Origins

In the early Middle Ages, monasteries and cathedral schools had offered most of the available formal instruction. Monastery schools were small, but cathedral schools, run by the bishop and his clergy in bustling cities, gradually grew larger. In the eleventh century in Italian cities like Bologna (boh-LOH-nyuh), wealthy businessmen established municipal schools. In the course of the twelfth century, cathedral schools in France and municipal schools in Italy developed into educational institutions that attracted students from a wide area (Map 10.3). These schools were often called universitas magistrorum et scholarium (universal society of teachers and students), the origin of the English word university. The first European universities appeared in Italy in Bologna, where the specialty was law, and Salerno, where the specialty was medicine.

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Figure 10.3: MAP 10.3 Intellectual Centers of Medieval Europe Universities provided more sophisticated instruction than did monastery and cathedral schools, but all these institutions served to educate males who had the money to attend.