Papal recognition from Pope Eugene IV of the University of Catania had arrived on April 18,1444, ten years after its founding by Alfonso V of Aragon, who with this gesture had wanted to compensate the city (in which there had been recently established the Royal Court) for moving the Sicilian capital from Catania to Palermo.

The activity of the Atheneum actually starts a year later, in 1445, with six professors and ten students.

The first four faculties are Medicine, Philosophy, Canon and Civil Law and Theology.

Lessons are initially held in a building in Piazza del Duomo, next to the Cathedral of St. Agatha, and will eventually move to the Palazzo dell'Università in the late 1690s.

This building remains the seat of the university to this day.