The Iter Italicum And The Northern Netherlands: Dutch Students At Italian Universities And Their Role In The Netherlands' Society (1426-1575) (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance)

THE ITER ITALICUM AND THE NORTHERN NETHERLANDS EDUCATION AND SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE Editors Jürge...

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THE ITER ITALICUM AND THE NORTHERN NETHERLANDS

EDUCATION AND SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE Editors

Jürgen Miethke (Heidelberg) William J. Courtenay (Madison) Jeremy Catto (Oxford) Jacques Verger (Paris)

VOLUME 21

THE ITER ITALICUM AND THE NORTHERN NETHERLANDS Dutch Students at Italian Universities and Their Role in the Netherlands’ Society (1426-1575)

BY

AD TERVOORT

BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2005

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tervoort, Ad. The iter italicum and the northern Netherlands : Dutch students at Italian universities and their role in the Netherlands’ society (1426-1575) / by Ad Tervoort. p. cm. — (Education and society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ISSN 0926-6070 ; v. 21) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 90-04-14134-0 1. Dutch students—Travel—Italy—History—16th century. 2. Universities and colleges—Italy—History—16th century. 3. Italy—Intellectual life—History—16th century. I. Title. II. Series. LC 6681.T47 2004 378.I’98293’31045—dc22 2004054505

ISSN 0926-6070 ISBN 90 04 14134 0 © Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands

To Leo sr. and jr.

CONTENTS

List of Tables, Graphs, Figures and Maps .............................. Preface ........................................................................................

ix xix

Chapter One Introduction ...................................................... Context: University History .................................................. Methodology and Sources .................................................... Outline of the Book: Themes and Questions ....................

1 5 14 19

Chapter Two Dutch Students and Italian Universities (1426–1575): Their Curriculum Studiosorum ............................ 2.1. Introducing the Population ............................................ 2.2. The University Itinerary: How Many Went Where? ...... 2.3. Choice of Faculty: The Lawyer and the Doctor ........ 2.4. The Measure of Success: Graduation .......................... 2.5. Students’ Age and Duration of Study ........................ 2.6. Summary ........................................................................

25 25 32 85 99 121 139

Chapter Three Geographical Origin .................................... 3.1. Seven Provinces: Not Yet United. Their Numbers .... 3.2. General Tendencies: The Catchment Areas of Italian Universities ...................................................................... 3.3. Batavus, Frisius, Belga? University Sources as a Mirror of Identity ......................................................................

143 143

Chapter Four Social Background .......................................... 4.1. Social Status in Universities .......................................... 4.2. Students and Social Stratiﬁcation in the Netherlands 4.3. Financing of University Studies .................................... 4.4. Social Background and Family Tradition .................... 4.5. Summary ........................................................................

197 197 210 221 235 238

Chapter Five The Student in Society: Careers, Networks and Social Mobility ................................................................ 5.1. The Career Path Examined .......................................... 5.2. Climbing the Ladder: Social Mobility and Networks 5.3. Summary ........................................................................

241 242 306 345

180 186

viii

contents

Chapter Six Epilogue: The Iter Italicum and Its Place in the Culture of the Late-Medieval and Early Modern Netherlands ............................................................................ 6.1. Renaissance and Reformation, State Formation and Revolt: An Italian Connection? .................................... 6.2. Conclusion ......................................................................

349 350 372

Appendix: Additional Tables and Graphs ..............................

381

Bibliography ................................................................................ Consulted Archives and Unedited Sources .......................... Edited Sources and Secondary Literature .......................... Index of Personal Names ..........................................................

409 409 410 431

Biographies of Students on CD-ROM

LIST OF TABLES, GRAPHS, FIGURES AND MAPS

Tables Table 2.1.1. Students from the Northern Netherlands mentioned at Italian Universities and individual students in Italy (1426–1575) in absolute numbers and in ten year averages. Table 2.1.2. Numbers of individuals visiting Italian universities compared to registration numbers of students from the diocese of Utrecht at the universities of Cologne and Louvain in 10 year averages (1426– 1575). Table 2.1.3. University registrations of Leidenaars (1426–1510). Table 2.1.4. Students from Friesland and Groningen in Italy compared to the total of student registrations from Friesland and Groningen (10 year averages). Table 2.2.1. Students from the Northern Netherlands, who visited Italian universities, attending more than one university. Table 2.2.2. University attendance at the four most popular universities outside Italy of students from the Northern Netherlands who visited Italian universities (1426–1575). Table 2.2.3. Number of students who started in the arts faculty, number of graduations to magister artium, licentiatus artium and baccalaureus artium compared to the total population. Table 2.2.4. Students from the Northern Netherlands at Ferrara previously had visited the universities of Padua and Bologna. Table 2.2.5. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at smaller Italian universities (1426–1575). Table 2.2.6. Most popular combinations of university attendance. Table 2.3.1. First choice of faculty of the 174 students from the Northern Netherlands in the population at

26

28

30 32

40

41

44

69

76 83 85

x

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps

Table 2.3.2. Table 2.4.1. Table 2.4.2.

Table 2.4.3.

Table 3.1.1. Tables 3.1.2. and 3.1.2a. Table 3.2.1. Table 3.3.1. Table 3.3.2. Table 4.1.1. Table 4.2.1.

Table 4.2.2. Table 4.2.3. Table 4.3.1. Table 5.1.1.

Cologne, compared to choice of faculty at Cologne overall, students from Haarlem and Guelders at Cologne in percentages. Choice of faculty in Siena, Pavia, Pisa/Florence, Perugia and Rome. Degrees in the higher faculties awarded to students in the population. Higher degrees in law taken by students from the diocese of Utrecht at the University of Orléans in the period 1444–1546. Yearly averages of degrees and doctorates awarded to students from the Northern Netherlands at the universities of Bologna, Padua, Ferrara, Siena, Orléans, Montpellier and Cologne. Population of the various regions in the Northern Netherlands around 1500. The population according to regional origin in absolute numbers and percentages, compared to the Northern Netherlands’ population. Attendance by region: Italy compared with Louvain, Cologne and Orléans in percentages. The way students ﬁgure in 203 graduation charters in absolute numbers and percentages. The way students present themselves in 71 autographs in the University registers of Padua. The population divided into three categories, Nobilis, Dives and Pauper. Students, whose background could be reconstructed, categorized according to the scheme in absolute numbers and percentages (italics) of the total population. Law students whose background could be reconstructed. Medical students whose background could be reconstructed. Oﬃces, student jobs and scholarships of Northern Netherlands’ students during their studies. Numbers of students per faculty (and as a percentage of faculty in italics) about whom career information or explained lack thereof was available.

99 105 106

107

144 145

182 190 194 200 213

213 214 222 242

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps Table 5.1.2. Numbers of students per faculty (and as a percentage of faculty in italics) about whom there was clearly deﬁned career information. Table 5.1.3. Careers recovered by sector of the population, and as a percentage of careers recovered in italics. Table 5.1.4. Clerics in the population per faculty and as a percentage of faculty. Table 5.1.5. Positions in Academia. Table 5.1.6. Positions in the Church held by students in the population. Table 5.1.7. Positions in health care held by students in the population in absolute numbers and as a percentage of careers of students of medicine. Table 5.1.8. Positions in town government and administration held by students in the population. Table 5.1.9. Positions held in regional government and administration by students in the population. Table 5.1.10. Positions in provincial government and administration held by students in the population. Table 5.1.11. Positions in the States held by students in the population. Table 5.1.12. Positions in central government and administration held by students in the population. Table 5.1.13. First, intermediate and last positions in health care held by students of medicine in the population with more than one position in health care. Table 5.1.14. First positions held by students in the population who ended up in the magistracy or as civil servants at regional, States, provincial and central level. Table 5.1.15. Positions in bureaucracies of state by clerics in the population. Table 5.1.16. Oﬃces held by law students from Italy, students from the Northern Netherlands and Brabant at the law University of Orléans compared. Table 5.1.17. Positions held by students of medicine in Italy and students of medicine at the University of Cologne compared. Table 5.2.1. Social categories of students in the population who became university professors in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

xi 243

249 249 250 255 263

267 271 273 278 280 292

293

299 301

304

312

xii Table 5.2.2.

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps Social categories of students in the population with oﬃces in the Church in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample. Social categories of students in the population in the professions or in the service of individuals in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample. Social categories of students in the population in senior civil servant positions at town level in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample. Social categories of students in the population in government and administration at town, regional, provincial and central level in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample. Social mobility and stability of students in the population, whose background and careers were traced according to faculty.

313

Table A2.3.1. Choice of faculty at the University of Bologna (1426–1575) in 25-year periods. Table A2.3.2. Choice of faculty at the University of Padua (1426–1575) in 25-year periods. Table A2.3.3. Choice of faculty at the University of Ferrara (1426–1575) in 25-year periods. Table A2.4.1. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages. Table A2.4.2. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages. Table A2.4.3. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages.

381

Table 5.2.3.

Table 5.2.4.

Table 5.2.5.

Table 5.2.6.

315

316

318

323

Appendix

381 382 382

383

384

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps Table A3.1.1.

Table A3.1.2. Table A3.1.3. Table A3.1.4. Table A3.1.5. Table A3.1.6. Table A3.1.7. Table A3.1.8. Table A3.1.9. Table A3.1.10. Table A3.1.11. Table A3.1.12. Table A3.1.13. Table A3.1.14. Table A3.1.15. Table A3.1.16.

Table A3.1.17. Table A3.1.18.

Survey of choice of faculty and degrees in higher faculties obtained according to region in absolute numbers; in cumulative percentages; in percentages of the regional total. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages: Holland. Towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Holland. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and in percentages: Zeeland. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Zeeland. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and as percentages: Utrecht. Cities towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Utrecht. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages: Guelders. Cities, towns and villages mentioned and their number of students: Guelders. Choice of faculty in absolute number and percentages: Overijssel. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Overijssel. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages: Friesland. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Friesland. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages: Groningen. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students: Groningen. Attendance at the University of Bologna according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages. Attendance at the University of Padua according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages. Attendance at the University of Ferrara according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages.

xiii 385

386 386 387 388 388 389 389 390 390 391 391 391 392 392 393

394 395

xiv

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps

Table A4.1.1. Survey table: Nobiles, Divites and Pauperes in absolute numbers and percentages per region. Table A4.1.2. Nobiles per region in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population and the regional population in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.3. Choice of faculty in Italy of noble students in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.4. Noble students as part of the law faculty compared to their total share in the population in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.5. Pauperes per region in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population and the regional population in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.6. Choice of faculty in Italy of “poor” students in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.7. “Poor” students as part of the law faculty compared to their total share in the population in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts. Table A4.1.8. Choice of faculty in Italy of divites in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts. Table A5.1.1. Career sectors of the population (N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered. Table A5.1.2. Career sectors of law students (N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered. Table A5.1.3. Career sectors of students of medicine (N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered. Table A5.1.4. Various teaching positions in Academia as percentage of the total number of teaching positions (N=99). Table A5.1.5. Positions in the Church held by students of law in the population. Table A5.1.6. Canonries held by students in the population.

396 397

399

399

400

402

402

402 403

404

404

405

406 407

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps

xv

Graphs Graph 2.1.1. Individuals students from the Northern Netherlands travelling to Italy for university study (1426– 1575). Graph 2.2.1. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in absolute numbers (1266–1575) in ten-year periods. Graph 2.2.2. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands (1426–1575) at the University of Bologna in absolute numbers. Graph 2.2.3. Matriculations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the law University of Bologna (1426–1575) in absolute numbers. Graph 2.2.4. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1426–1575) in absolute numbers. Graph 2.2.5. Matriculations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1545–75) in absolute numbers. Graph 2.2.6. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in absolute numbers. Graph 2.2.7. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Siena (1426–1575) in absolute numbers. Graph 2.3.1. Choice of faculty of the total population at Italian universities in 25-year periods. Graph 2.3.2. Graduations of the population in civil, canon and both laws at Italian universities in percentages Graph 2.3.3. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in 25year periods. Graph 2.3.4. Matriculations of law students from the Northern Netherlands at the universities of Bologna and Orléans compared. Graph 2.3.5. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in 25year periods.

27

57

60

60

65

65

68

74

89 89 94

94

96

xvi

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps

Graph 2.3.6. Matriculations of students from the Netherlands in law at the Universities of Padua and Orléans compared (1547–67). Graph 2.3.7. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in 25year periods. Graph 2.4.1. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna. Graph 2.4.2. Graduation averages in law of students from England and the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna compared (1426–1505). Graph 2.4.3. Number of Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1426–1581). Graph 2.4.4. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara. Graph 2.4.5. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Siena. Graph 2.5.1. Distribution of age at ﬁrst matriculation (N=72). Graph 2.5.2. Distribution of age at matriculation in higher faculty (N=38). Graph 2.5.3. Distribution of age at last graduation (N=62). Graph 2.5.4. Distribution of parameters of study duration (N=261). Graph 2.5.5. Distribution of parameters of study duration of law students (N=156). Graph 2.5.6. Distribution of parameters of study duration of students of medicine (N=94). Graph 2.5.7. the time it took students in the population to obtain the degree of baccalaureus artium in months (N=75). Graph 2.5.8. The time it took students in the population to take the degree of magister artium in months (N=62). Graph 2.5.9. Minimum duration of stay of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in half year periods (N=47). Graph 2.5.10. Minimum duration of stay of students from the

96

98

115

115

118

119

120 125 125 126 128 128 129 130

130

135

137

list of tables, graphs, figures and maps

Graph 2.5.11.

Graph 3.1.1. Graph 3.1.2. Graph Graph Graph Graph Graph Graph Graph Graph

3.1.3. 3.1.4. 3.1.5. 3.1.6. 3.1.7. 3.1.8. 3.1.9. 4.1.1.

Graph 4.1.2. Graph 4.1.3. Graph 4.1.4.

Graph 4.1.5. Graph 5.2.1.

Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in half year periods (N=50). Minimum duration of stay of students from the Northern Netherlands visiting Italian universities (N=124). Mobility to Italy from Holland (1426–1575). Mobility from the Northern Netherlands and Holland compared: ten year averages. Choice of faculty in Italy: Holland. Choice of faculty in Italy: Zeeland. Choice of faculty in Italy: Utrecht. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Guelders. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Overijssel. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Friesland. Choice of faculty in Italy: Groningen. Nobiles, Divites and Pauperes in the population in 25-year cohorts (1426–1575). Divites: choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts. Nobiles: choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts. Social categories, Nobiles, Pauperes and Divites, of each region as a percentage of the total category, compared to the total regional percentage of the population. Pauperes: Choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts. Social background of the career sample of students from the Northern Netherlands at Italian universities (N=337).

xvii

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151 163 163 166 169 172 175 178 180 200 201 202 203

205 311

Figures and Maps Figure 2.2.1. Map 2.2.

Map 3.1.A.

Outline of the structure of the Bolognese model. Universities visited by the students in the population and their itineraries to Italian universities and their weight. Places of origin of the population and their relative weight.

50 39

147

PREFACE

But don’t the splendours of Italy herself, once mistress of all nations, attract you? Rudolph Agricola (1472)1

This book is the result of my own iter italicum, which started nearly ten years ago. It is an updated and revised version of the thesis I defended at the European University Institute in October 2000. It has its basis in a collective biography of those young men who visited Italian universities in a 150-year period. I have attempted to describe and analyse a complex historical phenomenon, searching for patterns and numbers, similarities and diﬀerences for a rather large group of people. I hope that in using examples and some case studies I have succeeded in trying to rescue some aspects of the lives of the less well-known or even hitherto unknown students from complete anonymity by giving them their place in this cultural phenomenon, albeit most of the time only in numbers. The iter italicum could lead a student to other strange and exotic places, instigate a change of career and other expectations, sometimes even lead to an early grave. I think I have some understanding of the (un)expected things a student on the peninsula might have encountered. After my own iter italicum I can say that it has been an experience that has made an enormous impression on me, and it changed my life in more than one respect. A sense of awe, admiration and expectation for the attractions of (student) life in Italy is something I think I share with many of the young men in the population that I have studied. This book reconstructs, supplements and in places corrects the view of the iter italicum. Writing it would have been impossible without the works of generations of scholars, whose works I have used

1 “. . . nonne tibi pulchrum Italiam ipsam uidetur, domitricem quondam principemque gentium, intueri?”; letter nr. 2, to Johannes Vredewolt in: Rudolph Agricola, Letters, ed. Adrie van der Laan and Fokke Akkerman, Bibliotheca Latininatis Novae (Assen 2002) 66.

xx

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and to whom I am greatly indebted. Their works are mentioned in the footnotes and the bibliography. Numerous people have helped me in more ways than through their writings and it is here that I wish to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to them. First I would like to thank my supervisors, Prof. Hilde de RidderSymoens and Prof. John Brewer. It was in the research seminars of Prof. Brewer that I ﬁrst presented ideas and preliminary results that eventually found their way into this book. His critical mind and broad range of learning has helped me to get a clearer view of what it was I wanted to do and he left me the freedom to do it. My mentor, Prof. De Ridder-Symoens has been a source of inspiration since my undergraduate years at the Vrije Universiteit, where she introduced me to the subject of the history of education. Her ﬁrst suggestion that I should perhaps look at student mobility from the Northern Netherlands to Italy became the research project of which this book is the result. At every stage she has been supportive and encouraging. I consider it an honour that jury members Prof. W.Th.M. Frijhoﬀ and Prof. G. Delille read and approved my thesis. Prof. Frijhoﬀ generously gave further insightful comments and suggestions for its revision, as did Prof. Jürgen Miethke and Prof. William Courtenay, editors of the ESMAR-series. A host of scholars have taken time to share their expertise with me. In the context of Italian universities and their sources Prof. A. Sottilli, Dr Peter Denley, Dr E. Veronese, and Dr E. Martellozzo Forin deserve special mention. Dr Jürg Schmutz was a companion in my ﬁrst weeks in the archives of Bologna. Meetings and correspondence with Dr Helga Robinson-Hammerstein, Prof. R. Feenstra, Prof. Koen Goudriaan, the late Dr Samme Zijlstra, Dr Bram van den Hoven van Genderen, Dr Mario Damen, and Rudolph Ladan have proved extremely valuable. Their willingness to share their (sometimes not yet published) material with me I appreciate enormously. More recently, my colleagues at the Vrije Universiteit, Dr Sabrina Corbellini, Arjan van Dixhoorn, Hildo van Engen, Dr Madelon van Luijk, Dr Jaap van Moolenbroek and Annemarie Speetjens have shared information with me which was useful for the biographies. I would also like to thank the organizers and participants of conferences at the Fryske Akademy (1996), the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (1996), the Vlaams Netwerk Mediëvistiek, the International Commission for the History of Universities (1999), the Department of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin (1998), the Summer School at the

preface

xxi

Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel (1998), for oﬀering me the opportunity to present part of my work, for criticism and stimulating conversations in beautiful surroundings. Further gratitude naturally goes to all staﬀ of the various archives and libraries I have visited these last years. All these scholars have in some way contributed to this book. They have helped me with issues of contents and structure, which improved it in many ways. Whatever mistakes and faults remain are solely my own. I am indebted to Brill Academic Publishers and the editors of ‘Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance’ for including this book in the series. The writing of a thesis does not come cheap. I gladly acknowledge the NUFFIC and the European University Institute in Fiesole for their ﬁnancial support, which has allowed me to avoid the fate of many of those studied in this book, who earned their keep as famuli, praeceptores, scriptores and what have you. I owe a great deal to researchers and staﬀ at the EUI, too many people to name. The three odd years I spent with them in Florence I shall never forget. Dr Rory O’Connell, Dr Manuel Herrero Sanchez, Dr Simon Dubbins, Ignacio Lopez Martin, Dr Jona Israël, and Beatrijs de Hartogh deserve special thanks. Back home—and abroad, if they decided to surprise me—I could always count on the longstanding friendship of a number of people: Ton Fasel, Joost Groot, Pim Steenvoorden, Paul van de Linde, Marjo Spaan, and Arian Kaandorp in particular. They never failed to help out, when I asked them. Their contribution to the completion of this book cannot be found in the footnotes, but if they think back they must remember the manifold ways in which they have helped me to get there. To my parents I owe everything. The love, guidance and freedom they gave me, and their constant encouragement—sometimes in diﬃcult circumstances—have brought me where I am now. In the context of this book they deserve special mention for putting up with me for months during my missions in Holland, and more recently for minding our children on a number of busy days. Now I am a father myself, I realize that I owe them a debt that can never be repaid. If any person was important in my choice for history, it is my father. He is both a source of inspiration and an example. The very least he deserves is that I dedicate this thesis to him. He has to share the dedication with his grandson, Leo, who is named after him. Leo’s ﬁrst year with us more or less covered the

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busy period of the completion of my thesis. His sister Muirean had joined him by the time I started revising it for publication. Their only contribution to this book is Leo typing both their names in this preface. Their vivacity was sometimes a bit distracting during the ﬁnishing stages of both thesis and book, but they certainly have given me further ideas on what life is about. I owe much, much more than gratitude to Dr Ide Kearney. Since 13 September 1995, she has been a source of love, encouragement and support. Her critical mind has certainly found its way into this book at many levels. She knows how much she has contributed to this book, but more important, to my happiness. For years she had to share me with 640 of my forbears, Dutch students who visited universities in Italy. I am certain she will be pleased I say goodbye to them now. Ad Tervoort Amsterdam, May 2004

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

I understand, noble young man that you are longing for Italy. Certainly, it pleases me, this longing, which, as I know, is innate only in the best and noblest minds.1 Justus Lipsius (1579)

Until the late eighteenth century students from diﬀerent parts of Europe travelled across the continent to visit universities in various countries, the so-called peregrinatio academica. The iter italicum was particularly popular. Ever since their foundation the famous studia generalia in Italy, notably Bologna and Padua, had attracted numerous young men in search of study. Students from the Low Countries2 seem to have been particularly travel-minded. In the Middle Ages they were compelled to seek higher education abroad because of the absence of a university in their home countries. Even the foundation of the nearby University of Cologne in 1388 and the foundation of the ﬁrst ‘national’ university of the Low Countries in 1425 at Louvain in Brabant did not diminish their love of travel. What did students from the Low Countries hope to ﬁnd at Italian universities that they could not obtain in Louvain? Was the trip to an Italian university the coronation of an excellent study curriculum? Did graduation at Italian studium open up the way to a more prestigious and proﬁtable career? Or might there have been other factors of interest at work, factors that had little to do with academia,

1

In a letter to Philip Lannoy: “In Italiam cogitare te audio, nobilissime iuvenum, et audio volens. Placet ea mens, quam agnatam scio non nisi optimae cuique menti” Justus Lipsius, Epistola de fructu peregrinandi et praesertim in Italia (Leiden, apud Franciscum Hegerum 1631); Iusti Lipsi Epistolae, ed. A. Gerlo, M.A. Nauwelaerts, H.D.L. Vervliet (Brussels 1978) 198, nr. 90. 2 The term ‘the Low Countries’ refers to the present countries of the Netherlands and Belgium. The term, ‘the Netherlands’, is also used to refer to the entire Low Countries and should not be confused with the present Netherlands.

chapter one

2

for instance, a quest for adventure or simply seeking the pleasures of the Mediterranean? Did Justus Lipsius, the famous Low Countries scholar, who himself had visited Italy in 1568,3 have the right idea, namely that only “the best and the noblest” ( just of minds?) undertook the long journey to Italy? Who were these men? Is it possible to detect any profound role this group of student travellers might have played in the society of the Low Countries and, if so, can we trace aspects of this inﬂuence back to their Italian sojourn? Can we detect the nature and the consequences of Dutch student mobility to Italy? In short, this book tries to evaluate this iter italicum. One viable way to do this is to reconstruct patterns in university attendance at Italian universities and later Tätigkeit of students, in other words, looking at the big picture. However, to ﬁnd out how many and which Dutchmen went to seek what at Italian universities and to what end—to look for information that might answer the ‘who’, ‘where’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the iter italicum—is an arduous task. Can we really establish what they were after? Was it famous teachers? Speciﬁc subjects? Maybe just graduation? At the micro-level, the trip to Italy might have meant very diﬀerent things to diﬀerent students. While there is evidence for a few students as regards their motives for studying in Italy, such material is simply not available for the vast majority. Although a collective biography (or prosopography) might not give the ultimate answers to the ‘why’ of the iter italicum for a particular individual, the collection of data allows us to root out and analyse certain patterns, diﬀerences and similarities that can answer a number of questions on the nature of this phenomenon. This book ﬁlls a gap. Although much research has been done on the peregrinatio academica of students from the Southern Netherlands, not much attention has been devoted to their Northern counterparts.4 Frijhoﬀ ’s thesis on Dutch society and its graduates from 1575

3

Lipsius himself left from Louvain for Italy in April 1568. Two months later he worked as a secretary for Cardinal Granvelle. There is as of now no evidence for the hypothesis that Lipsius had studied in Padua in this particular year, although he had ﬁrm relations with several alumni of this famous Italian studium: Jan den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten in de rechten te Padua 1545–1700’ in: Mededelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, 3rd series X (1959) 45–165, there 80. 4 H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders aan de rechtsuniversiteit van Orléans, 1444–1546. Een socio-professionele studie’ in: Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis 61 (1978) 195–347; C.M. Ridderikhoﬀ, H. de Ridder-Symoens, D. Illmer (eds.), Premier livre

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until 18145 has contributed much to our knowledge of the position of graduates (including academic pilgrims to Italy) in and their inﬂuence upon Northern Netherlands’ society. His point of departure, however, is the foundation of the University of Leiden in 1575. This leaves a critical period of some 150 years unexplored, if one takes the foundation of the University of Louvain as a deﬁning moment. What holds true for the total student population from the Northern Netherlands, holds true for those who went further away, to the Italian peninsula. With the exception of partial studies for certain universities and preliminary ﬁgures of graduates from some, there is no study at our disposal that tells us how many young men travelled across Europe to register with an Italian studium and how many returned with a degree. It is therefore important to take inventory in a more general sense and analyse these data. This is one of the purposes of this study. This book deals with students from the Northern Netherlands who studied at Italian6 universities and their role in the Northern Netherlands society from 1425 onwards until 1575. It is plausible to take des procurateurs de la nation germanique de l’ancienne université d’Orléans (1444–1546) 2e partie: Biographies des étudiants, vol. I, 1444–1515 (Leiden 1978), vol. II, 1516–1546 (Leiden 1980), vol. III, Tables (Leiden 1985); H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘L’évolution quantitative et qualitative de la pérégrination académique des étudiants néerlandais méridionaux de la Renaissance à l’époque des Lumières’ in: M. Kulczykowski (ed.), Pérégrinations académiques. IVe session scientiﬁque internationale, Cracovie 19–21 mai 1983, (Warsaw 1989) 87–97; H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Tendances et méthodes de recherche sur la mobilité universitaire’ in: A. Romano (ed.), Dall’università degli studenti all’università degli studi (Messina 1991) 27–42. For the Northern Netherlands a notable exception are students from Frisia. S. Zijlstra, ‘Studie en carrière van de Friezen 1200–1650: problemen en perspectieven’ in: Batavia academica 9 (1991) 3–12; Id., Het geleerde Friesland. Universiteit en maatschappij in Friesland en Stad en Lande ca. 1380–1650 (Leeuwarden 1996). I would also like to mention J. Schmutz’, Juristen für das Reich. Die deutschen Rechtenstudenten an der Universität Bologna 1265–1425, 2 vols. (Basle 2000) dealing with the members of the Natio Germanica of the ancient law university of Bologna. His results include students from the Northern Netherlands as well. 5 W.T.M. Frijhoﬀ, La société néerlandaise et ses gradués, 1575–1814. Une recherche sérielle sur le statut des intellectuels (Amsterdam 1981). 6 ‘Italian’ refers to the peninsula and should only be understood in the geographical sense. Italy was not a political entity. It consisted of numerous rival states. The most important of these were the Republic of Venice and The duchy of Milan, controlling the North of Italy, the Republic of Florence and the Papal State that were powerful in its central part, and lastly the kingdom of Naples that held the South. The Italian universities were located in diﬀerent political entities with a diﬀerent political structure and culture and this fact, as we shall see, could also exercise some inﬂuence on the aﬀairs of the respective universities.

