The University of Bologna

Bologna had the largest faculty of Italy's 16 universities in 15th and 16th centuries. Founded by a collective union or university of students, it had a bottom-up organization. Theology was mostly taught outside the universities in Italy, at separate schools run by religious orders. Rome came to exert considerable control over Bologna with Pope meddling in professorial appointments. Venice even tried to force all Venetian citizens who wanted to obtain a degree to do so in Padua.