Studium generale is the old customary name for a medieval university in medieval Europe.
Studium generale is the old customary name for a medieval university in medieval Europe.
There is no official definition for the term studium generale. The term studium generale first appeared at the beginning of the 13th century out of customary usage, and meant a place where students from everywhere were welcomed, not merely those of the local district or region. [1]
In the 13th century, the term gradually acquired a more precise (but still unofficial) meaning as a place that (1) received students from all places, (2) taught the arts and had at least one of the higher faculties (that is, theology, law or medicine) and (3) that a significant part of the teaching was done by those with a master's degree. [2]
A fourth criterion slowly appeared: a master who had taught and was registered in the Guild of Masters of a studium generale was entitled to teach in any other studium without further examination. That privilege, known as jus ubique docendi, was, by custom, reserved only to the masters of the three oldest universities: Salerno, Bologna and Paris. Their reputations were so great that their graduates and teachers were welcome to teach in all other studia, but they accepted no outside teachers without an examination.
Pope Gregory IX, who, seeking to elevate the prestige of the papal-sponsored University of Toulouse, which he had founded in 1229, issued a bull in 1233, allowing Masters of Toulouse to teach in any studium without an examination. It consequently became customary for studia generalia, eager to elevate themselves, to apply for similar bulls. The older universities at first disdained requesting such privileges themselves, feeling their reputation was sufficient. However, Bologna and Paris eventually stooped down to apply for them too, receiving their papal bulls in 1292. [3]
Arguably, the most coveted feature of the papal bulls was the special exemption, instituted by Pope Honorius III in 1219, which allowed teachers and students to continue reaping the fruits of any clerical benefices they might have elsewhere. That dispensed them from the residency requirements set out in canon law. [4] As this privilege was granted only to those in studia generalia, certainly routinely by the 14th century, it began to be considered by many to be not only another (fifth) criterion but the definition of a studium generale . (Although the old universities of Oxford and Padua, which resisted asking for a papal bull, had sufficient reputation to be referred to as studium generale without a bull, Oxford masters were not allowed to teach in Paris without examination. Oxford reciprocated by demanding examinations from Paris masters and ignoring the papal privileges Paris enjoyed.)
Finally, the pope could issue bulls guaranteeing the autonomy of the university from the interference of local civil or diocesan authorities, a process that had begun with the issuing of the 1231 bull for the University of Paris. Although not a necessary criterion, bestowing the "privileges of Paris" to other studia generalia became customary.
The pope was not the only supplier of privileges. The Holy Roman Emperor also issued imperial charters granting much the same privileges, starting with the University of Naples in 1224.
A universal student body, one or more higher faculties, teaching by masters, the right to teach in other studia, retention of benefices, autonomy: those were common features in studia generalia. In other respects (structure, administration, curriculum etc.), studia generalia varied. Generally speaking, most tended to copy one of two old models: the student-centred system of Bologne or the master-centered structure of Paris.
Most of the early studia generalia were found in Italy, France, England, Spain and Portugal, and these were considered the most prestigious places of learning in Europe. The Vatican continues to designate many new universities as studia generalia, although the popular significance of this honour has declined over the centuries.
As early as the 13th century, scholars from a studium generale were encouraged to give lecture courses at other institutes across Europe and to share documents, and this led to the current academic culture seen in modern European universities.
The universities generally considered studia generalia in the 13th century were:
Both theological and secular universities were registered. This list quickly grew as new universities were founded throughout Europe. Many of these universities received formal confirmation of their status as studia generalia towards the end of the 13th century by way of papal bull, along with a host of newer universities. While these papal bulls initially did little more than confer the privileges of a specified university such as Bologna or Paris, by the end of the 13th century universities sought a papal bull conferring on them ius ubique docendi, the privilege of granting to masters licences to teach in all universities without further examination (Haskins, 1941:282).
Universities officially recognized as studia generalia in the 14th century were several, among them:
Today studium generale is primarily used within a European university context as a description for lectures, seminars and other activities which aim at providing academic foundations for students and the general public. They are in line with the humanistic roots of the traditional universities to reach outside of their boundaries and provide a general education.
In the early post-war years in Germany the concept was re-introduced, [5] for example, with a formal programme begun in 1948 at the Leibniz College [6] of University of Tübingen.
Today the term is often used interchangeably with orientation year and may be regarded as the academic equivalent of a Gap year.
A studium particulare tended to take local students. A studium generale, by contrast, would take students from all regions and all countries. [7]
A medieval university was a corporation organized during the Middle Ages for the purposes of higher education. The first Western European institutions generally considered to be universities were established in present-day Italy, including the Kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, and the Kingdoms of England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries for the study of the arts and the higher disciplines of theology, law, and medicine. These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the exact date when they became true universities, though the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican are a useful guide.
