universities-msg - 9/17/99

Medieval universities.

NOTE: See also these files: Latin-msg, literacy-msg, teaching-msg, GSRE-art, languages-msg.

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From: jcash at ucs.indiana.EDU (JOHN J CASH)
Date: 27 Feb 91 16:36:00 GMT
Organization: The Internet

On the topic of Universities, I think some order needs be placed upon
the subject.  First came "places of learning," which are, as someone
pointed out, as old as the cavemen.  During the early Middle Ages,
learning was either passed along solely by word-of-mouth (I include
apprenticeships in trades and family teaching of farming methods
here), or with the assistance of written books.  As the Church and
courts had the best access to books, this is where book-learning
flourished, and this is how Church schools came about.  The intent
was to train people for CAREERS, not TRADES: a professional class.

A University is a step beyond the church school.  It was a community
of scholars CHARTERED by someone with authority, and given the right
to teach.  Thus a school may claim to have been founded 1000 years
ago, while its charter as a Univeristy goes back a mere 750 years.
Universities were chartered by the Pope, and by the local royalty.
The details are not clear to me, poor scholar that I am, but I be-
lieve the royalty still had to ask the Pope first.  Among the earli-
est Universities are those of Paris, Oxford, and Bologna, all founded
before 1250 AD.  Mention should here be made of famous non-Christian
schools in Toledo (or is it Cordoba - or both?) for translators,
and Palermo.  Constantinople is also said to have had a "university".

Univeristies, as communities, were divided into faculties.  Foremost
among them was the Theological faculty made up of churchmen; also
at univeristies were faculties of canon and/or civic law, and of
medicine.  The example set by the University of Paris is that the
professors administer the University; Paris was noted for its
brillinace in theology.  The example set by Bologna, noted for its
excellence in law, was that students ran the university.

By the middle of the fourteenth century, England had universities 
at Cambridge and Oxford, and Italy was sprinkled with them.  Hard
on the heels of the Black Plague came a second spurt of university
foundings, these in Central Europe.  Universities were founded
first in Prague in 1348, later in Vienna, Cracow, Budapest (just
called Buda then), Cologne, Heidelberg and elsewhere.  St.Andrews
in Scotland was founded in 1410, I believe.  Many more were founded
throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  When founding
a new university, the pattern of the old ones was followed.  Thus,
Prague had faculties of theology and medicine set up after the 
Paris model (professors in charge), while the faculty of law was
set up after Bologna (students in charge).

The student population itself was divided into "nations" at Paris;
there were four, roughly relating to students from the British
Isles, Northern France, Southern France/Italy/Spain, and Germany.
When Prague followed this model, it divided its nations into
Saxon/English, Bavarian/Austrian, Polish/Silesian, and Czech. 
 
English universities seem to have chosen a system of "colleges"
within the University; many colleges were founded and endowed
by wealthy individuals at Cambridge and Oxford during the 1400s.

And to close, I say that I know this is rough and quick, possibly
error-strewn. Feel free to correct.
                                   ---Johannes v.N.

From: EPSTEIN at ksuvm.ksu.EDU (Emily Epstein)
Date: 4 Mar 91 15:26:00 GMT

Greeting from Alix Mont de fer.

For those who want to research the history of Universities, a good place to
start is Charles Homer Haskins _The_Rise_of_Universities_. Most academic
and many public libraries have it, and it's available in paperback ($4.95,
Cornell University Press, ISBN:0-8014-9015-4)

As I recall, there's also some information in Haskins' _The_Renaissance_of_
_the_12th_Century_ (pb, $10.95, Harvard University Press, ISBN:0-674-76075-1)
Also available in fine libraries everywhere. :-)

They're not the most recent scholarship; the first title was originally
published in 1923 & the second in 1927. As you might guess by the fact that
they're still in print and by who's publishing them though, they're basic
reading on the topic.

In service to information (or information services?)

