The university as a guild of masters and students (Paris, Bologna)
An association of masters and students that admits its own members, teaches to a common curriculum and grants a degree recognised beyond one town. In Bologna such a corporation was formed by foreign law students, in Paris by masters who had separated from the cathedral school. Neither has an exact date; Paris counts 1200 as its year, when King Philip Augustus gave the scholars their first charter and removed them from the town court.
Haskins explains the rise of universities by a flood of new knowledge: in the 12th century books on logic, mathematics, astronomy and medicine translated from Arabic reached Europe through Italy, Sicily and above all Spain. In the 13th century the translations of Gerard of Cremona and Aristotle's physics enter the required curriculum.
The university turned learning into a craft with an examination and a diploma. It was there that knowledge from translations became something one is examined on rather than something found by chance.
Why this date
conventional. Neither Paris nor Bologna has a founding date. Paris counts 1200, the year of its first royal charter, as its own; Haskins writes that it became a university 'certainly before the end of the twelfth century'. The Bologna student corporation took shape in the second half of the 12th century.
What it grew from
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Latin translations from Arabic in Toledo and Spain
influenced · Confidence: high
The new knowledge that reached western Europe in the twelfth century chiefly through the Arab scholars of Spain, according to Haskins, burst the bonds of the cathedral and monastery schools and drew the students who formed in Paris and Bologna the first universities, gilds of masters and scholars.
Link sources
- Haskins C. H. «The Rise of Universities», New York: Henry Holt, 1923, p. 7 (1923), 7 Verified 6 Oct 2026
Between 1100 and 1200, however, there came a great influx of new knowledge into western Europe, partly through Italy and Sicily, but chiefly through the Arab scholars of Spain
- Haskins C. H. «The Rise of Universities», New York: Henry Holt, 1923, p. 8-9 (1923), 8-9 Verified 6 Oct 2026
This new knowledge burst the bonds of the cathedral and monastery schools and created the learned professions; it drew over mountains and across the narrow seas eager youths who, like Chaucer’s Oxford clerk of a later day, ‘would gladly learn and gladly teach,’ to form in Paris and Bologna those academic gilds which have given us our first and our best definition of a university, a society of masters and scholars.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
Further reading
Not evidence: these carry no quotation and support nothing we wrote. They are books and scans to read next.
- Haskins C. H. «The Rise of Universities», New York: Henry Holt, 1923, p. 7 (1923), 7 Verified 6 Oct 2026
Node sources
- Haskins C. H. «The Rise of Universities», New York: Henry Holt, 1923, p. 21-22 (1923), 21-22 Verified 4 Oct 2026
Universities, however, like to have precise dates to celebrate, and the University of Paris has chosen 1200, the year of its first royal charter.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.