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Jeff
Matthews 2002-2012 entry
July 2008
Suor
Orsola Benincasa
(university)
Private
institutions of higher learning and state
technical and trade schools in Italy have to go
through a process of accreditation and approval in
order to be “pareggiato”
(lit., “made equal to”) state universities, at
which point they are authorized to grant
accredited university degrees. Naples has a number
of such accredited institutions, including the Orientale university,
the new Parthenope
university, and the Suor Orsola Benincasa
university.
Suor (sister) Orsola Benincasa
(1547-1618) was a Roman Catholic mystic and
founder of a religious order in Naples on premises
which eventually became and still house the
university that bears her name. The history of the
institution as a place of education (and not a
convent) starts in 1864 when the anti-clericalism
of the new united Italy simply closed most
monasteries and convents in the nation. There were
32 students in that year, and for a number of
years the school was somewhat of a trade school
for young women, concentrating on teaching
domestic skills and light handicraft such as the
working of coral and artificial flowers.
In 1895 the curriculum was greatly
expanded to include foreign languages and
mathematics; Suor Orsola was then accredited as a
university for women (Istituto universitario di
magistero pareggiato femminile).
Recent innovations have expanded Suor Orsola
beyond its original premises above the Spanish Quarter on the
street named Corso Vittorio Emanuel to include a
nearby space (in another ex-monastery, Santa Lucia al Monte)
for the department of jurisprudence and, also
nearby in the old convent of Santa Caterina da Siena,
space for the humanities department, which offers
an impressive curriculum in archaeology,
ethnology, and preservation of art and cultural
artifacts. (Little did the Spanish realize how
much they were building for the secular future
when they put up dozens of convents and
monasteries between 1500 and 1700; almost all of
them now serve other
uses.) Additionally, there is a department
of social sciences. Suor Orsola Benincasa now
offers courses in nearby Pomigliano d’Arco as well
as in Salerno and also now accepts male students.
It makes the claim to being the oldest private
university in Italy.