Life in the Medieval University
Rait Robert S.
English
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Below is a summary of Life in the Medieval University
[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,
all other inconsistencies are as in the original.
Author's spelling has been maintained.]
The Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature
LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
C. F. CLAY, Manager
[Illustration: Arms]
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
Toronto: J. M. DENT & SONS, Ltd.
Tokyo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: The Student's Progress (From Gregor Reisch's _Margarita
philosophica_, Edition of 1504, Strassburg)]
LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY
BY
ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1918
_First Edition, 1912_
_Reprinted 1918_
_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design
on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest
known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521._
NOTE ON THE FRONTISPIECE
In this picture the schoolboy is seen arriving with his satchel and
being presented with a hornbook by Nicostrata, the Latin muse
Carmentis, who changed the Greek alphabet into the Latin. She admits
him by the key of _congruitas_ to the House of Wisdom ("Wisdom hath
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars," _Proverbs_
ix. 1). In the lowest story he begins his course in Donatus under a
Bachelor of Arts armed with the birch; in the next he is promoted to
Priscian. Then follow the other subjects of the _Trivium_ and the
_Quadrivium_ each subject being represented by its chief
exponent--logic by Aristotle, arithmetic by Boethius, geometry by
Euclid, etc. Ptolemy, the philosopher, who represents astronomy, is
confused with the kings of the same name. Pliny and Seneca represent
the more advanced study of physical and of moral science respectively,
and the edifice is crowned by Theology, the long and arduous course
for which followed that of the Arts. Its representative in a medieval
treatise is naturally Peter Lombard.
NOTE
I wish to express my obligations to many recent writers on University
history, and to the editors of University Statutes and other records,
from which my illustrations of medieval student life have been
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