44 Notable alumni of
University of Ferrara
Updated:
The University of Ferrara is 1239th in the world, 440th in Europe, and 27th in Italy by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 44 notable alumni from the University of Ferrara sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Nicolaus Copernicus
- Enrolled in the University of Ferrara
- 1503-1503 graduated with Doctor of Canon Law
- Occupations
- astronomerlegal scholarcanonmathematicianphysicist
- Biography
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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 Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Though a similar heliocentric model had been developed eighteen centuries earlier by Aristarchus of Samos, an ancient Greek astronomer, Copernicus likely arrived at his model independently.
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Paracelsus
- Occupations
- astrologerwriternaturalistphilosopherastronomer
- Biography
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Paracelsus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.
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Girolamo Savonarola
- Occupations
- philosophertheologianwriterreligiousreformer
- Biography
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Girolamo Savonarola, OP, also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.
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Tinto Brass
- Occupations
- actorfilm screenwriterscreenwriterfilm editorfilm director
- Biography
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Giovanni "Tinto" Brass is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the erotic genre, with films such as Caligula, Così fan tutte (released under the English title All Ladies Do It), Paprika, Monella (Frivolous Lola) and Trasgredire.
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Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
- Occupations
- writerphilosopher
- Biography
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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 of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views.
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Pius VI
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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Pope Pius VI was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.
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Elisabetta Casellati
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maria Elisabetta Alberti, known by her married name as Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, is an Italian lawyer and politician, serving as Minister for Institutional Reforms since 2022. She was President of the Italian Senate from 2018 to 2022. She was the first woman ever to have held this position. Casellati is a long-time member of the liberal-conservative party Forza Italia and served as Undersecretary of Health and Justice in previous governments. In 2022, she was nominated as candidate for President of Italy by the centre-right coalition.
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Ludovico Ariosto
- Occupations
- poetplaywright
- Biography
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Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots. The poem is transformed into a satire of the chivalric tradition. Ariosto composed the poem in the ottava rima rhyme scheme and introduced narrative commentary throughout the work.
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Aldus Manutius
- Occupations
- type designertutorprintertypographerpublisher
- Biography
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Aldus Pius Manutius was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preservation of Greek manuscripts mark him as an innovative publisher of his age dedicated to the editions he produced. Aldus Manutius introduced the small portable book format with his enchiridia, which revolutionized personal reading and are the predecessor of the modern paperback book. He also helped to standardize use of punctuation including the comma and the semicolon.
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Dario Franceschini
- Occupations
- lawyerwriterpolitician
- Biography
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Dario Franceschini is an Italian lawyer, writer, and politician, member of the Democratic Party (PD), of which he briefly became leader in 2009. Franceschini served as Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, a position that he held from February 2014 to June 2018 and again from September 2019 to October 2022, making him the longest-serving cultural heritage minister in the history of the Italian Republic. Franceschini also served as Minister for Parliamentary Relations from 2013 to 2014.
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Niccolò Ghedini
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Niccolò Ghedini was an Italian lawyer and politician who was the lawyer of the former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
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Gabriele Falloppio
- Occupations
- botanistuniversity teachersurgeonnaturalistbiologist
- Biography
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Gabriele Falloppio was an Italian Catholic priest and anatomist often known by his Latin name Fallopius. He was one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century, giving his name to the fallopian tube.
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Massimo Pigliucci
- Occupations
- writerbiologistuniversity teacherbloggergeneticist
- Biography
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Massimo Pigliucci is an American philosopher and biologist who is professor of philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, and former editor in chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He is a critic of pseudoscience (including creationism), and an advocate for secularism and science education. His recent work has focused on stoicism.
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Vincenzo Monti
- Occupations
- writerplaywrighttranslatorIliad's translatorpoet
- Biography
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Vincenzo Monti was an Italian poet, playwright, translator, and scholar, the greatest interpreter of Italian Neoclassicism in all of its various phases. His verse translation of the Iliad is considered one of the greatest of them all, with its iconic opening ("Cantami, o Diva, del Pelide Achille l'ira funesta", lib. I, verses 1–2) becoming an extremely recognizable phrase among Italians (for example, being the text shown when opening a font file in Microsoft Windows).
