HISTORICAL HINTS
HISTORICAL HINTS5. XIX Century. Engineering and Veterinary
During the period of the French occupation in 1796 the University was subjected to various transformations which seriously put its existence into jeopardy. However, the Town Council safeguarded its rights and integrity by claiming that the University was of private origin and that the Community had, therefore, the obligation to conserve and improve it. At first, it had been declassed to a «Liceo» (a state secondary school) and following that it was deprived of its rights to confer degrees (1804). But this was a very brief period and the teaching was never completely abolished. With the Estensi Restoration (1814) Duke Francesco IV had the University immediately re-opened the way it had been at the end of the eighteenth century, keeping for a future date, however, the nomination of the Dean. Lessons in the first half of the nineteenth century were conducted by Palo Ruffini the illustrious doctor and mathematician to whom science owes many algebra discoveries, and the famous botanist Count Filippo Re to whom Giovanni Bignoli from Brunnhoff succeeded in 1817. In 1821 the student demonstrations brought the University to a close and obliged Francesco IV to introduce a new reform which was put into act in 1825. With this reform, apart from the reorganisation of the teaching, we must also remember the decision - evidently suggested by political reasons - to oblige the students to live in «Convitti», colleges to which one gained admission only with certain political and social requisites. This was also a method of obtaining complete control over the students, seen to be politically turbulent in the preceding years. There were three of these colleges: Legal, Medical and Pioneer Cadets, corresponding to the degree courses in Law, Medicine and Physics-Mathematics and Engineering. For Veterinary studies the School of Veterinary Medicine was reopened in 1827. This, after having had the illustrious teacher Luigi Le Roy (1804), had been suppressed in 1807 and, in this period, new space had been given to the Botanic Gardens, the Physics Laboratory and the Anatomy Museum. The Museums of Natural Sciences and of Veterinary Medicine were also established, while the Observatory became a reality. In 1848 the revolutionary movements brought a new modification to our University. The temporary Government, re-establishing the traditional form of teaching and abolishing the colleges, asked a Board of experts to study a project of reform. This work was continued even after the Duke's return to Modena. In November 1848 the Veterinary School which had been suppressed between 1814 and 1824 and then declared public but autonomous by Francesco IV, made its entrance to the University becoming joined with Medicine. In 1849 the Board was able to explain its new project of study re- ordering. The form assumed by the University, which had been deeply modified in its regulations and informing spirit, is undoubtedly that of an Institute already very close to the modern conception. The number of Department Headships had increased and the scientific disciplines had enlarged. The Tramontini order, as we may call it using the name of the Chairman of the Board, was substantially unchanged until the end of the Estense dominion. This was because in 1855 rather that speaking of reform we must speak of a slight change in the distribution of the teaching in the Faculty of Medicine and in the School of Land Surveying and a change of name in Physics-Mathematics. On 11 June 1859 Francesco V left Modena forever. The direction of the University was immediately assumed by the Great Research Chemist Francesco Selmi who, together with Luigi Carlo Farini, brought the necessary guidance for the transition period. In this period the Theology Faculty ceased to belong to the University and went to the Seminary under the control of the Bishop. With the Unification of Italy, the re-ordering of the University went ahead making the teaching in the various Italian Universities uniform, The Faculty of Physics and Mathematics was transformed and became the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences. The period from 1862 to 1887 and 1893 brought great suffering and anxiety for the outcome of the University. The citizens of Modena, however, vigorously defended their University in memory of its antique origins. After this period, the organisation of studies began to improve and the possibilities for scientific laboratories increased. These were established in the S. Eufemia buildings which were already used for the barracks of the Duke's Dragoons (1895).
