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 offers
courses in nearby Pomigliano d’Arco as well as
in Salerno and now accepts male students. It
claims to be the oldest private university in
Italy.
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