Ranieri Sbragia (1846-1862)

A theologian, Sbragia was the Director of the Grand Ducal Scuola Normale, or Imperial Regia Scuola Normale, re-founded with a “motuproprio” by Leopoldo II in 1846.
On November 15, 1847, the new headquarters were inaugurated in Pisa, at the Palazzo della Carovana, in Piazza dei Cavalieri.
The accommodation of the Normalisti, once intended for the nobles of the order of the Knights of Santo Stefano (Saint Stephen), was emblematic of the emergence of a new aristocracy based on merit.
The new Scuola Normale was "theoretical and practical", destined to "train teachers and teachers of secondary schools"; ten places were available in the competition.
The boarding school hosted exclusively students of Philosophy and Philology, while students of Physical Sciences or Mathematics of the University were considered "aggregate students" to the Scuola Normale. The study course lasted three years.
Among the students of the Scuola Normale directed by Ranieri Sbragia was Giosuè Carducci, Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1906.