Certosa di Pavia, former Carthusian abbey of Pavia. One of the most magnificent of all monastic structures, it has been maintained as a national monument since 1866. The church, forming its nu...

Spallanzani, Lazzaro, 1729–99, Italian naturalist. He was professor at the universities of Modena (1763–69) and Pavia (from 1769). Spallanzani studied regeneration, fertilization, and the dige...

Pinnacle, minor architectural motif of vertical tapering shape, usually crowning a pier, buttress, or gable. Although sometimes it appears in Renaissance design, as in the Certosa di Pavia, it...

Bergognone or Borgognone, fl. 1450–1523, Italian painter, known also as Ambrogio Stefani da Fossano. His most important works are the frescoes in the Certosa of Pavia. His luminous and often c...

Alboin, d. 572?, first Lombard king in Italy (569–572?). With the Avars he defeated the Gepidae (see Germans). He then led (568) an army across the Alps into Italy, took (569) Milan, and after...

Boscovich, Ruggiero Giuseppe, 1711–87, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He became a Jesuit and taught at Rome, Pavia, and Milan. Later he was director of optics for the French...

Ticino, Lat. Ticinus, river, 154 mi (248 km) long, rising in Ticino canton, S Switzerland, and flowing generally S through Lago Maggiore into N Italy, joining the Po River below Pavia. In Swit...

Volta, Alessandro, Conte, 1745–1827, Italian physicist. He was professor of physics at the Univ. of Pavia from 1779 and became famous for his work in electricity. Napoleon I made him a count a...

Natta, Giulio, 1903–79, Italian chemist, Ph.D. the Polytechnic of Milan, 1924. Natta held brief appointments at several academic institutions, including the Univ. of Pavia (1933–35), the Univ....

Foppa, Vincenzo, c.1427–c.1515, Italian painter. Giving new life to the art of the Lombard school, he exercised a great influence upon northern Italian art until the advent of Leonardo da Vinc...