In May 1547 Patricius went to Padua, whose university was one of the most respected universities in Europe. Initially, at the request of his practical-thinking father Stefano, he studied medicine with Giambattista Montano, Bassiano Lando and Alberto Gabriele, but only very reluctantly. When Stefano died in 1551, he was able to drop out of medical training. He sold the medical books. He continued to be interested in humanistic education. During his studies, he attended philosophical lectures by professors Bernardino Tomitano, Marcantonio de 'Passeri (Marcantonio Genova), Lazzaro Buonamici and Francesco Robortello. Among his friends and fellow students was Niccolò Sfondrati, who later became pope as Gregory XIV. Philosophy classes were a disappointment for Patricius, because Padua was a stronghold of Aristotelian, whose representatives continued the tradition of medieval Scholastic. This was a direction that Patricius firmly rejected and fought violently later. Under the influence of a Franciscan scholar, he turned to Platonism. The Franciscan recommended the Neoplatonic teaching of the humanist Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). The reading of Ficino's writings, especially his major philosophical-theological work, the Theologia Platonica, was pioneering for Patricius.For the influence of Ficinos see Maria Muccillo: Marsilio Ficino e Francesco Patricius da Cherso. In: Gian Carlo Garfagnini (ed.): Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Platone. Studi e documenti, Vol. 2, Florenz 1986, pp. 615-678. He later expressed his distance to Padua's scholastic-Aristotelian teaching practice by writing in an autobiographical letter in 1587 as self-taught represented. In his student days he already wrote and published philosophical and philological writings; he had a collection of his youth works printed in Venice in 1553.Cesare Vasoli: "La lettera autobiografica di Francesco Patricius." In: "Quaderni di Retorica e Poetica" 1986/1, pp. 59–66, here: 62 f .; Francesco Bottin: Francesco Patricius e l'aristotelismo padovano. In: Quaderni per la storia dell'Università di Padova 32, 1999, pp. 163–176, here: 163 f .; Margherita Palumbo: Patricius, Francesco. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Vol. 81, Rome 2014, pp. 732–738, here: 732.
