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This paper focuses on the developments experienced by natural philosophy and mathematics in Bologna during a period of rapid change in the relationship of the various disciplines in the faculty of Arts and Medicine. Insisting that university science was characterized by a greater vitality than the traditional historiography usually concedes, this examination first offers some comments about the place of natural philosophy in the Italian universities, then discusses more specifically the University of Bologna. Changes that took place in the funding of natural philosophy, in the designation of astronomy and mathematics, and in the cycle of books read for natural science are all examined in turn and are complemented by a series of tables.

This article studies and contextualizes the attempts to reform the University of Bologna in the decades around 1583. On the basis of little-known documents, it shows how Rome exploited a directive of university reform from the Council of Trent to gain increasing power over the running of the studio and also the city of Bologna. The request for a report by the Congregation of the Council in 1583, undertaken most likely at Gregory XIII's request, laid the foundation for papal control, which was facilitated by overlapping and poorly defined lines of authority with respect to the university. Tensions internal to Bologna and the studio are also considered inasmuch as they affected the city's relationship with Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]