Culture in Italy

From antiquity until the 16th century, Italy was the centre of the Western culture, origin of the Ancient Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, Humanism, and the Renaissance.

Italy became a seat of great formal learning in 1088 with the establishment of the University of Bologna, the first university in Europe. These great centers of learning presaged the Renaissance, as did innovative works by Italy's great late-Gothic artists. The European Renaissance began in Italy and was fueled throughout Europe by Italian painting, sculpture, architecture, science, literature and music.

Phoenicians and Greeks established settlements in Italy beginning several centuries before the birth of Jesus, and the Greek settlements in particular developed into thriving classical civilization. With Emperor Constatine's conversion to Christianity in 312, Rome became the open and official seat of the Catholic Church, and Italy has had a profound effect on the development of Christianity and of Western concepts of faith and morality ever since.