                         <=========>
Alix Mont de fer          |=======|
    (Emily Epstein)       |* * * *|
Shire of Spinning Winds    XXXXXXX
    (Manhattan, KS)         VVVVV
                             YYY
epstein at ksuvm.ksu.edu         |
                             |||
                           XXXXXXX

From: phefner at aol.com (PHefner)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: novice mundane historian needs help!
Date: 31 Dec 1994 13:16:13 -0500

Dierdre---At the cathedral school in Notre Dame, the chancellor had the
sole authority to give out licenses to teach. He charged money for these
licenses. The teachers--the masters--did not like this, and they decided
to form a guild to promote their interests. Universitas is a Latin word
that means guild, so these guys adopted the word for their group. After
many political disputes with the bishop and the crown, the universitas was
recognized by the pope in 1231 in a decree called "Parens scientiarum",
which has been referred to as the Magna Carta of the University of Paris.
By this time so many schools had appeared on the West Bank that it was too
much for the chancellor to control in the first place.  The school itself
was known as a studium generale, as universitas referred strictly to the
masters. Pavia is much older than Paris, but the documentation on both
Pavia and Bologna are a bit sketchy. We do know the students were the
universitas and could hire and fire teachers! ----Yours in Service,
Isabelle

From: HPGV80D at prodigy.com (Patricia Hefner)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: question re:"nations" at medieval universities
Date: 16 Feb 1995 04:32:58 GMT

Tris--No, the "nations" at medieval universities were drawn along lines 
of nationality. In the Middle Ages, it was very uncommon for anyone to 
leave the village they were born in, let alone live in a foreign country! 
But the universities were international institutions, so they often had 
to leave their country to go to a university. They had to have an 
environment where they could feel like "citizens". In Paris, natives 
often ripped off foreign students, especially in rent! The Avorroeists 
grouped around Siger of Brabant, no question there--he almost got elected 
proctor in 1271. But those loyalties weren't nationality, they were 
philosophical in nature. ---Yours in Service, Isabelle 

From: HPGV80D at prodigy.com (Patricia Hefner)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: question re:"nations" at medieval universities
Date: 21 Feb 1995 04:58:53 GMT

Thorvald--I've never heard of this source. One source I'll be using--but 
haven't gotten hold of yet--is Lynn Thorndyke's "University Records and 
Life in the Middle Ages", which, unfortunately, is out of print. It's all 
primary sources. It was originally published in 1944 by Columbia 
University Press. It was reprinted in 1972 by Columbia. I'm looking for 
"student life" material. It's funny, all of the sources I've used tell 
you everything about the universities except who the students were and 
what they were like! ---Isabelle

From: memorman at oldcolo.com (Mary Morman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: medieval universities
Date: 2 Mar 1995 16:07:09 GMT
Organization: Old Colorado City Communications

mistress elaina sends greetings,

last week there were a number of inquiries about medieval
universities - specifically about sources for how the 'nations'
functioned.  naturally, it has taken me a week to dig out my
bibliography, but here are some excellent sources:

charles homer haskins, the rise of the universities (cornell 
university press, 1957)
  a small, slim volume that is deceivingly deep and rich.  this
  was the standard reference on universities when i was in college.

u.t. holmes, daily living the twelfth century ( madison, wi, 1952)
  don't be deceived by the 'popular' appearance of this book.  it
  uses as a source the writings of alexander of neckham and has an
  excellent chapter on the university of paris that is almost a 
  verbatim translation of alexander's latin.

the compendium universitatis parisiensis of robert goulet, ad 1517.
(university of pennsylvania press, 1928)
  this is the gem of my collection.  only 100 copies were printed and 
  it claims to be "the first known english translation".  as far as i
  know it is the only one.  you will probably have to go through
  interlibrary loan to get this from the u of pa, but it is well worth
  the effort.  it is an annotated english translation of the latin
  book of Robert Goulet published in paris in 1517 and describing the
  history and organization of the university of paris.  it has chapters
  on each of the 'nations' and descriptions of how they function.

