University of Catania

The University of Catania, in Italian the Università degli Studi di Catania, is a historic public university in the port city of Catania on the island of Sicily, and it is the oldest university in Sicily, the thirteenth oldest in Italy and the twenty-ninth oldest in the world.卡塔尼亚大学（意大利语 Università degli Studi di Catania）是坐落在西西里岛港口城市卡塔尼亚的一所历史悠久的公立大学，也是西西里最古老的大学、意大利第13古老与世界上第29古老的大学。

Founded by royal charter on 19 October 1434 and confirmed by a papal bull in 1444, the institution grew from a medieval Studium Generale into the principal university of Sicily, whose teaching has continued almost without interruption across nearly six centuries.该校以1434年10月19日的皇家特许状创办，并于1444年经教宗诏书确认，由中世纪的通识学府（Studium Generale）发展为西西里的首要大学，近六个世纪以来教学几乎未曾中断。

With more than 40,000 enrolled students it is the largest university in Sicily and a defining institution of the island's eastern provinces, and in the QS World University Rankings 2027 it is placed in the 851-900 band of the global table.该校在校生超过40,000人，是西西里规模最大的大学，也是该岛东部诸省的决定性学府，在2027年QS世界大学排名中列入全球第851-900档。

History

• The university was founded by King Alfonso of Sicily on 19 October 1434, a precise date fixed in the royal charter that formally established the Studium Generale at Catania.该校由西西里国王阿方索于1434年10月19日创办，皇家特许状明确确定了卡塔尼亚通识学府的成立之日。

• A charter was granted only after two royal councillors, Adamo Asmundo and Battista Platamone, persuaded the reluctant king in 1434 to accept a Studium Generale in Catania.只有在两位皇家顾问阿达莫·阿斯蒙多与巴蒂斯塔·普拉塔莫内于1434年说服犹豫的国王之后，卡塔尼亚才获准设立通识学府并颁得特许状。

• Papal recognition arrived ten years after the royal foundation, when Pope Eugene IV confirmed the Catania studium by a bull issued on 18 April 1444.教宗承认比皇家创办晚了十年，教宗尤金四世以1444年4月18日颁布的诏书正式确认了卡塔尼亚的学府。

• Alfonso V is said to have founded the studium to compensate Catania after the Sicilian capital was moved from Catania to Palermo, restoring prestige to a city that had recently hosted the royal court.据说阿方索五世创办此学是为了在首府从卡塔尼亚迁往巴勒莫之后补偿该城，为这座新近设有皇家宫廷的城市重振声望。

• The actual teaching activity of the university began the following year in 1445, when it opened with a modest establishment of only six professors and ten students.大学真正的教学活动于次年即1445年展开，创办之初的建制仅有六名教授与十名学生。

• From 1445 onward the teaching was organised into four original faculties, namely Medicine, Philosophy, Canon and Civil Law, and Theology, a structure that defined its early curriculum.自1445年起教学被组织为最初的四大学院，即医学、哲学、教会法与民法以及神学，这一架构界定了其早期课程。

• Lessons were first held in a rented building on the (Piazza del Duomo), beside the Cathedral of Sant'Agata, before the university eventually found its permanent seat.最初授课地点位于主教座堂广场（Piazza del Duomo）一处紧邻圣阿加塔大教堂的租来的建筑内，其后大学才落定永久校址。

• After the great earthquake of 1693 the university relocated to its present site, and by the late 1690s lessons had moved to the Palazzo dell'Università, which remains the office of the rector today.1693年大地震后大学迁至现址，17世纪90年代末教学迁入大学教授府（Palazzo dell'Università），该建筑至今仍是校长办公之处。

• The first degree awarded by the young university went to Antonio Mantello, a student from the nearby city of Syracuse, in 1449, only four years after teaching began.这所初创大学授予的第一个学位于1449年颁给来自邻近城市叙拉古的学生安东尼奥·曼泰洛，时值开学后仅四年。