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Luigi Marattin
- Occupations
- university teacherresearcherpolitician
- Biography
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Luigi Marattin is an Italian politician and economist. Since 30 July 2020, Marattin has served as president of the 6th Permanent Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
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Mario Moretti Polegato
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Mario Moretti Polegato is an Italian entrepreneur, active in the footwear sector, who founded the company Geox of which he is the president.
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Giacomo Simoncini
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Giacomo Simoncini is a Sammarinese politician, sports executive and pharmacist, who served as the Captain Regent of San Marino with Francesco Mussoni from 1 October 2021 to 1 April 2022. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest state leader in the world, and was the only head of state younger than the age of 30. A member of the Socialist Party, he has been a member of the Grand and General Council for the electoral alliance Noi per la Repubblica since 2019.
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Giovanni Battista Giraldi
- Occupations
- playwrightteachernovelistpoetphilosopher
- Biography
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Giovanni Battista Giraldi was an Italian novelist and poet. He appended the nickname Cinthio to his name and is commonly referred to by that name (which is also rendered as Cynthius, Cintio or, in Italian, Cinzio).
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Alessandro Tassoni
- Occupations
- poetliterary criticwriter
- Biography
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Alessandro Tassoni was an Italian poet and writer, from Modena, best known as the author of the mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita (The Rape of the Bucket, literally The stolen bucket).
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Guido Barbujani
- Occupations
- geneticistwriter
- Biography
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Guido Barbujani is an Italian population geneticist, evolutionary biologist and literary author born in Adria, who has worked with the State University of New York at Stony Brook (NY), University of Padua, and University of Bologna. He has taught at the University of Ferrara since 1996.
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Alan Fabbri
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alan Fabbri is an Italian politician. A member of the right-wing party Lega Nord, he served as mayor of Bondeno from 2009 to 2015. He was elected Mayor of Ferrara at the 2019 local elections and took office on 11 June 2019.
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Adamo Boari
- Occupations
- civil engineerarchitectengineer
- Biography
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Adamo Boari was an Italian Art Nouveau and Art Deco civil engineer and architect, he had a very active career in Mexico and he is known for the construction of notable Historicist architectural works in this country.
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Cesare Cremonini
- Occupations
- philosopher
- Biography
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Cesare Cremonini, sometimes Cesare Cremonino, was an Italian academic and professor of natural philosophy. His Latinized name was Cæsar Cremoninus or Cæsar Cremonius. Considered one of the greatest philosophers in his time, patronized by Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, corresponding with kings and princes who had his portrait, paid twice the salary of Galileo Galilei, he is now more remembered as an infamous side actor of the Galileo affair, being one of the two scholars who refused to look through Galileo's telescope.
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Paolo Zamboni
- Enrolled in the University of Ferrara
- Graduated with doctorate
- Occupations
- physicianscientistsurgeon
- Biography
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Paolo Zamboni is an Italian doctor and scientist. He is full Professor and Director of the School of Vascular Surgery at the University of Ferrara in Italy.
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Amato Lusitano
- Occupations
- anatomistbotanistphysician
- Biography
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João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, better known as Amato Lusitano and Amatus Lusitanus, was a notable Portuguese Jewish physician of the 16th century. Like Herophilus, Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo and William Harvey, he is credited as making a discovery in the circulation of the blood. He is said to have discovered the function of the valves in the circulation of the blood.
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Jacopo Sadoleto
- Enrolled in the University of Ferrara
- Studied in 1490-1498
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Jacopo Sadoleto was an Italian Catholic cardinal and counterreformer noted for his correspondence with and opposition to John Calvin.
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Luigi Frati
- Occupations
- physicianteacherpolitician
- Biography
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Luigi Frati is an Italian academic physician and rector of the Sapienza University of Rome.
