On the eve of his qualification as a university lecturer, the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas composed an inaugural lecture, Rigans Montes, in which it is still possible to find the pillars of a good university, which cannot be separated from a high level of wisdom, from wise masters and from virtuous students. But who determines who the good science, the good teacher and the good pupil are? Following Thomas Aquinas, and explaining the metaphors used by him to support such an argument (“high mansions”, “mountains”, “streams”, “earth”) we can conclude that good science must always have an eye towards the universal, so broad and noble as to never be fully possessed by the masters, who for this reason will understand that their teaching cannot be based on a notional transmission of knowledge but on the “loving” delivery of that method with which the student, one day, may acquire wisdom. Only in this way, by going back to its origins (in that Middle Ages which required wise, virtuous and strong teachers), the University will be able to rediscover its identity, renewed and firmer.

Universality – Wisdom – Teacher – Pupil – Method