the following volumes all have something to offer:

l.j. daly, the medieval university 1200-1400 (new york, 1961)
anthony kerr, the universities of europe (westminster, MD, 1962)
manuale scholarium, translated by r.f. seybolt (cambridge, ma, 1921)
r.s. raid, life in the medieval university (cambridge, 1918)
h. rashdall, the universities of europe in the middle ages (oxford, 1936)
n. schachner, the mediaevil universities (new york, 1938)
l. thorndike, university records and life in the middle ages (new york, 1944)
helene wieruszowski, the medieval university (van norstrand press, 1966)

yours in service,
  ELAINA

elaina de sinistre   * * *   currently outlandish
       mary morman   * * *   memorman at oldcolo.com

From: memorman at oldcolo.com (Mary Morman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Sources Needed On medieval Universities
Date: 18 Mar 1995 02:06:13 GMT
Organization: Old Colorado City Communications 

mistress elaina writes:

the single best book on medieval universities that i know
of is charles homer haskins THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.

this slender volume has been continuously in print for
over 50 years  - that should say something.

From: sclark at chass.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 13 Mar 1997 20:02:02 -0500
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS

I'm not sure there were _any_ Irish universities in the 1500's, but don't
quote me on that.  As far as the rest of Northern Europe--the ones I
remember right off are Heidelburg, Wittenberg, Tubigen, Ingolstadt and
Paris (kinda Northern European).  I'm fairly certain there was at least
one university in Sweden.

As for addresses:  generally, a university "professor" was addressed as
"Master";  in some cases, "Doctor" (for a particularly learned one).

Cheers--
Nicolaa de Bracton
sclark at chass.utoronto.ca

From: "Maureen S. O'Brien" <mobrien at dnaco.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 02:31:03 -0800
Organization: Dayton Network Access Company

Susan Carroll-Clark wrote:
> I'm not sure there were _any_ Irish universities in the 1500's, but don't
> quote me on that.  As far as the rest of Northern Europe--the ones I

It depends what you mean by a university.... The state-subsidized filidh
schools were running every winter (from Michaelmas to March 25) up to
1650 or so, with a few attempts to revive them up till the 1670's; the
bard schools, being less visible targets, seem to have survived into the
1700's. (In Scotland, add about a century to that).

As for the Church -- well, I'm fairly sure there was some sorting of
higher education in Dublin, but I can't remember where I read that.
Now, I do know (thanks to _The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland_, which
is a very interesting book) that when Henry VIII went after the monks,
3 Cistercian houses (Abington, Newry, and Holycross) were changed into
"secular colleges, with a provost or warden at their head, but none
survived for long".  Of course, the young Catholic could go across the
Channel for his schooling, and I suppose the young Anglican could 
cross the Irish Sea -- but I don't know.

From: David KUIJT <kuijt at umiacs.umd.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 10:19:15 -0500
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

I've lost the original message, which asked something about what
Irish Universities, or other ones in Northern Europe, existed in the
1500's.

_The_Chronology_of_British_History_, Alan and Veronica Palmer, lists the
following dates for the foundation of British and Irish Universities:

c.1160  Oxford  
1209    Cambridge
1411    St. Andrews     (my Grandfather went there!)
1451    Glasgow
1495    Aberdeen
1583    Edinburgh
1592    Trinity College, Dublin

Then nothing else before 1832, save a brief failed Cromwellian experiment
in Durham, 1657.

Dafydd ap Gwystl

From: jan.frelin at pub.MIL.SE (Jan Frelin)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 17 Mar 1997 03:57:24 -0500

Nicolaa de Bracton wrote:
>I'm not sure there were _any_ Irish universities in the 1500's, but don't
>quote me on that.  As far as the rest of Northern Europe--the ones I
>remember right off are Heidelburg, Wittenberg, Tubigen, Ingolstadt and
>Paris (kinda Northern European).  I'm fairly certain there was at least
>one university in Sweden.

Uppsala was founded in 1477.
===========================================================================
Hartmann Rogge, Shire of Holmrike, Nordmark, Drachenwald
Jan Frelin, Stockholm, Sweden
jan.frelin at pub.mil.se

From: sclark at chass.utoronto.ca (Susan Carroll-Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 16 Mar 1997 23:00:29 -0500
Organization: University of Toronto -- EPAS

Greetings!

