Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (english: Normal High School College of Pisa) is with no doubt the most elitary of the Italian universities' world. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris. Since its foundation, it admitted its students by strong selection, and its main goal was, during that period, essentially to form the best college and high school teachers. Recognized as "national university" in 1862, one year after the Italian independence, and named during that period as "Normal School of the Kingdom of Italy", it then obtained its administrative authonomy in 1936, somehow surviving to the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Since that period, the Normal School became a entity separate from the University of Pisa, with complete administrative, didactic and regulative freedom.
The Normal School's fields of study are historically two: philosophic and scientific. Currently the college offers the classes as follows:
Philosophic & Literatural Related
- Ancient History and Classical Philology
- Italian Literature and Linguistics
- Art History and Archaeology
- History and Paleography
- Philosophy
Scientific Related
- Biological Sciences
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Computer Science
- Mathematics
- Physics (Improvement Course)
- Physics of Condensate (Improvement Course)
- Molecolar Biophysics (Improvement Course)
- Mathematics (Improvement Course)
- Mathematics for Finance and Business Technologies (Improvement Course)
- Neurobiology (Improvement Course)
- Molecolar Biology (Improvement Course)
- Chemistry (Improvement Course)
The Normal School is still located to its first historical building, called Palazzo della Carovana, at Piazza dei Cavalieri, into the medieval downtown of Pisa.
It follows a list of some of the most important alumni who have done their studies at the Normal School:
- Enrico Fermi, physic & Nobel prize winner
- Carlo Rubbia, physic & Nobel prize winner
- Giosuè Carducci, poet & Nobel prize winner
- Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, politician, currently President of the Republic of Italy
- Giovanni Gronchi, politician, former President of the Republic of Italy
- Giovanni Gentile, politician
Related links
Scuola Normale Superiore - Official Site (in Italian)