Next May will see the inauguration of the eight hundredth academic year of the University of Padua. In fact, the notarial deed of establishment of a Universitas dates to 1222, which included the academic activities begun in Padua by a group of students and professors who left the University of Bologna seeking greater autonomy and freedom. While the first courses were limited to civil and canon law, courses in medicine and liberal arts began already around 1250. In the following century, the University enjoyed the patronage of the Da Carrara (or Carraresi), family who in 1399, recognizing the requests of the corporation of students of the philosophical and medical disciplines, supported the split of the Universitas Artistorum from the older Universitas Iuristarum.