By "universities" I mean universities.  The filidh and bardic schools
are something entirely different, although they, too, had an educational
mission.  Likewise, I do not mean colleges or schools, even quite advanced
ones.  The medieval (and Renaissance) university was, in a way, a
guild of sorts, governed by the masters who taught there (although
occasionally, it was the students who formed the governing body).  A
university normally offered courses in Arts (the seven liberal arts),
as well as in the professions (law and/or medicine) and advanced pursuits
like theology/natural philosophy. 

This is not to say that there were no places of higher learning in Ireland--
just no universities.  Almost every church of any size would have had
a school associated with it, and the larger churches often had colleges
with a number of lectors on staff.  There were also the aforementioned
specialized schools, such as the bardic schools, which really had no other
parallel elsewhere in Europe.

Cheers--
Nicolaa de Bracton
sclark at chass.utoronto.ca

From: HPGV80D at prodigy.com (Patricia Hefner)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 18 Mar 1997 06:57:53 GMT

The word "universitas"  is where we get our word "university". 
"Universitas" is a Latin word for "guild".   The masters of these guilds 
originally thought of themselves as being in a craft guild--their craft 
being teaching. Good luck on your research. It ain't easy, but it's 
fascinating as heck.

Isabelle de Foix
Shire of Misty Mere
Kingdom of Meridies

From: ges95kll at studserv.uni-leipzig.de
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 14:32:55 +0100
Organization: Uni Leipzig

On 17 Mar 1997, Jan Frelin wrote:

> Uppsala was founded in 1477.
> ===========================================================================
> Hartmann Rogge, Shire of Holmrike, Nordmark, Drachenwald

Tuebingen was also founded in 1477!   

Michael H. Gartner
Universitaet Leipzig, Deutschland

From: mvoipio at cc.helsinki.fi (Mari L J Voipio)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 20 Mar 1997 16:34:10 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

BlackCat (blackcat at blueneptune.com) wrote:
: 1.Where were the major universities in northern Europe (excluding
: England) in the 1500's? (esp. Ireland)

This question has already been answered, but I'd like to discuss here
another aspect - the change that the Reformation brought to studies
around 1520.

Before the Reformation more or less all existing universities in the
Western Europe were open to all students.  For example those few Finns
that went to the university studied most often in Paris (Sorbonne), some
went to Netherlands or Germany.  Paris even had one Finnish (and I mean
Finnish as "from the Eastern part of the Swedish kingdom", that is:
today's Finland) principal and it was (and is) of course always easiest
to study somewhere where there were other students from homecountry. 

After the reformation Paris was out of question for Finns, because all of
Scandinavia became a firmly protestant area in 1520'ies. Now especially
Wittenberg, but also other German universities (Erfurt?) became the
center of Scandinavian learning, and in the end of the century the two
kingdoms in the area, Sweden and Denmark, got their own Lutheran
universities (I'm not 100 % sure about University of Copenhagen, but it
cannot be much newer than 1600). (The English universities were out of
question because England decided for a different kind of protestantism
and in the age of confessionalism and even afterwards that was almost as
bad as being "papist".)

So, going back to the original question, your "average" Irishman would
not have studied in protestant German universities (I don't know if
there were any catholic ones left, it is possible) and not in
Scandinavia either. The Netherlands were reformed protestants, but
studying in Gent might have been possible as the Dutch welcomed
everyone; I don't know about the universities, though.

I think that Paris or some of the Northern Italian universities should
be a quite sure bet as a place of study for a catholic Irishman both
before and especially after the Reformation.  If you want something more
exotic, you could try looking for universities in other countries that
kept the catholic faith, for example Poland (Warzawa, Krakow) or what is
now Czech (Praha) had quite probably own universities by that time. 

Many of you (or us, I'm a bit in between) in the SCA tend to ignore the
importance of the religion in our period. Still a fact is that after
1520 the Europe was divided very strictly in different spheres and the
borders were very difficult to cross most of the 16th century, at least
when learning is considered (main purpose of many universities was to
educate young men to priesthood - there was no way you could study THAT
in an university that held "wrong faith").

