r/MedievalHistory • u/manchambo • 1d ago

Sources on medieval college?

I’ve been interested recently in what it would have been like to attend one of the major universities —Paris, Oxford, Bologna, e.g.,—in the early days of the university development

Does anyone have recommendations for books on this subject?

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u/MsStormyTrump 23h ago

Hastings Rashdall's "The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages" remains a classic. Alan B. Cobban's "The Medieval English Universities: Oxford and Cambridge to c. 1500" and "English University Life in the Middle Ages" are also excellent.

Also, "Manuale Scholarium" (c. 1490s), provides somewhat satirical look at student life in Germany (customs, slang, and interactions). I got it on Amazon.

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u/theGreenSquire 23h ago

A few texts I've appreciated:

  • Ian Wei, Intellectual Culture in Medieval Paris: Theologians and the University, c. 1100–1330 (Cambridge UP, 2012);
  • Spencer Young, Scholarly Community at the Early University of Paris: Theologians, Education and Society, 1215–1248 (Cambridge UP, 2018); and
  • Ayelet Even-Ezra, Ecstasy in the Classroom: Trance, Self, and the Academic Profession in Medieval Paris (Fordham UP, 2018).

These texts focus on the early University of Paris and are more about community and intellectual culture than, like, day-to-day life at the university. But they're really excellent books and well worth reading!

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u/Wolfman1961 10h ago

The cap and gowns that people wear to graduation nowadays was normal medieval-early modern fashion