The University of Bologna[?] received a charter from Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but it is clear that organized teaching and research had been ongoing since at least the 1080s.
The university was especially famous for its teaching in canon and civil law.
Gratian and Irnerius[?], two of the formative influences on legal study both taught at the university in the 12th Century (and Copernicus was also there to study in 1495).
The city was one of the first European settlements to experiment with the concept of "free" public transport.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump