Abstract

Despite evident differences, the universities of Rome, Bologna and Perugia had much in common in the early modern period. Founded in the Middle Ages, they all worked under the Papal States and saw their development determined by the influence of doctoral colleges, as well as the presence of ecclesiastic authority figures in their governing bodies. During the eighteenth century, the three universities underwent reform and reorganization that was planned and promoted in an attempt to help them regain their popularity. Improved teaching staff selection and reorganization of the curricula were the tools used in their attempt to raise the level of scientific teaching and to repopulate university lecture halls. The analysis of professors’ stipends at the universities during the 1700s was carried out by testing the theory that they were set according to academic policies already known to historiography or others, which are lesser known. And it is largely salaries that attest to hierarchies between disciplines and the budgeting of the three universities. The authors present a reconstruction of the system of salary management together with a quantitative and comparative analysis to then put forward initial hypotheses. By comparing data relating to the three universities it was possible to identify, among their common features (attributable to state policy and the cultural climate of the time), the specific changes introduced by the reforms and salary wage developments.