The rise of the European university (Bologna and Paris)
- Date
- c. 1088 (University of Bologna)
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Europe (Italy & France)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
The High Middle Ages saw the birth of the university, a self-governing corporation of masters and students with the power to grant degrees — an institution with no clear precedent in antiquity.
The year 1088 is conventionally taken as the foundation of the Studium of Bologna, which became Europe's premier centre for the study of Roman and canon law and drew students from across the continent. In northern Europe, the schools clustered around Paris coalesced into a university organised around theology and the liberal arts; King Philip II Augustus granted its masters and scholars a royal privilege in 1200, and papal statutes followed in 1215. These 'universitates' standardised curricula around the recovered texts of Aristotle, Roman law and Christian theology, trained the lawyers, administrators and clergy of an increasingly literate society, and created a transnational scholarly community sharing a common Latin learning. The model spread to Oxford, Salamanca, Padua and beyond, establishing the institutional framework of Western higher education that endures today.
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Empires active in c. 1088 (University of Bologna)
- Almoravid Empire1056 CE – 1147 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Ghaznavid Empire977 CE – 1186 CE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Zhu Xi completes the Neo-Confucian synthesis and the Four Booksc. 1175-1190
- Al-Ghazali completes The Incoherence of the Philosophersc. 1095 CE
- Building of Angkor Wat by Suryavarman IIc. 1122–1150 CE
- Birth of Gothic architecture at Saint-Denisc. 1140–1144 (Saint-Denis choir)
- The Toledo School and the Latin translation of Greek-Arabic learning12th century (Gerard of Cremona d. 1187)
- Ferdowsi completes the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings8 March 1010 CE
Further reading
The wider story
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