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1426 as a starting point. First, from the perspective of university history, the age of wandering scholars was over. Europe entered the period of ‘national universities’ in the course of the fourteenth century. The chapter on mobility in A History of the University in Europe says it clearly: Preference for a regional university or for the nearest university became general at the end of the fourteenth century, and most marked in the ﬁfteenth century, when every state and political or ecclesiastical unit tried to found a studium so that its citizens should study there instead of abroad. In this way it kept their intellectual and ideological training under observation and prevented ﬂight of capital abroad, detrimental to local traders and craftsmen.7

For the Netherlands as a whole, the foundation of the universities of Cologne and Louvain signiﬁed this process in university history. Nevertheless, this development did not halt student mobility to ‘foreign’ studia. Second, 1425 marked the beginning of Burgundian— and later Habsburg—rule in the Northern Netherlands.8 The terminus was chosen for similar reasons. The year 1575 saw the foundation of the University of Leiden, which gave the Northern Netherlands their proper university. This university had a reformed character, partly a break with tradition. Frijhoﬀ included graduates of most Italian universities in his thesis about Dutch intellectuals and their place in society.9 Moreover, in that year the Dutch Revolt was in full swing. It eventually was to be the end of Habsburg rule over the Northern Netherlands, oﬃcially in 1581 when Philip II of Spain was abjured as ruler of the Northern provinces. The territory under investigation consists of the county Holland, the county Zeeland,10 Frisia, the duchy of Guelders and the ‘Sticht’ Utrecht, the worldly possessions of the bishop of Utrecht (the present provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht,

7

Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Mobility’ in: H. de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), A History of the University in Europe. I. Universities in the Middle Ages (Cambridge 1992) 280–304; there, 285. 8 1428: Holland and Zeeland; 1455: the bishopric of Utrecht; 1472–3: Guelders and again since 1543; 1524: Frisia; 1528: Overijssel; 1536: Drenthe and Groningen 9 Frijhoﬀ, Société néerlandaise. 10 Zeeland was a separate county under feudal law. It had its own States, for instance. In the later Middle Ages it was custom that the count of Holland was count of Zeeland as well.

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Gelderland, Overijssel, Frisia, Drenthe and Groningen).11 Together they constitute the better part of the diocese of Utrecht or Traiectum as it is called in Latin sources.

Context: University History To put the question about the nature of the iter italicum in its proper perspective, a closer look at the issues involved in the history of universities is necessary. The history of universities has enjoyed much attention, especially over the last 125 years. Scholars from several disciplines have devoted numerous books and articles to the study of the various aspects of universities. A look at the several bibliographies on university history immediately makes clear that this type of historiography has acquired the shape of an industry.12 This is not to say that attention has been divided equally over the several aspects of university history, or over the periods in history, nor indeed over the years of this last century. A good deal of literature might be called anniversary literature.13 The notion that university

11

It has to be mentioned that Frisia has been under scrutinous observation by the Fryske Akademy (see n. 4). I am excluding the duchy of Brabant (in part the province of Noord-Brabant), which was part of the Southern Netherlands in this particular period. Students from this part of the Low Countries are incorporated in the research of H. de Ridder-Symoens (see n. 4). 12 J.M. Fletcher (ed.), The History of European Universities. Work in Progress and Publications, 5 vols. (Birmingham 1977–81); Id. and J. Deahl, ‘European Universities 1300–1700: the Development of Research 1969–1981, and a Summary Bibliography’ in: J.M. Kittelson and P.J. Transue (eds.), Rebirth, Reform and Resilience: Universities in Transition 1300 –1700 (Colombus, Ohio 1984) 324–357; Id. and Chr.A. Upton, ‘Publications on University History since 1977: A Continuing Bibliography’ in: History of Universities 7 (1988) 371–468 [continued]. This list could be supplemented by several national or university bibliographies. These general bibliographies give a good impression of the work done. Historical journal on the subject, History of Universities, even journals speciﬁc to the history of a country or region (Batavia academica-continued in Nieuwsbrief Universiteitsgeschiedenis) or a particular university (Quaderni per la Storia dell’Università di Padova); articles on university history are published in journals on education in general (e.g. Histoire de l’Éducation) or other important historical journals. 13 In the speciﬁc case of Italy the year 1888 is a special one. That year the University of Bologna celebrated its eight-hundredth anniversary (although the date was much debated). This occasion triggered a mass of source editions and monographs not only on the history of this university, but, just as important for other Italian universities and several German universities as well. For a brief overview: Peter Denley, ‘Recent Studies on Italian Universities of the Middle Ages and

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history is a subject worth studying in itself has grown slowly, albeit steadily. For the period most intensively studied, one might cite the following: “Dans la tradition, l’histoire des universités européennes a été de façon massive une histoire médiévale, institutionelle et intellectuelle.”14 As far as this last point is concerned, until four decades ago the universities of the Middle Ages have been rewarded with the bulk of interest.15 This has arguably much to do with the fact that the origins and early development of an institution might seem more exciting than a ﬁrmly established one. Since the late fourteenth and early ﬁfteenth centuries, universities showed little development from an institutional point of view, and brought hardly anything spectacular or revolutionary from an intellectual point of view.16 It has often been argued that humanism developed for a large part outside universities, at the courts of princes and in the chancelleries of the Italian city states. The same applies to the Scientiﬁc Revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, where learned societies played a pivotal role. The aspects of university history that were most intensively studied for a long period were the development of the institution and its intellectual history. Problems that were studied mostly had to do with the nature of universities. Were they in essence clerical institutions or worldly ones? Who in last instance had supreme authority over them, pope or prince? All sorts of questions that had to do with legal history were regarded in depth and it has even been argued that much of the literature on university history in the twentieth century has been concerned with questions that had already been discussed and answered.17

Renaissance’ in: History of Universities I (1980) 193, n. 1. Even in 1988 the nine-hundredth anniversary produced an important number of conferences, books, articles and essay collections, e.g. G.P. Brizzi and A.I. Pini (eds.), Studenti e Università degli studenti del XII al XIX secolo (Bologna 1988); more references in the continuing bibliographies in the journals mentioned in n. 12. 14 R. Chartier and J. Revel, ‘Université et société dans l’Europe moderne: position des problèmes’ in: Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine 25 (1978) 353–374; there 353. 15 Cf. W. Rüegg, ‘Themes’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History of the University, I, 3–8. 16 Jacques Verger, Le università nel medioevo (Bologna 1991) 115 [originally published as Jacques Verger, Les universités au moyen âge (Paris 1973)]. 17 Frank Rexroth, Deutsche Universitätsstiftungen von Prag bis Köln. Die Intentionen des Stifters und die Wege und Chancen ihrer Verwirklichung im spätmittelalterlichen Territorialstaat,

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After the Second World War and particularly in the last four decades or so the history of universities has acquired a new dimension. As in most other branches of modern historiography, social history started playing a part. Whereas in Marxist historiography universities are mainly seen as intellectual instruments to serve the needs of the ruling classes, Herbert Grundmann put strong emphasis on the extremely mixed social background of students, arguing that the prime features of the university were its corporate and autonomous structure and the amor sciendi, the desire to know, of its visitors.18 The debate that resulted from Grundmann’s thesis made it clear that too simplistic interpretations of the phenomenon ‘university’ do not do justice to its complexity. All sorts of forces in society have to be reckoned with. The notion that socio-economic forces are at the heart of the structure of and processes in society reshaped university history to a considerable extent. La Nouvelle Histoire of the universities concentrated on new topics, frequently taken from the social sciences. Whereas the more traditional historiography had been concerned for the most part with institutional and intellectual developments within the boundaries of the university itself, this ‘new’ type of university historiography has emphasized the relationship between university and society at large (meaning: not only its relationship with popes or princes). One of the ﬁrst historians to work with this type of approach was Sven Stelling-Michaud. In the ﬁfties he used a prosopography of Swiss law students at Bologna (1255–1330) to trace and explain the penetration of Roman and canon law in the courts and legislation in general of Switzerland, in which these students functioned as very important mediators.19 Since the late ﬁfties-early sixties many of the publications on university history have taken into account this social dimension.20 Students and teachers no longer had

Beihefte zum Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 34 (Cologne 1992) part A, the ﬁrst three chapters considers these questions in-depth with speciﬁc attention to the literature in German. 18 Herbert Grundmann, Vom Ursprung der Universität im Mittelalter (Darmstadt 19762). 19 S. Stelling-Michaud, L’université de Bologne et la pénétration des droits romaine et canonique en Suisse aux XIII e et XIV e siècles, Travaux d’Humanisme et de Renaissance, 17 (Geneva 1955); id., Les juristes suisses à Bologne (1255–1330). Notices biographiques et Regestes des actes bolonais, Travaux d’Humanisme et de Renaissance, 38 (Geneva 1960). 20 Note the emphasis put on the social role of the European university in the

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to be part of the venerable and famous few: they became a fashionable topic an sich. They were interesting as social agents and as mediators. Questions were asked about the role of a university education in social stratiﬁcation and social mobility.21 Thus university history too entered the realm of ‘Social History’.22 Another important aspect attached to the new practice of university history is the application of the methods of social history to universities. Since social forces were seen as a very important motor in history, all who participate in it—not just the ‘great men’—should have their place in historiography. Strong emphasis began to be put on quantiﬁable areas of research.23 Graphs and pie charts started to appear in the kind of books that earlier contained extensive quotations in Latin. Inventory of alumni of a certain university may involve thousands of individuals. Growth of attendance, regions of recruit-

most recent general history of the European university: Walter Rüegg, ‘Forword’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History of the University, xxvi–xxvii and n. 12. One might say that the one thing that really triggered the discussion on the social role of universities was the debate in England on the ‘Educational Revolution in TudorStuart England’. A large part of this debate took place in the journal Past and Present. M. Curtis, ‘The Alienated Intellectuals of Early Stuart England’ in: Past and Present (PP ) 23 (1962) 25–43; J. Simon, ‘The social origins of Cambridge students 1604–1640’ in: PP 26 (1963) 58–67; L. Stone, ‘The Educational Revolution in England 1560–1640’ in: PP 28 (1964) 41–80; Id., ‘Literacy and Education in England’ in: PP 42 (1969) 69–139; D. Cressy, ‘The Social Composition of Caius College, Cambridge, 1580–1640’ in: PP 47 (1970) 113–151. These developments have led to an increasing interest from modern historians in university history. For instance: L. Stone (ed.), The University in Society, 2 vols. (Princeton 1974); Id. (ed.), Schooling and Society, Studies in the History of Education (Baltimore 1976). For more titles, cf. J. Scheurkogel, ‘Nieuwe universiteitsgeschiedenis en late Middeleeuwen’ in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 94 (1981) 194–204. 21 Cf. J. Fried (ed.), Schulen und Studium im sozialen Wandel des hohen und späten Mittelalters (Sigmaringen 1986); R.C. Schwinges Deutsche Universitätsbesucher in 14. und 15. Jahrhundert: Studien zur Sozialgeschichte des alten Reiches (Stuttgart 1986). 22 This trend in historiography on universities cannot be seen as separate from the development of European and American universities over the last decades. Student numbers were booming, questions were and are asked about the changing role of the university in society, education of the masses, etc. Student movements claimed student participation in the process of decision making to make the university a more democratic institution. The medieval university of Bologna could function as an excellent example of student power. Cf. Christopher Driver, The Exploding University (London 1971), especially Chapter 3, ‘An Idea and its Inheritors’, 100–131. 23 A good example is an article by Lawrence Stone himself, ‘The Size and Composition of the Oxford Student Body’ in: Id., University in Society, 3–111 for the period 1500–1910. Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, is another excellent one; more recent Fuchs, Dives; Schmutz, Juristen.

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ment and social stratiﬁcation of students are now considered important aspects in determining the role of university in society. A notable aspect of the history of universities that has beneﬁted greatly from this new approach is student mobility. The international character of the medieval universities (and to a certain extent this still applies to the early modern universities, especially those in Italy) is well known and this internationalism was due in considerable part to the existence of Latin as the universal language of education.24 It has been clear for a long time that wandering students should not be regarded as the debauched bunch of bohemiens intent on “Wein, Weib und Gesang”, as they have often been represented in literary tradition.25 And one has to be equally careful in saying that the matriculation at a foreign university was a mere formal aspect of the Grand Tour, that it served the purpose of ﬁlling one’s album amicorum besides the general educational (not necessarily scholarly) value that it was to have for young men belonging to a particular elite. Distinctions of the kind mentioned above can only be made on the basis of thorough research of the phenomenon of student mobility.26 And one might say that the ‘human geography’ of universities has not been studied to a desirable extent.27 This is surprising, because it has to do with several very interesting social phenomena mentioned before. One such phenomenon is the catchment area of a particular university and its bearings on the rate of literacy for a certain region. Another is, of course, recruitment on the basis of ‘class’ or wealth: in other words, the role university education played in social stratiﬁcation and social (im)mobility and the prolonging of a certain educated elite.

24

Verger, Università, 83. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Mobility’ in: Ead., History of the University, I, 280–1. 26 For the seventeenth century A. Frank-van Westrienen, De Groote Tour. Tekening van de educatiereis der Nederlanders in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1983) makes a sharp distinction between ‘student’ and ‘tourist’. For criticism of this model H. Bots and W. Frijhoﬀ, ‘Academiereis of educatiereis? Noordbrabantse studenten in het buitenland, 1550–1750’ in: Batavia academica 1 (1983) 13–30. This distinction may not be so clear for the sixteenth century, although there are some strong indications that this type of educational tourism was becoming popular. 27 However, the last two decades have shown a remarkable increase of attention for this topic. Apart from the literature mentioned above, see the two volumes of: Dominique Julia, Jaques Revel, Roger Chartier (eds.), Les universités européennes du XVI e au XVIII e siècle. Histoire sociale des populations étudiantes, 2 vols. (Paris 1986–1989). 25

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International student mobility involves another very important aspect that should be taken into consideration. These students brought home a good deal more than just their licentia ubique docendi. They brought with them impressions and expressions of the university, town and country they had studied in. They had experiences with cultures sometimes very diﬀerent from their own. They brought back books and ideas concerning politics and culture. As a considerable part of these student travellers seem to have belonged to an elite in their home region, they were in a privileged position to mediate in the adaptation of these cultural impressions and expressions and in this way put their stamp on society back home. In addition to all this there has been a tendency to limit research on student mobility to speciﬁc countries, regions or even cities. There is no denying that this has the distinct advantage that the researcher in question is more aware of the problems and complexity of his or her geographical territory. This carries with it a danger of overspecialization and hence fragmentation of the overall view. It is necessary to compare the diﬀerent studies on student mobility with each other to keep a broader perspective on this matter. After all, it concerns a European phenomenon.28 Now, where can we place the Italian universities of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance in this picture? The truth is that, despite all the work that has already been done, historiography on the social aspects of Italian universities has lagged behind the work that has been done for the other parts of Europe.29 It is no wonder that several urgent calls for comparative research on the structure, composition and functioning of Italian universities have been made, especially for the Renaissance period.30 Fortunately, the attention for univer28 A project to trace all students at the medieval university of Bologna—forwarded by S. Stelling-Michaud, ‘Plan de recherche pour l’établissement d’un Corpus des étudiants européens ( juristes, médecins, théologiens) ayant étudié à Bologne de 1270 à 1500’ in: Bollettino storico bibliograﬁco subalpino 54 (1956) 191–195—making use of an international specialist staﬀ, unfortunately never came oﬀ ground. 29 G.P. Brizzi, ‘Matricoli ed eﬀettivi. Aspetti della presenza studentesca a Bologna fra cinque e seicento’ in: idem and A.I. Pini (eds.), Studente e università diegli studenti dal XII al XIX secolo (Bologna 1988) 227–259, there 229–30. 30 Peter Denley, ‘Recent Studies on Italian Universities of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance’ in: History of Universities 1 (1981) 193–205; Id., ‘The Social Function of Italian Renaissance Universities: Prospects for Research’ in: ‘Town and Gown: The University in search of its origins’ CRE-Information 62. 2 (1983) 47–58. His call was recently answered by a survey study of Paul Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore 2002).

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sity history has increased in Italy over the last thirty years. Several excellent source editions have appeared for the universities of Bologna, Padua, Siena, Pavia and Pisa/Florence.31 Other major contributions to the history of higher education have been made in the form of articles, monographs or congress volumes.32 Though the research on Italian universities is rapidly catching up, a lot remains to be done in terms of source editions and comparative studies. This is not to say that student mobility from other parts of Europe to Italian universities has gone entirely unnoticed. The prestige and importance of the teaching of law at the Italian faculties has attracted the attention of scholars from outside Italy for over a century. Already in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Arnold Luschin von Ebengreuth, undertook the enormous task of collecting the names of all students from the Holy Roman Empire who studied law at an Italian university between 1200 and 1630.33 Ever since, scholars working on the nationes Germanicae (the German nations at the various universities) have been at the vanguard of source exploration and edition. At ﬁrst they paid most attention to the oldest and, in many respects, most important university, that of Bologna.34 Over time 31 Cf. the Bibliography. For Bologna the editions of the Libri secreti by Piana; for Padua the editions of the Acta graduum academicorum by several contributors; for Pisa/Florence Lo studio ﬁorentino by Verde. For Pavia the editions and publications of Sottili are most important; for Arezzo see the article by Black. 32 Grendler, Universities, especially the bibliography. Some monographs: Manlio Bellomo, Saggio sull’università nell’età diel diritto commune (Catania 1979); Giovanni Cascio Pratelli, L’università e il principe. Gli studi di Siena e di Pisa tra Rinascimento e controriforma (Florence 1975); Peter Denley, Commune and Studium in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Siena, Saggi e Documenti per la Storia dell’Università di Siena, 2 (Milan 1991); Jonathan Davies, Florence and its University during the Early Renaissance (Leiden/ Boston/Cologne 1998); for congress volumes Università e società nei secoli XII –XVI, Nono convegno internazionale: Pistoia, 20–25 settembre 1979 (Pistoia 1982). 33 For Luschin von Ebengreuth’s work and his bibliography I refer to: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Deutsche Studenten an italienischen Rechtsfakuläten. Ein Bericht über unveröﬀentlichtes Quellen- und Archivmaterial’ in: Ius Commune 12 (1984) 287–315. 34 E.g. E. Friedländer and C. Malagola (eds.), Acta Nationis Germanicae Universitatis Bononiensis et archetypis tabularii Malvezzani (Berlin 1887); G. Knod, Deutsche Studenten in Bologna (1289 bis 1562). Biographischer Index zu den Acta Nationis Germanicae Universitatis Bononiensis (Berlin 1899). Speciﬁc to students from the Netherlands: J. den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten in de rechten te Padua (1545–1700)’ in: Mededelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome, 3rd ser., X (1954) 45–165; Id., ‘Aanvullingen en verbeteringen op de lijst van Nederlandse studenten in de rechten te Padua (1545–1700)’ in: MNHIR XXXII (1962) 1–25; J.J. Poelhekke, ‘Nederlandse leden van de Inclyta Natio Germanica Artistarum te Padua (1553–1700)’ in: MNHIR XXXI (1961) 263–373.

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other universities have gained the interest of historians and students of law who wanted to rescue sources and with them names of foreign students (predominantly from the Holy Roman Empire) from oblivion.35 In the last forty years, these source explorations and editions have been supplemented by articles and books that explore the phenomenon of student mobility to Italian universities. First and foremost among these was Stelling-Michaud’s book on Swiss lawyers at Bologna.36 It was followed (sometimes preceded) by other more tentative articles dealing with entire nations.37 Other publications have taken an Italian perspective and regarded foreign student attendance from this point of view.38 Despite the existence of several interesting and stimulating publications on student mobility to Italy, one has to come to the conclusion that we have only just begun drawing a map of this historical phenomenon. For now thorough monographs ﬁlled with bio- and bibliographically valuable material are lacking for entire parts of Europe.

35 Cf. the several publications of F. Weigle, ‘Deutsche Studenten in Italien. I. Die Deutsche Nation in Perugia’ in: Quellen und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken XXII (1942) 117–123; Id., ‘Die Deutsche Doktorpromotionen in Siena von 1485–1804’ in: QFIAB XXXIII (1944) 199–251; Id., ‘Deutsche Studenten in Pisa’ in: QFIAB XXXIX (1959) 173–221; Id., ‘Die deutsche Doktorpromotionen in Philosophie und Medizin an der Universität Padua von 1616–1663’ in: QFIAB XLV (1965) 324–384. 36 See n. 19. 37 E.g. W. Dotzauer, ‘Deutsches Studium und deutschen Studenten an europäischen Hochschulen (Frankreich, Italien) und die nachfolgende Tätigkeit in Stadt, Kirche und Territorium in Deutschland’ in: E. Maschke and J. Sydow (eds.), Stadt und Universität im Mittelalter und in der früher Neuzeit (Sigmaringen 1977) 112–141; Péter Sárközy, ‘Links to Europe: Hungarian Students at Italian Universities in the 13th– 18th Centuries’ in: Hungarian Studies Review 17 (1990) 47–55; R.J. Mitchell, ‘Scottish Law Students in Italy in the Later Middle Ages’ in: Juridical Review 49 (1937) 19–24; V. Rau, ‘Studenti ed eruditi portoghesi in Italia nel secolo xv’ in: Estudos italianos em Portugal 36 (1973) 7–73; E. Picot, ‘Les professeurs et les étudiants de langue française à l’Université de Pavie au xv e et au xvi e siècle’ in: Bulletin philosophique et historique du Comité des travaux historique et scientiﬁque (1915) 8–99; (1917) 71–83; H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ in: C.S. Maﬃoli and L.C. Palm (eds.), Italian Scientists in the Low Countries in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries (Amsterdam 1989) 31–64. 38 Richard L. Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy, 1500–1700’ in: Dominique Julia, Jacques Revel and Roger Chartier (eds.), Histoire sociale des populations étudiantes. I. Bohême, Espagne, États italiens, Pays germaniques, Pologne, Provinces-Unies (Paris 1986) 153–186. R. Ohl, ‘The University of Padua 1405–1509: an International Community of Students and Professors’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis; University of Pennsylvania 1980); Grendler, Universities.

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Nevertheless, some general patterns are recognizable. Attendance from foreign students at Italian universities seems to have been considerable. They accounted for 10% (Pisa) to at times as much as 50% (Padua) of the total student population. The vast majority of them were members of the Nationes Germanicae, the German nations.39 This is hardly surprising, because the German nation comprised those students who came from territories oﬃcially belonging to the Holy Roman Empire north of Italy. As far as social stature is concerned, there are indications that German students who had visited Italian universities came from higher echelons of society than their colleagues who spent their years of study in their homeland. The percentage of noble students among the travellers is considerably higher than it is for the group that just visited a German university.40 The choice made for an area of study (arts, medicine, law and theology) remained predominantly law, as students had done ever since the foundation of these universities, which evolved from earlier famous law schools.41 Italy in the period under investigation was not only interesting from the point of view of university history. Indeed, most people would argue that Renaissance and Humanism are much more interesting phenomena and if historiography on university history looks like an industry, the amount of publications on Renaissance and humanism outnumbers the former by far. The literature on these topics from Burckhardt to Burke is immense.42 Although the historiography on Renaissance and humanism has been dominated over the last century by the ‘History of Ideas’, the social component of historiography has entered the stage as well. The notion that Renaissance Culture had strong roots in society has become widespread.43 Even the collective biography has become important to ascertain this complex relationship.44 39

Kagan, ‘Universities’ in: Julia, Revel, Chartier (eds.), Histoire sociale, 158–163. J.H. Overﬁeld, ‘Nobles and Paupers at German Universities to 1600’ in: Societas 4 (1974) 175–210, especially 197. 41 Kagan, ‘Universities’ in: Julia, Revel, Chartier (eds.), Histoire sociale, 163–165 and 168. 42 A recent standard work on Renaissance civilisation is John Hale’s, The Civilisation of Europe in the Renaissance (London 1991). 43 A very recent, interesting example is: Lisa Jardine, Wordly Goods. A New History of the Renaissance (London 1996). She argues that even the more elevated artistic and scholarly achievements of Renaissance culture had a ﬁrm basis in the immediate socio-economic context of its producers. 44 The classic example: Peter Burke, Culture and Society in Renaissance Italy, 1420–1540 40

14

chapter one

This process has accomplished the fact that the relationship between humanism and universities was and is also seen in a diﬀerent perspective. The notion uttered by Rashdall that the professors of especially the Italian universities “were long the enemies of humanism”45 needs revision. It is becoming increasingly clear that relations between these two were stronger than was thought in the past. University training (and often teaching) seems to have been a common biographical factor of most of the humanists and it has been justly claimed that the role universities played in the socio-professional context of humanism merits further examination.46

Methodology and Sources An aspect of considerable importance attached to the new practice of university history is the application of the methods of social history to universities and their members. Since all those who participate in society, in casu the members of a university, are considered part of its structure and processes, prosopography47 has become a major

(London 1972), especially 43–53 on training of artists and, more important with regard to my topic, humanists and their university education. 45 H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford 1936; F.M. Powicke and A.B. Emden eds.), vol. II, 50–51. 46 Denley, ‘Recent Studies’ in: History of Universities, 194–195; recently examined in Grendler, Universities, chapter 6 ‘The Studia Humanitatis’, 199–248 and separate sections on the the various disciplines. 47 The amount of literature on prosopography has grown immensely in the last decades. Here I will name only: L. Stone, ‘Prosopography’ in: Historical studies today, F. Gilbert and S. Graubard (eds.) (New York 1972), reprinted as chapter 2 in Lawrence Stone, The Past and the Present Revisited (London 1987). References will be made to this edition, a critical article that thoroughly examines the dangers of this method; N. Bulst, ‘Zum Gegenstand und zur Methode von Prosopographie’ in: Medieval lives and the historian. Studies in medieval prosopography, N. Bulst and J.-P. Genet eds. (Kalamazoo 1986) 1–16: this book contains articles that treat all kinds of social groups, many with considerable results; H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Prosopograﬁe en middeleeuwse geschiedenis: een onmogelijke mogelijkheid?’ in: Handelingen van de maatschappij voor geschiedenis en oudheidkunde te Gent 45 (1991) 95–117: this article discusses the history, possibilities and results of the prosopographical method in the context of a review of a prosopographical model study, namely J. Pycke, Répertoire biographique des chanoines de Notre-Dame a Tournai, 1080–1300, Université de Louvain. Recueil de travaux d’histoire et de philologie 35 (Louvain-la-Neuve 1988); L’état moderne et ses élites: apports et limites de la methode prosopographique, Actes du colloque de Paris, octobre 1991, J.-P. Genet and G. Lottes (eds.) (Paris 1992). Not only the literature on prosopography has grown. The same goes for the number of studies

introduction

15

methodological tool. A prosopography is a collective biography of a well-deﬁned group of persons that have certain common characteristics (such as profession or social background). A prosopographical study departs from a set of questions and uses the mass of answers, that are juxtaposed and compared in search for variables that are signiﬁcant, to solve historical problems which deal with this particular group.48 This method is now a common method of research for social historians to describe and analyse the structure of society and the degree and the nature of movements within it.49 Prosopographical research has been widely used to analyse patterns of university attendance, student mobility and social stratiﬁcation of the student body. It has, however, been pointed out on several occasions that data on a substantial population and over a longer period, using only the most accessible printed sources, have to be regarded and interpreted with great care. University sources alone will not be able to answer to the questions of their researchers. An example that has been studied meticulously is the question of social stratiﬁcation of the student bodies at European universities. University sources such as matriculation and graduation registers frequently mention terms that would indicate social status (nobilis and pauper, for instance). A ﬁrst problem is that a European classiﬁcation of the social layers of society in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is not yet ﬁrmly ﬁxed; there are certainly regional variations to be reckoned with. It might prove quite diﬃcult to compare rich and highly developed sixteenth century Brabant with a relatively backward area like Norway.50 The second problem lies with the terms itself. Does the term nobilis really mean that the student in question belongs to the nobility and if so to what type of nobility?51 The same could be said for the word

with a prosopographical approach. For a brief overview see De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Prosopograﬁe’. 48 Deﬁnition as stated in De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Prosopograﬁe’; a slightly diﬀerent deﬁnition in the specialist jounal Medieval Prosopography 2 (1981) 87. 49 The above mentioned literature on prosopography gives examples for all periods. 50 For Brabant: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’ in: Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis; for Norway and Scandinavia in general: Sverre Bagge, ‘Nordic Students at Foreign Universities until 1660’ in: Scandinavian Journal of History 9 (1984) 1–29. 51 A clear description of the problem in deﬁning nobility and some illustrating examples of the categorisation of students according to university sources in: De Ridder-Symoens, ibid. 224–233.