• Throughout the 1500s the institution conferred roughly twenty to twenty-five degrees each year, a steady and documented output recorded across the course of the sixteenth century.整个16世纪（约自1500年起）该校每年授予约二十至二十五个学位，是贯穿该世纪并留有记载的稳定产出。

• From the 16th century onward the university was commonly referred to as the Siculorum Gymnasium, the Latin title under which many of its early modern records survive.自16世纪起该校通常被称为西西里学园（Siculorum Gymnasium），其近代早期记录多以此拉丁名称存世。

• It bore the formal title Studium Generale because after 1434 it was the only Sicilian entity empowered to grant degrees equal to those of the old studia of the Salamanca University, the Valladolid University and the Bologna University.它获称正式的通识学府，是因为自1434年后它是西西里唯一有权授予与萨拉曼卡大学、巴利亚多利德大学、博洛尼亚大学等古老学府同等学位的机构。

• That rare privilege spread envy among the other Sicilian cities, which in culture and tradition did not consider themselves inferior to Catania but lacked an equivalent charter.这一罕见的特权招致其他西西里城市的嫉妒，它们在文化与传统上自认并不逊于卡塔尼亚，却缺少同等的特许状。

• In its early centuries the university was administered by the Senate of Catania under the oversight of the Viceroy of Sicily, with the bishop of Catania serving ex officio as Great Chancellor.早期数个世纪里该校由西西里总督监管下的卡塔尼亚参议院管理，卡塔尼亚主教以当然身份兼任大校长。

• A reform operated by the Viceroy in 1679 shifted authority decisively toward the bishop, who then controlled the appointment of lecturers, the admission of freshmen and the students' curriculum.总督于1679年推行的改革将权力果断转向主教，此后主教掌控讲师的聘任、新生的录取与学生的课程。

• The growing ascendancy of the bishop after 1679 led to repeated and sometimes bitter conflicts between the civil authorities of the Senate and the religious authorities of the curia.1679年后主教权势日盛，致使参议院的世俗当局与教廷的宗教当局之间反复爆发冲突，有时甚至尖锐。

• From 1818 the high office of Great Chancellor was assigned to the president of the Great Civil Court instead of to the bishop, finally ending a long ecclesiastical monopoly.自1818年起大校长这一高位改由大民事法院院长担任而非主教，终于终结了教会对这一职位长久的垄断。

• In 1934 the university celebrated its five-hundredth anniversary in the distinguished presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy, who came to Catania for the occasion.1934年该校在意大利国王维托里奥·埃马努埃莱三世亲临卡塔尼亚的显赫见证下庆祝创办五百周年。

• In 1984 the institution marked its 550th anniversary, half a millennium and a half after the original royal charter of Alfonso V.1984年该校庆祝创办550周年，距阿方索五世最初的皇家特许状已逾五个半世纪。

• Its long history sets it firmly among the medieval universities of Europe, predating most modern institutions by several centuries and outlasting many that have since disappeared.其悠久历史使它稳稳跻身欧洲中世纪大学之列，比多数现代院校早出数个世纪，并延续至今而许多同时代学府早已湮没。

Academics

• Following the Italian higher education reform introduced by law 240 of 2010 and adopted in its new statute, the University of Catania deactivated its old faculties and reorganized its teaching into a system of departments.依照2010年第240号法律所推行、并被写入新章程的意大利高等教育改革，卡塔尼亚大学撤销了旧有学院建制，并将教学重组为学系体系。

• The university now has seventeen departments, the single Faculty of Medicine, and two special didactic units, so its academic map differs sharply from the four faculties it held in 1445.该校现有17个学系、独立的医学院以及两个特别教学单位，其学科版图与1445年的四大学院迥然不同。

• Alongside its departments the Catania School of Medicine, the historic Faculty of Medicine, continues to educate physicians in direct descent from the medical faculty chartered at the foundation in 1445.在各学系之外，卡塔尼亚医学院延续了1445年创办时特许的医学传统，持续培养医师。

