BACKGROUND AND MAIN TRENDS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

The article deals with the economic, geographical, political, social, and cultural prerequisites for the University of Bologna’s establishment Relying, first of all, on the scientific works of Italian scientists, the authors show why the University of Bologna was the first to be formed in medieval Europe, which served as a solid basis for its emergence. Analyzing the above-mentioned sources, the authors of the article point to reverse and counter-trends in the process of formation of the university on its “secular” character. Thanks to the content-comparative method, internal parallels in the development of the first two European faculties, such as Bologna and Oxford, are drawn, and the differences between them are shown. The article also emphasizes the demand for professional graduates in the middle ages. The analysis of the economic, geographical, political, social, and cultural prerequisites of the early formation of the University of Bologna proved that each of the following prerequisites played an exceptional role: no trade routes, granting Bologna the status of a “free city”, inviting those who wanted to study there from other European cities and obtaining their citizenship there would be no University of Bologna on the border between the early and classical Middle Ages. The foundation for the future educational process was laid by the Roman school tradition, which did not succumb to the vagaries of time for a long time. A significant role was also played by the fact that in Bologna the nobility did not play a significant role, and the democratic life of the communes came to the fore. It was sharply different from the aristocratic privileges of other European cities. Among the trends that can be followed in the process of the formation of the University of Bologna (all its way from the School of Liberal Arts to the institution of higher education), we single out the reverse (the tendency to use grammatical and rhetorical knowledge, the use of all components of mathematical knowledge (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), the preservation of individual disciplines of an artistic and practical nature) and the opposite (preservation of the poetic-musical form and change in its content, deepening the study of the basics of the study of canonical Roman law, in-depth study of grammar, Roman literature and rhetoric, in-depth study of medicine (in particular, surgery), the trend to the gradual transformation of old learning traditions into newer forms). This problem is complex and is not exhausted by the works that exist nowadays. We consider the usage of comparative pedagogy methods in the study of the Bologna Faculty of Philology and Theology with other European theological faculties to be a priority in the research.