16

chapter one

pauper. It is clear that it means that a certain student was unable to fulﬁl all the ﬁnancial requirements of university education, but does this automatically imply that we are dealing with a ‘pauper’ in the modern sense?52 One has to be extremely cautious in categorizing pauperes as belonging to this or that layer of society. And then we have a vast body of students that do not carry a social epithet. What to do with them? It will be obvious that university sources do not give the answer. It is necessary to collect additional information from other sources on social background, career and social position. An in-depth prosopography or collective biography is therefore needed. This is, however, extremely diﬃcult when one is dealing with research populations that run in the thousands. It is certainly telling that Lawrence Stone, who was partly responsible for the popularity of these vast number crunching surveys with his ‘Size and Composition of the Oxford Student Body’, came to a diﬀerent conclusion several years later. He argued that prosopography “works best when it is applied to easily deﬁned and fairly small groups over a limited period of not much more than a hundred years, when the data are drawn from a very wide variety of sources which complement and enrich each other . . .”53 This is (almost) to the letter what I intend to do here. In this research the common characteristics will be the geographical origin (the persons have to come from the Northern Netherlands) and a geographically deﬁned education (the persons must have visited an Italian university). In order to compound a prosopography of students from the Northern Netherlands at Italian universities, the ﬁrst 52 The problem of ‘poor students’ ﬁgures in most modern studies on university history: it has been studied intensively by Jaques Paquet, ‘Recherches sur l’universitaire “pauvre” au Moyen Age’ in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 56 ( (1978) 305–342; Id., ‘L’universitaire “pauvre au Moyen Age: problèmes, documentation, questions de méthode’ in: J. Paquet and J. IJsewijn (eds.), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages (Louvain 1978) and Id., ‘Coût des études, pauvreté et labeur: fonctions et métiers d’étudiants au Moyen Age’ in: History of Universities II (1982) 15–52. The diﬃculties (and possibilities) of this kind of research are summarized in: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Universiteitsgeschiedenis als bron van sociale geschiedenis’ in: Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis 10 (1978) 87–115 and J. Scheurkogel, ‘Nieuwe universiteitsgeschiedenis en late Middeleeuwen’ in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 94 (1981) 194–204. 53 Stone, The Past and the Present Revisited (London 1987) 69. An excellent example of this kind of approach is the prosopography on the students from the German Nation at the University of Orléans: Ridderikhoﬀ, De Ridder-Symoens and Illmer, Premier livre.

introduction

17

assignment is to make an inventory of all the persons who actually visited universities in Italy. A systematic search into Italian university sources enabled me to discover and gather the names of students from the Northern Netherlands, 640 in total. Each found student has been noted on a separate standard form, that contains a standard set of items. Their entrance in an Italian university is the starting point of the investigation into their lives. From there I returned—in most cases—to the home-town of each student to discover his social background (social status of family, profession of father, etc.). I have consulted the sources of other universities to reconstruct his university curriculum. From there I followed traces he left of his career. These basic sets of questions into curriculum, regional and social background and career, subdivided into several minor ones and applied to certain speciﬁc periods and situations, has supplied me with a mass of data, which will help me to answer the type of complex questions mentioned above. They were instrumental to obtain a clearer view of reasons for and the nature of the iter italicum. In order to build a prosopography of Dutch students at Italian universities, my ﬁrst assignment was to collect their names from university sources. It is acknowledged that the source material for Italian universities lends itself well for certain aspects of prosopographical research, but it has also been stressed that there are problems and limitations to their usage.54 In this section I will brieﬂy state the nature and availability of this source material, and then on some of the problems one encounters while using them. Generally speaking, the most known and most used university sources are the so-called matriculae.55 We might deﬁne a matricula as an oﬃcial register in Latin in which a representative of authority writes the names of the members of the university community or

54 Denley, ‘Social Funcion’, 52. and for university sources in general: J. Verger, ‘Problèmes et limites de la prosopographie universitaire à partir des institutions universitaires elles-mêmes’ in: L’État moderne et ses élites: apports et limites de la méthode prosopographique, Actes du colloque de Paris, 16–19 octobre 1991, J.-P. Genet and G. Lottes eds. (Paris 1993). See for the sources speciﬁc to Italian universities: H. de RidderSymoens, ‘Deutsche Studenten an Italienischen Rechtsfakultäten. Ein bericht über unveröﬀentlichtes Quellen- und Archivmaterial’ in: Ius commune 12 (1984) 287–315. This very elaborate article lists all sources one could possibly want to consult. I shall therefore limit myself to a general overview of types of source material. Sources consulted are listed in the bibliography attached to this thesis. 55 For these sources, see: J. Paquet, Les matricules universitaires, Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental, Fasc. 65, A-IV.1 (Turnhout 1992).

chapter one

18

one of its constituting parts. Depending on the particular structure of the university, matricles may be kept by the entire studium generale, a faculty, a ‘nation’ or colleges for instance. Although there is some evidence that registers for the university—so richly handed down to us for German universities—existed for certain Italian universities in certain periods,56 we do not have them at our disposal until well into the sixteenth century. Matriculae for the German nations in which students from the Northern Netherlands registered themselves have come down to us for Bologna (law) and Padua (1546 students of law; 1553 students of medicine). Other sources that contain names of students are the acta of the German nations that survive for Bologna and Padua and the rotuli, the lists of people teaching courses at the university. Crucial in the collection of students’ names is the question of graduation. Records of graduation survive in diﬀerent forms. The oﬃcial graduation records by notaries of the bishop (Padua, Ferrara and Pisa), references to graduations in meetings of the college of doctors (Bologna and Padua), graduation protocols of the university (Siena). These sources that give references to graduations have two great advantages: First, they are almost complete—with some lacunae—for the universities of Bologna, Padua, Ferrara, Siena and Pisa/Florence for the period that I study. Second, where we have oﬃcial graduation records at our disposal (Padua, Ferrara, Pisa and to a lesser extent Siena, Pavia) the witnesses to the graduation are explicitly named and this yields a harvest of names of students. This source can partially function as a substitute for matriculation tables that are absent. The incompleteness of university source material obviously constitutes a problem. On the basis of the material available it is possible to say that at least an X number of Dutch students attended university Y. It is, however, likely that there was a number of students who registered in sources not at our disposal. The actual total might therefore be somewhat higher than the numbers found and the claim to absolute completeness becomes relatively weak for those universities with an incomplete source record. Of necessity we are dealing with an absolute minimum. In chapter 2, however, it will become clear that this absolute minimum gives us a representative picture.

56

Paquet, Matricules, 16–20.

introduction

19

Outline of the Book: Themes and Questions In chapter 2 the population will move centre stage. This chapter will examine the questions on the university curriculum. The very ﬁrst point of attention must of course be the fact that, while new universities had been erected at Cologne (1388) and Louvain (1425), the sources indicate a continuing growth in student mobility to Italian universities, at least for the ﬁfteenth and the last half of the sixteenth century. To be sure, matriculation registers for the universities of Cologne and Louvain show an enormous growth of attendance ever since their foundation.57 Still, some preliminary results have shown that university attendance from students of the Netherlands as a whole at Italian universities was also increasing.58 One important assignment is to reconstruct the peregrinatio academica to Italy as thoroughly as possible. This will give us an impression as to the numerical importance of this particular group of students. Comparisons with available case studies for smaller regions, Frisia for one, and certain towns will give us an indication of the relative size of the body of travellers. Not only this, we need to further establish whether Italy as a travel destination was a viable alternative for the ‘home’ universities or if something else was the case. In order to do this it is essential to reconstruct the entire university curriculum of the students from the Northern Netherlands, to follow them, so to speak, from one university to the next. Furthermore, we need to examine what disciplines were most popular and how this compares to the more general ﬁgures for the larger student body. Traditionally, law and to a lesser extent medicine have been identiﬁed

57 It is clear that university attendance grew enormously in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries. Such are my own observations with regard to university attendance of inhabitants of four towns in Holland (Alkmaar, Gouda, Haarlem and Leiden). In the course of the ﬁfteenth century, Louvain was becoming more popular than Cologne for inhabitants of the Western parts of the Northern Netherlands. Cologne kept its important position for students from the Eastern parts of the Northern Netherlands, it would seem. Further information on the ‘home universities’ in chapter 2. 58 For some preliminary ﬁgures, see: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ in: C.S. Maﬃoli and L.C. Palm (eds.), Italian Scientists in the Low Countries in the XIIIth and XVIIIth Centuries (Amsterdam 1989) 31–64, there 54–55; Ead., ‘Adel en Universiteiten in de zestiende eeuw. Humanistisch ideaal of bittere noodzaak?’ in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 93 (1980) 410–432, there 424.

20

chapter one

as the main attraction of the Italian universities. Taking inventory will tell if this presupposition holds true for the Northern Netherlands. It is essential to diﬀerentiate between the various universities on the peninsula. Could one say that there was a ‘ranking’ and was the popularity of a particular studium a general phenomenon or could it be subject speciﬁc? This will not only tell us which were the most attractive universities and faculties for Dutchmen and what itineraries were most popular. It should also enable us to identify what factors were important in the ‘rise and fall’ of the institutions in the Italian university landscape. Following the students right up to the end of their peregrinatio will also enable us to make some remarks about their willingness to graduate. Graduation in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries was by no means a given end to the period of study. In the section on graduation of chapter 2 we will examine to what extent it played a role in the iter italicum and how it compares to students who opted or had to settle for alternative routes. This might also give some clues to answer the following question: were they all serious seekers of knowledge—a matter in which the age of the students is also very important—intent on getting the best teaching and a highly valued graduation certiﬁcate, or is it possible to trace individuals who merely enrolled themselves in a prestigious Italian university as part of a ‘Grand Tour’ that became increasingly popular in the sixteenth century? Another important theme has to do with geography. The Northern Netherlands, though not a huge amount of territory, consisted of various regions with diﬀerent political, socio-economic and cultural structures, circumstances and traditions. Densely populated and highly urbanized Holland had not that much in common with the region Frisia, which was never feudalized, had relatively few towns and where free farmers and rich monasteries were most important economically and politically. The bishopric of Utrecht had another character. Here the Church, personiﬁed by bishop and the powerful cathedral chapter, was in control.59 Can we speak of the iter italicum

59 The entire structure of the Netherlands is meticulously depicted in the Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, vols. 3–5 (Haarlem 1980); less voluminous but equally important is the standard work by Walter Prevenier and Wim Blockmans, The Burgundian Netherlands (Antwerpen 1985); very helpful is J.C.H. Blom and E. Lamberts (eds.), Geschiedenis der Nederlanden (Amsterdam 1994), chapter 3 ‘De vorming van een

introduction

21

as a Northern Netherlands phenomenon at all? It will be interesting to see if the various regions contributed evenly to student mobility, or towns and countryside for that matter. Naturally, shifts in development between the regions have to be taken into account. It will not do, however, to focus solely on our perspective of regional distribution. Attention will have to be given to where students were perceived to have come from and what they themselves thought important, when it came to their origin. Chapter 3 will deal with the geographical origins of the student population. Another important variable is social background. What was the social character of this journey to Italy? Studying abroad was very expensive. After a costly journey, students had to ﬁnd boarding, pay fees to the university and their professors and if they wished to take a licentia or, still better, a doctorate they had to really dig deep into their purses. Graduation fees may have varied from university to university, they had one thing in common: they were never cheap. To this we have to add that the practice of granting degrees without charge to poor students, still viable in the Middle Ages, was gradually disappearing in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. It will be very interesting to learn which layers of Dutch society could aﬀord such an investment60 and to see if there were institutions or even persons that contributed to promising students who wanted to expand their intellectual as well as their geographical horizon, in other words how they could aﬀord to attend their

politieke unie (14e–16e eeuw’ (W.P. Blockmans); for a short, but very useful overview, see Hugo de Schepper, ‘The Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands’ in: Thomas A. Brady, Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy (eds.), Handbook of European History, 1400–1600. Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, vol. 1. Structures and Assertions (Leiden 1994) 499–533. See also literature cited in chapters 3–5. 60 There is evidence that certainly in the sixteenth century the proportionate and absolute number of noble students was increasing. One explanation given is that nobles were forced to go to universities because of the competition that university educated civil servants from the urban patriciate gave them. This ‘aristocratization’ of universities for students coming from the Southern Netherlands has been dealt with in H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Adel en Universiteiten in de zestiende eeuw. Humanistisch ideaal of bittere noodzaak?’ in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 93 (1980) 410–432. We shall have to see if the same can be said for the Northern Netherlands. Very interesting in this respect is the conclusion of H. van Nierop, Van ridders tot regenten. De Hollandse adel in de zestiende en eerste helft van de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1990) 126–154 that the nobility in Holland showed a tendency to withdraw from public oﬃce in the course of the sixteenth century. Were they forced out because of lack of education? Numbers of noble students and their curriculum, discussed in chapters 4 and 5, might give us some clues to answer this question.

22

chapter one

lectures.61 Further examination of both regional origin and social background as factors in choice of faculty and choice for a particular studium will highlight what the iter italicum meant to students from diﬀerent places, whether they be spatial or social. Chapter 4 will look into these issues. Then we might boldly ask if this investment really paid oﬀ (if it was expected to do so). To answer it, we shall have to follow the professional careers of the students. Could they aspire to ﬂy as far and high as the education they enjoyed? Where did they go after their journey? Naturally we have to explore the career circles in which the students ended up. Again, diﬀerentiation between students of diﬀerent faculties will give us a better idea as to what a student of this or that discipline could expect and whether this expectation could change over time. In this respect it has to be said that there was another factor of great importance in the composition of the student body. From their foundation on universities all over Europe had strong connections with the Church. In fact, a large part of the student body consisted of clerics who only could aﬀord the cost of study because they were endowed with a church beneﬁce from which they could legally be absent. This system declined however at the end of the Middle Ages and the percentage of clerics as opposed to laymen seems to have dropped considerably. We shall have to investigate if this was the case for students from the Netherlands as well, especially because of the high cost of studying in Italy. The careers and positions, but also the relations of these selected few in the gradually expanding apparatus of state will have to be taken into consideration when we want to determine their place in politics and law. The period under investigation was indeed an important one where the political constellation of the Netherlands is concerned. We are talking about the building up of the BurgundianHabsburg Empire and the formation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces during the Revolt. This development involved the construction and improvement of the bureaucracies of state at a national, provincial and municipal level and princes, provincial courts and magistracies had to rely ever more on highly trained specialists 61 Paul Trio, ‘Financing of University Students in the Middle Ages: a New Orientation’ in: History of Universities IV (1984) 1–24, has made some interesting remarks on sponsoring by individuals and institutions other than the Church. It is well worth taking his views into consideration for the early modern period as well.

introduction

23

for the satisfactory functioning of state apparatus. It will be fruitful to assess the role our students played in these processes of centralization on the one hand and the tendency towards particularism on the other. Naturally the investigation into the careers of the students has to be put into perspective. Expectations could be very diﬀerent for a nobleman with an interest in law than for a young man with more humble roots who opted for medicine. Both choice of faculty and background were issues in pursuing a particular position. It was thus important to see if social mobility was a possibility for the students in our population and to what extent their education (in Italy) contributed to a career. The results found will be compared to what is known for other student populations. This should give an idea to what extent the iter italicum diﬀered from the journeys to other places. The epilogue tries to go beyond a summary of the gathered material in chapters 1–5. The students studied were more than students, inhabitants of a certain city or social status, more than their jobs. It tries to put a little more ﬂesh on the bones. The period under investigation partly coincides with the era of the Renaissance and Reformation. Surely the relation between the emergence of humanism in Italy and a possible connection to the Netherlands is worth exploring. In a similar fashion relations between the Reformation and the students travelling to Italy will be examined. Before pulling together some of the more interesting concluding strings a brief look into their interest in the tangible aspects of culture will sum up the attempt to put together this reconstruction of the iter italicum.

CHAPTER TWO

DUTCH STUDENTS AND ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES (1426–1575): THEIR CURRICULUM STUDIOSORUM

This chapter deals with a reconstruction of the university curriculum of students from the Northern Netherlands who attended Italian universities between 1426 and 1575. It gives an analysis of the peregrinatio academica of this group of students. A peregrinatio academica can be understood as the journey of students (and professors) from one university to another. Generally, it has to be more than just the one. The length of stay at a studium could vary substantially, but this is not important in this context. The very fact that a stay at an Italian university was the determining criterion to be taken into account for the prosopography indicates that we are dealing with student migration abroad.1 The distance between the Netherlands and the Italian peninsula was such that the journey might arguably be called a peregrinatio in itself. This chapter describes and analyses in detail the typical peregrinatio of these students. Which universities in Italy and outside it were most popular with them? Can one identify reasons for this popularity? Can we discern certain patterns in the routes taken? Can we determine what subjects they were after and how long they studied? Though sometimes an arduous and complicated task, it was possible to reconstruct the travels of the vast majority of students studied. Before we take an in-depth look at their curriculum, the population needs to be introduced.

2.1. Introducing the Population In this study a population of 640 students from the Northern Netherlands, who studied at the universities of Northern Italy between

1 Deﬁnition as used in: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Peregrinatio academica doorheen Europa (13e–18e eeuw) in vogelvlucht’ in: Batavia academica I (1983) 3–11, there 3; similar deﬁnition in Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 17–18, though he does not really distinguish between internal migration and migration abroad.

chapter two

26

1426 and 1575 are the protagonists. The sources for the various universities in Italy give us the names of 763 persons, or an average of just over ﬁve students per year studying at an Italian university. One has to take into account, however, that students visited more that one university in Italy. When one ﬁnds that one “Augustinus Teylingius Theodori Filius Alcmarianus Hollandus” registered with the German Nation of the Law University of Padua in 1562, and later, 17 January 1565, one locates a citing of the graduation at the University of Siena of a “dominus Augustinus Thelingius domini Theodorici patria Almariensis natione Hollandus”, it is obvious that we are dealing with the same individual: Augustijn Dirksz van Teylingen from the town of Alkmaar in the county of Holland.2 Closer scrutiny determined that the actual number of individuals in the population is 640.3 This means that on average at least four individuals went to Italy to study each year. They visited diﬀerent universities in Italy and taken at their ﬁrst appearance at an Italian university, they can be subdivided as follows (table 2.1.1. and graph 2.1.1.):

Period 1426–35 1436–45 1446–55 1456–65 1467–75 1476–85 1486–95 1496–1505 1506–15 1516–25 1526–35 1536–45 1546–55 1556–65 1566–75 Total

Students

Average p.y.

Individuals

Average p.y.

44 38 46 58 99 57 51 32 31 24 19 36 71 79 78

4.4 3.8 4.6 5.8 9.9 5.7 5.1 3.2 3.1 2.4 1.9 3.6 7.1 7.9 7.8

39 34 36 45 84 45 42 28 27 21 18 27 58 69 67

3.9 3.4 3.6 4.5 8.4 4.5 4.2 2.8 2.7 2.1 1.8 2.7 5.8 6.9 6.7

763

5.1

640

4.3

Table 2.1.1. Students from the Northern Netherlands mentioned at Italian Universities and individual students in Italy (1426–1575) in absolute numbers and in ten year averages. 2 Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 67, nr. 87; Minnucci/Morelli, Lauree, 323–4, nr. 86. 3 The surplus in citings amounts to 19.2%. Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher,

dutch students and italian universities (1426‒1575)

27

Individual Students Emerging in Italy (1426–1575) 25

20

15

10

5

0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.1.1. Individuals students from the Northern Netherlands travelling to Italy for university study (1426–1575).

The numbers ﬂuctuate considerably over time. The reasons for these ﬂuctuations will be explained in detail below, as they pertain to the trials and tribulations of diﬀerent universities in Italy, as well as to those of the various regions of the Netherlands. How popular or, maybe, exclusive was Italy, with its numerous universities, as a destination for study? It is very clear from the table that with on average between 4 and 5 students per year, Italian universities taken together must be seen as a very exclusive destination. Compared to the average number of students from the diocese of Utrecht that every year registered in the University of Cologne— until the 1490s the most popular university for students from the Northern Netherlands, after which Louvain took over this mantle—, the number of students travelling to Italy is small (table 2.1.2.). At the present state of research it is not possible to exactly calculate the percentage of students who visited an Italian university as part of the total number of studying individuals. It is, however, possible to create an estimate, if we compare the number of students that went to Italy to those that went to the most popular universities for students from the Northern Netherlands, namely Louvain and Cologne. 29–30, also states that the number of enrolled students does not give us the total of individuals. Some 20 to 25% are found at more than one university in the Holy Roman Empire. Mobility of students from the Northern Netherlands on the peninsula—not counting earlier visits closer to the Netherlands—thus approximates mobility of the total number of German students making a peregrinatio within the Empire.

chapter two

28 Period

Italy

Cologne

Louvain

Total C/L

It.% Tot.

It.%Col.

1426–35 1436–45 1446–55 1456–65 1466–75 1476–85 1486–95 1496–1505 1506–15 1516–25 1526–35 1536–45 1546–55 1556–65 1566–75

3.9 3.4 3.6 4.5 8.4 4.5 4.2 2.8 2.7 2.1 1.8 2.7 5.8 6.9 6.8

52.3 73.4 59.5 76.2 66.3 98.4 90.5 61.8 50.7 38.8 10.3 13.2 31.3 34 [35]

[62.6] [38.9] [37.3] [58.2] [89.7] 62.0 73.6 123.0 147.1 126.6 69.5 [128.8] [145] [118.8] [85.8]

[114.9] [112.3] [96.8] [134.4] [156.0] 160.4 164.1 184.8 197.8 165.4 79.8 [142.0] [176.3] [152.8] [120.8]

[3.4] [3.0] [3.7] [3.3] [5.4] 2.8 2.6 1.5 1.4 1.3 2.3 [1.9] [3.3] [4.5] [5.6]

7.5 4.6 6.1 5.9 12.7 4.6 4.6 4.5 5.3 5.0 17.5 20.5 18.5 20.3 [19.4]

Table 2.1.2. Numbers of individuals visiting Italian universities compared to registration numbers of students from the diocese of Utrecht at the universities of Cologne and Louvain in 10 year averages (1426–1575).4

What can be deduced from this table, albeit incomplete? If the individual students who visited Italian universities are taken as a percentage of the total number of enrolments in the universities of Cologne and Louvain, it becomes clear that the population constituted a small percentage of the total student population from the Northern Netherlands. A number of further observations has to be made at this point. Figures for Cologne and Louvain give bare registration numbers, not individuals. Numerous students enrolled in both universities. In fact, two-thirds of the Italy-goers had visited at least one of these universities. Take for instance Albertus Adriani of

4 Registration numbers for Cologne are based on Keussen, Matrikel. For Louvain, the study of Herman de Prins, ‘De inschrijvingsfrequentie van de Leuvense universiteit (1485–1527)’ (Unpublished licentiate thesis, Louvain 1967); L. van Buyten, ‘De Leuvense universiteitsmatrikels (16e–18e eeuw). Kritische beschouwingen’ in: Arca Lovaniensis 3 (1974) 9–35; Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher. The ﬁgures in brackets for Louvain are estimates based on the assumption that c. 20% of the total number of students registering at Louvain were from the Northern Netherlands. For the period 1500–25 the percentage of Northerners was 19.9. The decline in registration ﬁgures for Louvain after 1550 have also been found for students from North Brabant: H. Bots, J. Mathey and M. Meyer, Noordbrabantse studenten 1550–1750 (Tilburg 1979) 7.

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29

Delft. He visited both Louvain, in 1520, and Cologne, where he registered 30 October 1521, before travelling on to Bologna, where he brieﬂy taught arts and ﬁnally graduated in medicine 4 September 1528.5 On the other hand, other relatively popular universities like Paris, Heidelberg, Rostock, and Orléans have been omitted from this table. It has to be said that of those students from the Northern Netherlands who had visited the law university of Orléans an overwhelming majority (78 per cent) had studied at one or more universities—mostly Louvain and Cologne—before coming to the Loire city.6 On average, the total number of students matriculating in the universities of Cologne and Louvain can be taken as an approximation of the total number of individual students from the Northern Netherlands.7 Even then, the percentage visiting Italy is quite low. One has to bear in mind that for certain peak periods where Italian universities are concerned there are no exact ﬁgures for the University of Louvain at our immediate disposal. As it, is the comparative material is most complete for the period where there was a slump in visits to the peninsula. The estimates for the period 1466–75 and 1566–75 give a more generous percentage than the cited maximum of 2.8 per cent in the years 1476–85.