My point of view is that of a historian. I don't say that one is better
than the other, but is really very unlikely that your catholic Irishman
could have studied for example in Wittenberg or Uppsala - or at least
going back to catholic Ireland or anglican England (or reformed Scotland
as it happened) would have been very difficult. I may be wrong in some
point or other as I do not have time or possibility to check my
references and it is a while back I studied these things (and had
another question in my mind then), but the overall idea should be there.

Yours In Service,
                 Mari Voipio (who studies in an originally strictly
                              Lutheran Scandinavian university from 1640)
                 Mari.Voipio at helsinki.fi

PS. As my English is not as good as I wish it to be, some terms once more
(I'm sorry if I forget to capitalize some; it's not disrepect but comes
from my native Finnish):

Catholic  = Catholic Christians, those who have the faith of Rome and
            accept Pope as the head of their church
Protestants = those Christian groups/churches that went away from the
              Catholic church in the Reformation, which started from
              the ideas of Luther and Calvin and some others
Lutherans = those Protestant churches that accept Confessio Augustana,
            mainly the Churhes in present-day Denmark, Norway, Iceland,
            Sweden and Finland, and some German churches
Anglicans = a church started by Henry VIII, it is of the three big
            Protestants groups the one closest to the catholic church.
Reformed =  the most austere group of these three, started by Calvin
            in Switzerland, spread quickly to the Netherlands and
            Scotland.
    
The differences between the different Protestant groups may be difficult
to understand, but the main thing here (considering 1500's) is that they
were very important. People kept within their own groups and the others
were considered heretical and so on. A map on the churches in Europe in
the 16th and 17th centuries will help a lot here.

From: "Bill Sanderson" <bills at opcom.ca>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.1500's)
Date: 20 Mar 1997 18:31:09 GMT
Organization: Opcom Solutions Inc.

Hi folks

Apologies for the size of this table, but I pulled a list of major
universities and their founding dates out of one of the on-line sources and
massaged it to include only period institutions.

 On Tue, 11 Mar 1997, BlackCat wrote:
 
 > 1.Where were the major universities in northern Europe (excluding
 > England) in the 1500's? (esp. Ireland)

Table follows:

Institution             City            Date    country         Notes
-----------             ----            ----    -------         -----

