Traditions
The ceremony we are celebrating today to inaugurate the academic year is a highly symbolic and institutional occasion, but it also retains the playful side given to it by the goliards in the post-war period, when they would make such a racket in the lecture hall as to drown out the voice of the lecturer delivering the inaugural address.
Today this no longer happens, but a moment is dedicated to them at the end of the ceremony, when they sing the Gaudeamus igitur , present the Rector with a Padovana hen, and offer the main guest a humorous or teasing gift.
For the University of Padua, 8 February is a special day, on which we remember the heroism, sacrifice and commitment of the students of the University of Padua who, in 1848, became the protagonists of the struggle against foreign rule and thus also of a true season of renewal. A revolution that preceded not only the Cinque giornate di Milano, but also the uprisings in major capitals such as Parigi (22-24 February) and Vienna (13 March).
It is precisely this day that was symbolically adopted by the Tribunato for the election of the Tribune.
La Festa Giustinianea
This is a day free from lectures on which the University of Padua is also closed. Its distinguishing feature is that it is a movable feast, meaning that it is not associated with a specific date. It is up to the University bodies to decide on which day to place this holiday, so it often happens that it is used to give students and Unipd staff a long weekend. Its name probably recalls the Corpus Juris Civilis of the sixth century, which in the thirtieth book speaks of judicial days and holidays.
The first record of this holiday dates back to 1817, during the Austrian occupation of the city, when a general reform of university studies had been under way for about two years. In 1866 Veneto became part of the Kingdom of Italy and the tradition remained in force: the holiday, not marked on the academic calendar, was proclaimed a few days in advance, at the Rector's discretion. Since the post-war period, the holiday has been set by the Academic Senate when approving the calendar for the following year.
Today it sounds for the election of the tribune and for the rite of the alzabara, but in the past its chimes signalled the beginning of lessons. It rang at certain historic moments, such as 8 February 1848, and for a brief period the bell had the custom of playing at noon the opening notes of Vispa Teresa, the quintessential student song.
The goliards were also entrusted with a solemn duty on the occasion of the death of a professor: the coffin was carried into the Cortile Antico and, after a colleague’s commemoration, it was the goliards themselves who paid their respects by lifting the coffin three times and accompanying it outside the walls of Palazzo del Bo, while the tower bell tolled in mourning. In recent years the ceremony has placed greater emphasis on its institutional character, and the participation of the goliards has diminished.
Until 1951, the tribune, the highest rank in the Paduan goliardic hierarchy, was chosen from among third-year medical students who wore a beard and had not yet taken the anatomy exam. Shortly before 11 o'clock, a "battle" was held in the Aula di Anatomia: the one who reached the lectern was elected tribune, facing shoving and brawling, and was found sitting there when the professor arrived. The Rector intervened by no longer granting the use of the hall, and later the tribune was chosen through elections, on 8 February each year.
The oselle
The tradition has its roots in sixteenth-century Venezia, where the osella (from osel, bird, in the Venetian dialect) was originally the game gift that the Doge offered each year to the nobles of the Great Council as a sign of equality and civic recognition. In 1990, Rector Mario Bonsembiante decided to reinterpret this historic ceremony for the Christmas greetings at the Bo. Year after year, the Unipd academic community saw the creation of a series of medals conceived as true "fragments of memory", intended to celebrate the figures, discoveries and pivotal moments that have shaped the history of Patavina libertas.