5 Schillings, Matricule, III, 631, 191; Keussen, Matrikel, II, 532, 16; Dallari, Rotuli, II, 53 and Bronzino, Notitia, 22. 6 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 97. 7 Schwinges’ estimate, that 20 to 25% of the total student population from the Holy Roman Empire visited more than one university, is taken as a measure (Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 29–30). This means that of the numbers of students registering at Cologne and Louvain some 30 to at times 50 students would register at another university. It is my estimate that these numbers would exceed the number of registrations in other popular universities like Paris (between 1354 and 1452 on average a minimum of 4 to 5 students per year are recorded as having studied and graduated in Paris: Mineo Tanaka, La nation anglo-allemande de l’Université de Paris à la ﬁn du Moyen Age (Paris 1990), 263), Heidelberg (c. 10 matriculations per year between 1386–1425, after which numbers collapsed: Margit Eggel, ‘“Semper apertus”. Studenten uit de Lage Landen aan de universiteit van Heidelberg 1386–1425’ (Unpublished master’s thesis Amsterdam 2001) 52–4), Rostock, (7–8 matriculations per year between 1460–9, based on own ﬁgures) and others. In other words, the number of individual students from the Northern Netherlands must be relatively close to the sum of those who visited Cologne and Louvain. Furthermore, if one wants to get the number of individuals studying at Cologne and Louvain, those who stayed at both studia will have to be eliminated from one of the tables. Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 34, estimates that per 100,000 inhabitants 25 ‘new’ students emerged from the 1480s onwards. Following this estimate, the Northern Netherlands with close to 700,000 inhabitants around 1500 would yield c. 175 new students per year.

chapter two

30 Period 1426–35 1436–45 1446–55 1456–65 1466–75 1476–85 1486–95 1496–05 1506–10 Total

Cologne

Louvain

Paris

Other

Italy

Total

It%Tot

34 39 34 30 43 40 43 24 7

8 7 4 18 28 25 33 59 16

1 0 9 6 2 0 1 0 0

0 3 0 0 0 1 3 0 0

0 2 7 10 5 1 2 1 1

43 51 54 64 78 67 82 84 24

0.0% 3.9% 13.0% 15.6% 6.4% 1.5% 2.4% 1.2% 4.2%

294

198

19

7

29

547

5.3%

Table 2.1.3. University registrations of Leidenaars (1426–1510).

A case study for students from the city of Leiden in the period 1426–1510 gives an indication of numbers travelling to Italy as part of its larger student body (table 2.1.3.).8 When we reduce these registration numbers to individuals, we ﬁnd that out of a total of 506 students from Leiden 25 (4.9 per cent) studied at an Italian university.9 These much more accurate numbers paint a picture for the ﬁrst 85 years under investigation that supports a number of hypotheses. First, a deﬁnite changing of the guards between Cologne and Louvain indeed took place in the nineties of the ﬁfteenth century. Therefore, the supposition that fewer students enrolled in Louvain than Cologne prior to 1475 would seem justiﬁed.10 The ﬁgures for the period 1476–1505 indicate that Italy as a destination for study became less important than it had been in the deﬁnite peak-period, 1446–1475. In the decade 1476–85 one

8 Apart from my own data, those assembled by Hanno Brand, Over macht en overwicht. Stedelijke elites in Leiden (1420–1510), appendix 23, have been used. He based his data on Reusens and Wils, Matricule, for Louvain; Keussen, Matrikel, for Cologne; Deniﬂe and Chatelain, Auctarium, II and III, for Paris; Hofmeister, Matrikel, for Rostock; Ridderikhoﬀ, De Ridder-Symoens and Illmer, Livre, for Orléans. 9 This elimination is done to give an indication of the percentage of students from Leiden that visited Italy as part of the greater Leiden student population. The elimination number is a minimum. At least 8.1% of students from Leiden visited more than one university. 10 Similar ﬁgures have been found for the city of Haarlem, where the volte-face took place in the nineties of the ﬁfteenth century as well. Based on ﬁgures assembled under the guidance of H. de Ridder-Symoens.

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lonely student from Leiden, Bartholomeus van Wassenaer, traveled to Italy and enrolled in the University of Ferrara,11 while 65 of his fellow townsmen preferred studia elsewhere during these years. Overall, this picture suggests that one out of every twenty students from Leiden travelled across the Alps in the period 1426–1510. In a second case study for the regions of Friesland and Groningen, we have a continuous ﬂow of ﬁgures (table 2.1.4).12 Again, we notice that Frisian and Groninger students who visited Italy were only a small segment of the overall population; however, the percentage is underestimated. Zijlstra’s ten-year averages deal with registrations. The last row in the table estimates the average number of individuals from Friesland and Groningen setting oﬀ to study per year,13 and the average number of Frisian and Groninger individuals who visited universities on the Italian peninsula. On the basis of these numbers, the percentage of students visiting Italy is higher. Overall, my ﬁgures suggest that Italy-goers started out in the decade up to 1435 at well over 3 per cent of the total student population of the Northern Netherlands. In the following decades this ﬁgure ﬂuctuated between 3 and close to 6 per cent for the peak decade 1466–1475. After that, a decline set in. The percentage dropped to just over one in a hundred students. The percentage increased considerably in the last three decades of the period, 1546–1575, though it is doubtful whether it ever passed the 6 per cent-mark. The conclusion can only be that an Italian university was a very exclusive destination for study indeed.

11

He is mentioned as a witness 22 December 1478. Pardi, Titoli, 71. The comprehensive study of Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, provides ﬁgures on the basis of most edited university registers and other university sources. Similar studies for other parts of the Northern Netherlands prior to 1575 are unfortunately lacking, but would be highly desirable. Regional variations will be dealt with more elaborately in chapter 3. 13 Zijlstra provides the registration numbers. He was able to calculate the percentage of students staying at more than one university. For Friesland he calculated that for the period 1401–1550 between 10.4% and 12.4% of the students studied at two or more universities. From 1551–1600 this ﬁgure was as high as 34%. For Groningen the period 1401–1550 numbers vary between 10% and 15%. The period 1551–1600 shows a marked increase with 36.3% of the total number of students visiting more than one university. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 18. By subtracting the average percentage of students who visited two universities from the total average number, we get an estimate of the total number of individual students. 12

chapter two

32 Period

Friesland

Fr.It.

Fr.It.%

Groningen

Gr.It.

Gr.It.%

1426–35 1436–45 1446–55 1456–65 1467–75 1476–85 1486–95 1496–1505 1506–15 1516–25 1526–35 1536–45 1546–55 1556–65 1566–75

3.0 5.0 5.0 11.0 14.0 13.0 12.0 22.0 21.0 16.0 12.0 22.0 22.0 17.0 10.0

0.2 0.2 0 0.2 0.2 0.1 0 0.3 1.2 0.3 0.5 0.1 1.3 0.8 1.0

6.7% 4.0% – 1.8% 1.4% 0.8% 0 1.4% 5.7% 1.9% 4.2% 0.5% 5.9% 4.7% 10.0%

3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 8.0 13.0 11.0 13.0 13.5 11.0 6.0 7.0 7.0 7.5 4.0

0.1 0.4 0 0 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.1 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.6 0.8 0.3

3.3% 10.0% – – 7.5% 5.4% 6.4% 0.8% 4.4% 1.8% 1.7% 2.9% 8.6% 10.7% 7.5%

Tot. Av. Correct.

13.7 11.4

0.4 0.4

3.1% 3.5%

7.9 6.4

0.36 0.36

4.5% 5.6%

Table 2.1.4. Students from Friesland and Groningen in Italy compared to the total of student registrations from Friesland and Groningen (10 year averages).

2.2. The University Itinerary: How Many Went Where? Before turning to the university curriculum of students from the Northern Netherlands at the various universities in Europe, it is worthwhile to look brieﬂy into their pre-university education. Although there were no formal pedagogical requirements to enter a university, we may safely assume that all students had some earlier training in reading, writing and Latin. They had to be able to follow the lectures given and the universal language of university education in this period was, as it had been since the emergence of the ﬁrst universities, Latin. There were various ways in which children could acquire the knowledge necessary to enter a university. In the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries the Netherlands possessed a dense network of town and village schools. We know of more than 300 schools existing in the Northern Netherlands in the sixteenth century.14 This 14 R.R. Post, Scholen en onderwijs in Nederland gedurende de Middeleeuwen (Utrecht 1954) 21–30. And this number is certainly too low. Post based his list on published mate-

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33

was entirely in accordance with the ideal of the Catholic Church that already in 1215, by means of the fourth Lateran Council, decided that every parish should have a school to enable even poor children to be educated.15 Diﬀerent types of schools existed in the late-medieval Netherlands. Here I focus on two levels of education: elementary and secondary. The terminology of the various types of schools in the later Middle Ages is quite complex.16 Elementary education was very widespread in the Netherlands. Children from the age of approximately ﬁve to eight could learn here how to read and later write, almost exclusively in the vernacular. Such a school could be attached to the local parish church, it could be a secondary town school or even be a private enterprise. The schoolmaster could be a priest, a layman hired by the town government as rector (head master), or an individual willing to try his or her (frequently teachers of these independent elementary schools were women) luck.17 Secondary schools were also widely distributed in the Netherlands. They were originally attached to either (cathedral-)chapters or parish churches and their patronage would be in the hands of a prince— whether clerical or lay—, but this situation changed considerably in the fourteenth and ﬁfteenth centuries. The town governments actively sought to get control over schools. This is something that is typical of the Netherlands as a whole. Certainly, princes were willing to grant towns a privilege that gave town governments the right to appoint teachers. In this fashion a parish school would develop into town school. Town governments could hire and ﬁre teachers as they

rial, where the archives might have given a far greater number. He did include Noord-Brabant and Limburg in his survey. 15 Post, Scholen, 19. 16 Names for the same type of school could vary from town to town. Cleyne scholen, onderscholen, schrijfscholen, duytsche scholen, etc. all refer to a form of elementary education where pupils learned to read and write. They could be completely separate or closely associated with secondary schools. 17 A good introduction in English: Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Education and Literacy in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands’ in: Canandian Journal of Netherlandic Studies XVI (1995) 6–21. In French: ead, ‘La sécularisation de l’enseignement aux anciens Pays-Bas au moyen âge et à la Renaissance’ in: Jean-Marie Duvosquel and Erik Thoen (eds.), Peasants and Townsmen in Medieval Europe. Studia in honorem Adriaan Verhulst (Ghent 1995) 721–737. Still the most complete introduction to medieval schools in the Northern Netherlands is Post, Scholen. Town governments frequently issued decisions that Latin could only be taught at the secondary level, so independent primary schools were prohibited from teaching Latin.

34

chapter two

deemed useful or necessary. In general, this transformation of the school system was beneﬁcial to all parties involved. The town government could keep a close eye to see if everything was going according to their wishes, they started paying a ﬁxed salary, which made the position of schoolmaster more attractive to people with good qualiﬁcations, and the pupils beneﬁted from better teaching. The curriculum of these secondary schools was more or less ﬁxed. Ideally, it consisted of the septem artes liberales, the seven liberal arts. In practice this meant the trivium or the threefold way to wisdom, which consisted of grammatica, rhetorica and dialectica. It is only very rarely that aspects of the quadrivium or fourfold way to wisdom (arithmetica, geometria, astronomia and musica) were taught, except in the higher grades of the more advanced schools, such as Deventer since the last decades of the ﬁfteenth century. The quadrivium generally seems to have been the prerogative of the arts faculties at the university. Only the computus (counting of time) as part of aritmethica was awarded with some attention at secondary schools, as future clerics would have to know and use it. Grammar was clearly the most important of the three. Reading and writing correct Latin was the principal goal of secondary schools—frequently called Latijnse school (Latin school). Among the books most frequently used were the Ars minor by Aelius Donatus and next the Doctrinale by Alexander de Villa Dei. Dialectica was the second most important item on the school agenda, where the Summulae logicales of Petrus Hispanus seems to have been the most popular textbook. We know that a system of grades was used to distinguish between pupils of diﬀerent levels of knowledge. This system developed into a more or less set form in the sixteenth century with seven basic grades, and up to nine in exceptionally good schools.18 The formalization of the grade system was the outcome of humanism being introduced in these town schools. In the late ﬁfteenth century—and we shall meet students of the prosopography in this story—and more so in the sixteenth both structure and contents of secondary school education underwent an important change because of humanists’ involvement in education.19 18 The lowest grade was the nulla. From there children would consecutively go to the octava, septima, sextima, quinta, quarta, tertia (the basic ‘Latijnse school’), and in the case of some exceptional schools the secunda and ﬁnally the prima. 19 We shall deal with this matter in more detail in chapter 6.

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The presence of a dense network of qualitatively excellent town schools could contribute considerably to the shortening of the stay at the faculty of arts. Consider the case of Godfried Pannekoeck, who matriculated in Cologne on 15 September 1539, in the arts faculty. Within less than three months he managed to get his bachelor’s degree.20 There is some evidence that the availability of such a high level of secondary education might have negatively inﬂuenced the numbers of arts students enrolling in the various universities.21 On the other hand, the presence of a dense network of schools has also been described as beneﬁcial to university recruitment. Having a school in one’s own town or the immediate vicinity strengthened the recruitment powers of a university. A case study for the town of Alkmaar seems to second Schwinges’ more general observation. The increasing appeal of this famous town school—due to the recruitment of humanist teachers of some renown—seems to have resulted in a rise on the number of students visiting the university of Louvain in the period 1500–30.22 Such a dense network certainly existed in the Northern Netherlands. It would be very diﬃcult to travel more than 20 kilometres and not ﬁnd a city, town or village with a school. Parents with considerable ﬁnancial means could opt for another type of education for their oﬀspring. A private teacher seems to have been a popular choice for nobles and the vastly wealthy town elite. We meet these private teachers later on in the life of their pupils when they are sent to universities. Here they act as paedagogi. They accompanied their pupils to university, kept an eye on their achievements and tried to lead them safely and successfully through their often pre-planned university curriculum. Among the students who visited Italy we ﬁnd ﬁve young men who acted as paedagogi to noble young men. Hugo Blotius was the praeceptor to no less than three noble boys, Ludwig von Hutten among them, on his peregrinatio that took him to six universities in France, Switzerland and Italy. It should be evident that children who wanted to be educated (or, to be more exact, whose parents wanted them to be educated) had 20

Keussen, Matrikel, II, 603, 15. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 16 mentions the ﬂourishing town schools in Groningen as a reason for the declining numbers of arts students enrolling. 22 Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätbesucher, 330–41, where he discusses the situation for the university of Cologne. Figures for the town of Alkmaar based on own research: A.L. Tervoort, ‘“Onderricht sticht”. Een korte beschouwing over de ontwikkeling van het onderwijs in Alkmaar’ (Manuscript Alkmaar 1989). 21

36

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ample and various possibilities in the Northern Netherlands to do so. We may safely assume that, by far, most of our students had had previous education before they registered with a university. It is, however, very diﬃcult to come up with concrete proof of where and when they did go to school. The late-medieval and early modern schools of the Northern Netherlands—with one notable exception23— have not left traces in the form of pupils’ lists. It is therefore an impossible task to systematically look for schools of later university students. We know for 28 students of the prosopography which school(s) they visited. Although this is not very much to go on, it does allow us to make some remarks with regard to the above description of schooling in the Northern Netherlands. The ﬁrst point of interest is that the schools mentioned are located over almost all territories. For the county of Holland, the following town schools are mentioned: Alkmaar, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, Naarden and The Hague. For the Nedersticht: three diﬀerent schools in Utrecht and the town school of Amersfoort. For Zeeland the school in Zierikzee is mentioned. For the Oversticht the schools of Deventer and Zwolle—both of some renown in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries, with illustrious pupils like Erasmus and Viglius of Aytta—can be found. For Friesland the school of Leeuwarden is named and for Groningen and Ommelanden two diﬀerent schools in the town and the school of Aduard are listed. Bruges in Flanders is mentioned as a destination for a pupil from Middelburg, none other than Paulus Adriani. A second interesting point is that the various types of secondary education are all represented within this tiny group. We know that the (related) members of the Van Teylingen family and the Van Foreest family who studied in Italy all visited the town school in Alkmaar. Its school had some claim to fame, since the humanists Johannes Murmellius and Petrus Nannius had taught there.24 Nicolaus Ruysch visited the chapter school of St Salvator in Utrecht, where he was to become a canon.25 A relative of Nicolaus, Cornelis van 23 For the town school of Gouda there exists a list of pupils, which deals with several years. This archival document (Streek Archief Hollands Midden, Oud Archief Gouda, inv. nr. 2798 a. f.) merits further scrutiny. 24 Cf. Jurjen N.M. Vis, ‘De Alkmaarse jaren 1528–1558’ in: Henriëtte BosmanJelgersma (ed.), Pieter van Foreest. De Hollandse Hippocrates (Krommenie 1996) 71–80; also A.L. Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’. 25 Bram van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren van de kerk. De kanunniken van Oudmunster te Utrecht in de late middeleeuwen (Zutphen 1997) 132 and 243.

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Mierop, who was the son of the inﬂuential and wealthy treasurer of Emperor Charles V, Vincent van Mierop, was educated by a private teacher before he set oﬀ for the university of Louvain in 1522 at age thirteen.26 From the little information we have at our disposal, we might gather that pupils were generally sent to a nearby school, frequently in their home town. Wilhelmus Livini Lemnius, “son of the excellent medicus”27 Lieven Lemnius of Zierikzee, went to school where his family had a secure place in local society. However, travel to a more distant school was not uncommon, and we shall see a parallel when we come to their university education. If a town school was deemed unsatisfactory for speciﬁc purposes, the pupil could be sent to a better institution further away. The Lebuin’s school of Deventer seems to have had this position. Even a relatively small town like Alkmaar had in 1517 some 600 externi, students from outside the town, visiting its school, while another 300 local boys attended it.28 In some of the larger towns—for instance, Deventer and Zwolle— the Brethren of the Common Life set up houses where pupils of the town schools might receive board and lodging during their stay at the school. Not just the renown of certain bigger schools seems to have been an important factor in deciding where to send a child. The quality of an individual teacher could also entice a parent or guardian to send a pupil back and forth between towns. In the case of Viglius of Aytta, his uncle, Bernard Bucho, was entrusted with his education. After having taken Viglius into his own house, where the boy was educated privately, Bernard sent him to school in Leeuwarden. In 1519 Viglius was sent to the Lebuin’s school in Deventer. In 1520, after a short period in Friesland, he visited the town school in Leiden, and ﬁnally, in 1521, he also attended the school in The Hague. In the case of the last two schools the teachers seem to have been the decisive factor. Wilhelmus Verius in Leiden and Jacob Volkertz in The Hague were considered to be excellent teachers by the concerned guardian.29

26

Ibid. 243. Weigle, ‘Pisa’, 210, nr. 230. 28 GAA, Stadsarchief, inv. nr. 23, f. 46 v. Also the note written by one of the schoolmasters, Guilelmus Zuermond, cited in: H.E. van Gelder, Geschiedenis der Latijnsche school te Alkmaar (Alkmaar 1905) 155; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 72–73. The town had some 5000 inhabitants in 1514. 29 Folkert Postma, Viglius van Aytta als humanist en diplomaat (Zutphen 1983) 14–6. 27

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In conclusion we might state that school facilities were relatively abundant in the Northern Netherlands and that pupils should have been able to acquire the necessary knowledge of Latin—and probably something extra in the form of basic philosophy—to take the next step: enrolling in a university. For most of the 640 students in the population Italy was certainly not the only destination for study, nor was it their ﬁrst. An overwhelming majority of the population started out elsewhere. For 516 students (80.6 per cent) it was possible to ﬁnd evidence that they had studied at more than one university in Europe. This ﬁgure is a minimum. For the other 124 students, identiﬁcation of their names in other university sources was not possible. This does not necessarily mean that they did not study at more than one studium. Sometimes the amount of information in the sources is so minimal that identiﬁcation is simply impossible.30 When “Gossowino de Hollandia in med. scholare” is mentioned as a witness at a graduation ceremony at the University of Padua in 1431,31 there is simply not enough information to uniquely identify the student involved. For the 516 who visited more than one university the following subdivisions can be made, according to the number of universities they attended (table 2.2.1.). Almost half the population attended two universities, while another 132 visited 3, and a further 52 even travelled to 4 studia. Then we know of 14 that went to 5 universities. One more student attended 6 and another two students managed to visit 7 diﬀerent studia. All in all, this was a highly mobile group. In contrast to estimates of average student mobility, visiting an Italian university was almost a guarantee of belonging to the select few who visited more than one university.32

30

Cf. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’, 211. She comes to similar results for students from Brabant who studied at the University of Orléans. Only 21.2% of her population had visited one university. 31 Zonta, Acta graduum, I, 262, nr. 817. 32 For Frisia and Groningen, the percentage of students visiting more than one university between 1401 and 1550 varies between 10 and 15%, rising to 34 and 37.5% respectively between 1551 and 1600; Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 18; also Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 29, with his ﬁgures for Cologne: 16% of the students visiting more than one university until 1450 and 12,5% until 1500.

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Map 2.2. Universities visited by students in the population and their itineraries to Italian universities and their weight.

chapter two

40 Period 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat.

2 univ. 48 74 48 26 34 85

(51.6) (51.7) (47.1) (41.3) (47.9) (50.6)

3 univ. 20 22 27 21 10 32

(21.5) (15.4) (26.5) (33.3) (14.1) (19.0)

315 (49.2) 132 (20.6)

>3 univ

Total> 1 u.

Total Per.

6 16 7 4 14 22

74 112 82 51 58 139

93 143 102 63 71 168

(6.5) (11.2) (6.9) (6.3) (19.7) (13.1)

69 (10.8)

(79.6) (78.3) (80.4) (81.0) (81.7) (82.7)

516 (80.6)

(100) (100) (100) (100) (100) (100)

640 (100)

Table 2.2.1. Students from the Northern Netherlands, who visited Italian universities, attending more than one university in absolute numbers (% in brackets).

While this high mobility was a constant characteristic of the population, varying only slightly from 78.3 to 82.7 per cent, it increased slightly in the sixteenth century. Furthermore, there also seems to have been a tendency to visit more universities in the sixteenth century. This is consistent with the pattern of European student mobility in general, which peaked in the second half of the sixteenth and ﬁrst half of the seventeenth century, when the peregrinatio academica as a cultural phenomenon reached a peak probably not witnessed since the era of the wandering scholars in the high Middle Ages.33 Volkert Coyter of Groningen stands out as the peregrinatio academica personiﬁed. He travelled to no less than seven universities all over Europe between 1550 and 1566. Louvain, Tübingen, Montpellier—where he met and befriended another more famous traveller and medical student, Felix Platter—,34 Padua, Rome, Perugia and ﬁnally Bologna were all halting-posts on his iter italicum. Figures for students from the Northern Netherlands, who attended the university of Orléans between 1444 and 1546, another relatively exclusive destination, provide an interesting comparator. Of these specialist students of law, a minimum of 77.7 per cent visited more than one university (293 out of 377 students).35 There is a diﬀerence in the total number of universities visited, though. Those who stayed at two studia (63.9 per cent), account for the bulk of mobility. Some

33

De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Mobility’ in: Ead. (ed.), History, II, 280–303. For Felix Platter see Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Le siècle des Platter 1499–1628, I. Le mendiant et le professeur (Paris 1995). 35 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 97. 34

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10.3 per cent visited three and 2.4 per cent visited four or more universities.36 The distance in terms of travel may have made a diﬀerence here. There were more universities to visit en route to Italy than on the way to the Loire city. A trip southward could well be the next goal for an ambitious law student who wanted to take a degree from a prestigious Italian studium. And indeed, some 37 Dutch students in Orléans opted for this further journey to the peninsula, whereas only two students ﬁrst visited an Italian university and then travelled on to Orléans. It has been mentioned that switching university in Italy itself was certainly not uncommon among Dutch students. What is the picture for universities outside Italy? In total, students in the population visited 41 diﬀerent universities of which 28 were located outside the Italian peninsula. Counting Cologne and Louvain as universities of the Holy Roman Empire, it is obvious that the Empire bore the brunt of university visits outside Italy. France followed as a second destination at some considerable distance. There are four universities that clearly stand out with more than 5 per cent of university registrations outside Italy: Louvain, Cologne, Paris and Orléans. Divided over the period 1426–1575 attendance at these four universities looks as follows (table 2.2.2.).

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Louvain

Cologne

Paris

Orléans

16 46 41 25 37 97

45 48 39 18 10 14

9 22 7 1 3 4

n.s. 2 4 5 8 18

262

174

46

37

Table 2.2.2. University attendance at the four most popular universities outside Italy of students from the Northern Netherlands who visited Italian universities (1426–1575).37

36

On the basis of Ibid. 75. Figures for Paris are probably too low, as university records mostly deal with graduations rather than pure registrations. 37

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These four universities represent the vast percentage of universities visited outside Italy. In the second half of the ﬁfteenth century, very few students bypassed Louvain, Cologne or Paris. The relative popularity of Cologne and Louvain changed over this period. It would be justiﬁed to say that Cologne was the starting university for the ﬁfteenth century up to the 1490s. The number of students of the population attending it declined sharply in the sixteenth century, as Louvain steadily gained importance, reaching an absolute record among the population in the third quarter, making Louvain the starting university in the sixteenth century. Though formally universities of the Holy Roman Empire, one might say that together they were the ‘national’ universities for students from the (Northern) Netherlands and this certainly holds true for the population here.38 There cannot be much dispute about Paris as the third most popular destination to either start university studies or visit after an earlier stay at one of the ‘national’ institutions. This ancient university with a grand tradition in the teaching of the arts continued to attract numerous students from the North, even when nearby alternatives became available. Between 1424 and 1452 at least 138 students from the diocese of Utrecht attended the Parisian alma mater. The declining numbers in the sixteenth century partly reﬂect a source problem for students from the Northern Netherlands.39 The University of Orléans is a special case.40 Although there are no reliable sources before 1444, a marked increase in attendance after this date is obvious. Orléans was not a typical university to start one’s university curriculum. Only law was taught there, so in most cases the student who enrolled had already visited another university to study arts. Its relative popularity among students whom one later can locate at Italian universities is obvious, for as will be

38 Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 12–13; Brand, Over macht en overwicht, 267–8; De RidderSymoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 74; Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 323–4. 39 Tanaka, Nation, 263. Laurence W.B. Brockliss, ‘Patterns of Attendance at the University of Paris, 1400–1800’ in: Julia and Revel (eds.), Histoire, II, 487–526, there in particular, 490 and 517, n. 1. A lot of material for the faculties of law, medicine and theology has not been published. The sources for the English/German Nation for the ﬁfteenth century have been published in the series Auctarium Universitatis Parisiensis. 40 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’; Ead., ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’; Ead., Ridderikhoﬀ, Illmer, Premier livre, I, introduction; Ridderikhoﬀ, Deuxième livre, I, introduction.

