Chiesa e sistema educativo nell'Italia del XVI Secolo

Abstract

The essay aims to offer a glance of the role of ecclesiastical institutions and religious sensitivity in the development of the Italian educational system in the 16th century. It is well known that the 16th century is a turning point in the history of school and literacy in Europe, because of the process of mass literacy in Western Europe begins. The expansion of access to education was stimulated by political, economic (such as the birth of the modern state and the birth of large commercial companies) and cultural factors (easer accessibility in readings thanks to the technical evolution of printing). However, the contribution of the civil authorities to the development of school systems is marginal because the protagonists are the Reformed Churches and the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is not directly involved in the school system. The schools are opened by religious institutions or by individuals fascinated by a religious sensitivity that pushes the faithful to found schools with a testamentary act. Carlo M. Cipolla states that, in the complex dynamics between education and socio-economic development, there is only one certainty: in historical moments marked by great transformations, the lack of investment in education leads to an inexorable decline. In the 16th century, therefore, we can see the origin of the dichotomy that still separates Northern Italy from Southern Italy. The North invests in education and seizes an opportunity for development that has been lost in the South as in other Mediterranean regions. Lombardy represents an exemplary model in this regard. Carlo Borromeo’s project of civil and religious reform has its pivot in the school. Each social category must receive a religious founded education and, at the same time, useful and commensurate with its own professional and social needs. The essay does not fail to analyze the contribution of the new religious orders in the construction of the new educational system, both aimed at the popular classes and aimed at the bourgeoisie and elites.