• Two special didactic units operate in the decentralized offices at the Ragusa School of Modern Languages and the Syracuse School of Architecture, managing full degree programmes away from Catania itself.两个特别教学单位设在分散校区，即拉古萨的现代语言学院与叙拉古的建筑学院，在卡塔尼亚本地以外开设完整的学位课程。

• A further didactic unit is the Catania School of Excellence, the Scuola Superiore di Catania, a higher education centre conceived in 1998 to run alongside the ordinary departments.另一个教学单位是卡塔尼亚卓越学院即高等学院（Scuola Superiore di Catania），一所于1998年构想、与常规学系并行的高等教育中心。

• The Scuola Superiore di Catania was created in 1998 to select the best young minds and to offer them a course of studies combining analysis, research and experimentation beyond the normal curriculum.高等学院于1998年创设，旨在选拔最优秀的青年才俊，为其提供超出常规课程、融分析、研究与实验于一体的学业。

• The original four faculties of 1445, Medicine, Philosophy, Canon and Civil Law, and Theology, set the scholarly range that the modern departments still cover five centuries later.1445年的最初四大学院——医学、哲学、教会法与民法、神学——奠定了五个世纪后今日学系仍覆盖的学术领域。

• Its departments span agriculture, food and the environment, general medico-surgical sciences, economics and enterprise, physics and astronomy, jurisprudence, civil engineering and architecture, and electrical, electronic and computer engineering.其学系横跨农业食品与环境、普通医药外科科学、经济与企业管理、物理与天文、法律、土木与建筑工程，以及电子电气与计算机工程。

• Further departments cover mathematics and computer science, clinical and experimental medicine, biological, geological and environmental sciences, biomedical sciences and biotechnology, and the chemical sciences.另有学系涵盖数学与计算机科学、临床与实验医学、生物地质与环境科学、生物医学与生物技术，以及化学科学。

• Other teaching units include pharmacy and health sciences, the sciences of education, medical and surgical sciences carrying the historic name of G. F. Ingrassia, political and social sciences, and the humanities.其他教学单位还包括药学与健康科学、教育学、以 G. F. Ingrassia 命名的医学外科科学、政治与社会学，以及人文学科。

• The departments are charged not only with the traditional task of scientific research but also with the organization and management of every one of the university's educational activities.各学系不仅承担传统的科学研究任务，还负责该校全部教学活动每一项的组织与管理。

• Its academic portfolio deliberately pairs the humanities and law with medicine, engineering and the natural sciences, a breadth inherited from its four original medieval faculties.其学科组合有意将人文与法律同医学、工程和自然科学并举，这种广度承自其最初的中世纪四大学院。

• In the sixteenth century the university awarded about twenty to twenty-five degrees a year, a measurable and continuous record of its sustained teaching output in the early modern period.16世纪该校每年授予约二十至二十五个学位，是其在近代早期持续教学产出的可计量而连贯的记录。

• Napoleone Ferrara, the 2010 Lasker laureate, is a 1981 graduate of the medical faculty, a direct link between the school's centuries-old teaching and modern biomedical research.2010年拉斯克奖得主拿破仑·费拉拉是1981年医学院毕业生，将该校数百年教学与当代生物医学研究直接相连。

• Mario Pieri supervised six doctoral students with dissertations in algebraic geometry while teaching descriptive, projective and higher geometry at Catania from 1900 to 1908.马里奥·皮耶里在1900至1908年于卡塔尼亚讲授射影几何、画法几何与高次几何期间，指导了六名以代数几何为题的博士生。

• The degree granted to Antonio Mantello in 1449 established a graduating tradition that has produced scholars such as Guido Fubini, the mathematician, in later centuries.1449年授予安东尼奥·曼泰洛的学位开创了一项毕业传统，在随后数个世纪里培养出如数学家圭多·富比尼这样的学者。

