Archiginnasio

The long, porticoed façade just to the left of San Petronio's facade is the former home of the University, the Archiginnasio, its walls covered with the escutcheons and memorials of famous scholars. Bologna’s University, though the oldest in Europe, was not provided with a central building until 1563; before then classes were held in public buildings or cloisters.

This is the building Bologna got for its money instead of the expansion of San Petronio; the Counter-Reformation popes, always worried about heresy and political opposition, apparently wanted to keep all the intellectuals here in one place where they could keep a close eye on them.

After the University expanded to its new quarters in 1803 this became the municipal library, the Biblioteca Comunale, which always has a selection of old books, manuscripts, prints and sketches on display. The reading room occupies one of the two former aule magne, or lecture halls; the other, the atmospheric Aula dello Stabat Mater, covered with frescoes and coats of arms of scholarly greats, was named after Rossini's composition, conducted here for the first time in 18 March 1842 by Donizetti. Here in 1921, Albert Einstein held a famous series of conferences on relativity in 1921.