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shown shortly, law was the most popular subject to study at the universities of Northern Italy. A combined visit to both of these famous university poles certainly represented the prestigious peregrinatio of a privileged student where law was concerned. Some remarks need to be made about the other universities in the Empire and France. After Louvain and Cologne, Rostock seems to have been the most popular studium of the Empire to visit with at least 14 students from the population registering there. This holds particularly for the ﬁfteenth century and most markedly for students from the eastern parts of the Northern Netherlands.41 Other more frequently mentioned universities were Heidelberg (12), Basle (11), Wittenberg (6), Erfurt (5), Dole (5), Ingolstadt (5) and Vienna (4). Visits to Heidelberg, Basle and Wittenberg took place mostly in the sixteenth century, arguably for religious reasons. For instance, the university of Basle, formally still part of the Empire, had a Protestant character ever since its reformation in 1532. Most students in the population who visited it did so after this date. The university of Dole is another special case. Located in the Franche-Comté, it could be considered a ‘Burgundian’ university. In France, Montpellier (5) and Bourges (4) were most popular after Paris and Orléans, the former exclusively for medicine and the latter exclusively for law. The nature of visits to Orléans, Bourges and Montpellier was therefore very diﬀerent from those to Paris and most universities in the Empire, including Louvain and Cologne. The former three attracted specialist students who for the most part had already studied arts at a university nearby. The sixteenth century gives a wider variety of universities visited by students in the population. This is partly due to a lack of sources for some universities in the ﬁfteenth century. There is no denying, however, that the many new foundations of the ﬁfteenth (such as Basle, 1459) and sixteenth centuries (for instance Wittenberg, 1502) gradually started to attract young men in search for learning. The university density in Europe increased and this wider choice certainly made an impact.42 When dealing with the universities outside Italy where students in the population registered, it is also worthwhile looking at what they 41

Cf. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 13 for students from Friesland and Groningen. For an overview of newly founded universities in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries see: Willem Frijhoﬀ, ‘Patterns’, Chapter II in: H. de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, 43–110. 42

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44 Artes 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

72 107 79 39 52 113

Total

462 (72.2)

(77.4) (74.8) (77.5) (61.9) (74.3) (66.9)

MA

LA

BA

(58.1) (60.8) (40.2) (34.9) (42.9) (21.3)

2 2 1 2 2 3

3 4 7 2 – –

270 (42.2)

12

16

54 87 41 22 30 36

Degree Total 59 93 49 26 32 39

(63.4) (65.0) (48.0) (41.3) (45.7) (23.1)

298 (46.6)

Table 2.2.3. Number of students who started in the arts faculty, number of graduations to magister artium, licentiatus artium and baccalaureus artium compared to the total population (% in brackets).

studied. University registers are not always very forthcoming with such information. Their scribes were not very consistent in writing down the particular faculty a student wanted to register with.43 For a considerable number of students it was possible to determine their choice of faculty in the universities outside Italy. Where their ﬁrst university is concerned, a substantial majority enrolled in the arts faculty; 462 out of 640 (72.2 per cent) started out by studying arts. This ﬁgure is certainly too low. Behind the number of 133 undetermined ﬁrst enrolments (20.6 per cent) there is probably another majority of arts students hidden. This ﬁrst choice for the septem artes liberales (the seven liberal arts) need not surprise us. Following up on earlier pre-university instruction in the arts, the student was given training in the understanding of Latin through grammar, and taught the basics of logical reasoning and natural philosophy in which texts of Aristotle were very inﬂuential. Ever since the thirteenth century the program in the faculty of arts was considered to be a basis for studying in one of the higher faculties. On the basis of these ﬁgures it is safe to say that in general a student who would later visit an Italian university started his curriculum in the arts faculty, most frequently at a studium close to home, either Louvain or Cologne, with Paris as a solid third. Certainly in the ﬁfteenth century a majority of the population would have an arts degree before enrolling in another faculty. Specialist universities

43 For a discussion of the speciﬁc problems, see: Paquet, Matricules, especially 76–80.

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like Orléans for law and Montpellier for medicine come into the picture here. The decline in the percentage of students with an arts degree, particularly for the sixteenth century, clearly reﬂects the declining popularity of Cologne in the late ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries. Graduation data for the University of Cologne are the most complete. It was not possible to ﬁnd the same level of completeness for the University of Louvain, which was so predominant as a starting university from 1490 onwards. The Italian sources are not very consistent in citing any previous degrees. The percentage of students with a status in studio in the arts must have been considerably higher than the ﬁgures indicate. Another 45 students (7 per cent) seem to have started their university curriculum in the faculty of law. When Biso (or Ziso) Mulaert of Hasselt ﬁrst enrolled in the University of Louvain on 6 June 1461, it was stated explicitly that he opted for canon law.44 This phenomenon runs through all 25-year cohorts. It would appear, however, that registering immediately with the law faculty was somewhat more common in the sixteenth century than the previous one.45 A further two students opted for medicine immediately when registering. In general, though, it would seem that the average student, armed with a solid education in the arts, often with a degree, would travel on, visiting various universities on the way, to the ﬁnal destination of his university curriculum: Italy. Italian Universities and Dutch Attendance Studying in Italy was not that straightforward for a student from other parts of Europe. He had to undertake a long, arduous journey on foot, on horseback or by boat. As roads in these times were far from safe, there seems to have been a tendency among students to travel in caravans with pilgrims to Rome, for example, or with merchants. There is even evidence that students from the same town or region formed groups to travel together to their studium of destination.46

44

Wils, Matricule, II, 85, 46. Percentages for the cohorts are: 1426–50 5.4%; 1451–75 6.3%; 1476–1500 7.1%; 1501–25 11.1%; 1526–50 2.8%; 1551–75 8.9%. Again, one could suggest a link here with the improved quality of pre-university education, which might have enabled some students to skip the arts faculty. 46 R.C. Schwinges, ‘Zur Prosopographie studentischer Reisegruppen im fünfzehnten 45

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Considering the fact that only a small part of the students from the Northern Netherlands chose or had the opportunity to travel to faraway Italy, these student groups were not very numerous. We do have some examples of brothers who travelled a considerable part of their peregrinatio academica together. The Van der Mijle brothers, Adriaan and Cornelis, journeyed all over Europe together. On 30 October 1553 we ﬁnd them in Louvain, where “Cornelius & Adrianus fratres ﬁlii Arnoldi van der Mijlen de Dordraco” matriculated.47 Less than a year later they registered in Heidelberg 1 October 1554. And after a considerable period there, they travelled to Italy, where they matriculated at the University of Padua in 1561.48 It is not very often though that we ﬁnd an example of students from the same town or village in Holland who travelled to a university in Italy together. If students travelled to Italy in a group, its composition seems to have been of a regional or even ‘(supra)national’ character rather than of a local one. Certainly the registers that survive indicate that there were great ﬂuctuations in the number of registrants. This does not solely reﬂect the trials and tribulations of the university itself—war and epidemics that kept students away in certain years—but also the nature of travel to such far-away destinations. One way in which such a travelling band might form was through meeting fellow countrymen at some university. If their goals were the same, they might well have decided to travel together to the next destination. It seems likely that when Nicolaus Johannis Raet of Haarlem and Nicolaus Johannis Aerschot of Gouda studied and graduated together in arts at the University of Paris early in 1465, they travelled together to Padua, where we can ﬁnd the two mentioned together several times as witnesses, once to the graduation of another fellow Hollander Jacob Ruysch of Amsterdam.49 It is very likely that even travelling bands of an international make-up formed at the various universities in Europe. Students with the same destination might

Jahrhundert’ in: Bulst and Genet (eds.), Medieval Lives, 333–341; Id., ‘Studentische Kleingruppen im späten Mittelalter. Ein Beitrag zur Sozialgeschichte deutscher Universitäten’ in: Herbert Ludat and Rainer Christoph Schwinges (eds.), Politik, Gesellschaft, Geschichtsschreibug. Giessener Festgabe für Frantisek Graus zum 60. Geburtsdag (Cologne 1982) 319–361. 47 A. Schillings (ed.), Matricule de l’université de Louvain, IV (Brussels 1966) 483, 46–7. 48 Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 65, nrs. 76–7. 49 Auctarium, VI, 383, 399, 401; ACVP, Ser. Diversorum, inv. nr. 33, f. 46 and 78.

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well have considered travelling in large groups, since this would make the dangerous journey safer, cheaper and probably more pleasant. A student was a traveller as well as a young man pursuing academic qualiﬁcations. A number of other activities could be combined with the registration at a university in Italy. Pilgrimage, ambassadorial functions, seeing the sights, meeting important scholars and collecting books and objects were all part of the iter italicum. In this period in the history of travel there is little evidence of these activities for the students in the population, but here and there some interesting bits of information rise to the surface. Rome, although not such a popular goal for study until the foundation of the Collegium Germanicum, was a travel destination that is mentioned often. For members of the clergy Rome was the very centre of power, where conﬁrmations of appointments and papal dispensation were to be obtained. Travelling in person for important missions was not uncommon. Three students in the population, Dirk Utenweer, Ludolf van Hoorn and Alfer van Montfoort, made such a journey at a later stage in their career in 1455, asking for the conﬁrmation of Gijsbert of Brederode as bishop of Utrecht on behalf of the chapter in Utrecht.50 Many a student visited Rome in the aftermath of his studies. The humanists Hadrianus Junius and Petrus Forestus, for instance, visited the Eternal City after they had graduated at the university of Bologna. Petrus Forestus made this into a long study trip under the guidance of the German physician Valerius Cordus. They travelled to Padua, Ferrara, Florence, Pisa, Livorno and Siena before ﬁnally reaching Rome. On a stop in Bologna the travelling band was joined by another student in the population, Cornelius Andree of Sittard, who had just graduated in medicine at Bologna. In Rome, Forestus stayed for several months and he brieﬂy joined his fellow countryman, Gisbertus Lamberti Horstius of Amsterdam who had studied in Perugia and worked as a physician at the hospital of the Santa Maria della Conciliazione. Not just the sights, but also famous scholars and horti botanici were on the list of things to visit. Erasmus’ trip to the peninsula was primarily to study and collect manuscripts. The fact that he graduated in theology in Turin was in his case only of second importance to him, although the same cannot be said for the university, that was

50

Cf. chapter 2.4 for their academic pursuits during this journey.

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all too proud to include the name of this cultural icon on the walls of the studium. With the invention of the printing press the circulation of all sorts of travel guides dealing with places worth a visit started to appear in print. Although at ﬁrst most of these were written for the overwhelming majority of travellers to Italy, pilgrims to Rome, gradually other angles more to do with aesthetics and learning found their way into these travel guides.51 It is almost impossible to determine who read what, if indeed these students oriented themselves at all on their way to the peninsula. It seems likely, though, that particularly in the sixteenth century visiting cities other than the one where the Alma Mater of choice was located was high on the agenda. When Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, himself a law graduate of Padua, in his will of 1592 set aside a substantial sum for his sons to study in Italy he stipulated that apart from visits to the university cities of Bologna and Padua, his sons were supposed to visit Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples and Milan and other places of interest.52 One of the students in the population, Hugo Blotius of Delft, actually wrote an—unfortunately unpublished—travel guide for one of his pupils, the young noble Ludwig von Hutten. This travel account, which deals with nearly all aspects of travel through Italy, gives reader a number of instructions, not only places to visit (or to avoid for that matter), but also whom to see.53 Once a student had arrived in the university city of his choice, there were other things to worry about. He had to ﬁnd board and lodging. He could do this on his own initiative, but he could also seek the help of his fellow countrymen in the nation. Oﬃcials of the nations could be of great help. Members of the German nation seem to have clung together in Bologna. Names like “Via dei Tedeschi” or “Casa degli Olandesi” say it all.54 Considering the fact that 51 Cf. Lucia Tresoldi, Viaggiatori tedeschi in Italia, 1452–1870. Saggio bibliograﬁco, vol. I (Rome 1975), with an overview of literature and a bibliography of early travel guides and travel literature; Frank van Westrienen, “Groote Tour”; Maszak, Viaggiatori. 52 S.P. Haak (ed.), Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Bescheiden betreﬀende zijn staatkundig beleid en zijn familie, I, 1570 –1601, Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën 80 (The Hague 1934) 240. 53 Vienna, Österreichische Nazionalbibliothek, ms. 6070. I thank Prof. A. Grafton for pointing out the existence of this spectacular document. Also see his recent Cardano’s Cosmos. The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer (Cambridge Mass. 1999) 15–17. 54 Kibre, Nations, 31.

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Germans were extremely active as innkeepers most students must have been able to ﬁnd a place where they could feel more or less— sometimes much less—at home. Letters written by the German student Friederich Behaim, who visited the law faculty of Padua in 1581 and 1582, like his brother did before him in 1575, give us an idea of what life was like for a foreign student in Italy in the sixteenth century. Through contacts at the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi in Venice, a guild of German merchants, he found board with an Italian landlord, named Cyprian, who spoke German, for the amount of seven crowns (approximately ten Rhenish guilders) a month, which Friederich rightly thought very expensive. He did not expect to be there very long. He thought of his ﬁrst residence as a basis from where he could ﬁnd something cheaper once he mastered the language and got the hang of things. His troubles with speaking Italian, exchanging money and even his clothing all paint a vivid picture of student life and his letters make clear that studying was certainly not the only thing on a student’s mind, even though he might come from a well-oﬀ family like the patrician Behaims.55 Though most of the students in the population had visited other universities and as such had a fair idea how things worked at ‘magister-universities’, the university situation in Italy was somewhat diﬀerent from the studia north of the Alps. As opposed to the studia they had visited, most of those on the peninsula were what can be labelled ‘student universities’. The actual universitates were organizations by and for students only, to ensure the maximum amount of autonomy. Professors, therefore, were not members of the university. This structure originated in thirteenth-century Bologna. By the ﬁfteenth century, however, ‘student universities’ no longer were the bastions of student liberty they once used to be. Both comune and the collegia doctorum now had a ﬁrm grip on the organization of the studium. In fact, it is true that the student corporations at most Italian universities had lost most of the power they once had over the entire studium—Padua being the exception to a certain extent. At some studia the student corporations never enjoyed any real power. The studium of Siena, for instance, was in the hands of the commune from its very foundation.56 55 Steven Ozment (ed.), Three Behaim Boys. Growing up in Early Modern Germany (New Haven 1990), in particular 155–9, letters 96–100. 56 The various publications of Peter Denley frequently mention the fact that one should not overestimate the power students enjoyed at universities other than Bologna

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In this period cities and states, in collaboration with the collegia doctorum, hired professors and paid them. Most Italian universities were structured along the lines of the Bologna, in more or less elaborate forms and we therefore use it to describe the terminology and structure of several Italian universities.57 The most complex structures of Italian studia existed in Bologna and Padua, proportional to their size. The studium generale consisted of two universitates, the universitas legistarum (faculty of law) and the universitas artistarum et medicinorum (faculty of arts and medicine). Each of these faculties was in turn subdivided into a universitas citramontanorum (students from the Italian peninsula) and a universitas ultramontanorum (students from the rest of Europe). These universitates, again, were subdivided into nationes, harbouring students from a particular region, for instance, the Natio Germanica, belonging to the universitas ultramontanorum. studium generale

universitas artistarum et medicinorum

universitas legistarum

universitas citramontanorum

universitas ultramontanorum

etc. nationes

universitas citramontanorum

etc. nationes

universitas ultramontanorum

etc. nationes

etc. nationes

Figure 2.2.1. Outline of the structure of the Bolognese model.

and Padua in speciﬁc periods. Siena is a very good example for this; Cf. Grendler Universities. 57 Denley, ‘Recent Studies’, 198–199 emphasizes that one should not overestimate the importance of the University of Bologna as a role model for the other universities on the peninsula. He names the examples of Naples, Rome and, his specialty, Siena.

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At the head of each of the faculties (legistarum and artistarum) stood a rector or two rectors (the law faculty of Bologna knew a rector universitatis ultramontanorum and a rector universitatis citramontanorum; sometimes one person acted as rector utriusque universitatis). He had to be an at least twenty-two-year-old student of a certain social stature, preferably with already several years of study at the university behind him. He oﬃcially governed and represented the universitas in all matters. The rector was elected by all the students belonging to the universitas or by the representatives of the nations. The rector had to share his governing power with the representatives or leaders of the nationes, organizations formed along the lines of geographical origin. These leaders were called procuratores (German nation at Bologna) or consiliarii (other nations at Bologna and Padua). Decisions on almost all university matters were subject to the consiliarii for approval. So, the nations had their fair share in decision-making within the university. The complexity of university structure had a lot to do with the number of students attending. The smaller studium of Ferrara, also very important from the point of view of the peregrinatio academica from the Netherlands, was divided into a universitas legistarum and a universitas artium et medicinorum, that were each directly divided into nations, one of which was a nation for ultramontani. In Siena, only the universitas legistarum had a subdivision in ultramontane and citramontane nations, which in turn were divided into nations, of which the German nation was one. Its faculty of arts and medicine had no further subdivision. Other universities had an even less complex structure.58 The faculty of theology is almost absent in the above-sketched structure of the Italian universities. Faculties of theology at Italian studia were mostly governed by the mendicant orders and as such had very little to do with the rest of the studium. Apart from that, it seems that they never enjoyed the same popularity as the other faculties at the Italian studia. Paris was the place to be when one wanted to study theology.

58 A comprehensive graphic sketch of the structure of Italian universities is to be found in H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 50–53; Schmutz, Juristen for the law university of Bologna; Grendler, Universities.

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A student who wanted to enter a university had to perform a number of duties. He had to pay a certain amount of money to the universitas and the nation, have his name registered in the matricula and swear an oath before the rector of the universitas.59 He had to pledge loyalty to the statutes, obey the oﬃcials and not cause trouble for other members of the university. Only then did a student belong to the university. Students from the comune itself and professors never belonged to the universitates. A powerful force in the governance of the studium were the collegia doctorum. In the ﬁrst instance, these colleges were not established for professors teaching at the studium, but to control and exert authority over all doctors present and practising (lawyers and physicians) in a particular city. These colleges had strong connections with the city or state in which the university was located. Moreover, they had an enormous amount of inﬂuence in academic aﬀairs, especially in Bologna, where they appointed the other professors. In addition to this, promotores (supervisors) of students who wished to take a degree, had to be members of the college in question. The college was presided over by a prior. Foremost among the tasks of the collegia were the examinations of candidates who wished to obtain a degree.60 Though the smaller universities also knew collegia doctorum, they were never as powerful as in Bologna or as numerous as in Padua. It is true that all these colleges formed an academic elite. To belong to a collegium doctorum was the ultimate step in an academic career. This was partly a family aﬀair, as there existed several lawyer families whose members were continuously part of the collegia doctorum. The colleges had strong ties with the commune. In the period under investigation the commune or state, generally well aware of the (not only) economic advantages of having a studium in town, hired the

59

The actual sequence of these duties varied. Cf. Paquet, Matricules, 41–42. Cf. the very elaborate introductions to C. Piana (ed.), Il “liber secretus iuris Caesarei” dell’Università di Bologna 1451–1500 (Milan 1984) 31*–43* and Id., Il “liber secretus iuris pontiﬁcii” dell’Universià di Bologna 1451–1500 (Milan 1989) 7*–11*. The structure of the collegia doctorum in Padua diﬀered in important aspects of that in Bologna. Contrary to Bologna, Padua allowed non-citizen doctors to be temporary members of the colleges, provided they were paid by the commune and for as long as their appointment lasted. Though they could not act as promotores of students who wished to take a degree, they could enjoy the privileges of the colleges and participation in the examination of students as well. This was a welcome extra contribution to their income and must have been a special attraction for foreign professors to teach at Padua; Ohl, ‘University of Padua’, 89–91. 60

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professors and paid their fees. In most cases university cities appointed special oﬃcials who should take the interests of the studium at heart. They were called reformatores (Bologna, Ferrara, Siena, Padua) or trattatores (Padua). Although students could matriculate in a university whenever they wanted, there was such a thing as the formal beginning of the academic year on Saint Luke’s, 18 October. It ended in September, though there were very few lectures after June. There were approximately 135 days for the ordinary lectures. In addition there were some 45 days when special lectures could be given, a total of about 180.61 Lectures took place in the morning (lectura ordinaria) or in the afternoon and early evening (lectura extraordinaria). Generally, the most important professors held the ordinary lectures. The other professors gave the extraordinary ones. Advanced students, baccalaurei,62 who wanted to teach also gave their lectures during extraordinary hours. Ordinary and extraordinary lectures could never take place at the same time. A large part of a student’s life was with his appropriate nation. The nationes or ‘nations’ were more or less spontaneous organizations of students, formed on the basis of geographical origin and directed against the local authorities; students feared the local population in every way. Though originally an entirely voluntary movement by and for students of law and primarily, in the course of the thirteenth century membership of a nation became mandatory for all nonBolognese students and this mandatory membership became customary for all studia in Italy. The structure of the nations was not dissimilar to that of the various guilds of medieval Europe.63 The number of nations and their names could vary from time to time, from university to university, and also from faculty to faculty. In the case of Italy it the several faculties of law had more nations than the faculties of arts and medicine. The universitas artium et medicinorum at Bologna, for example, was divided into only four nations: an ultramontane one, which included all non-Italians, a Lombard, Tuscan and a Roman one. The universitas ultramontanorum of the law

61 Grendler, Universities, 143–5. Ohl, ‘University of Padua’ 79 has very diﬀerent calculations: 224 and 93 days, a total of 317! 62 Baccalaureus meant that the student was teaching. It was not an oﬃcial academic degree as in northern universities like Paris or Oxford. 63 Kibre, Nations, 14.

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faculty on the other hand had sixteen nations from the ﬁfteenth century onwards. It is obvious that the nation structure of the various universities in Italy depended largely on their size and most important areas of recruitment, both in- and outside Italy. The most elaborate structures were to be found at the biggest and most renowned ones: Bologna and Padua. The name and area of recruitment depended on several requirements on the part of the students.64 In the nation’s statutes the ‘Founding Fathers’ speciﬁed which criteria were to play a decisive role in the formation of a natio for students. In the case of the German Nation—the ‘proper’ home for our population—the place of birth was generally the major criterion. There were further criteria that decided to which nation a certain individual should belong. The statutes of the German Nation of 1497 at Bologna state that all those students who have ‘German’ as their native tongue should belong to the natio germanica, no matter where they came from. In the sixteenth century the actual place of residence started playing a role as well, especially in Padua.65 Students from the Northern Netherlands in general met all these criteria.66 Nations all had broadly the same form of organizational structure. They were presided over by consiliarii or procuratores that were elected by the members of the nation. This oﬃcial ran the nation with the help of several helpers. The German nation was always one of the most important ones, both in numbers and inﬂuence in the governance of the university, but also in the keeping of records. At the law faculty of Bologna the German nation had two votes in the election of the rector and university assemblies, whereas all other nations

64 Bolognese students were not only excluded from the nationes. Formally they did not even belong to the universitates, because they were subjected to Bolognese jurisdiction—as opposed to all other students. 65 Kibre, Nations, 4–5. It should be noted that the term ‘German’ does not refer to present day German, but rather to a Germanic language, spoken from the North of France to the Baltic. 66 Not without struggle, though. In 1292 the students from Frisia were assigned— after a long quarrel—to the German nation because their homeland was so close to the territories of the German nation in general: Kibre, Nations, 10. This fact might give some explanation for the fact that all students from the Northern Netherlands who ﬁgure in the acta call themselves frisius or friso. Especially in the last decade of the thirteenth century no students from the Northern Netherlands matriculated otherwise. No mention of any other territory is recorded.

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had only one! It was the only nation whose elected leader was called procurator or proctor. In other nations he was called consiliarius.67 The nations not only had a considerable inﬂuence in the governance of the universitas, they also had considerable control over their students, since membership of a nation was obligatory. The nation was almost like a world in itself. The life of a student abroad took place within the—reasonably—safe haven of the nation that consisted of their fellow countrymen and students from adjacent lands. He would have far more dealings with the nation than with the universitas as such. The nation kept a considerable administration for which it needed oﬃcials. The most important of these oﬃces was that of proctor or consiliarius, the oﬃcial head of the nation. He was elected by majority vote by all the members of the nation in question. As in all university elections beans were used instead of ballots. The acta of the German nation in Bologna even mention that it was strictly forbidden to throw beans on the table while the ballot committee was counting the votes, a decree that probably had a clear basis in what must have been a rather comic episode. A principal task of the proctor or consiliarius was his control of the nation’s ﬁnances. Every student enrolling in a nation had to pay a certain amount of money—varying from 2 solidi to 60, depending on the student’s social and ﬁnancial status—to the proctor. This was the sole source of monies to ﬁnance the nation’s expenditure. Apart from this he also had to keep inventory of all the nation’s belongings (such as cash, books, religious objects, matriculation lists, statutes and privileges). The nation’s money was used for all sorts of purposes that were important for students far from home. If a student fell ill, students from the same nation had to care for him—a nation could also employ its own physician. If this proved to be in vain, they took care of funerals for their colleagues. Frequently nations had their own chapels in churches, where they would hold religious ceremonies for their members. The respective patron saints were rewarded with extra attention. In the case of the German nation St Catherine, St Nicholas and St Martin were considered to be special mediators on behalf of German students. The heads of the various nations also mediated in quarrels between students of the same and

67

Ibid. 30–1.

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other nations, an important task, since student quarrels were often bloody, sometimes even lethal. Lastly, they organized all kinds of social occasions and observed the celebration of ‘national’ holidays. This was the environment students were faced with when they arrived at the various studia on the Italian peninsula. Now we shall assess their popularity among our adventurous students from the Northern Netherlands. A ﬁrst appearance in the sources is used to measure attendance, so that we might best approach the ﬁrst date of the student coming to the university. Technically it is possible that there is information in all possible university source categories for a particular student. The student Alfer of Montfoort, for instance, is mentioned four times in the sources for the University of Bologna, from his matriculation in 1437 until his graduation in canon law in 1444.68 In order to facilitate recognition of the various source categories and to establish the origin of attendance ﬁgures, separate ﬁgures are presented for matriculations and graduations. There were four universities with at least 50 students from the Northern Netherlands attending in the period 1426–1575. Of these, two universities tower above all others with well over 200 young men visiting them: Padua (243) and Bologna (220). They are followed by a strong third: Ferrara (152). The University of Siena comes fourth (57). The other universities of Northern Italy follow at some distance, none of them entertaining more than 30 students from the Northern Netherlands, as far as the sources allow us to ascertain. These Big Four are dealt with individually. The others are taken together. From the ﬁgures, though incomplete, it is obvious that Bologna and Padua vied for the status of ‘most popular’ university in Italy, at least where students from the Northern Netherlands are concerned. Although Padua was the most popular, in deference to age and tradition Bologna is discussed ﬁrst. a. Bologna The University of Bologna can justiﬁably be called the oldest university in the world. Its reputation and great tradition in the teaching of law made sure that, ever since its very foundation, it attracted large numbers of students. A presence from the Northern Netherlands can be dated back at least to the thirteenth century, when a multi-

68

Acta, 184, 17; 185, 42, 188, 11; Knod, Deutsche Studenten, nr. 2432.