• Guido Fubini, author of Fubini's theorem in measure and integration, held a chair of mathematics at Catania in the early years of the 20th century.在测度与积分领域提出富比尼定理的作者圭多·富比尼，曾在20世纪初担任卡塔尼亚的数学讲席。

Campus

• The university stands in Catania at latitude 37.49223 and longitude 15.07041, in a coastal city that has long been recognized as Sicily's traditional centre of learning.该校坐落在卡塔尼亚，坐标为北纬37.49223、东经15.07041，所在城市长久以来被视为西西里传统的学术中心。

• Its historic and administrative seat is the Palazzo dell'Università, occupied since the late 1690s and still serving as the office of the rector of the university today.其历史与行政校址是大学教授府（Palazzo dell'Università），自17世纪90年代末启用，至今仍作为校长办公之处。

• Before that permanent seat the university taught beside the Cathedral of Sant'Agata on the Piazza del Duomo, the religious and civic heart of Catania.在有了这处永久校址之前，该校曾在主教座堂广场的圣阿加塔大教堂旁授课，此处是卡塔尼亚的宗教与市民生活的核心。

• The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Catania, the university's botanical garden, was founded in 1858 and remains both a teaching collection and a working research institute.卡塔尼亚大学植物园（Orto Botanico）创办于1858年，至今仍兼作教学标本收集地与运作的研究机构。

• The Catania Astrophysical Observatory, the university's observatory, was founded in 1890 in the same decade that Annibale Ricco was named its first director.卡塔尼亚天体物理天文台是该校的天文台，创办于1890年，同一年安尼巴莱·里科被任命为首任台长。

• That observatory has hosted infrared and planetary work, continuing lines opened by Annibale Ricco from 1890 and renewed by Paolo Maffei during his directorship from 1975 to 1980.该天文台曾开展红外与行星研究，延续安尼巴莱·里科自1890年开辟的方向，并在保罗·马费伊1975至1980年的台长任期内得以革新。

• Decentralized teaching extends the campus beyond Catania itself to the hill town of Ragusa for modern languages and to the baroque city of Syracuse for architecture.分散办学将校园延伸至卡塔尼亚本地之外，在山城拉古萨设现代语言教学、在巴洛克名城叙拉古设建筑教学。

• With over 40,000 enrolled students the Catania campus is by far the largest university site in Sicily, serving the whole of the island's eastern region.凭借超过40,000名在校生，卡塔尼亚校区是西西里规模最大的大学校园，服务于全岛东部地区。

• After the devastating earthquake of 1693 the rebuilt university took its present place within the city, and that relocation shaped the campus layout still visible today.1693年毁灭性地震后，重建的大学落定于城中的现址，这次迁徙塑造了至今可见的校园格局。

Reputation

• In the QS World University Rankings 2027 the University of Catania is placed in the 851-900 band, the ranking position on which this entry is based.在2027年QS世界大学排名中，卡塔尼亚大学列入第851-900档，本条目即据此档位撰写。

• The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027 place the university in the 551-600 band of the global table, a stronger showing than its overall QS position.2027年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名将该校列入全球第551-600档，较其QS总榜名次更为靠前。

• In the US News Best Global Universities ranking for 2026-2027 the institution is ranked at number 466 worldwide, its best placing among the four league tables consulted here.在2026-2027年度US News全球最佳大学排名中该校位列全球第466名，是本文所查四份榜单中它最好的名次。

• The Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Ranking placed Catania in the 401-500 band of its 2026 edition, the strongest of the four tables for the university.软科世界大学学术排名2026年版将卡塔尼亚列入第401-500档，是四份榜单中该校名次最高的一份。

• Its standing rests less on recent growth than on deep roots, as the 13th oldest university in Italy and the 29th oldest in the world, founded decades before the printing press reached the peninsula.其地位更多源于深厚根基而非近期增长，它是意大利第13古老、世界第29古老的大学，创办远早于印刷术传入半岛的年代。

