Bovara, Giovanni

BOVARA, GIOVANNI. - Priest and educationist, b. at Malgrate (Como) on 30 Sept. 1734 and d. at Milan on 13 Oct. 1812. A man of broad legal culture, he obtained from Maria Theresa, in 1776, the chair of canon law at the University of Pavia; whence he moved to the palatine schools of Milan, then to the college of Brera for ecclesiastical law. When the college passed to the State, through the suppression of the Jesuits, B. was a member for over 20 years, first as "delegate," then as "adjunct" of the magistracy of studies and of the economic junta. The vast school reform carried out by the Austrian government in Lombardy was the work of B. In 1802, he was appointed by Napoleon minister of worship and honored with various distinctions.

The school reform embraced all schools of every order, from elementary schools to the lyceum, and was inspired by certain principles current in the culture of the time. The school was under the direct or indirect control of the State; teachers were hired following public competition; instruction was given a more realistic direction, more attuned to the needs of the times; in the gymnasia arithmetic and geometry, history and geography were introduced; in the lyceums experimental physics and natural history; in the philosophy courses the use of the "national language," instead of Latin; teaching methods were renewed and the compilation of new school texts established; obligation to pursue studies in orderly fashion, according to a principle of normal gradation; academic exercises abolished.