The Stabat Mater Hall
On the upper floor, the ten classrooms (once with an independent access from the arcaded loggia and now interconnecting) are flanked by two aule magne (auditoriums): one for the Artists, today the Reading Room of the Library, and the other one for the Legisti (law students), now called "Stabat Mater Hall" in memory of the first performance of Gioacchino Rossini's "Stabat Mater", which was held on the 18th of March 1842, under the direction of Gaetano Donizetti.
This solemn hall is one of the most representative rooms of the ancient university, because it is majestically decorated with various gratulatory compositions that sometimes overlap the older ones.
In the south wall, the monument dedicated to the Cardinal Legate Fabrizio Savelli (1648) is characterised by the double-headed eagle symbol and it is placed on the pre-existing heraldic epigraphic ornamentation.
At the top, a frieze with large coats of arms that are completed by the insertion of pilasters with telamons and caryatids, the emblem of the Germanic "natio", dates back to 1569.
The great fresco depicting "The Virgin and child" dates back to 1569 too, and it is placed at the centre of the western wall, towering above the point where the desk was located.