The Sapienza University of Rome (Italian: Sapienza – Università di Roma), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", simply abbreviated as Sapienza Università di Roma or La Sapienza ('The Wisdom'), is a public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is as such one of the world's oldest universities, and with 122,000 students, it is the largest university in Europe. Due to its size, funding, and numerous laboratories and libraries, Sapienza is a global major education and research centre. The university is located mainly in the Città Universitaria (University city), which covers 44 ha (110 acres) near the Campo Verano cemetery, with different campuses, libraries and laboratories in various locations in Rome.
Sapienza was founded on 20 April 1303 by decree from Pope Boniface VIII as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies under more control than the free-standing universities of Bologna and Padua. In 1431 Pope Eugene IV completely reorganized the studium and decreed that the university should expand to include the four schools of Law, Medicine, Philosophy, in addition to the existing Theology. In the 1650s the university became known as Sapienza, meaning "wisdom" or "knowledge", a title it still retains. After the capture of Rome by the forces of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, La Sapienza rapidly expanded as the chosen main university of the capital of the newly unified state. In 1935 the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed.
