SIENI
782
SIENI
go back to 1241. In 1246 the Emperor Frederick
II compelled the Sienese students at Bologna to
abandon that citj', which was hostile to him, and this
fact must have contributed to enlarge the school of
Siena, which then had celebrated professors of law
(Pepo), of grammar (Magister Tebaldus, Hoannes
IMordentis), of medicine (Petrus Yspanus). In 1252
the institution received from Pope Innocent IV the
usual privileges for its professors and students. He
granted the "University of Masters and Doctors re-
gent at Siena and of their scholars studying in the
same"' together with their bedels an exemption from
certain city taxes, and appointed the bishop as their
conservator. In 1275 and 12S5 the Commune of Si-
ena, by its own authority, without regard either to the
pope or to the emperor, decided to enlarge the stu-
dium into a studium generale. Nevertheless, it re-
mained incomplete; but tlirough the emigration from
Bologna of professors and students in 1321 it re-
ceived an unexpected increase, and then had twenty-
two professors — seven of Roman law, five of canon
law, two of medicine, two of philosophy, one of no-
tarial science, the others of grammar, i. e., of literature
and the interpretation of the classics. But after three
years a great number of the professors and the scholars
departed, either because peace had been established
at Bologna, or because Siena could not obtain from
the Holy See the necessary privileges for a real stu-
diion generale. In 1.397, however, Siena obtained a
Bull from Charles IV, which, after declaring that the
studium had once been flourishing but had now sunk
into obscurity, proceeds to confer upon it de novo the
privileges of a studium generale. As early as 1386 we
find a chair for the interpretation of Dante. In 1404
Bishop Marmille instituted the Collegia della Sajnenza
for poor students. In 1408 Gregory XII confirmed
the privilege granted by Charles IV, and established
a faculty of theology.
Among the professors of the fourteenth century mention should be made of the jurists, Dino del Garbo, Neri Pagliaresi, Federico Petrucci, Pietro Ancharano, Ubaldo degli Ubaldi, Tomma.so Corsini; the physicians, Ugo Benzi and Riccardo da Parma (oculist) ; the grammarians, Nofrio and Pietro d'Ovile. Instruction was also given in mathematics and in astrology, in which latter study Guido Bonatti and Cecco d'Ascoh were famous. In the fifteenth century the following professors obtained celebrity: Nicolo de Tude-schi {il Panormitano) , Francesco Accolti, and Mariano Soccini in law; Jacopo da Forli and Aless- andro Sermoneta in medicine; Francesco Filelfo, the thef>logian Francesco della Rovere (afterwards Pope Sixtus IV), and Ago.stino Dati in literature. It should also be noted that Siena was conservative in letters as well as in art, for which reason Humanism was not able to obtain a foothold. Among the i)ro- fe.s.sors of the early sixteenth century were the jurist Claudio Tolomei, and the humanists Eurialo Ascolano and .lacopo GrifToli.
After Siena had come under the Medici, these princes u.sed every effort to promote its prosperity. Among its famous jurists were Silvio Spannocchi and Francesco Accarigi; but the seventeenth century brought also at Siena a general decline of studies. Medicine and the natural sciences claim renowned devotees at Siena, such as the Camaldole.se Francesco PifTeri, the math- ematician Teofilo Gallaccini, the botanist Pirro Maria Gabrielli, founder of the Academia Fisiocritica, and particularly should be mentioned Michelangelo Mori and Ottavio Nerucci, the mathematicians Pistoi and Bartaloni, and the botanist Bartalini. Among theolo- gians Sixtus Sencnsis was renowned ; the first professor of church hi.sU)ry was Domenico Valentini (1743). The special chairs of moral theology and Holy Scrip- ture were founded in 1775 and 1777. Leopold I gave to the university a new organization, and increased the number of chairs. The French occupation caused the
closing of the university, which was, however, re-es-
tablished in 1814. But in 1840 political reasons
brought about the suppression of the faculties of ht-
erature, philosophy, mathematics, and natural sci-
ence. And thus it remained, even after Tuscany was
annexed to Piedmont in 1859, in which year the theo-
logical faculty was also disbanded. Among the more
recent professors mention should be made of the
jurist Francesco Antonio Mori, the political economist
Alberto Rimieri de' Rocchi, the physician Giacomo
Barzellotti, and the theologian Luigo de Angelis.
At present, the university' of Siena belongs to the so- called free universities; it has only the two faculties of law and medicine, with a school of pharmacy. In jurisprudence there are 19 chairs, classified as 15 or- dinary professors and 5 docents; in medicine 24 chairs, with 22 professors and 31 docents. The number of students enrolled in 1910 was 255.
Carpellini, Sulla origine nazionale e popolnre dede UniversitA di Stiidi in Italia e particolarmente dell' Universitd di Siena (Si- ena, 1S61) ; Zdekader, Lo Sltidio di Siena 7iel Rinascimento (Milan, 1S94) ; Denifle, Die Universit&ten des MittelaUers, I (Berlin, 1885), 429; Mariani, Notizie nelV Universita di Siena (Siena, 1873) ; Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Mid- dle Ages, II (Oxford, 1895).
U. Benigni.
Sieni, Cyril (better known as Cyeil of Bar- celona), missionary bishop, b. in Catalonia, date of birth unknown; d. after 1799, place and exact date equally uncertain. He was a member of the Capuchin Order, and in 1772 was sent to New Orleans as vicar-general by the Bishop of Santiago, Jos6 de Echeverria, within whose jurisdiction Louisiana then was. Ecclesiastical and religious conditions were at that time very unsatisfactory. The mission was in charge of some Capuchins who were not always models of ecclesiastical virtue; their superior, Dagobert, re- puted to be ignorant and corrupt, had aroused against Cyril the opposition both of Unzaga, the civil gover- nor, and the people. In the hope that a responsible episcopal authority would remove these obstacles, Father Cyril was made titular Bishop of Tricali, and auxihary of Santiago. His delegated ecclesias- tical authority extended over the seventeen parishes and twenty-one prie-sts found in the territory now included in the States of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and those bordering on the western bank of the Mississippi as far as the Missouri. In 1772 he sent to St. Louis, then a hamlet of about two hun- dred inhabitants, its second pastor. Father Valentine. He also sent resident pastors (17S1) to Pensacola and St. Augustine in Florida. During his administration^ several Irish clergymen were sent to Bishop Sieni by Charles III of Spain, to minister to the religious needs of the English-speaking Catholics; to each of them the king assigned an annual salary of 350 dollars, besides paying tlunr passage.
In 1786 Sieni issued a pastoral letter concerning the proper observance of Sunday as a day of rest and prayer. In 1788 New Orleans was swept by a great conflagration, on which occasion the brick church of the city perished (it was rebuilt in 1794). In spite of his zeal, religion made little progress: on the one hand he failed to restore eccl(>siastical discipline, and on the other dis})leased.both Charles III and Bishop Trespalacios of Havana, to whose care the mission was committed since 1787. Finally a royal order (1793) banished him to his native province. In 1799 he was still in Havana on his way to Spain. Irreligious writers of his own day, followed by some modern historians, depict him m harsh colours. He probably committed more than one administrative error, but he was esteemed a holy and simple-minded ecclesiastic.
Bachili-kk yMoiiai.eh, Apunte.1 (Havana, 18.59); Gayarre, A History of Louisiana (.New Orleans, 1H90) ; Shea, Life and Timet of the Most Rev. John Carroll (New York, 1888); Kortikb, A History of Louisiana (New Orleans, a. d.).
A. FRANgON.