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta of 1215, but since the 14th century have only been used in place of private acts to grant a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organisations such as boroughs, universities and learned societies.
The University of Bologna is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (studiorum), it is the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning. At its foundation, the word universitas was first coined. The university's emblem carries the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, the date A.D. 1088. With over 90,000 students, the University of Bologna is one of the largest universities in Europe.
The University of Pisa is a public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe.
The University of Siena in Siena, Tuscany, is the first publicly funded university as well as one of the oldest in Italy. Originally called Studium Senese, the institution was founded in 1240. It had around 16,000 students in 2022, which is nearly one-third of Siena's total population of around 53,000. Today, the University of Siena is best known for its schools of law, medicine, and economics and management.
The Schola Medica Salernitana was a medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose to prominence in the 10th century, becoming the most important source of medical knowledge in Western Europe at the time.
The University of Paris strike of 1229 was caused by the deaths of a number of students in punishing a student riot. The students protested with a "dispersion", or student strike, which lasted more than two years and led to a number of reforms of the medieval university. The event demonstrates the town and gown power struggles with the Church, secular leaders and the emerging student class and a lessening of local Church authority over the University of Paris. The university was placed squarely under direct papal patronage, part of the program to centralise the Church structure, which had intensified under Innocent III.
The University of Perugia is a public university in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale.
The University of Catania is a university located in Catania, Sicily. Founded in 1434, it is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy, and the 29th oldest university in the world. With a population of over 60,000 students, it is the main university in Sicily.
The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (PUST), also known as the Angelicum in honor of its patron the Doctor Angelicus Thomas Aquinas, is a pontifical university located in the historic center of Rome, Italy. The Angelicum is administered by the Dominican Order and is the order's central locus of Thomist theology and philosophy.
The University of Vicenza was a medieval university located in the town of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Italy. It was recognized as a studium generale in 1204.
A university charter is a charter issued by an authority to create or recognize a university. The earliest universities – Bologna, Paris and Oxford – arose organically from concentrations of schools in those cities rather than being created by charters. The first university charters were issued in Europe in the 13th century, with the University of Naples, created by a charter of Emperor Frederick II in 1224, being widely considered the first deliberately-created university ; King Alfonso VIII of Castille issued a charter in 1208 to create the University of Palencia but the status of that institution is doubtful. The first papal creation was the University of Toulouse in 1229, via a papal bull of Pope Gregory IX. Through the 13th century, most university foundations continued to be organic, often by migrations of scholars from other universities, but by the start of the 14th century either a papal bull or an imperial charter was considered necessary.
The third-oldest university in England debate has been carried out since the mid-19th century, with rival claims being made originally by Durham University as the third-oldest officially recognised university (1832) and the third to confer degrees (1837) and the University of London as the third university to be granted a royal charter (1836). These have been joined more recently by University College London as it was founded as London University (1826) and was the third-oldest university institution to start teaching (1828) and by King's College London. Most historians identify Durham as the third-oldest, following standard practice in how a university is defined and how this is applied historically, although the popular press is more divided.
An ijazah is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such authority. It is particularly associated with transmission of Islamic religious knowledge. The license usually implies that the student has acquired this knowledge from the issuer of the ijaza through first-hand oral instruction, although this requirement came to be relaxed over time. An ijaza providing a chain of authorized transmitters going back to the original author often accompanied texts of hadith, fiqh and tafsir; but also appeared in mystical, historical, and philological works, as well as literary collections. While the ijaza is primarily associated with Sunni Islam, the concept also appears in the hadith traditions of Twelver Shia.
Student nations or simply nations are regional corporations of students at a university. Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, they are now largely restricted to the oldest universities of Sweden and Finland, in part because of the violent conflicts between the nations in university towns in other countries. Medieval universities were cosmopolitan, with students from many different domestic and foreign regions. Students who were born within the same region usually spoke the same language, expected to be ruled by their own familiar laws, and therefore joined together to form the nations. In the Anglo world the institutions most closely comparable to the medieval nation system are perhaps the collegiate system of older British universities or fraternities at North American universities, though the comparisons are imperfect. In Portugal and Brazil, there are fraternities called repúblicas, but this has nothing to do with the natio original concept of nations.
A university is an institution of higher education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
Regent master was a title conferred in the medieval universities upon a student who had acquired a master's degree. The degree meant simply the right to teach, the Licentia docendi, a right which could be granted, in the University of Paris, only by the Chancellor of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, or the Chancellor of St. Geneviève. According to the Third Council of Lateran, held in 1179, this Licentia docendi had to be granted gratuitously, and to all duly qualified applicants.
The Studia Linguarum were the first attempt to study oriental languages by the Roman Catholic Church. The need to study oriental languages was affirmed by the General Chapter of the Dominican Order in Paris in 1236. The objective of the schools was to help the Dominicans liberate Christian captives in Islamic lands.
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