Biographical background
Federico II: the medieval Swabian emperor still remembered today
Under Federico II's leadership the South of Italy was the place of decisions, politics, science and education. With Federico II it was possible to think of a reality in which the man of power is fascinated by the other side of the world, by diversity, by the discovery of the beautiful and the unknown, in an era affected by wars of religion. Federico II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Sicily, was born on December 26, 1194, in Jesi (Ancona), in present-day Marche, and died in Castelfiorentino (Foggia), in a palace of which only the ruins remain, in 1250, at the age of 56 and was buried in the Palermo cathedral.
He belonged to the German Hohenstaufen dynasty, son of Emperor Henry VI of Swabia and Constance, daughter of Roger II of Altavilla, the first Norman ruler of Sicily.
Federico became king of Sicily when he was just 4 years old, in 1198. When his father died, he was under the guardianship of his mother and, when Constance also died, under that of Pope Innocent III.
At the age of 21 Federico was crowned king of Germany at Acquisgrana and in 1220 became emperor with the blessing of Pope Honorius III. His empire encompassed much of central northern Italy, from Tuscany on up, plus territories in central Europe that today belong to - among other countries - France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Austria, and Slovenia. The Church State broke the continuity between the Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily.
Federico II and the Church. The Antichrist of rivals and the alter Christus of his supporters.
Although he was protected by Pope Innocent III and crowned emperor by Honorius III, Federico II fared very badly with other pontiffs: he was excommunicated a total of three times, twice by Gregory IX and once by Innocent IV.
His reign was mainly characterized by strong moralizing legislative activity and artistic and cultural innovation, aimed at unifying lands and peoples, but strongly opposed by the Church, whose temporal power the ruler questioned.
He would have wanted to impose, and tried repeatedly, imperial power over the Church, even emphasizing his own divine investiture. The pontiffs, on the other hand, were intent on increasing not only religious power but also temporal and political power, based on the idea of the subordination of the emperor and the ecclesial legitimacy of power. It was precisely because of this that he was labeled as theAntichrist by hisrivals and as thealter Christus by his supporters.
Kingdom of Sicily
Federico II spent most of his life in Sicily. In Germany he stayed, with various interruptions, about ten years, and he went up and down between southern Italy and German territories at least six times.
The war against the Lombard Communes allied with the Holy See that lasted from 1212 to 1248 with the defeat at Parma marked the Swabian's fate and undermined his political project: it was in northern Italy that he lost his game.
Even in the German Kingdom, the Swabian failed to completely subordinate the principalities, whose power could not be hindered by the sovereign, and continued to support the German princes by carrying out a policy opposite to the centralizing policy pursued in southern Italy.
In the Kingdom of Sicily, on the other hand, his court realized a cutting-edge cultural center: he founded the legally oriented University of Naples (1224), reorganized the Medical School of Salerno, and promulgated the innovative Melfitan Constitutions, bringing to fruition his project of monarchical centralization.
Such was Federico II's charisma that in the aftermath of his death, his son Manfred, future king of Sicily, in a letter addressed to his brother Conrad IV quoted such words, "The sun of the world has fallen asleep, he who shone on the peoples, the sun of the just, the asylum of peace."
Free and accessible knowledge. At heart the good of students
Federico II cared more about jurisprudence than anything else, and he made no secret of this from the beginning. The care of law was as pleasing to God as it was to the sovereign, the guardian of justice. To those who were well versed in this very important field, to the experts in the law, he also promised, in the event of good evidence, special rewards and successes, as well as the possibility of ascending to the highest offices and exerting influence.
He reported on the first steps taken in acquiring renowned professors and announced, moreover, that he would be concerned in every way for the good of the students: he promised scholarships for the most gifted, formulated clear and functional rules for the granting of student loans, indicated the upper limit for rents, and entrusted the determination of the rents themselves to a commission consisting of two Neapolitan citizens and two university students.
It is presumable that King Manfred's collaborator - the chronicler called Nicolo di Iamsilla - was not entirely wrong when he credited Federico with establishing all known courses of study in his kingdom, as well as with hiring professors from the most diverse countries, praising him also for giving the opportunity, in equal measure to poor and rich students, to access philosophia by the conferral of generous subsidies.
The first secular institution. It is the sovereign's duty to provide for the justice of his subjects
Federico created the first "state" university in history. The few existing ones had been established in the century before as spontaneous aggregations or guilds of students or teachers in close connection with cathedrals and depended on bishop's protection. In Naples, however, it was created out of nothing by a king, that is, by the holder and representative of a "public" and "secular" power, by one of the greatest men on earth.
It was conceived as the hub of an articulated system, to provide educated and loyal technical personnel for a structurally complex administration, with well-integrated central and peripheral offices. At the same time, it constituted a disruptive act of ideological and cultural direction.
The pleasure of working in the University. Teachers and students united to resume activities.
He did not fail to enthusiastically extol the extraordinary advantages that the City of Naples offered to his project, thanks to its location and natural riches.
The special advantages that the city offered, moreover, made it inevitable that professors would be personally summoned, to whom the Swabian offered attractive working conditions, guaranteeing first of all adequate payment.
The extensive circular of 1224. The founding of a university according to the sole will of the ruler
Federico II in June or July 1224, through a wide-ranging circular, traditionally attributed to Pier della Vigna, made known to the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Sicily, to members of the nobility and the Church, to the clerical class and to all Sicilian subjects, his intention to found a university.
What those thirsty for knowledge had not hitherto found in any corner of the kingdom, and which they had to seek with great toil, expense, and danger in distant places, they would in the future - these are his words - be able to comfortably obtain in that city, a thriving place of education in which the most varied disciplines would be taught at the highest level.
Bibliography
Fulvio Delle Donne - 1224, Federico II. The foundation of the oldest state university in history - University of Naples Federico II 2022
Ernst Kantorowicz - Federico II emperor - Published by Garzanti 2017
Wolfgang Stürner - Federico II and the Apogee of the Empire - Salerno Editrice 2009