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tude of students, most of them called “de Frisia,” enrolled in the German Nation of the law university of Bologna. Ever since then, young men from the northern Low Countries have travelled to this great university city. The sources for the law university of Bologna allow us to gain a long term perspective on student attendance from the Northern Netherlands in the period 1266–1575, while sources for the university of arts and medicine give ﬁgures from c. 1400 onwards (graph 2.2.1).69 Some very considerable ﬂuctuations are discernible. This is only partly due to lacunae in the source complex. Certainly from 1289 onwards the information level for law students registering with the German Nation in Bologna remains rather consistent. The graph shows a remarkable peak in the period 1286–1305. This is the era in which the Natio Germanica Iuristarum started to really organize itself and when the students in the nation started to keep records. The fact that a record peak of 28 students between 1286 and 1295 Students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna (1266–1575) 30

25 20

15

10 5

0 1266– 1286– 1306 75 95 15

1336– 1346– 1366– 1386– 1406– 1426– 1446– 1466– 1486– 1506– 1526– 1546– 1566– 35 55 75 95 15 35 55 75 95 15 35 55 75

Graph 2.2.1. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in absolute numbers (1266–1575) in ten-year periods.

69 For student attendance at the law university of Bologna the Acta edited by Friedländer and Malagola as well as Knod, Deutsche Studenten formed the basis up to 1425, supplemented by the recent study of Schmutz, Juristen. For the period after this both these works, but also source editions of Sorbelli, Liber, and Piana, Liber (I caesarei and II ponteﬁcii), as well as archival material where the law university was concerned. For the arts and medicine university the source editions of Bronzino, Notitia, Dallari, Rotuli, and Piana, Ricerche, and Nuove ricerche, were most important.

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occurred then has to be explained by looking at the university map of Europe at the time. There simply were not very many alternatives. At the end of the thirteenth century only Paris, Oxford and Cambridge—and the English universities do not seem to have had much attraction for Dutchmen—had university status in the north of Europe. Where law was concerned, certainly civil law, Bologna held prime position among all other studia. The subsequent collapse of attendance ﬁgures, particularly after 1305, cannot be blamed on lacunae in the sources, as Bologna was under a papal interdict between 1306–9. Yet, numbers only pick up again in the fourth decade of the fourteenth century. From then on law students travelled to Bologna regularly, albeit in smaller numbers. It is not entirely clear why numbers declined so strongly. It is possible that the University of Orléans, in existence since 1235, but only formally recognized by papal privilege in 1306, made an impact on the Northern Netherlands in the fourteenth century. There are no sources to fully substantiate this claim, but from 1444 onwards, when the livre des procurateurs of the German Nation in Orléans starts giving regular attendance ﬁgures, a very strong presence of students from the diocese of Utrecht can be ascertained. In the ﬁrst six years no less than 23 students from this diocese started their studies in the Loire town.70 Canon law, at that time more often chosen as a subject of study than civil law, could also be studied at the University of Paris. It is signiﬁcant in this context that the papal Curia and court had been transferred to Avignon in 1309, where they were to stay until 1377, when the Western Schism made the situation even more complicated. While Bologna had been on the right way to Rome up to 1309, now Orléans and Paris could be considered good alternatives for clerics on their way to Avignon.71 The ﬁgures pick up again in the 1340s, though much lower than for the period 1286–1305. It is very hard to explain this second increase. An increasing demand for university trained personnel in church bureaucracies and institutions—particularly chapters—and the limited availability of universities could be seen as important factors at this stage. Furthermore, the outbreak of the Great Schism in 1378 70

De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94 and 96. The situation seems to have been similar for students from the Scandinavian countries: Sverre Bagge, ‘Nordic Students at Foreign Universities until 1660’ in: Scandinavian Journal of History 9 (1984) 1–29, there 6. 71

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with a new pope, Urban VI, in Rome may have made the choice for Bologna more popular, as in the Northern Netherlands, Urban seems to have had more support than Clement.72 The decline that set in after 1385 and led to a new low in the period 1396–1415 could be ascribed to the various new university foundations in the north of Europe, of which Cologne, Erfurt and Heidelberg certainly were the most important for students from the diocese of Utrecht. Such at least was the case for students from Frisia, who in this period had a distinct preference for the study of law. Their strong presence in the fourteenth century deﬁnitely declined in the last decade of the fourteenth and the ﬁrst decades of the ﬁfteenth century. The impressive percentage of Frisian students who studied law at the University of Cologne is deﬁnitely most revealing in this context.73 Graphs 2.2.2. shows attendance of students from the Northern Netherlands in the period 1426–1575, the period under investigation. It shows a gradual increase from the 1440s onwards, which increases more rapidly towards the peak period 1476–1495. It would be justiﬁed to say that universities in Italy in general proﬁted from the increase in the overall Dutch student population, such as has been established for the universities of Cologne and Louvain. The same holds true for the speciﬁc case of Bologna. The last decades of the ﬁfteenth century seem to have been its most booming period, especially for law students. Very high matriculation levels—with great ﬂuctuations, however—show the distinct popularity of the law university.74 It is possible that the French invasion of northern Italy in 1494 may have functioned as something of a deterrent in those years. Armies roamed the roads of the Romagna in 1494.75 In 1494 only one new student from the diocese of Utrecht matriculated with the German Nation of the law university. In 1495 none showed up. However, the German Nation does not seem to have suﬀered a structural crisis. 72 J. van Herwaarden, ‘De Nederlanden en het Westers Schisma’ in: NAGN, IV (Haarlem 1980) 379–86. 73 Cf. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 35. The adjective frisius or de Frisia might also mean that the student in question was from Groningen or even East-Friesland. 74 Similar increasing ﬁgures for the law university in Bologna can be established for students from England who graduated. See: R.J. Mitchell, ‘English Law Students at Bologna in the Fifteenth Century’ in: English Historical Review LI (1936) 270–87. Figures in the section on graduation. 75 C.H. Clough, ‘The Romagna Campaign of 1494: a Signiﬁcant Military Encounter’ in: D. Abulaﬁa (ed.), The French Descent into Renaissance Italy, 1494–95. Antecedents and Eﬀects (Aldershot 1995) 191–215.

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Number of Students at the University of Bologna 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.2.2. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands (1426–1575) at the University of Bologna in absolute numbers. Matriculations in the Law University of Bologna 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.2.3. Matriculations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the Law University of Bologna (1426–1575) in absolute numbers.

Between 1490 and 1510 an average 25 students registered with the German Nation of the law university of Bologna every year.76 One in every twenty students in the enormous German Nation came from

76 Luigi Simeoni, Storia della Università di Bologna. II. L’età moderna (1500 –1888) (Bologna 1940) 68.

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the Northern Netherlands.77 In this period Bologna as a destination for study retained its popularity for students from the Northern Netherlands. The year 1500 shows another boom, when 6 new students appear in the sources. This was partly because students from Groningen and Friesland seem to have developed a renewed interest in Italy as a destination for study, from which especially Bologna could proﬁt. Numbers stabilized in the decades 1506–1525 at a slightly lower level of an average of close to 2 students starting to study in Bologna per year. This is the period of the second great invasion of France into Italian territory, beginning in 1509. In a general sense this may have prevented students from travelling to the Italian peninsula, but Bologna was relatively safe because of its location within the papal state. This could not be said for Padua and Ferrara, as we shall see shortly. The following ten years, from 1526 until 1535, saw a nadir in attendance numbers in Bologna.78 A severe outbreak of plague that swept northern Italy from the mid-twenties for several years was the likely culprit. Moreover, the general instability on the peninsula, from which even the papal state was not excluded this time, with the sack of Rome in 1527, must have been a major factor in this development.79 The situation settled somewhat after 1530, which coincided with the coronation of Charles V as Emperor in Bologna. This occasion was used to aﬃrm and increase the number of privileges the German Nation had.80 The increased stability on the peninsula allowed for an increased interest from students from the Northern Netherlands. From 1536 onwards, there was a recovery in attendance, particularly in the years 1542–50 and again in 1556–60. Attendance numbers, however, did not again reach the levels witnessed in the last

77 Figures for the total German Nation (1289–1562) on the basis of those given by Winfried Dotzauer, ‘Deutsches Studium in Italien unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Universität Bologna’ in: Geschichtliche Landeskunde 14 (1976) 84–130, there 101, suggest a percentage of 4.4, with peaks and nadirs for diﬀerent periods. 78 The ﬁrst three decades of the sixteenth century also seem to have been a period of decline in attendance ﬁgures of students from the Southern Netherlands. See De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 53, especially table 3. 79 Eric Cochrane, The Late Italian Renaissance, 1525–1630 (London 1970); Id., Italy, 1530–1680 (New York 1988), introduction; J. Hook, The Sack of Rome, 1527 (London 1972). 80 Luigi Simeoni, Storia, 67; Dotzauer, ‘Studium’, 113.

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decades of the ﬁfteenth century. The level of matricluation at the law university of Bologna perhaps best illustrates this trend (graph 2.2.3.). In contrast to other universities, notably Padua and Siena, Bologna did not really partake in this second peak in the iter italicum. One probable explanation for this is rooted in the great tradition of student migration. In 1562, following a student row, which escalated and ended in a conﬂict with the comune, the German Nation migrated to Padua and did not return until 1573.81 Another signiﬁcant factor might have been the promulgation of the bulla In sacrosancta, issued by pope Pius IV in 1564. It stipulated that students who wanted to obtain the degree of doctor had to swear an oath of loyalty to the Catholic Church. The comune of Bologna did not succeed in getting some sort of papal exemption for ultramontani, which had serious implications for those students with Protestant sympathies.82 Although a stable number of students from the Northern Netherlands continued to visit—and graduate at—Bologna, the second half of the sixteenth century is the period when the ancient Alma Mater had to irreversibly give up her prime position in student numbers from the diocese Traiectum, which she had held for some seventy years, and more importantly her reputation to Padua.83 b. Padua Although Bologna may have had the highest claim to fame, it was Padua that was most popular with students from the Northern Netherlands, certainly in the ﬁrst ﬁve decades under investigation here. Since 1405 Padua had been part of the Terraferma of the Republic of Venice. Far from being an oppressive conqueror, the Serenissima

81

Ibid. 69; Dotzauer, ‘Studium’, 121. Richard L. Kagan, ‘Universities in Italy, 1500–1700’ in: Julia, Revel, Chartier (eds.), Histoire sociale, I, 153–186, there 167. 83 The situation is somewhat diﬀerent for students from the Southern Netherlands. Though Padua is clearly the winner where attendance numbers are concerned (numbers quadrupled in the second half of the sixteenth century compared to the number of the ﬁrst half ), Bologna managed to reach an absolute peak in the third quarter of the sixteenth century (ﬁgures doubled in the second half compared to the ﬁrst half ). Even the last quarter shows a remarkably high level of graduations. It is only in the ﬁrst quarter of the seventeenth century that ﬁgures decline rapidly. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘L’évolution quantitative’, 93, table 3; Ead., ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 54–55. 82

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actively sought to stimulate university attendance not only within its own territory—Padua was the only approved university for the Republic’s subjects—, but also from across its borders. “Ut maximus studentium numerus ad ipsum concurrat” (so the greatest number of students will gather at it) was the motto that both the authorities in Venice and the riformatori of the University of Padua held in high regard.84 A deliberate policy of attracting famous professors and special privileges for foreign students were only two of the methods used to attain this goal.85 This seems to have been fruitful in the case of students from the diocese of Utrecht. The sources for Padua are quite consistent since 1406. The ﬁrst Dutchman to be mentioned from that date onwards was Jacobus Hugonis of Haarlem, who graduated in medicine on 15 March 1410, while a compatriot, Theodoricus Bermar of Leiden, was a witness to his graduation.86 After a period of plague in 1427–29, the early thirties show a remarkably high attendance. This ﬁgure declined somewhat in the next decade. Another period of severe plague from 1436 until 144087 does not seem to have dramatically inﬂuenced attendance of students from the Northern Netherlands, who continued to graduate during these years, although their overall number declined slightly. Attendance ﬁgures fell slightly in the decade 1446–55,—though even then the level of attendance was still considerably higher than that of Bologna. This is consistent with an overall decrease in the number of graduations for the university as a whole from 1446 onwards until 1457.88 A signiﬁcant development in this context is that the University of Ferrara, with the solid backing of its prince, Borgo d’Este, actively sought to attract ultramontani to attend the studium of Ferrara through cash payments, low graduation rates and the like.89 This led to a spectacular rise in student

84 Archivio Antico dell’Università di Padova, inv. nr. 648, f. 387. Also quoted by Ohl, ‘University’, 69. 85 The beneﬁcial eﬀects of Venetian rule on the University of Padua are certainly one of the central theses of Ohl, ‘University’. 86 Zonta, Acta graduum, I, 24–5. 87 Ohl, ‘University’, 48–9; Edgardo Morpurgo, ‘Lo studio di Padova, le epidemie ed i contagi durante il governo della Republica Veneta (1405–1797)’ in: Memorie e Documenti per la Storia di Padova (Padua 1922) 125–7. 88 Ohl, ‘University’, 51–2. 89 Giuseppina de Sandre, ‘Dottori, Università, Comune nel Quattrocento’ in: Quaderni per la Storia dell’Università di Padova I (1968) 15–47, there 19.

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attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara for the decade 1446–55, as we shall shortly see. The following decade shows a further increase that was entirely accounted for by strong attendance ﬁgures for the late ﬁfties. The early sixties show a temporary dip, reﬂecting a general trend for the Paduan studium, aggravated by another outbreak of plague in 1464.90 Figures rose again to a second peak in the decade 1466–75, 1467 being the record year. The year 1480 marks a trend-break, after which attendance ﬁgures declined sharply. Plague in 1484 and again in 1499,91 together with the French invasion in 1494–5 may account for part of this sharp decline. Especially noteworthy is that the number of students from Holland and Zeeland, whose presence was so strong during the second and third quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, declined enormously after 1477. Until the mid 1490s, there followed a period of political instability and economic decline in the west of the Northern Netherlands that may have inﬂuenced their choice for a distant university destination.92 Numbers further declined in the decade 1496–1505, reﬂecting the more general decrease in graduations of students from the other side of the Alps.93 This development was exacerbated by the French invasion of 1509, when French troops supported by both emperor and pope fell heavily on the Republic of Venice. Padua, since 1405 an integral part of the Terraferma, was to suﬀer greatly from the winds of war. The city was sieged, captured, then liberated, again sieged and sacked. The studium in Padua could not escape the consequences of repeated military activity in its surroundings. It almost ceased to exist. Foreign students ﬂed and did not return for some ﬁfteen years. Student attendance from the northern Low Countries was no exception to the general malaise of the university. From 1505 until 1530 Padua was completely avoided by Dutchmen. Thereafter a slow recovery set in, which brought an end to a sixty-year period in which

90

Ohl, ‘University’, 54, note 70; Marpurgo, ‘Studio’, 127. Marpurgo, ‘Studio’, 127. 92 Tracy, Holland under Habsburg Rule, 13–32 discusses both political and economic troubles. The years 1470–89 also seems to have been a rather bleak period for mobility from Holland and Zeeland—and the rest of the Northern Netherlands— to the law university of Orléans: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94. 93 Ohl, ‘University’, 61, n. 100. 91

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Students at the University of Padua 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1426 1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.2.4. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1426–1575) in absolute numbers. Matriculations in Padua 1545–75 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1545

1550

1555

1560

1565

1570

1575

Graph 2.2.5. Matriculations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1545–75) in absolute numbers.

students from the Northern Netherlands preferred other studia, notably Bologna. From this moment on, attendance ﬁgures rose, slowly at ﬁrst, but then very spectacularly in the decade 1556–1565. The university maintained these ﬁgures in the last decade of the period under investigation, although one can observe a slight decrease. This spectacular growth cannot be attributed solely to the sources that had already started to ﬂow in abundance from 1543 onwards. Student

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mobility in general boomed in the second half of the sixteenth century and the University of Padua managed to capture the lion’s share. In this period the University of Padua really recovered from the events that happened earlier in the century. Famous professors chose Padua as their teaching spot. Students from the Northern Netherlands were certainly attracted by this. Another important development was the migration of the German Nation of the law university of Bologna to Padua in 1562. With its most ardent competitor in serious trouble with northern students, Padua managed to proﬁt considerably. Thus, the last quarter of the period 1426–1575 saw the number of law students at Padua explode. Where it was more popular for students of medicine in the ﬁfteenth century, law took over in the sixteenth. It should not be forgotten, though, that Padua regained its position as the medical centre of Europe from about 1540; the chosen studium in Italy for medicine students from the Northern Netherlands, especially after 1550. Though Den Tex’s remark that it rarely happened that a student visited another university on the peninsula without also having studied at Padua,94 is clearly not justiﬁed, at least one out of every two students from the northern Low Countries in Italy (51.8 per cent) did attend the Paduan studium between 1551 and 1575! Padua was on its way to regaining the position it held in the period 1426–1450, when more than two-thirds of Dutch students on the peninsula had passed through its gates. A factor of importance was the relatively lenient rule of Venice that allowed students to study and graduate in Padua in considerable peace of mind. When the Council of Trent polarized the religious question, particularly after the issuing of the aforementioned bull In sacrosancta by Pius IV in 1564, Venice continued to allow Protestant students to study and even graduate at Padua. If a student wished to graduate, but wanted to avoid the bishop of Padua or his vicar, as representatives of the pope, and the oath to the Catholic faith, he could graduate after examination under the authority of the comes palatinus, a count palatine as representative of the emperor.95

94

Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 82. This particular way of graduating goes back to a privilege of Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg (1410–37), perhaps even to Charles IV of Luxemburg (1347–78), which granted the granting of the title of doctor to comites palatini. This practice has 95

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The Republic went even further in 1616 when they created the possibility to graduate in arts and medicine auctoritate veneta, under authority of the Venetian College (1635 for lawyers). This gave the studium of Padua a reputation of tolerance, which allowed students of a diﬀerent persuasion to attend this reputable university.96 The slight drop in the last decade could be ascribed to Philip II’s ban on attendance at universities other than Louvain, Douai or Rome. Indeed, matriculation numbers for both German Nations, those of law and arts and medicine, show a setback in the early seventies. It is only in the later eighties that ﬁgures climb to record heights again. Possibly the ﬁrst troubled years of the Dutch Revolt oﬀer a partial explanation for this. Nevertheless, it could not stop student mobility to Padua, which continued to grow well into the seventeenth century. Only after 1640 did the numbers decline once more. This time there would be no recovery. The middle of the seventeenth century heralded the end of student mobility to Italy. Italy would remain a popular destination for travel, but only as part of the Grand Tour. c. Ferrara The third university that deserves some extra attention is Ferrara.97 It was a relatively late foundation by Italian standards. It opened its gates in 1391, only to close them again soon afterwards, in 1394. Some student activity, including visits from the northern Low Countries took place in the ﬁrst decades of the ﬁfteenth century, but the formal reopening did not take place until 1430. Ferrara was a diﬀerent studium in more than one respect. First, its size could never attain

been noted to take place in the ﬁfteenth century already, often in the case of poor students. Elda Martellozzo Forin, ‘Conti palatini e lauree conferite per privilegio. L’esempio padovano del sec. xv’, in: Annali di storia delle università italiane 3 (1999) 79–120; Grendler, Universities, 183–6; Ohl, ‘University’, 111 and 129–131, states that this procedure might have been a method of granting degrees to Jews and other early religious dissenters. Also P.J. van Kessel, Duitse studenten te Padua. De controverse Rome-Venetië en het Protestantisme in de tijd der Contra-Reformatie (Assen 1963) 92–117. 96 For the position of Padua in general: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Mobility’ 426; Kagan, ‘Universities’, 167. For the graduation auctoritate veneta: R. Palmer, The ‘Studio’ of Venice and its Graduates in the Sixteenth Century (Padua 1983); Van Kessel, Duitse studenten. 97 Literature on Ferrara: G. Pardi, Lo studio di Ferrara nei secoli 15. e 16. (Ferrara 1903; reprint Bologna 1972); Domenico del Nero, La Corte e l’Università. Umanisti e teologi nel Quattrocento Ferrarese (n.p. 1996) 18; Grendler, Universities, 99–106.

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that of its closest neighbours, Bologna and Padua—though in the case of students from the Northern Netherlands there seems to have been a temporary, but notable exception! Second, its foundation was not due to spontaneous student initiative. The will of Marquis Alberto d’Este, ruler of Ferrara, was responsible for this. Although the ﬁrst years of this new foundation may have been rather hesitant, it gradually began to grow. Precisely two factors have been decisive in the subsequent success of the studium of Ferrara: its location, neatly between the two major university poles in Italy, and the solid backing of its rulers. The ﬁrst known visiting student from the diocese of Utrecht was Wilhelmus Balduini of Delft who became a doctor of medicine on 14 March 1419.98 His graduation charter states that he visited two other Italian universities before coming to Ferrara: Bologna and Padua. This is signiﬁcant, as it reveals one of Ferrara’s more attractive aspects. Graduation fees were substantially lower than those of its neighbours—sometimes more than half.99 Students at the University of Ferrara 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.2.6. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in absolute numbers.

98 99

“Gulielmus f. Balduini de Delf de Holandia”; Pardi, Titoli, 12–13. Rashdall, Universities, II, 54; Grendler, Universities, 105.

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The ﬁrst decades of the period show a relatively low level of attendance, but from 1447 until 1455 there was a rather impressive increase in the number of students from the Northern Netherlands visiting the studium of Ferrara. An important element in this context is that its prince, Borgo d’Este, was instrumental in luring ultramontani to come to the studium of Ferrara through cash payments and low graduation fees, a source of some concern for the authorities of the University of Padua and Bologna.100 At any rate, this tactic seemed successful. It is certainly true that a substantial portion of graduates of the University of Ferrara had previously visited another university on the peninsula, in most cases either Padua or Bologna and sometimes both. The following table (2.2.4.) attempts to sketch this phenomenon:

Padua

Bologna

Both

Sum Ind.

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

9 17 4 0 5 4

1 6 9 2 3 1

1 3 0 0 1 1

9 20 13 2 8 4

50.0 28.2 41.9 66.7 57.1 26.7

18 71 31 3 14 15

Total % of Tot.

39 25.7

6 3.9

56 36.8

36.8

152 100.0

22 14.5

% of Total

Total

Table 2.2.4. Students from the Northern Netherlands at Ferrara who previously had visited the universities of Padua and Bologna, or both, compared to the total number attending.101

100 Giuseppina de Sandre, ‘Dottori, Università, Comune nel Quattrocento’ in: Quaderni per la Storia dell’Università di Padova I (1968) 15–47, there 19; Guido Zaccagnini, Storia dello studio di Bologna durante il Rinascimento (Geneva 1930) 300. 101 The totals per university category are calculated as a percentage of the total number of students from the Northern Netherlands attending (last row). The total number of individual students (ﬁfth column) is also calculated as a percentage of the total attending (sixth column). Grendler, Universities, 104, states that maybe twothirds of students at Ferrara had previously visited another university.

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One can see that both location and princely policy worked well and that the university authorities in both Padua and Bologna had some reason for concern. Nearly 37 per cent of students from the northern Low Countries visiting Ferrara had previously stopped at one or both of its giant neighbours! In this ability to attract students from nearby universities, Ferrara is unique among the studia on the Italian peninsula. It has won Ferrara the dubious and—to a certain extent— undeserved reputation of being a rather undistinguished factory for graduation certiﬁcates.102 This judgement is too harsh. The university and its ﬁrm supporters, the marquises and later dukes of Ferrara, tried to invite students with means other than money. Hiring professors of renown was another propitious method. In 1456–65 attendance increased further. Yet, it was in the following ten years that it would outrun both Padua and Bologna as the most popular studium in Italy, with on average 4 students per year surfacing in the sources. 1474 was the absolute peak with 15 new students found in the sources. The theory that the university was handing out graduation certiﬁcates at retail prices for those who could not aﬀord Bologna or Padua, can certainly not account for this spectacular rise in student attendance. There was indeed a spectacular rise in graduations, but the ratio ‘graduated students—nongraduated students’ hardly changed. The university employed a number of famous teachers. The humanist Guarino Guarini of Verona started teaching here in the early forties of the ﬁfteenth century and stayed until his death in 1460.103 More speciﬁcally, in the decade 1466–75 another humanist Nicolò Leoncino was hired to teach arts and medicine at the studium of Ferrara, and again in the later eighties.104 Apart from the fact that famous staﬀ were employed, we know of certain conscious choices by students from the Northern Netherlands to go and study in Ferrara. In 1461 a priest called Gerardus Heyle of Rotterdam studied canon law there, but also showed a marked interest in the arts, something he left to his ille-

102 Rashdall, Universities, II, 54. Also: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘La place de l’Université de Bologne dans la mobilité des étudiants européens’ in: V. Caputo (ed.), Universitates e Università. Atti del convegno Bologna 16–21 novembre 1987 (Bologna 1995) 83–92, there 87. 103 Del Nero, Corte, 31, n. 21 for a short summary of his activities in Ferrara. 104 Pardi, Titoli, 78–9, 84–5, 108–9, 112–7; Jon Arrizabalaga, John Henderson and Roger French, The Great Pox. The French Disease in Renaissance Europe (New Haven 1997) 61–2 and 300, n. 19.

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gitimate son, a certain Erasmus.105 The most famous case was no doubt Rodolphus Agricola. He had arrived in Italy in 1469 to study canon law at the University of Pavia. He stayed there until 1474. In 1475 Roelof, as his Dutch name is, moved to Ferrara to study arts, Greek in particular. He befriended Duke Ercole d’Este, taught arts as well and stayed in Ferrara until early 1480. The studium deﬁnitely possessed an élan in the teaching of medicine and the arts in these few decades. It is therefore not surprising that students in the faculty of arts and medicine greatly outnumber their peers in the law faculty, as we shall see. The percentage of students visiting Ferrara who had previously studied in Bologna or Padua was also considerably lower in this decade than the average. This could well signify that the studium had acquired a name of its own, that it could tempt students to come for the teaching rather than just graduation. The years after 1478 show a decline, but it was after 1495 that numbers dropped to an absolute low point. It is signiﬁcant that in the case of Ferrara it was particularly students from Holland and Zeeland who increasingly ignored its university. So much so that from 1500 up to 1535 there were no students from these regions present at all. The reasons for this breakdown of attendance until virtually 1535 may well be the same as those suggested for Padua. As was shown in the table, connections between Padua and Ferrara were many. Trouble for Padua could easily jump over to Ferrara, especially when the two were waging war against each other, as was the case in 1483–4.106 No record of students from the Netherlands is found for these two years. This was also true for the invasion of 1494–5, which may have deterred potential newcomers, as well as for that of 1509. There was no recovery until the late 1530s. The overall pattern for the period 1496–1545 closely resembles that of Padua. Recovery was slow and in the case of Ferrara short-lived. Yet it seems to have picked up earlier than in Padua. The consistent backing of the dukes of Ferrara and the earlier mentioned tactics of low graduation fees and recruitment of professors allowed

105 Harry Vredeveld, ‘The Ages of Erasmus and the Year of his Birth’ in: Renaissance Quarterly 43 (1993) 754–809; G. Avarucci, ‘Due codici scritti da “Gerardus Heyle”, padre di Erasmo. Premessa autobiograﬁca di A Campana’ in: Italia medioevale e umanistica XXVI (1983) 215–55. 106 Carol Kidwell, ‘Venice, The French Invasion and the Apulian Ports’ in: Abulaﬁa, French Descent, 296–308.