al-Qarawiyin            Fès             859     Morocco Moslem
Al-Azhar                Cairo           970     Egypt           Moslem
Bologna                 Bologna         c.1000  Italy   
Parma                   Parma           1064    Italy   
Paris                   Paris           c.1150  France  
Oxford                  Oxford          c.1170  England 
Modena                  Modena          1175    Italy   
Perugia                 Perugia         1200    Italy   
Cambridge,              Cambridge       c.1200  England 
Hacettepe               Ankara          1206    Turkey          Moslem  
Salamanca               Salamanca       1218    Spain           Secular/Royal
Montpellier             Montpellier     1220    France  
Padua                   Padua           1222    Italy   
Naples                  Naples          1224    Italy   
Toulouse                Toulouse        1229    France  
Siena                   Siena           1240    Italy
Lisbon                  Lisbon          1288    Portugal
Macerata                Macerata        1290    Italy
Coimbra                 Coimbra         1290    Portugal
Valladolid              Valladolid      1293    Spain
Rome                    Rome            1303    Italy
Orléans                 Orléans         1306    France
Tours                   Tours           1306    France
Florence                Florence        1321    Italy
Grenoble                Grenoble        1339    France
Pisa                    Pisa            1343    Italy
Charles (Karlova)       Prague          1348    Czech Republic
Pavia                   Pavia           1361    Italy
Jagiellonian            Kraków          1364    Poland
Vienna                  Vienna          1365    Austria
Heidelberg              Heidelberg      1386    Germany
Cologne                 Cologne         1388    Germany 
Ferrara                 Ferrara         1391    Italy   
Turin                   Turin           1404    Italy   
Leipzig                 Leipzig         1409    Germany 
St. Andrews             St. Andrews     1411    Scotland        
Provence                Marseille       1413    France  
Rostock                 Rostock         1419    Germany 
Louvain                 Louvain (Leuven) 1425   Belgium 
Caen                    Caen            1432    France  
Poitiers                Poitiers        1432    France  
Catania                 Catania         1434    Italy   
Bordeaux                Bordeaux        1441    France  
Barcelona               Barcelona       1450    Spain   
Glasgow                 Glasgow         1451    Scotland
Istanbul                Istanbul        1453    Turkey  Moslem
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt      Greifswald      1456    Germany 
Freiburg          Freiburg im Breisgau  1457    Germany
Nantes                  Nantes          1460    France
Basel                   Basel           1460    Switzerland
Rennes                  Rennes          1461    France
Genoa                   Genoa           1471    Italy
Munich                  Munich          1472    Germany
Saragossa               Zaragoza        1474    Spain
Mainz                   Mainz           1477    Germany
Tübingen                Tübingen        1477    Germany
Uppsala                 Uppsala         1477    Sweden
Copenhagen              Copenhagen      1479    Denmark
Aberdeen                Aberdeen        1495    Scotland
Valencia                Valencia        1500    Spain
Santiago de Compostela  Santiago de     1501    Spain
Halle-Wittenberg        Halle           1502    Germany
Seville               Seville (Sevilla) 1502    Spain
Urbino                  Urbino          1506    Italy   
Madrid                  Madrid          1508    Spain   
Zürich                  Zürich          1523    Switzerland     
Granada                 Granada         1526    Spain   
Marburg                 Marburg/Lahn    1527    Germany 
Bern                    Bern            1528    Switzerland     
Lausanne                Lausanne        1537    Switzerland     
Santo Domingo           Santo Domingo   1538    Dom. Republic   Colonial
Strasbourg              Strasbourg      1538    France          Protestant
Michoacán               Morelia         1540    Mexico          Colonial
Reims                   Reims           1548    France  
Jena                    Jena            1548    Germany 
Messina                 Messina         1548    Italy   
Mexico                  Mexico City     1551    Mexico          Colonial
San Marcos              Lima            1551    Peru            Colonial
Geneva                  Geneva          1559    Switzerland     Protestant
Lille                   Lille           1560    France  
Sassari                 Sassari         1562    Italy   
Nancy                   Nancy           1572    France  
Palack‡                 Olomouc 1573    Czech Republic  
Leiden                  Leiden          1575    Netherlands     
Vilnius                 Vilnius         1579    Lithuania       
Würzburg                Würzburg        1582    Germany 
Edinburgh               Edinburgh       1583    United Kingdom  
Graz                    Graz            1585    Austria 
Trinity College         Dublin          1592    Ireland 
Malta                   Msida           1592    Malta   
San Carlos              Cebu            1595    Philippines     Colonial
Ljubljana               Ljubljana       1595    Slovenia        

The institutions listed above are the ones considered major universities
today by the compiler of the list. Smaller and defunct universities are not
listed. For instance, the first widely known medical school at Salerno
started c.850 and was considered a university through much of our period.

The colonial institutions would have been very tiny in period, mostly for
the training of local Christian converts to the priesthood. Interestingly,
neither Oxford or Cambridge ever got a formal charter as a university,
English common law granted them various rights over the years and these
were just as solid protection for the students as the formal royal and
papal charters that other institutions received. 

Hope this exercise helps in persona development and placement. My persona
is based in the Italy of the 1280s, but not in a university town. 

