BOVARA, GIOVANNI. – Priest and educator, born at Malgrate (Como) on 30 September 1734 and died in Milan on 13 October 1812. A man of broad legal culture, in 1776 he obtained from Maria Teresa the chair of canon law at the University of Pavia; from there he moved to the Palatine Schools of Milan, and then to the Brera College, where he taught ecclesiastical law. When the college passed to the State following the suppression of the Jesuits, B. served for more than 20 years, first as «delegate», then as «assistant» to the magistrate of studies and to the economic council. The extensive educational reform carried out by the Austrian government in Lombardy was the work of B. In 1802, Napoleon appointed him Minister of Worship and awarded him various honours.
The educational reform encompassed all schools of every level, from elementary schools to the lyceum, and was inspired by certain principles current in the culture of the time. The school system was under the direct or indirect control of the State; teachers were appointed following public competitive examinations; instruction was given a more realistic orientation, more closely corresponding to the needs of the times; arithmetic and geometry, history and geography were introduced into the gymnasia; experimental physics and natural history into the lyceums; in philosophical courses, the use of the «national language» replaced Latin; teaching methods were renewed and the compilation of new school textbooks established; attendance was required in an orderly progression of studies, according to a principle of normal gradation; academic exercises were abolished.