100 Notable alumni of University of Bologna

Coluccio Salutati was an Italian Renaissance humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Florentine Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effectively the permanent secretary of state in the generation before the rise of the powerful Medici family.

Carlo Mazzacurati was an Italian film director and screenwriter born in Padua. He started his cinema career in 1980.

Leopoldo "Leo" Longanesi was an Italian journalist, publicist, screenwriter, playwright, writer, and publisher. Longanesi is mostly known in his country for his satirical works on Italian society and people. He also founded the eponymous publishing house in Milan in 1946, and was a mentor figure to Indro Montanelli (a journalist and historian, as well as the founder of Il Giornale,...

Galeazzo Bignami is an Italian politician of Brothers of Italy serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was first elected in the 2018 general election, and was re-elected in 2022. Since 2022, he has served as deputy minister of infrastructure and transport.

Andrea Costa was an Italian socialist politician. Among the founders of the Italian socialist movement, he was the first socialist deputy in Italian history.

Maurizio Fugatti is an Italian politician from the League party. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2006 to 2013 and again from 2018 to 2019. He has been president of the Autonomous Province of Trentino since 2 November 2018.

Benigno Zaccagnini was an Italian politician and physician.

Wincenty Kadłubek was a Polish Catholic prelate and professed Cistercian who served as the Bishop of Kraków from 1208 until his resignation in 1218. His episcopal mission was to reform the diocesan priests to ensure their holiness and invigorate the faithful and cultivate greater participation in ecclesial affairs on their part. Wincenty was much more than just a bishop; he...

Alessandro Farnese was an Italian cardinal, diplomat, and a great collector and patron of the arts. Farnese was the grandson of Pope Paul III (who also bore the name Alessandro Farnese), and the son of Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma, who was murdered in 1547. He should not be confused with his nephew, Alessandro Farnese, Governor of the Spanish...

Yuriy Drohobych or Yuriy Kotermak was a Ruthenian philosopher, astronomer, writer, medical doctor, rector of the University of Bologna, and professor of Kraków Academy, and the first publisher of a Church Slavonic printed text. He is the author of Iudicium Pronosticon Anni 1483 Currentis.

Valerio Evangelisti was an Italian writer of science fiction, fantasy, historical novels, and horror. He is known mainly for his series of novels featuring the inquisitor Nicolas Eymerich and for the Nostradamus trilogy, all bestsellers translated into many languages. Some of his books are seen as part of the body of literary works known as the New Italian Epic.

Giovanni Battista Morgagni was an Italian anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua.

Enrico Brizzi is an Italian writer. He is best known for his debut novel Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band, which is so far the only one translated into English (along with other 23 languages). It also inspired the same name Italian movie in 1996.

Silvia Avallone is an Italian novelist and poet. Her first novel, Acciaio (2010; published in English as Swimming to Elba) won the Premio Campiello and was a finalist for the Strega Prize. It was adapted to a film of the same name by Stefano Mordini, and into a song and a play. She has published two more novels, and also...

Pope Urban III served as head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 November 1185 until his death in 1187. A native of Milan, Urban III was elected pope at a time of intense conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, particularly with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. His brief pontificate was dominated by disputes...

Giovanni "Gianni" Cuperlo is an Italian politician, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and former President of the Democratic Party.

Franco "Bifo" Berardi is an Italian Marxist philosopher, theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a number of essays and speeches.

Pier Vittorio Tondelli was an Italian writer who wrote a small but influential body of work. He was born in Correggio, a small town in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy and died in nearby Reggio Emilia because of AIDS. Tondelli enjoyed modest success as a writer but often encountered trouble with censors for his use of homosexual themes in his...

Patrizio Bianchi is an Italian economist and academic, current chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Education, Growth and Equality. He served as minister of education in the Draghi Cabinet from 2021 to 2022.

Mauro Forghieri was an Italian mechanical engineer, best known for his work as a Formula One racing car designer with Scuderia Ferrari during the 1960s and 1970s. He is credited with introducing the first designed rear wings to Formula One at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. He oversaw numerous technical developments during his tenure at Ferrari, including the creation of...

Chiara Gamberale is an Italian writer, television and radio presenter.