Gwilym

From: "Chip" <rinman at ucsd.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Paris, the place to go? (was Re: [Quest.] Universities (ca.15
Date: 29 Mar 1997 08:03:00 GMT
Organization: University of California at San Diego

Morgan the Unknown wrote:
> In
> fact education in the Middle Ages was centred around the religious aspects
> of life, and the course materials were, in the main, religious. There was
> some usage of ancient texts (Aristotle, ie) but generally, the main goals
> of the system was built around a Catholic focus. You will note that the
> exceptions are a) noticable because of their infrequency, and b) quite
> often associated with hereticism (Lollardry, and the like)

I've been staying out of this one because the original focus was on late
period, but since Morgan has broached the temporal barrier, I'd just like
to add here that the University of Constantinople was deliberately secular.
 The University served primarily as a training ground to supply the
byzantine bureaucracy.  It's curriculum was grounded in the seven liberal
arts, and it had two department chairs, one of philosophy and one of law.

The "seperation of church and state" in this instance was a deliberate
attempt to keep curb the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople, whose
"headquarters" (Hagia Sophia) was a scant few hundred feet from the Great
Palace.

Chip

Subject: Gaudeamus igitur
Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 16:35:24 MST
From: "C.L. Ward" <gunnora at bga.com>
To: "Mark.S Harris (rsve60)" <rsve60 at email.sps.mot.com>

"Gaudeamus igitur" is one of the best-known medieval student songs.  The
tune was used by Brahms for the climax of his 1860 composition, "Academic
Festival Overture".

A MIDI file of the tune may be found at:

http://ingeb.org/Lieder/gaudeamu.mid

http://www.lake.de/home/lake/buyenne/home_2/midi/kanten/gaudeamus_igitur.mid

Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus;
Post jucundam juventutem,
Post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus!

(While we're young, let us rejoice,
Singing out in gleeful tones;
After youth's delightful frolic,
And old age so melancholic!
Earth will cover our bones.)

Vita nostra brevis est,
Brevi finietur,
Venit mors velociter,
Rapit nos atrociter,
Nemini parcetur.

(Life is short and all too soon
We emit our final gasp;
Death ere long is on our back;
Terrible is his attack;
None escapes his dread grasp.)

Ubi sunt qui ante
Nos in mundo fuere?
Vadite ad superos,
Transite ad inferos,
Hos si vis videre.

(Where are those who trod this globe
In the years before us?
They in hellish fires below,
Or in Heaven's kindly glow,
Swell the eternal chorus.)

Vivat academia,
Vivant professores,
Vivat membrum quodlibet,
Vivant membra quaelibet,
Semper sint in flore!

(Long live our academy,
Teachers whom we cherish;
Long live all the graduates,
And the undergraduates;
Ever may they flourish.)

Vivant omnes virgines
Faciles, formosae,
Vivant et mulieres,
Tenerae, amabiles,
Bonae, laboriosae!

(Long live all the maidens fair,
Easy-going, pretty;
Long live all good ladies who
Are tender and so friendly to
Students in this city.)

Vivat et respublica
Et qui illam regit,
Vivat nostra civitas,
Maecenatum caritas,
Quae nos hic protegit!

(Long live our Republic and
The gentlefolk who lead us;
May the ones who hold the purse
Be always ready to disburse
Funds required to feed us.)

Pereat tristitia,
Pereant osores,
Pereat diabolus,
Quivis antiburschius,
Atque irrisores!

(Down with sadness, down with gloom,
Down with all who hate us;
Down with those who criticize,
Scoff, mock and berate us.)

Quis confluxus hodie
Academicorum?
E longinquo convenerunt,
Protinusque successerunt
In commune forum;

(Why has such a multitude
Come here during winter break?
Despite distance, despite weather,
They have gathered here together
For Philology's sake.)

Vivat nostra societas,
Vivant studiosi
Crescat una veritas,
Floreat fraternitas,
Patriae prosperitas.

(Long live our society,
Scholars wise and learned;
May truth and sincerity
Nourish our fraternity
And our land's prosperity.)

Alma Mater floreat,
Quae nos educavit;
Caros et commilitones,
Dissitas in regiones
Sparsos, congregavit;

(May our Alma Mater thrive,
A font of education;
Friends and colleagues, where'er they are,
Whether near or from afar,
Heed her invitation.)

(Translation by J. Mark Sugars 1997)

Gunnora Hallakarva, OL
Baroness to the Court of Ansteorra

<the end>