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for a temporary increase in student attendance from the Northern Netherlands. The most striking example was surely getting Andreas Alciatus, the famous propagator of the mos gallicus, to teach at Ferrara. Alciatus, who had been teaching law in Pavia since 1536, moved in 1542 and gave lectures at the university of Ferrara until 1546 for the astonishing sum of some 4260 to 4860 pounds.107 This move deﬁnitely had a general eﬀect on the number of law students attending until the late ﬁfties.108 Students from the Northern Netherlands were no exception to the student population at large at Ferrara. Their number increased in the forties and ﬁfties. From the table one can see that the percentage of students in Ferrara who had earlier studied at either Padua or Bologna, is lower than average. This might indicate that Ferrara’s studium could stand on its own feet. As regards the choice of faculty, law was now the most popular subject to study here. The decade after 1555 shows another decline. Sources for the years after 1565 are lacking, but evidence for later years suggests that the age of student mobility to Ferrara had come to an end.109 From the 1560s onwards the university was committed to the margins of European student mobility. If one compares the level of attendance of students from the Northern Netherlands to that of students from the Southern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara, there are interesting parallels. After a relatively slow start with 13 students until 1450, ﬁgures for the southern Low Countries boom in the second half of the ﬁfteenth century, when 60 students visited the studium. This certainly justiﬁes the conclusion that Ferrara was undoubtedly the most popular university in Italy in the period 1451–75 for students from the Netherlands as a whole.110

107 Adriano Franceschini (ed.), Nuove documenti relativi ai docenti dello studio di Ferrara nel sec. XVI, Serie Monumenti VI (Ferrara 1970) 49, 51, 52, 55, 58, 59, 61, 64, 65, 80, 223. 108 Kagan, ‘Universities’, 158–60. 109 See the graph in Kagan, ‘Universities’, 158–9. In addition to this there is no incidental evidence of students from the Northern Netherlands that they chose Ferrara as their destination for study. 110 This ﬁgure drops dramatically in the next ﬁfty years, to 18 and continues to be a relatively low 19 in the second half of the sixteenth century. Peaks took place in the forties and ﬁfties, a similar development to that of students from the Northern parts; Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, ‘L’évolution quantitative’, 93.

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d. Siena The rather minor tone set for Ferrara after 1560 does not apply to the last university to be dealt with in detail here, the University of Siena. It was ﬁrst founded in 1245, but closed in 1252. In 1357 the studium in Siena was founded anew, after Emperor Charles IV of Luxemburg had granted it the privileges of a studium generale. After an initial phase of success, the period 1370–90 proved to be more diﬃcult due to economic recession. An instable and dire period followed and it was not until the beginning of the ﬁfteenth century that Siena started to make some sort of impact on students from outside Italy. The foundation of the Domus Sapientae, its very own college, in 1408 with its ﬁrst ten admissions—none of the students were from Siena—on 22 February 1416 was a signiﬁcant act in this respect.111 It was in this era that the ﬁrst student from the Northern Netherlands left his mark in the sources. On 23 December 1412 a Johannes Dodonis of Rotterdam, cleric from the diocese of Utrecht, was awarded the title of doctor medicinae.112 Although a presence at the University of Siena from students from the northern Low Countries in the course of the ﬁfteenth century is likely, what little sources there are do not allow us to substantiate it. Only from 1484 until 1486 and almost continuously from 1496 onwards are there sources at our disposal that can contribute to assessing the visits from the diocese of Utrecht. No students were present in the years 1484–6. The decades from 1496 until 1515 show a level of attendance, in which almost one student a year appears in Siena, making it the second most popular university in Italy for students from the Northern Netherlands in these twenty years, after Bologna. The fact that Siena was relatively untouched by the crises in the more northern regions of Italy, those of 1494–5 and 1509, may have made it more attractive than Padua and Ferrara. There are some indications that Siena may have temporarily taken over the role of

111 Giuliano Catoni, ‘Il comune di Siena e l’amministrazione della Sapienza nel secolo XV’ in: Università e società nei secoli XII–XVI, Centro italiano di Studi di Storia e d’Arte, Nono Convegno Internazionale, Pistoia 20–25 settembre 1979 (Pistoia 1982) 121–7; G. Minnucci and L. Kosuta, Lo studio di Siena nel secoli 14–16. Documenti e notizie biograﬁche (Milan 1989) 13–9. Peter Denley, ’Dal 1357 alla caduta della republica’ in: L’Università di Siena: 750 anni di storia (Siena 1991) 27–44, there 27. 112 “mag. Iohannem Dodonis de Rotterdam cler. Traiectensis dioc.”: Minnucci, Kosuta, Lo studio, 48–51.

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Students at the University of Siena 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 2.2.7. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Siena (1426–1575) in absolute numbers.

Ferrara as an appealing studium to graduate after ﬁrst having visited prestigious, but costly Bologna. Of those students who graduated in Siena in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century, 25 per cent had previously attended the studium in Bologna. One of them was Wijnand of Arnhem, who, after having studied at the University of Cologne, matriculated with the German Nation of the law university of Bologna in 1499 and moved on to Siena in 1504, where he graduated in both canon and civil law on 20 July.113 This ﬁgure collapsed in the next ten years, 1516–25, when no students can be spotted at the studium. This seems to reﬂect a more general downward trend in the number of graduations.114 The situation in the following two decades up to 1545 improved only slightly. The years between 1526–35 clearly represent the absolute nadir of mobility from the Northern Netherlands for the total of universities

113

For Bologna: “Vinandus Arnhem”: Acta, 253, 25. For Siena: “d. Winandus de Arnhem”: Minnucci, Lauree, I, 64, nr. 65 114 Compare the tables in: Weigle, ‘Deutsche Doktorspromotionen in Siena’, 241–246; a brief general overview of all graduations in: Giovanni Minnucci, ‘Il conferimento dei titoli academici nello Studio di Siena fra xv e xvi secolo. Modalità dell’esame di laurea e provenienza studentesca’ in: A. Romano (ed.), Università in Europa. Le istituzioni universitarie dal Medio Evo ai nostri giorni. Strutture, organizzazione, funzionamento, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Milazzo 28 Settembre–2 Ottobre 1993 (Messina 1995) 213–226.

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and Siena is no exception. The political instability in Italy in general and the already mentioned plague epidemic from the mid-twenties onwards could have acted as a deterrent to potential student visitors. Political and ﬁnancial diﬃculties in Siena had a negative impact on the university in the thirties of the sixteenth century.115 This was hardly a beneﬁcial situation for bringing in foreign students. Nevertheless, a subsequent reorganization of the university seems to have had its eﬀect. In the forties the number of overall graduations—and those of the students from the German Nation—climbs immensely.116 Students from the northern Low Countries ﬁt neatly in this trend, their attendance ﬁgure booming in the decade 1546–55. In the following twenty years show a notable decline that picks up a bit towards 1575. In absolute graduation numbers there had been a downward trend since 1553 that slowly reversed in the sixties.117 Hostilities between the comune of Siena and the duke of Florence, Cosimo de Medici, which started in 1552 and were brought to an end in 1557, can be held responsible for this situation. In 1557 after a one-year siege Siena had to admit defeat. From then on Siena was to be governed from Florence with serious implications for the university that underwent a reform.118 Another factor that would certainly have inﬂuenced students with Protestant sympathies was the already mentioned 1564 papal bull In sacrosancta, with the oath on the Catholic Faith. The ﬁrst time one can ﬁnd it—“et iuravit prout in bulla Papae Pii IV”—mentioned in the graduation registers is on 4 April 1565, when Henricus de Bladghen of Dordrecht in Holland graduated in utroque iure.119 Though some token action was undertaken to curtail Protestant students in Siena, it appears that this did not seriously damage Siena’s reputation with the German Nation.120 In his directives concerning the

115

Denley, ‘Dal 1357’, 39. Compare the tables in: Weigle, ‘Deutsche Doktorspromotionen in Siena’, 241–246. 117 Ibid. 118 Giovanni Cascio Pratelli, L’universtià e il principe. Gli studi di Siena e di Pisa tra Rinascimento e Controriforma (Florence 1975), the ﬁrst part 11–115. However, Denley, ‘Dal 1357’, 39 warns not to exaggerate the scope and originality of these reforms. 119 Minnucci, Morelli, Lauree, 327, nr. 92; Weigle, ‘Deutsche Doktorspromotionen in Siena’, 207. 120 Weigle, Die Matrikel der deutsche Nation in Siena (1573–1738) (Tübingen 1962) 3, claims that all sorts of extreme measures taken against ‘German’ Protestants made 116

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studium the grand duke of Tuscany, Francesco I, managed to formally incorporate all the wishes of the Holy See, while at the same time he tried very hard to accommodate the German Nation, allowing those with diﬀerent religious viewpoints to study in peace of mind.121 This earned Siena a reputation for relative tolerance. It is therefore not surprising that mobility to Siena continued in the following decades, growing to an average of 2 students matriculating each year in the period 1600–24. In the next twenty-ﬁve years this would decrease only slightly. Thus Siena acquired the position of second most popular university in Italy for students from the northern Low Countries from the 1570s onwards, second only to Padua. After 1650, as with other universities in Northern Italy, a rapid decline set in signalling the end of the era of international student mobility to Italy.

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Pavia

Pisa/Flor.

Rome

Perugia

Parma

Other 122

5 7 5 4 2 4

– 3 1 5 5 9

– 1 – – 2 17

– 2 1 2 1 9

– 4 1 1 – –

1 1 – 1 – 1

27

23

20

15

6

4

Table 2.2.5. Student attendance from the Northern Netherlands at smaller Italian universities (1426–1575).

sure that the studium was avoided by many German students, both Protestant and Catholic, until the early seventies. Cascio Pratelli, L’università, 41–5, oﬀers a somewhat diﬀerent view of these harsh policies against Protestants. In my view, even Weigle’s own ﬁgures of graduations of students of the German Nation don’t support his view: Weigle, ‘Deutsche Doktorspromotionen in Siena’, 241–246. It is true that the ﬁgure dropped after two booming years (1564 and 1565 with 9 respectively 13 graduations). This, however, was a not uncommon phenomenon, overlooking his tables. With on average 4.4 German graduations per year the assumed repressive period of 1566–70, the picture does not look so bleak compared to the next ten years (3.7 graduation per year), when Weigle presumes some sort of recovery. 121 Cascio Pratelli, L’università, 41–5. 122 Turin, Naples and Arezzo.

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e. Other Universities The other universities in Northern Italy did not, as far as can be established, exert the level of attraction that the aforementioned institutions possessed. Four of them still managed to get some attention: Pavia, Pisa, Rome and Perugia, as can be seen from the following table. It would seem that with at the very least 27 students attending, Pavia could go for ﬁfth place. The University of Pavia was founded in 1361 by Galeazzo Visconti, ruler of Milan.123 There is evidence of a thriving German Nation during the second half of the ﬁfteenth century. The rather limited source complex does point in the direction of the German Nation being the most numerous among the transalpini, followed by the French. Its weight was certainly appreciated by the ultimate ruler over the university, the duke of Milan.124 The graduation records assembled by Sottili—though he admits they are incomplete—give some 65 doctorates obtained by suppositi of the German Nation in the second half of the ﬁfteenth century, three of which were awarded to students from the Northern Netherlands.125 The university could certainly boast of having entertained one of the most famous humanists from the northern Low Countries in the person of Rodolphus Agricola, who studied law there from 1469 until 1474, as two thirds of the students from the diocese of Utrecht would do. It could even boast of a certain tradition. Johannes Vredewolt of Groningen graduated in canon law in 1441 and his illegitimate son, also called Johannes, graduated in theology at the same university in 1473. Both Van Ethen bothers, Reinier and Bartholomeus, studied there in the thirties of the ﬁfteenth century. In the sixteenth century the presence of Andreas Alciatus as a law professor until 1542, ensured a certain standing in teaching. This is partly reﬂected in the few students we have studying law in Pavia.

123

Short introduction to the university in English in: Mario Rizzo ‘University, Administration, Taxation and Society in Italy in the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Fiscal Exemptions for the University of Pavia’ in: History of Universities VIII (1989) 75–116. 124 Agostino Sottili, ‘Tunc ﬂoruit Alamannorum natio: Doktorate deutscher Studenten in Pavia in der Zweiten Hälfte des 15 Jahrhunderts’ in: R. Schmitz and G. Keil (eds.), Bildungswesen des 15 Jahrhunderts (Weinheim 1984) 25–44. 125 On the basis of: Id., ‘Lauree Pavesi nella seconda metà del Quattrocento’ in: A. Buck and M. Bircher (eds.), Respublica Guelpherbytana (Amsterdam 1987) 128–166.

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Both Hector van Hoxwier and Rienk van Burmania seem to have preferred Pavia, since Alciatus was teaching there in the thirties of the sixteenth century.126 Occasionally more students are found at Pavia, without ever reaching the levels of attendance found for the previous four universities.127 The University of Pisa provides yet another case of moderate attendance from the Northern Netherlands. It was founded in 1343, but did not become the huge success that Bologna and Padua were. That Florence conquered Pisa in 1406 did not do much for the studium, contrary to the situation in Padua, when it was conquered by Venice. There is virtually no evidence of a presence of students from north of the Alps. Something similar goes for the University of Florence, founded in 1321, reorganized in 1348. This university had an even more haphazard existence than Pisa. In late 1472 and 1473, when Lorenzo de Medici reorganized them, these two studia now functioned as one structure, Florence concentrating on philosophical-literary studies and Pisa taking the other academic disciplines. Be this as it may, the universities did not manage to attract many foreigners. Political crises, Pisa’s secession and frequent migration of the university to Prato, Pistoia and Florence did not help to create a stable institution for education, particularly where attracting students from the Germanic lands was concerned.128 Nearby Siena may also have negatively inﬂuenced student attendance, especially from the other side of the Alps.129 The graduation records for Pisa, surviving from 1434 until 1493 only give the names of eleven ‘German’ students, nine of whom came from the Netherlands. Four of them came from the Northern

126

Postma, Viglius, 60. Especially for the sixteenth century the constant battle over ﬁscal privileges for students at the studium may provide some explanation why it never managed to attract the numbers that other universities managed. See for a discussion of this situation: M. Rizzo, ‘University, Administration, Taxation’, 75–116. 128 Paul F. Grendler, ‘The University of Florence and Pisa in the High Renaissance’ in: Renaissance and Reformation 6 (1982) 157–165, there 157, where he discusses the work of Verde, Studio; also the recent Jonathan Davies, Florence and its University during the Early Renaissance (Leiden 1998); furthermore, Weigle, ‘Deutsche Studenten in Pisa’, 177–8. 129 Peter Denley, ‘Academic Rivalry and Interchange: the Universities of Siena and Florence’ in: P. Denley and C. Elam (eds.), Florence and Italy. Renaissance Studies in Honour of Nicolai Rubinstein (London 1988) 193–208, discusses rivalry and competition between Florence and Siena. 127

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Netherlands. All of them only visited the studium after Lorenzo’s reform in 1473. In the period 1501–25 students from the Northern Netherlands did visit the studium of Pisa and Florence, though the hectic movement of the university in the 1486–1505 does not seem to have favoured mobility from the northern Low Countries. The closure of the studium in Pisa from 1505 until 1515 made the situation even worse. From 1486 until 1515 only one student from the northern Low Countries attended and graduated in Florence in 1506, Hermannus Jacobi of Eelderwolde.130 From 1518 onwards, the Medici, back in power, tried to renew their policies with regard to the University of Pisa that had been reconquered in 1509. Apparently with some success, since no less than four students from the Northern Netherlands graduated in the early twenties of the sixteenth century.131 A serious plague epidemic from the mid-twenties onwards, killing a substantial part of Florence’s population, and spreading further across northern Italy, surely deterred students who might have thought of making their way to either Pisa or Florence. The real boom in student attendance from the Netherlands as a whole came after 1543, with the reopening of the university by Cosimo I. From 1543 both matriculation and graduation records have survived. A ﬂuctuating, but signiﬁcant number of students from ‘German’ lands can be found from then on up to about 1630, after which mobility to Pisa decreased substantially.132 Among the students from the ‘German’ lands those from the northern Low Countries form a strong contingent. Out of a total of 194 until 1580 they number 14 (7.2 per cent). This ﬁgure seems to have dropped after 1580.133

130

Verde, ‘Dottorati’, 618. Ibid. Verde located graduation records for the period 1505–1528 that Weigle was unable to see. The fact that the studium had to be oﬃcially reopened on 1 November 1543 certainly says something about the situation of the university in the period 1529–1543, certainly after the plague had made a serious impact on Florence and the surrounding regions. There are no references to students from the Northern Netherlands in the Archivio Antecosimiano in Florence for this period. 132 Weigle, ‘Deutsche Studenten in Pisa’, 194. 133 On the basis of Ibid. 189–194. In the overall period from 1474 until 1775 students from the Northern Netherlands number 5% of graduations and 4.1% of matriculations. This ﬁgure looks rather bleak when compared to the ﬁgures for the Southern Netherlands (20.5% and 8.2% of ‘Germans’ respectively). The total share of the Netherlands gives 25.5% of graduations and 12.3% of matriculations. Grendler, ‘University’, 158–9 also notes the relatively low attendance ﬁgures of ‘Germans’ at 131

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Rome is a special case. The studium urbis seriously lacks sources, but what little there is, suggests that it was not very popular, at least with students from north of the Alps.134 Occasional references are made to students having attended the University in Rome. All this would dramatically change in the case of the foundation of the Collegium Germanicum, which opened its doors in 1552. It was founded by Ignatius of Loyola with solid backing by Pope Julius II to train future priests for the German Lands. In 1573, it was substantially enriched by pope Gregory XIII to such an extent that it has been called a refoundation.135 Although founded speciﬁcally for students from German lands, a substantial portion of the ﬁrst young men registering came from the Netherlands, 13 out of 18. Ten of them came from the Northern Netherlands. Although this was discouraged, since students for the priesthood could get excellent training at the University of Louvain, students from these regions turned up regularly, frequently travelling in pairs or larger groups, as was the case in 1552. A close connection between the universities of Cologne and Louvain on the one hand and the Germanicum seems to have existed.136 Also these students were probably more mature in age, which will be discussed below. Though not hugely successful where it concerned future priests for the northern Low Countries, the Germanicum counted important clerics among its alumni, Theodorus Lindanus, the future vicar-general of Breslau, being one of them. Perugia may have been more popular than is reﬂected in the ﬁgures here. Fortunately the register of the universitas scholarium (1511– 1723) has survived. Careful research of this source and a comparison with the register of the German Nation in Perugia, that unfortunately only begins in 1579, by Weigle has brought to light that the

the university. It would seem that Pisa/Florence recruited largely from the southwest of Europe. Spanish and Portuguese as the most numerous foreign contingency, followed by the French. It is possible that students from the Southern Netherlands, more oriented towards France, could have been inﬂuenced by this. 134 D.S. Chambers, ‘Studium Urbis and Gabella Studii: the University of Rome in the Fifteenth Century’ in: Clough (ed.), Cultural Aspects, 68–110. Chambers argues that the relation between papal and city university was much closer than tradition which separates them would have it. 135 H. Jacobs and J. Beghyn, ‘De Noordnederlandse studenten aan het pauselijk Collegium Germanicum te Rome van 1552 tot 1627’ in: Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de Katholieke Kerk in Nederland 15 (1973) 75–103, there 75. 136 Ibid.; H. Jacobs, ‘Löwen an der Wiege des Collegium Germanicum’ in: Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 36 (1967) 119.

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matricula Universitatis scholarium does not come up to the mark. The total sum of ‘German’ students in the nation register is six times higher than that in the matricula.137 Occasionally there are references to students from the Northern Netherlands who are listed as having visited this studium, not listed in the matricula. For instance, Volkert Coyter is known to have studied there before moving on to Bologna in 1560. Certainly the quite substantial level of attendance from the German Nation after 1579 gives rise to the idea that it might have been quite popular even before that date with students from the northern Low Countries. The graduation registers of Perugia, available for the period 1489–1749 with certain lacunae, however, do not mention any students from the diocese of Utrecht, although there are strong indications that a number of students did obtain their degree here. Parma seems to have been a studium where students graduated after having attended other universities both in and outside Italy. What little information does exist about attendance and graduation at the University of Parma suggests that it was a graduation university, where students from the northern Low Countries were concerned. All those taking their degrees here, had visited at least one other Italian university. Five out of six had actually visited three other universities before graduating in Parma. The last one had attended two other studia before coming to Parma to take his degree. Furthermore, there is no incidental evidence that it was ever a popular studium on the peregrinatio academica. Other universities on the Italian peninsula, like Turin, Naples and even Arezzo, did have students from the Northern Netherlands attending them, but not in signiﬁcant numbers. When Erasmus visited the University of Turin in 1506 he was awarded a doctorate in theology. The studium was only too happy to include the name of a well-known humanist among its graduates. It might therefore be regarded as a doctorate honoris causa, rather than a straightforward graduation. A

137 Fritz Weigle, Die Matrikel der deutschen Nation in Perugia (1579–1727) (Tübingen 1956) 7. Weigle stated that conclusions about attendance ﬁgures for ‘German’ students based on the matricula are completely outmoded. While this is true for the period after 1579, it remains to be seen if this holds equally true for the period before that. Registration with two authorities might have seemed a superﬂuous act for most students. About the actual age of the register of the German Nation see: Ibid. 9.

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certain Martinus of Zierikzee in Zeeland graduated in arts on 7 July 1469 in the city of Arezzo, which had a rather insigniﬁcant studium that led a precarious existence.138 It is rather doubtful that he was attracted by the fame of this university. The fact that he obtained his master’s degree gratis, which is a clear indication of his modest ﬁnancial situation, might mean that Arezzo was chosen for reasons of convenience. It is likely that he also visited another university, although he cannot be found in any of the records of other universities. The most likely candidate would be nearby Siena, for which there is a lacuna in the sources for this period. At any rate, visits to these universities seem to have been incidental cases. Popular Itineraries Visits to universities outside Italy have been discussed and a certain ranking of popularity of the various universities on the peninsula has been established. Padua and next Bologna were unsurprisingly the most popular studia. The strong third position held by Ferrara is maybe somewhat less expected. Siena followed at some distance, but it was in a diﬀerent league than places like Pavia, Pisa/Florence, Perugia and Rome, that managed to attract some students from the northern Low Countries. Other universities in Italy only incidentally welcomed students from these regions. With this in mind, one can move on to establish some of the more popular itineraries. What routes through Europe were the most common ones? Clear patterns are discernible in the peregrinatio academica of students from the northern Low Countries. It has already been established that Louvain (with 262 students or 40.9 per cent of the total population attending) was the most popular starting point, certainly from the later ﬁfteenth century onwards, with Cologne following in secure second place (174 or 27.2 per cent). The studium of Paris would have gone for bronze with 46 visitors from the population (7.2 per cent). The following table shows the ﬁfteen most popular combinations of university visits.

138 “7–7–1469 prom. in art. Magister Martinus de Zelano de Zeritia [sic] de Alamania Bassa . . . gratis”; ASA, Provv., 12, f. 62r; Black, ‘Studio Aretino’, 74.

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Combination

N

% of N.N.S. at univ.

Louvain-Padua Louvain-Bologna Louvain-Ferrara Cologne-Padua Cologne-Bologna Cologne-Ferrara Louvain-Siena Paris-Padua Paris-Bologna Louvain-Pavia Louvain-Pisa/F. Paris-Ferrara Orléans-Bologna Cologne-Pavia Orléans-Padua

97 76 64 62 61 46 30 21 17 15 15 14 12 12 9

39.8 34.5 42.4 25.4 27.7 30.5 52.6 8.6 7.7 55.6 65.2 9.3 5.4 44.4 3.8

Table 2.2.6. Most popular combinations of university attendance.

Unsurprisingly, the combinations of Louvain with a university in Italy are ranked highest on the list. Where Cologne had been the most popular university before moving across the Alps with 132 students in the ﬁfteenth century against 102 for Louvain, the Brabant studium takes over top position in the nineties of the ﬁfteenth century. In the period 1501–1575, 158 students ﬁrst travelled from Louvain against only 41 from Cologne. Studying at both these universities was another possible combination. A total of 29 students (4.5 per cent of the total population) combined visits to Louvain and Cologne (17 starting at Louvain; 12 at Cologne). Some students even travelled back and forth. Consider the case of Johannes Theodorici Bruyn of Gouda; He registered with the arts faculty at the University of Cologne on 1 October 1461. On 24 September 1463 he enrolled in the arts faculty at Louvain, where he must have graduated before travelling back to Cologne, where he became baccalaureus decretorum 7 October 1466 and baccalaureus legum on 1 September 1468. Some years later he is mentioned as magister artium and law student at the University of Padua. Finally, in 1475 he moved on to Ferrara, where he is listed as a witness and where he graduated in canon law 30 May 1475.139 139 Keussen, Matrikel, I, 90, 73; Wils, Matricule, II, 122, 14; ACVP, Ser. Divers., nr 36, fol. 26 r/v; Pardi, Titoli, 63–65.

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The sixteenth century popularity of the studium Lovaniensis—and the decline of the Coloniensis—is reﬂected in the combined visits to Louvain and Siena, for which sources are limited to the period from 1484 onwards. Some 30 out of 57 students had attended Louvain, against just 5 that studied at Cologne. Two broad routes suggest themselves. One would lead from the Northern Netherlands to Louvain—or Paris—, after which the young man might travel directly through France and Switzerland, cross at St Bernard’s Pass and enter Italy in Piedmont. Several stops on the way were possible. Orléans was a comparatively popular one. Out of the 37 students that studied in both Orléans and Italy, two-thirds (25) had earlier studied in Louvain. The second route runs from Cologne, after which the student would have followed the river Rhine, passing Strasbourg and Basle—another popular university city—before crossing at St Gothard’s pass. Those students who also studied at Heidelberg, Ingolstadt and Vienna might have preferred to travel passed Innsbruck to cross at the Brenner Pass—the easiest crossing— entering Italy at Bolzano with Trent as a next stop.140 From there students would ride on to the university city of their choice. Mobility in Italy was considerable. Ferrara was the university that received most students that had previously attended another studium on the peninsula. As we will see shortly, a link with the cheaper graduation procedure can be established. Siena also was a studium that welcomed students from other Italian universities. In the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century quite a few Northerners who had visited Bologna ended up in Siena, often for graduation reasons. In the third quarter the combination Padua-Siena was often chosen and again graduation played a role. A combined visit to the two most prestigious giants among Italian studia was often the case, with Bologna more often as the ﬁnal destination. Visits to a particular university or particular combinations were often connected to the subject of study chosen, to which we now turn.

