The Medieval University [antikvár]

PREFACE The university, like the parliament, is a creation of the Middle Ages. Antiquity, to which we are indebted for so much that is precious in our cultural heritage, has not given us a model of formalized higher education. As the direct descendant of the medieval studium the modern university looks back to more than seven hundred years of a continuous history. In view of this age-long development it is almost a truism to state that our modern institutes are a far cry from what the university was in the Middle Ages. In its seminal stage it lacked, above all, "the attributes of a material existence" which to us seem so essential. In the course of centuries the familiar elements of academic organization gradually made their appearance and grew into the size and pattern we know to-day: a set curriculum, examinations, the license, the degree, faculties with their elected officials, and the colleges—and even academic buildings and libraries. This book has been inspired by the idea that, in the earlier history of the university, learning was the prime mover. Every new effort to enlarge knowledge and to convey it to the young touched off new schools and new institutions and organizations. This is also the idea underlying the fine book by Stephen DTrsay, whose organization this author has followed with only one significant change—the treatment of Oxford as an archetype of academic organization rather than as a derivative of the University of Paris. The author acknowledges with gratitude the assistance and happy cooperation she has received, especially in the earlier stage of the book, from her student and friend, Susan Jarvis. In a sense the book would never have been written without her help. The author also wants to dis- 5 k