University
Universidad
- Date
- 1088 · confidence medium
- Place
- Bologna, Italy (and Paris, Oxford)
- Credited to
- Student corporations of Bologna; masters of Paris
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An autonomous corporation (universitas) of masters and students with legal privileges, recognised degrees and faculties of arts, law, medicine and theology. The most enduring institution of learning in the West.
Al-Qarawiyyin (Fez, 859) and al-Azhar (970) are earlier as centres of learning, but the corporate form with degrees is European. 1088 is the conventional date for Bologna.
What it led to
- scholasticism, and the reception of Aristotle and Arabic science
- a literate elite of jurists and bureaucrats for the states
- the institutional model for modern science and the academic degree
Built on
- Islamic madrasas (al-Qarawiyyin 859, al-Azhar 970)
- cathedral schools
- Schola Medica Salernitana
Made possible
- scholastic method
- university degree
- university library