University, Administration, Taxation and Society in Italy in the Sixteenth Century: the Case of Fiscal Exemptions for the University of Pavia

The article investigates the peculiar fiscal conditions of the professors and students of the University of Pavia (one of the most important and prestigious Italian universities of the Renaissance age) during the sixteenth century, adopting a comparative approach, which also takes into consideration other Italian and European universities and their fiscal histories. In order to explain the significant changes which variously affected the fiscal status of university people the article puts the local academic world into the wider context of Lombard society and economy, as well as of its relations with Spanish rule.