Medieval university

A medieval university was a <a href="/facts/Corporation/hykSVoWJ">corporation</a> organized during the <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">Middle Ages</a> for the purposes of <a href="/facts/Higher_education/6GjdtJap">higher education</a>. The first Western European institutions generally considered to be <a href="/facts/University/skaJt2Io">universities</a> were established in present-day Italy, including the Kingdoms of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Sicily/AuymVu1X">Sicily</a> and <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Naples/9NtrlFp7">Naples</a>, and the Kingdoms of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_England/1VqdIuFc">England</a>, <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_France/Ul6rT7cQ">France</a>, <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Spain/bIyrB8EY">Spain</a>, <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Portugal/KUUfjXpt">Portugal</a>, and <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Scotland/sAac4KdX">Scotland</a> between the 11th and 15th centuries for the study of the <a href="/facts/Liberal_arts/YtUI0rgu">arts</a> and the higher disciplines of <a href="/facts/Theology/N71Fyw2M">theology</a>, <a href="/facts/Law/luzxWkg0">law</a>, and <a href="/facts/Medicine/2fnp90Je">medicine</a>. These universities evolved from much older <a href="/facts/Christianity/nKyJHlqq">Christian</a> <a href="/facts/Cathedral_school/WgA14Vmc">cathedral schools</a> and <a href="/facts/Monastic_school/eW2UWlGb">monastic schools</a>, and it is difficult to define the exact date when they became true universities, though the lists of <a href="/facts/Studium_generale/KPL0WqQV">studia generalia</a> for higher education in Europe held by the <a href="/facts/Roman_Curia/LJ7r0uay">Vatican</a> are a useful guide.
The word universitas originally applied only to the <a href="/facts/Scholasticism/8AWMNsgV">scholastic</a> <a href="/facts/Guild/cWSyNP50">guilds</a>—that is, the corporation of students and masters—within the studium, and it was always modified, as universitas magistrorum, universitas scholarium, or universitas magistrorum et scholarium. Eventually, probably in the late 14th century, the term began to appear by itself to exclusively mean a self-regulating community of teachers and scholars recognized and sanctioned by civil or ecclesiastical authority.
From the <a href="/facts/Early_Modern_period/hhpHM721">Early Modern period</a> onward, this <a href="/facts/Western_world/UQl4e7du">Western</a>-style organizational form gradually spread from the <a href="/facts/Western_culture/rPbgAhzI">medieval Latin West</a> across the globe, eventually replacing <a href="/facts/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions/z3UKF6MK">all other higher-learning institutions</a> and becoming the pre-eminent model for higher education everywhere.

Medieval university open-in-new

Medieval university