre built here: a steep wooden funnel of six tiers around a dissection table, so students could see a body being opened. Before it, dissections were temporary and improvised.

Influential people

Galileo Galilei held the chair of mathematics from 1592 to 1610 and called those years the happiest of his life; his lectern survives. Andreas Vesalius taught anatomy here and published De humani corporis fabrica in 1543, founding modern anatomy. Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia graduated here in 1678, the first woman anywhere to receive a university degree.

Cultural evolution

The building was substantially remodelled in the 1930s under Gio Ponti, who added Rationalist interiors and commissioned murals -- an unusually confident intervention in a Renaissance building, and now historic in its own right.

Present-day significance

It remains the university's working administrative seat. Degrees are still conferred here, which means tour groups regularly share the courtyard with graduating students in laurel wreaths.