• Measurable institutional output is reflected in seventeen departments, a dedicated medical faculty and two founding institutes, the botanical garden of 1858 and the astrophysical observatory of 1890.可计量的机构产出见于17个学系、专门的医学院与两个建校研究所，即1858年的植物园与1890年的天体物理天文台。

• No Nobel, Turing or Fields-level affiliation is recorded for the institution, whose highest individual honour in the consulted material is the 2010 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award won by Napoleone Ferrara.所阅材料中未见该校有诺贝尔奖、图灵奖或菲尔兹奖级的人物关联，其最高的个人荣誉是拿破仑·费拉拉荣获的2010年拉斯克-迪贝基临床医学研究奖。

• Its astronomical renown is measurable in the sky itself, with the lunar crater Ricco, the asteroid 22495 Fubini, the asteroid 18462 Ricco and the asteroid 10387 Bepicolombo all named for Catania scholars.其天文声望可在星空中直接度量，月球的里科环形山、小行星22495富比尼、小行星18462里科与小行星10387贝皮科伦博皆以卡塔尼亚学者命名。

• Its four-world-table profile, QS 851-900, Times Higher Education 551-600, US News 466 and Shanghai Ranking 401-500, shows a university that ranks more strongly on research-focused tables than on reputation-weighted ones.该校在四份世界榜上的画像，即QS第851-900、泰晤士高等教育第551-600、US News第466、软科第401-500，显示它在科研导向的榜单上比在声望权重较高的榜单上排名更前。

Student life

• As the university with over 40,000 students in Sicily, Catania carries by far the largest concentration of young people in higher education anywhere on the island.作为西西里拥有超过40,000名学生的大学，卡塔尼亚集中了全岛最多的接受高等教育的青年。

• The Scuola Superiore di Catania, created in 1998, gives a small group of selected students an enriched course combining analysis, research and experimentation beyond the standard curriculum.1998年创设的高等学院为少数遴选学生提供超出常规课程的强化课业，融合分析、研究与实验。

• No separate official motto appears in the consulted material, though the poet Mario Rapisardi, who taught there in the 1870s, left a personal creed to love truth more than glory, more than peace, more than life.所阅材料中未见独立的官方校训，尽管曾在1870年代任教的诗人马里奥·拉皮萨尔迪留下了「爱人真甚于爱荣耀、甚于爱安宁、甚于爱生命」的个人箴言。

• The university marks its anniversary against the original 1434 charter, having celebrated five centuries in 1934 with King Vittorio Emanuele III and 550 years in 1984 as landmark occasions.该校以最初的1434年特许状纪念校庆，将1934年维托里奥·埃马努埃莱三世见证的五百周年与1984年的550周年视为里程碑。

• Students in the natural and astronomical sciences train at the botanical garden founded in 1858 and at the astrophysical observatory founded in 1890 rather than in classrooms alone.自然科学与天文方向的学生在1858年创办的植物园与1890年创办的天体物理天文台接受训练，而非仅在课堂之内。

• For those pursuing modern languages or architecture, student life continues at the long-established decentralized sites of Ragusa and Syracuse.攻读现代语言或建筑的学生，其校园生活在历史悠久的拉古萨与叙拉古分设校区延续。

• A tradition of graduation runs unbroken from the first degree awarded to Antonio Mantello in 1449 down to the large graduating cohorts of the modern university.授予学位的传统自1449年颁给安东尼奥·曼泰洛的第一个学位起一脉相承，延续至现代大学大批的毕业生。

Notable people

• Giovanni Verga, the leading Italian realist writer formed at Catania, is the author of the stories and novels Cavalleria Rusticana and I Malavoglia.在卡塔尼亚成长、意大利现实主义文学的巨擘乔瓦尼·维尔加，是《乡村骑士》与《马焦家族》等短篇与长篇小说的作者。