Matteo Piantedosi is an Italian prefect and civil servant serving as the Minister of the Interior in the Meloni Cabinet since 22 October 2022. An independent politician, he is close to Lega leader Matteo Salvini.

Peter Lombard was an Italian scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of the Sentences, which became the standard medieval textbook of theology.

Pope Gregory VIII, born Alberto di Morra, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States for two months in 1187. Becoming Pope after a long diplomatic career as Apostolic Chancellor, he was notable in his brief reign for reconciling the Papacy with the estranged Holy Roman Empire and for initiating the Third Crusade.

Álvaro de Figueroa y Torres, 1st Count of Romanones was a Spanish politician and businessman. He served as Prime Minister three times between 1912 and 1918, president of the Senate, president of the Congress of Deputies, Mayor of Madrid and many times as cabinet minister. He belonged to the Liberal Party. Romanones, who built an extensive political network, exerted a...

Felice Orsini was an Italian revolutionary and leader of the Carbonari who tried to assassinate Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.

Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and was known as a structural engineer and architect and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete, especially with numerous notable thin shell structures worldwide.

Milena Gabanelli is an Italian journalist and television host, better known in Italy for the investigative journalism Television program Report. The program is currently broadcast by the Italian public TV channel Rai 3.

Veronica Yoko Plebani is an Italian Paralympic athlete who has competed in snowboarding, paracanoeing and paratriathlon. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in Paratriathlon, Women's PTS2, winning a bronze medal.

Jacopone da Todi O.F.M. was an Italian Franciscan friar from Umbria. He wrote several laude (songs in praise of the Lord) in the local vernacular. He was an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of the earliest scholars who dramatised Gospel subjects.

Lodovico Giovanni Manin was a Venetian politician, patrician, and the 120th and last Doge of Venice. He governed the Venetian Republic from 9 March 1789 until its fall on 12 May 1797, when he was forced to abdicate by Napoleon Bonaparte. He officially left the Doge's Palace 2 days later on 14 May 1797.

Peter of Verona, also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century Italian Catholic priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was killed by an assassin, and was canonised as a Catholic saint 11 months after his death — the fastest canonisation in history.

Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, criminologist, poet and socialist politician.

Franco Corelli was an Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian and French repertories, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, passionate singing and remarkable performances. Dubbed the "prince of tenors", audiences were enchanted by...

Emilio Solfrizzi is an Italian actor and comedian.

Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature film Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter). Her films have historical concerns. In addition to feature films and documentaries, she has also directed opera.

Giorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and intellectual.

Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda was a Spanish humanist, philosopher, and theologian of the Spanish Renaissance. He is mainly known for his participation in a famous debate with Bartolomé de las Casas in Valladolid, Spain, in 1550–1551. The debate centered on the legitimacy of the conquest and colonization of America by the Spanish Empire and on the treatment of the Native...

Pope Innocent IX, born Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 October to 30 December 1591.

Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva" (goddess of wisdom), she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was the first salaried female teacher in a university....

Antonio de Nebrija was a Spanish humanist. He wrote poetry, commented on literary works, and encouraged the study of classical languages and literature, but his most important contributions were in the fields of grammar and lexicography. Nebrija was the author of the Spanish Grammar (Gramática de la lengua castellana, 1492) and the first dictionary of the Spanish language (1495). His...

Marcello Malpighi was an Italian biologist and physician, who is referred to as the "founder of microscopical anatomy, histology and father of physiology and embryology". Malpighi's name is borne by several physiological features related to the biological excretory system, such as the Malpighian corpuscles and Malpighian pyramids of the kidneys and the Malpighian tubule system of insects. The splenic lymphoid...

Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an Italian-French mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and engineer. Cassini was born in Perinaldo, near Imperia, at that time in the County of Nice, part of the Savoyard state. He discovered four satellites of Saturn and noted the division of its rings, later named the Cassini Division. Cassini was also the first of his family to begin work...

Ruggero Leoncavallo (23 April 1857 – 9 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Throughout his career, Leoncavallo produced numerous operas and songs, but it is his 1892 opera Pagliacci that remained his lasting contribution, despite attempts to escape the shadow of his greatest success.

Silvia Federici is an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and Marxist feminist activist based in New York. She is considered one of the leading theoreticians in Marxist feminist theory, women's history, political philosophy, and the history and theory of the commons. Her most famous book, Caliban and the Witch (2004), has been translated into numerous languages and adopted in college courses.

Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV made him a cardinal in 1446 after successful trips to Italy and Germany, and when Eugene died the next year, Parentucelli was elected in his place. He took his...

Pope Alexander III, born Roland (Italian: Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181.

Pope Gregory XII, born Angelo Corraro, Corario, or Correr, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 November 1406 to 4 July 1415. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was opposed by the Avignon claimant Benedict XIII and the Pisan claimants Alexander V and John XXIII. Gregory XII wanted to unify the Church and voluntarily resigned in 1415 to end...

Andrea Roncato is an Italian actor, comedian and television personality.

Manfred was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over the Kingdom of Sicily on behalf of his nephew Conradin in 1254. As regent he subdued rebellions in the kingdom, until in 1258 he usurped Conradin's rule. After an...

Ivanoe Bonomi was an Italian politician and journalist who served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1921 to 1922 and again from 1944 to 1945.

Stefano Domenicali is an Italian motorsport executive and the current CEO of Formula One Group since 2021.

Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian Catholic priest (for which he was nicknamed Abbé Spallanzani), biologist and physiologist who made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions, animal reproduction, and animal echolocation. His research on biogenesis paved the way for the downfall of the theory of spontaneous generation, a prevailing idea at the time that organisms develop from inanimate...

Anna Maria Bernini is an Italian politician, lawyer, and university professor. She has been elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic, and has served as Minister of European Affairs. She is currently Minister of University and Research.

Pope Gregory IX was head of the Catholic Church and the ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the Decretales and instituting the Papal Inquisition, in response to the failures of the episcopal inquisitions established during the time of Pope Lucius III, by means of the papal bull...

Pier Luigi Bersani is an Italian politician and was Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD), Italy's leading centre-left party, from 2009 to 2013. Bersani was Minister of Industry, Commerce and Craftmanship from 1996 to 1999, President of Emilia-Romagna from 1993 to 1996, Minister of Transport from 1999 to 2001, and Minister of Economic Development from 2006 to 2008.

Pier Ferdinando Casini is an Italian politician. He served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 2001 to 2006.

Raul Gardini was an Italian agri-business and chemicals tycoon. In 1980, he took the helm of his father-in-law Serafino Ferruzzi's family business, starting an aggressive campaign that led to the acquisition of the French sugar and paper company Beghin-Say SA, turning Ferruzzi into Europe's leading sugar producer. In 1985, Gardini focused his interest on chemicals and bought stock in the...

Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the greatest Italian decadent poets.

Rula Jebreal is a Palestinian foreign policy analyst, journalist, novelist, and screenwriter with dual Israeli and Italian citizenship. She was a commentator for MSNBC.

Pope Gregory XIII was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day.

Francesco Guccini is an Italian singer-songwriter, writer, and actor. During the five decades of his music career he has recorded 16 studio albums and collections, and 6 live albums. He is also a writer, having published autobiographic and noir novels, and a comics writer. Guccini also worked as actor, soundtrack composer, lexicographer and dialectologist.

Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher who studied animal electricity. In 1780, using a frog, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs' legs twitched when struck by an electrical spark. This was an early study of bioelectricity, following experiments by John Walsh and Hugh Williamson.

Pope Pius V, OP, born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572. He was an inquisitor and is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the implementation of...

Pope Clement V was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1305 until his death. He is remembered for suppressing the order of the Knights Templar and allowing the execution of many of its members. A Frenchman by birth, Clement moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, ushering in the period known as the Avignon...

Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist, anti-fascist politician and an opposition leader, who was the secretary of the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU) from 1922 to 1924. Born in the province of Rovigo in Fratta Polesine, he was a militant socialist from a young age, joining the youth wing of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) in 1898 and then the main...

Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He is considered the founder of European cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius.

Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents", L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L'Eclisse (1962); the English-language film Blowup (1966); and the multilingual The Passenger (1975). His films have been described as "enigmatic and intricate mood pieces" that feature elusive plots, striking visual composition, and...

Pope Innocent III was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death in 1216.

Pope Boniface VIII was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 until his death in 1303. The Caetani family was of baronial origin with connections to the papacy. He succeeded Pope Celestine V, who had abdicated from the papal throne. Boniface spent his early pontificate abroad in diplomatic roles.

Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator, and television personality. He is president of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. Appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Sgarbi is also a columnist for il Giornale and works as an art critic for...

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian poet, writer, film director, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist and a political figure. He is known for directing The Gospel According to St. Matthew, the films from Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights)...

Pope Alexander VI was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess, was an Italian radio-frequency engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to his being largely credited as the inventor of radio and sharing the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."...

Pierluigi Collina is an Italian former football referee. He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998 to 2003.

Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English cleric and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his death in 1170. He is known for his conflict...

Pablo Iglesias Turrión is a Spanish political scientist and former politician. During his political career, he served as Second Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda of the Government of Spain from 2020 to 2021. He also served as Member of the Congress of Deputies from 2016 to 2021, representing Madrid. Iglesias is a co-founder...

Elena Ethel "Elly" Schlein is an Italian politician who has been serving as the secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) since 12 March 2023. She is a member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies and was previously the vice president of Emilia-Romagna and a member of the European Parliament. On 26 February 2023, she was elected as the new Democratic Party...

Pope John XXIII was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963.

Ulisse Aldrovandi was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history studies. He is usually referred to, especially in older scientific literature in Latin, as Aldrovandus; his name in Italian is equally given as Aldroandi.

Girolamo Fracastoro was an Italian physician, poet, and scholar in mathematics, geography and astronomy. Fracastoro subscribed to the philosophy of atomism, and rejected appeals to hidden causes in scientific investigation. His studies of the mode of syphilis transmission are an early example of epidemiology.

Pope Pius IV, born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death, in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered itself a branch of the House of Medici and used the same coat of arms. Although modern historians have found no proof of this connection,...

Prince Jeremi Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, nicknamed Hammer on the Cossacks, was a notable member of the aristocracy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prince of Vyshnivets, Lubny and Khorol in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the father of the future King of Poland, Michael I.

Carlo Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy, the United States, France, and Canada. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the Centre de Physique Théorique of Marseille in France, a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute, core member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy of Western University in Canada, and Fractal Faculty...

Carlo Ginzburg is an Italian historian and a proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for Il formaggio e i vermi (1976, English title: The Cheese and the Worms), which examined the beliefs of an Italian heretic, Menocchio, from Montereale Valcellina.

Valerio Massimo Manfredi is an Italian historian, writer, essayist, archaeologist and journalist.

Bartolus de Saxoferrato was an Italian law professor and one of the most prominent continental jurists of Medieval Roman Law. He belonged to the school known as the commentators or postglossators. The admiration of later generations of civil lawyers is shown by the adage nemo bonus íurista nisi bartolista—"no one is a good lawyer unless he is a Bartolist" (i.e....

Pope Urban VII, born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was head of the Catholic Church, and ruler of the Papal States from 15 to 27 September 1590. His papacy was the shortest recognized in history.

Pope Paul V, born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a member of the papal Accademia dei Lincei and supported his discoveries. In 1616, Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Robert Bellarmine to inform Galileo that...

Pope Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 January 1592 to his death in March 1605.

Pope Innocent IV, born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 June 1243 to his death in 1254.

Giovanni Pico dei conti della Mirandola e della Concordia, known as Pico della Mirandola, was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity...

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. The publication of Copernicus's model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican...

Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro was an Italian mathematician. He is most famous as the discoverer of tensor calculus.

Pope Gregory XV, born Alessandro Ludovisi, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 February 1621 until his death in 1623. He is notable for founding the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, an organization tasked with overseeing the spread of Catholicism and missionary work. Gregory XV was also responsible for the...

Georgius Agricola was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empire, he was broadly educated, but took a particular interest in the mining and refining of metals. He was the first to drop the Arabic definite article al-, exclusively writing chymia and chymista in...

Guy de Chauliac, also called Guido or Guigo de Cauliaco (c. 1300 – 25 July 1368), was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin, titled Chirurgia Magna. It was translated into many other languages (including Middle English) and widely read by physicians in late medieval Europe.

Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor, known as el Papa Luna or Pope Luna, was an Aragonese nobleman who was antipope with the regnal name Benedict XIII during the Western Schism.

Francis Petrarch, born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest humanists.