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Tiziano Tagliani
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Tiziano Tagliani is an Italian politician.
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Luigi Preti
- Occupations
- juristlawyerjournalistpolitician
- Biography
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Luigi Preti was an Italian politician and member of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party.
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Alberto Balboni
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alberto Balboni is an Italian politician of Brothers of Italy serving as a member of the Senate of the Republic. He was first elected in the 2001 general election, and was re-elected in 2006 and 2008. He was defeated in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2022.
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Jodocus Badius
- Occupations
- printerpublisher
- Biography
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Jodocus Badius, also known as Josse Badius, Jodocus van Asche Badius, and Badius Ascensius, was a Burgundian-French pioneer of the printing industry, a grammarian, and a pedagogue.
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Federico Commandino
- Enrolled in the University of Ferrara
- In 1546 graduated with licentiate in medicine
- Occupations
- translatorpublishermathematicianhistorian of mathematics
- Biography
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Federico Commandino was an Italian humanist and mathematician.
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Antonio Musa Brassavola
- Occupations
- botanistphysician
- Biography
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Antonio Musa Brassavola was an Italian physician and one of the most famous of his time. He studied under Niccolò Leoniceno and Giovanni Manardo. He was the friend and physician of Ercole II, the duke of Este. He was also the consulting physician of Kings Francis I, Charles V, Henry VIII and Popes Paul III, Leo X, Clement VIII and Julius III. He performed the first successful tracheotomy, and published an account of it in 1546. He was the chair of philosophy in Ferrara and also studied botany and medicine. A genus of orchid, called Brassavola, is named after him.
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Stefano Oppo
- Occupations
- rower
- Biography
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Stefano Oppo is an Italian rower. He competed in the men's lightweight coxless four event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and won the bronze medal in the men's lightweight double sculls at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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James III, Margrave of Baden-Hachberg
- Occupations
- ruler
- Biography
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Margrave James III of Baden-Hachberg was margrave of Baden-Hachberg from 1584 to 1590 and resided at Emmendingen. He converted, in 1590, from Lutheranism to the Roman Catholic confession, causing some political turmoil.
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Johannes Manardus
- Occupations
- botanistphysician
- Biography
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Giovanni Manardo was an Italian physician, botanist, and humanist.
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Tommaso Garzoni
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Tommaso Garzoni,, was an Italian Renaissance writer.
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Pierre de Foix, le jeune
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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Peter of Foix the Younger was a French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.
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Giovan Battista Pigna
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Giovan Battista Pigna was an Italian humanist, poet and historian from Ferrara. A reformer of the University of Ferrara, Pigna was secretary to Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and court historian at Ferrara.
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Ludovico Prodocator
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Ludovico Prodocator was a Greek Cypriot cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was bishop of Capaccio.
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Scipione Chiaramonti
- Occupations
- mathematicianphilosopherastronomer
- Biography
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Scipione Chiaramonti was an Italian philosopher and noted opponent of Galileo.
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Maria Petraccini
- Occupations
- anatomistphysicianphysicist
- Biography
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Maria Magdalena Petraccini Ferretti was an Italian anatomist, physician, professor of anatomy. She was born in Florence, Tuscany, 1759 and died in Bagnacavallo, Ravenna, 1791.
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Aelius Everardus Vorstius
- Occupations
- physicianbotanistuniversity teacheranatomist
- Biography
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Aelius Everhardus Vorstius was a Dutch physician, botanist, and university professor at Leiden University from 1598 to 1624.
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Lucia Sivilotti
- Occupations
- pharmacologist
- Biography
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Lucia Giulia Sivilotti is an Italian pharmacologist. She holds the A.J. Clark Chair of Pharmacology at University College London. Her work is aimed at understanding the functioning of receptors that mediate fast synaptic transmission, and focuses on two classes of ion channels in the nicotinic superfamily, nicotinic and glycine receptors.