• Luigi Capuana, a writer, journalist, literary critic and theorist, taught literature at the university in the early years of the 20th century.作家、记者、文学批评家与理论家路易吉·卡普阿纳在20世纪初的数年于该校教授文学。

• Mario Rapisardi, the Italian poet and translator, taught at the university through the 1870s and left the celebrated creed to love truth above all else.意大利诗人与翻译家马里奥·拉皮萨尔迪在1870年代于该校任教，并留下了「真爱真理高于一切」的著名箴言。

• Santo Mazzarino was a leading 20th-century historian of ancient Rome and ancient Greece closely associated with the university.桑托·马扎里诺是与该校关系密切的20世纪古典罗马与古希腊研究的杰出史学家。

• Vitaliano Brancati, an Italian novelist and screenwriter, won the prestigious 1950 Bagutta Prize.意大利小说家与编剧维塔利亚诺·布朗卡蒂荣获享有声望的1950年巴古塔奖。

• Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida, a politician and journalist, was elected the first Socialist mayor of Catania in 1902.政治家兼记者朱塞佩·德·费利切·朱弗里达于1902年当选为卡塔尼亚首任社会党籍市长。

• Elémire Zolla, an essayist, philosopher and historian of religion, taught linguistics at Catania in the late 1960s.随笔作家、哲学家与宗教史家埃莱米雷·佐拉在1960年代末于卡塔尼亚教授语言学。

• Vincenzo Ortoleva served as a professor of classical philology, while Raoul Vecchio, an engineer and architect, also emerged from the university.温琴佐·奥尔托莱瓦曾任古典语文学教授，工程师兼建筑师拉乌尔·韦基奥同样出自该校。

• Napoleone Ferrara, a distinguished molecular biologist, won the 2010 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award as a 1981 graduate of the Faculty of Medicine.杰出的分子生物学家拿破仑·费拉拉作为1981年医学院毕业生，荣获2010年拉斯克-迪贝基临床医学研究奖。

• Giuseppe Colombo, a physicist, astronomer and NASA consultant and an early proponent of tethered satellites, has the Colombo Gap, a 150-kilometre gap in the C ring of Saturn, named after him.物理学家、天文学家与美国宇航局顾问朱塞佩·科隆博是系绳卫星的早期倡导者，土星C环中长约150公里的科隆博缝隙以他命名。

• Annibale Ricco was named Chair of Astrophysics in 1890, became the first director of the Catania Observatory and served as Chancellor of the university from 1898 to 1900.安尼巴莱·里科于1890年出任天体物理学讲席，成为卡塔尼亚天文台首任台长，并于1898至1900年担任大学校长。

• Paolo Maffei, director of the Catania Observatory from 1975 to 1980 and a pioneer of infrared astronomy, discovered the galaxies Maffei 1 and Maffei 2 in 1967.保罗·马费伊是卡塔尼亚天文台1975至1980年的台长、红外天文学的先驱，于1967年发现了马费伊1与马费伊2两个星系。

• Guido Fubini, professor of mathematics at Catania in the early 20th century, is honoured in the asteroid 22495 Fubini named after his theorem of integration.圭多·富比尼在20世纪初任卡塔尼亚数学教授，以其积分定理命名的小行星22495富比尼即为纪念他。

• Giuseppe Mercalli, professor of geology at the university in the late 1880s, invented the Mercalli Scale still used to rate the intensity of earthquakes.朱塞佩·梅尔卡利在1880年代末任该校地质学教授，其发明的梅尔卡利震级至今仍用于衡量地震烈度。

• Remo Ruffini, an assistant professor at Princeton University from 1971 to 1974, was professor of theoretical physics at Catania from 1976 to 1978 and was named Space Scientist of the Year in 1992.雷莫·鲁菲尼曾于1971至1974年任普林斯顿大学助理教授，1976至1978年在卡塔尼亚任理论物理学教授，并于1992年获年度空间科学家称号。