140 Lively accounts of various travel routes in Lorenzo Camusso, Travel Guide to Europe 1492. Ten Itineraries in the Old World (New York 1992).

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2.3. Choice of Faculty: The Lawyer and the Doctor In most cases an Italian university was not the ﬁrst studium visited and artes was the most popular subject to start with. So, when Adriaan Woutersz of Gouda went oﬀ to college in 1442, he did not immediately proceed to Italy, but registered with the University of Cologne ﬁrst. Furthermore, he chose arts as his ﬁrst subject of study, before moving on to the ‘higher’ faculty of medicine and graduating as doctor medicinae at the University of Ferrara in 1449.141 Before turning to the various choices of the population at the several universities in Italy, it is worthwhile to compare them to their ﬁrst choice of faculty, generally at a studium close to the Netherlands, to the overall choice of faculty at a university close to home (72.2 per cent arts; 7 per cent law; 20.8 unknown). The high percentage of ‘unknown’ choice of faculty among students that later went to Italy is explained by the fact that not every starting university was as forthcoming with information about the faculty chosen on enrolment. If choice of faculty for the University of Cologne is taken separately, which can serve us best here, the picture is much more in accordance with the other cases. By also looking at data for students from a particular town or region, compared to that of the university as a whole, we gain a further perspective on the choice of subject. For this purpose I have been able to use data for the city of Haarlem in Holland and data for students from the duchy of Guelders (table 2.3.1.).

Cologne overall Haarlemmers at Cologne Geldersen at Cologne Population at Cologne

Arts

Law

Medicine

Theol.

Unkn.

83 84 88 89

10 7 8 7

0 0 1 –

2 1 3 –

5 8 n.a. 4

Table 2.3.1. First choice of faculty of the 174 students from the Northern Netherlands in the population at Cologne, compared to choice of faculty at Cologne overall, students from Haarlem and Guelders at Cologne in percentages.142

141

Keussen, Matrikel, I, 212, 23; Pardi, Titoli, 22–3. Figures for Cologne (1455–95) based on the ﬁgures in Schwinges, Universitätsbesucher, 470. For usage of ﬁgures for Haarlem (1388–1569) I am indebted to 142

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The picture that emerges is one of great similarity. Artes was the subject to start with. This is something common to all the various cases presented here. Students that later went to Italy to study did not have a diﬀerent starting pattern of choice of faculty from both the university of Cologne at large, nor from the case studies for Haarlem and Guelders. Law was most deﬁnitely the second most popular choice at ﬁrst instance. A ﬁrst choice for medicine is negligible, which should be no surprise, since a ﬁrm schooling in the arts was a necessity to proceed with any success in a faculty of medicine. Where theology is mentioned one has to take into account that this was not the ﬁrst choice of the candidates in question. Formally, a student in theology had to possess a degree from the arts faculty to continue studying in sacra pagina. Then, if one looks at the overall choice of faculty in Italy, an enormous landslide seems to have taken place. As sources are not always very clear in stating the choice of faculty of a particular student, it was not possible to always convincingly determine the subject of study.143 In such cases I decided to use the epithet ‘unknown’. There were 77 such cases (12 per cent). Choice of faculty for the rest of the population was as follows: 327 students (51.1 per cent) studied law. A further 232 studied in the facultas artium et medicinorum. At most Italian universities arts and medicine were housed in the same faculty, contrary to universities in the north of Europe, where the faculty of medicine formed a separate entity. The vast majority of them studied medicine, 214 (33.3 per cent). Just nineteen (3 per cent) could be positively identiﬁed as studying arts. And last, but not least,—with examples like Erasmus and Petrus Canisius—there were ten students of theology (1.6 per cent). students of a seminar (1998) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam under the guidance of Prof. H. de Ridder-Symoens, the results of which I was allowed to use. For students from Guelders (1389–1500), M.E.E. Scheelen-Schutgens, ‘Gelderse studenten aan de Keulse universiteit van 1389–1500’ in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 88 (1972) 350–373. 143 If a student was mentioned as studens in a witness list to graduations in medicine several times, although lacking the addition in medicinis, it would seem likely that this particular student is there to study medicine. There are, however, also examples to the contrary, where a student who appears as a witness at several graduations in law turns out to be a student of medicine in the end. Consider the following example. When on the ﬁrst of July 1456 “Conrado de Haerlem, Iohanne Zwanenvogel de Gotingen, Henrico de Antwerpia, Nicolao de Hemskeke” are mentioned as “in u.i. et med. studentibus”, how can one decide which student studied what, if there is no further information? (ACVP, Ser. Diversorum, inv. nr. 28, f. 76).

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One can see that the pattern of subject choice of our students at Italian studia has changed radically from that of their ﬁrst choice of subject at the ﬁrst universities attended. It is also considerably diﬀerent from the general pattern of choice of subject for entire universities or regions of the north of Europe, as illustrated above. It has now become abundantly clear that the journey to Italy was certainly not so much an alternative to studying at one of the ‘home’ universities of the diocese of Utrecht, but that it has to be seen as a next, more advanced stage in the academic pursuits of the students in the population, in the sense that at least 85 per cent of the population studied in one of the higher faculties. For the population as a whole the development in choice of subject over time shows some change (graph 2.3.1.), but is does not alter the fundamentals of choice of faculty. Law and medicine continuously stood tall as the subjects to study, when at an Italian university. Overall, law was the more popular of the two and took over the position that arts held when students made their ﬁrst choice, its percentage never less than 35 per cent of the time cohorts. A signiﬁcant change over time within the faculty of law involved the popularity of the subject of canon law as a sole subject of study. Where it held prime position in the ﬁrst three quarters of the ﬁfteenth century, this popularity decreased enormously, until it virtually ceased to exist as a single subject of study for the population after 1525. This can be illustrated by looking at the graduations in law of the population as a whole (graph 2.3.2.). This development did not mean that canon law disappeared, but students more and more opted for civil law and especially the combination of both laws (utriusque iuris). Even someone like Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who had shown an interest in Calvinist views, when he came to Padua in 1568, still opted for a graduation in both civil and canon law.144 This development reﬂects a wider change in the proﬁle of the population. The number of students supported by a church beneﬁce, choosing the status of clericus, during their studies seriously diminishes in the sixteenth century. Also, as will become clear in chapter 5, the relative popularity

144 For an in-depth examination of Oldenbarnevelt’s choice of universities during his peregrinatio academica, see Ad Tervoort, ‘“Doctor Ioannes ab Oldenbernevelt”. Oldenbarnevelt’s Study Trip to Italy Resumed’ in: Bulletin de l’Institut Historique Belge de Rome (2004) 345–374.

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of picking a career in the Church decreased over time. The bureaucracies of state almost completely take over in the sixteenth century. There is an element of secularisation visible in this development. Though medicine seems to have lost its most popular position after 1450 to law, it remained in a ﬁrm second position and would never sink below 25 per cent of the time cohorts. It would keep this strong place until the seventeenth century. While law was the second most popular subject even north of the Alps, this certainly was not true for the study of medicine that was nearly always the least popular subject. The second most popular university for students from the diocese of Utrecht might again serve as an example. From 1389 until 1520 only 89 young men—ex post facto deﬁned as “learned physicians”—from this diocese studied at the University of Cologne, and they might not in all cases have actually studied medicine.145 In the somewhat shorter, but almost comparable period 1410–1525 we can locate no less than 145 students of medicine from the northern Low Countries at Italian studia. Italy as a university pole was, thus, much more important than the ‘national’ universities for the study of medicine, something that will become even more obvious when graduations are taken into account (section 2.4.). Students who deliberately chose arts turn up infrequently, but most marked in the period 1451–75 and again in 1551–75. Theology was even less popular, but again most popular towards the end of the period under investigation. The foundation of the Collegium Germanicum, where relatively mature students went to be further educated in both arts and theology explains this.

145 Markus Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner des späten Mittelalters: Köln 1388–1520. Zugang und Studium’ in: Rainer Christoph Schwinges (ed.), Gelehrte im Reich. Zur Sozial- und Wirkungsgeschichte akademischer Eliten des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung Beiheft 18 (Berlin 1996) 113–134, especially 117. The one thing one has to bear in mind is that the deﬁnition of “gelehrte Mediziner” used by Bernhardt is broader than the one I use. No proven track record of study in the faculty of medicine was absolutely necessary to be counted as a “learned physician” in Bernhardt’s view. A later Tätigkeit in medicine was suﬃcient to be counted among his population. Therefore his population counts among it arts students who later practiced medicine. One also has to take into account that (later) students of medicine were most numerous in the founding phase of the university. From 1426 until 1521 the total number of “learned physicians” enrolling in the University of Cologne was 195. Starting from the premise that some 30% of them would have come from the diocese of Utrecht (p. 123), one might end up with a ﬁgure that approximates 60, a considerable part of whom would travel on to Italy, as we shall shortly see.

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Choice of Faculty of Total Population (1426–1575) 180 160 140

Unknown

120

Theology

100

Arts

80

Medicine 60

Law

40 20 0 1425–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 2.3.1. Choice of faculty of the total population at Italian universities in 25-year periods. Graduations in Law 100% 90% 80% 70% 60%

I Civ. I. Can. Utriusque luris

50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1426– 50

1451– 75

1476– 1500

1501– 25

1526– 50

1551– 75

Graph 2.3.2. Graduations of the population in civil, canon and both laws at Italian universities in percentages.

This diﬀerent pattern in choice of subject needs some further explanation. The place of the several subjects at the universities on the peninsula diﬀered somewhat from their northern counterparts. Theology was deﬁnitely the least popular choice. This is hardly surprising, since the study in sacra pagina was never really a living part of the Italian universities. It led a life on the fringe of the university and was dominated by the mendicant orders. Paris, Louvain and to a lesser extent Cologne were the preferred studia for students of theology. Not even the foundation of the Germanicum altered this. In most other cases we are dealing with students of theology who came to Italy to graduate

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rather than study. One such example is Johannes Vredewolt of Groningen, who studied at the universities of Cologne and Paris for a considerable time, before he went to Pavia—incidentally, also the place where his father got his degree in canon law—to graduate in theology on 26 January 1473. Next we have the very substantial group of students that we ﬁnd in the facultas artium et medicinarum. Here we have to distinguish between those who came to study arts and those who opted for medicine. Until the discovery and rediscovery of important classical medical texts—often by Italian humanists—the corpus of texts in the teaching of medicine was roughly the same in Europe as a whole. This was not the case where the size of the faculty was concerned. The faculties of medicine at the universities north of the Alps were always the smallest and least visited. For instance, in the course of the ﬁfteenth century the number of professorships in medicine at the University of Cologne was increased from one to three, which made Cologne the biggest medical faculty in the Empire. By comparison, Padua had between ten and thirteen professors of medicine in the ﬁfteenth century, a ﬁgure that increased in the sixteenth. Bologna had as many as twenty-ﬁve.146 Teaching staﬀ employed in the larger Italian universities was considerably more numerous. This resulted in a more elaborate teaching programme. The attention for practical medicine, for instance, was considerably more developed at especially Bologna and Padua. Anatomy had an important place within teaching. Public dissections were held in Bologna as early as 1316. Moreover, Italian studia could grant degrees in surgery, for which there was a special curriculum of texts to read. Johannes Maii of Schwabach in Bavaria, for instance, graduated in “ﬁsicha et cirogia” at the University of Ferrara 30 March 1468.147 It is important to stress that the teaching of medicine in Italy was strongly inﬂuenced by the fact that the practice of medicine was well organized and well respected in the populous Italian cities. One should bear in mind that the colleges of doctors of medicine not only had strong ties with the studium—they after all examined the candidates for graduation—, but that they had authority over all 146 Erich Meuthen, Kölner Universitätsgeschichte, vol. I, Die alte Universität (Cologne 1988) 120. Cf. Grendler, Universities, 8–40 for the size of faculty. 147 Pardi, Titoli, 46–47. It is interesting to note that Philippus Bartholomei of Leiden, medical student and son of a doctor cirurgie (Pardi, Titoli, 49) was present at the graduation.

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physicians practising within the city. In the sixteenth century medical teaching, especially at Padua, became even more elaborate. New text editions of the classics (by this time also in Greek) and an intensiﬁed attention for anatomy and botany greatly enlarged medical knowledge of the day. Sixteenth century Padua was, so to speak, the medical centre of Europe. Where the students who consciously chose to study arts are concerned, we might say that their number is very small, but they are not an insigniﬁcant part. The vast majority of the population had studied arts close to home. Travelling to far away Italy to study arts seems to have been something slightly oﬀ course compared to the general proﬁle of the population. Was there something diﬀerent on oﬀer there? In the teaching of arts at Italian universities great emphasis was put on rhetoric. The fact that teaching and practice of law had such a prominent place in Italian university education and society in general was largely responsible for this situation. Similarly, logic and the natural sciences within the arts were regarded as instrumental to the teaching and practice of medicine, contrary to Paris, for instance, where the arts were considered to be the handmaiden of theology. The fact that arts and medicine were situated within the same faculty is surely noteworthy in this respect. Furthermore, it has to be said that already at the end of the fourteenth century humanist learning started to make an impact on Italian universities. The Italian universities were the ﬁrst in Europe where humanist thought ﬁgured in both informal and institutionalized ways. We might say that in the ﬁfteenth century humanist thought already had a ﬁrm position within the faculties of arts and medicine in Italy. The establishment of chairs for the study of Greek at the universities of Florence, Ferrara, Bologna and Padua can serve as a concrete example. The chairs for the reading of rhetoric and poetry are another. The appointment of humanists to university chairs—like Nicolò Leoncino, who taught medicine and philosophy at the university of Ferrara for sixty years beginning in 1464148—represents a more informal way in which humanist thought inﬂuenced and supplemented the contents of the university syllabus. It should therefore not surprise us that we meet a number of students who made a deliberate choice to study Greek in the sixties and seventies of the ﬁfteenth century, the mentioned 148 Peter G. Bietenholz (ed.), Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and the Reformation, 3 vols. (Toronto 1985–87), II, 323; Daniela Mugnai Carrara, La biblioteca di Nicolò Leoncino (Florence 1991).

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Rodolphus Agricola and Gerard Heyle, long before this was a subject in the syllabus of the universities of Louvain and Cologne. The high proportion of law students needs not surprise us. The position of Bologna as one of the main centres of legal teaching— with Padua, Ferrara, Siena and Pavia following in its footsteps— made sure that developments in the teaching of law never bypassed Italy. The spread of the mos italicus—a legal school that claimed that reason should be the touchstone for law and its application—was very inﬂuential at Italian universities in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries. Also, the mos gallicus—a school of legal humanists that considered Roman law no longer completely viable, but an object for historical and philological study—had strong roots in Italy in those same centuries. The immense size of the teaching body at Italian law faculties was another pull factor. For instance, the number of law professors on the rotulus could be as high as 68 in a peak decade! Universities north of the Alps were no match for this. The University of Cologne had a comparatively large number of law lecturers for a northern university, but only two ordinarii and could at no time challenge the Italian studia for size of the teaching body. When one takes a closer look at the choice of subject per university, one notices that there are certain diﬀerences and developments over time. Law seems to have dominated at the University of Bologna, with an overall percentage of 65.2. Medicine seems to have been in a strong second seat with 31.7, which closely resembles the percentage for the overall population. It is true that there are fewer records, as the matriculae are missing, for the faculty of arts and medicine, but on the whole it seems unlikely that medicine as a chosen subject could seriously challenge the prime position of law at this studium so famous for exactly that subject. Arts and theology do not seem to have made a serious impact on students from the diocese of Utrecht. The percentage of students whose choice of faculty was unknown is very low, compared to some of the other universities. The nature and relative completeness of the source material for Bologna partly explains this. For the ﬁrst 100 years of the period law towered high above other subjects. The spectacular growth of the number of law students over the course of the ﬁfteenth century, particularly in the last quarter, clearly deﬁned the studium as predominantly important for the study of both canon and civil law. Gradually, however, medicine starts to gain a more respectable place among the students from the northern Low Countries. When the graduation records for the faculty of

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arts and medicine have more regularly turned up, their contents tell us that in the course of the sixteenth century it has become stronger percentage-wise. Especially in the second quarter of this century, medicine for the ﬁrst and only time reached the top spot where popularity was concerned. The downward spiral in attendance—remember that the decade 1526–35 shows an almost absolute nadir—seems to have hit the popularity of law the most. Bologna seems to have retained its popularity with a growing number of students of medicine in this era. If we compare the popularity of the law faculty of Bologna to that of Orléans (graphs 2.3.3. and 2.3.4.), one notices that Bologna can keep up relatively well with this famous university, even outdoing it in popularity in certain periods. After 1500 Bologna could not even come close to Orléans in attracting students from the Northern Netherlands. The decline in travel to Italy in the ﬁrst decades of the sixteenth, largely due to socio-political circumstances, may have served Orléans well. The relative proximity of such a well-known institution was a clear alternative to travelling all the way to Italy. The number of law students at Bologna did not grow in the course of the century. With the migration of the German Nation to Padua in 1562, Bologna would lose its place as ﬁgurehead of the study of law in Italy. Padua and to a lesser extent Siena would take over. It would seem that such an alternative did not exist in the case of medicine. Montpellier might have performed this function partly in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century.149 Certainly in the second quarter Bologna catered for its closest rivals, where students of medicine were concerned: Padua and Ferrara. Bologna seems to have proﬁted from the turmoil that seriously aﬀected both these universities especially after 1509. There was deﬁnitely a group of very committed students, closely associated with humanism, present at the university of Bologna in the years 1537–40, when people like Hadrianus Junius, Justus Velsius, Johannes Redanus, Bernardus de Spenio and Martinus Aedituus graduated in medicine. When recovery set in the forties in Padua, Bologna would gradually lose its top position in entertaining medical students.

149 From 1500 until 1600, 27 students from the Northern Netherlands studied medicine in Montpellier, 4 of whom eventually went to Italy. In the ﬁrst quarter this number was highest: 11. The second quarter saw a decline to 3, followed by an increase to 10, with a further 3 attending in the last twenty-ﬁve years.

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Choice of Faculty: Bologna (1426–1575) 90 80 70 60

Unknown

50

Theology Arts

40

Medicine

30

Law

20 10 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 2.3.3. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in 25-year periods. Matriculations in Bologna and Orleans Compared (1444–1546) 80 60 40 20 0 1444–49 1450–59

1460–69

1470–79

1480–89

1490–99

Bologna

1500–09

1510–19

1520–29

1530–39

1540–46

Orleans

Graph 2.3.4. Matriculations of law students from the Northern Netherlands at the universities of Bologna and Orléans compared .150

The studium of Padua was arguably the most popular on the peninsula at the beginning of the period of investigation, even in the case of law. One notices that the number of students whose subject of study is unknown is higher than that for Bologna (13.2 per cent). This is due to the source complex for Padua, where many witnesses to graduations are labelled as studens or scholaris, but without further clariﬁcation. When of the seventh of March 1472 “Georgio quondam

150 Figures for Orleans are based on De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’.

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magistri Stephani de Everding scholari pataviensi” is mentioned,151 and there is no further information to go on, we simply do not know what his subject was. Since percentages for students of law (48.1 per cent) and medical students (36.6 per cent) are much closer in Padua than they were for Bologna, it is more diﬃcult to exactly determine the nature of the Paduan university. The development over time allows for some nuances. The position of Padua as the travel goal for medical students from 1425–75 is quite remarkable. When the decline set in after about 1480, Padua managed to hold on to some students of medicine, although their absolute number declined substantially. The desperate situation of Padua in the ﬁrst three to four decades of the sixteenth century resulted in a further decline of the number of students. Their number was insigniﬁcant and so is any attempt to analyse choice of faculty for the period 1480–1540. When recovery sets in, one notices that law seems to take over from medicine as the leading subject. Although the number of medical students recovered—not reaching the level of the time cohort 1426–50 though—, this was no match for the enormous increase in law students, the reasons for which have already been discussed above. Padua was the university in Italy to study both law and medicine from 1550 onwards. Padua had become one of the most popular ‘foreign’ studia for the subject of law. It could never challenge the position of Orléans as the centre for legal studies, although in times of crisis for the Loire university, Padua may have been an alternative destination (graph 2.3.6.). The war waged between France and the Habsburgs in the period 1552–4 completely eroded mobility to Orléans,152 while ﬁgures for Padua rise exactly in those years. One may observe that this seems to be a trend over the course of the period 1547–67, which suggests that Padua partially absorbed students who normally would have preferred to study on the Loire river: an alternative in times of crisis.

151

ACVP, Ser. Diversorum, inv. nr. 36, f. 32r. H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Recrutement géographique des étudiants de la nation germanique de l’ancienne université d’Orléans, 1547–1567’ in: Michel Parisse (ed.), Les échanges universitaires franco-allemands du Moyen Age au XX e S., Actes du Colloque de Göttingen, Mission Historique Française en Allemagne 3–5–novembre 1988 (Paris 1991) 55–71, there 58. 152

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Choice of Faculty: Padua (1426–1575) 100 90 80

Unknown

70

Theology

60

Arts

50

Medicine

40

Law

30 20 10 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 2.3.5. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in 25-year periods. Matriculations in Padua and Orléans Compared (1547–67) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1547 1548 1549 1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559 1560 1561 1562 1563 1564 1665 1566 1567

Orleans

Padua

Graph 2.3.6. Matriculations of students from the Netherlands in law at the Universities of Padua and Orléans compared (1547–67).153

153

On the basis of De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Recrutement géographique’.

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The situation for the University of Ferrara is somewhat diﬀerent. For Ferrara too there was a substantial part of the population whose choice of faculty must remain unknown (18.3 per cent). The reason for this situation is similar to that for Padua. However, law was not, as far as can be judged, the subject most studied. Only about a third of the population at Ferrara has been identiﬁed as a student of law. The study of medicine seems to have been dominant for students from the diocese of Utrecht with an overall 45.8 per cent! The nature of the importance of medicine becomes much more pronounced when observing it over time. The ﬁrst 75 years of the period give an absolute majority for students of medicine, 62 out of 120 (51.7 per cent), where the number of students of law amounts to 30 (25 per cent). It would seem likely that both in absolute and relative ﬁgures Ferrara could claim to be the most popular university for students of medicine from the northern Low Countries in the ﬁfteenth century, possibly even before Padua. The section on graduation will show that this statement should be slightly modiﬁed and say that it was the most popular university to graduate for students of medicine in the ﬁfteenth century. Nevertheless, it has to be said that Ferrara was a deliberate goal for the study of medicine. The university employed numerous teachers, several of whom with some claim to fame, of which Nicolò Leoncino is perhaps the best representative. The studium held on to students of medicine in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, when decline set in. This situation had changed completely in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century. The total collapse in student attendance—similar to that of Padua—seems to show it self most in the fact that no students of medicine attended Ferrara in these ﬁrst twenty-ﬁve years! The modest recovery in the next quarter also included some medical students, but law now held ﬁrst place as subject of study and this continued to be so in the third quarter of the century. The fact that the law faculty had employed Andreas Alciatus for a number of years, thus giving Ferrara some renown in the ﬁeld of law, goes far to explain this. Where medicine was concerned, Bologna seems to have absorbed quite a few students, that otherwise might have chosen Ferrara as their destination. Padua takes over that role in from 1550 onwards. For the studium of Siena one might be brief. An interesting aspect of overall mobility to the Sienese studium is the overwhelming preference

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Choice of Faculty: Ferrara (1426–1575) 90 80 70

Unknown

60

Theology

50

Arts 40

Medicine

30

Law

20 10 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 2.3.7. Choice of faculty of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in 25-year periods.

that students in general had for the study of law.154 Students from the Northern Netherlands would take this pattern to the extreme with 47 law students against only 4 students of arts and medicine. The odd theologian paid a visit to Siena. The further 5 students with the label ‘unknown’ were in all likelihood law students. It this respect mobility to Siena has to be distinguished from that to the other three major universities that had a much more even division between these subjects. Choice of faculty was considerably one-sided. Law was it! This is very much in accordance with the general trend for students from outside Italy who graduated, 88.9 per cent of whom graduated in law (against 8 per cent in arts and medicine and 3 in theology).155 The situation for the other universities on the peninsula, with considerably less visitors from the Northern Netherlands, does not diﬀer very much and can in no way challenge the broader picture that has been painted so far, namely that they came to study either law or medicine, with are some variations. Only Rome presents a some-

154 Minnucci, ‘Conferimento’ gives the percentages for students from the Italian peninsula: 71.3 for law, 23.7 for arts and medicine and 4.9 for theology. 155 Calculated on the basis of Minnucci, ‘Conferimento’, 224. Graduation percentages for the German Nation amount to 86.3 for law, 7.4 for arts and medicine and 6.1 for theology, based on Weigle, ‘Siena’, 211.

dutch students and italian universities (1426‒1575)

Siena Pavia Pisa/Florence Perugia Rome

99

Law

Medicine

Arts

Theology

Unknown

47 17 8 5 1

4 7 9 4 4

– – – – 13

2 1 2 – 3

5 1 5 6 –

Table 2.3.2. Choice of faculy in Siena, Pavia, Pisa/Florence, Perugia and Rome.

what diﬀerent scenario. For an explanation for the substantial majority of arts and theology students one needs to look no further than the Collegium Germanicum. Students were sent here to deepen their knowledge of aspects of the arts course—rhetoric is often mentioned— or theology, with the speciﬁc goal of supplying the north of Europe with an educated priesthood. The visitors of the Collegium overdetermine the results. In the other incidental cases four students opted for medicine and one for canon law.

2.4. The Measure of Success: Graduation One could imagine that a student, who travelled all the way to Italy, attended the lectures and did his disputations diligently for a certain period of time, would eventually want to graduate. Though graduation was not as common in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries as in those thereafter, it would seem that a considerable part of the students visiting Italy wanted to end their studies with a degree.156 A student who wanted to graduate had to meet certain conditions. He must have studied for the required period, four to eight years,157

156

The number of graduates was not extremely high in this particular period. Percentages vary from country to country, rarely exceeding 50%, and most of them were arts degrees. It would seem that the situation for the Italian universities, especially where it concerns foreign students, was generally better. See, Schwinges, ‘Student education’, 195–202 and the literature mentioned in nn. 38–40. 157 Requirements for examination in the particular disciplines varied greatly. For theology it was twelve years and the graduate had to be thirty-ﬁve years of age. Periods were shorter for law (6 years) and medicine (4 years). Graduation in arts could take only two years at northern universities.

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although students who could demonstrate that they had studied earlier at another university could get a reduction in years. They must have followed their lectures and must have done their disputations. They had to persuade a member of the appropriate collegium doctorum to act as their promotor. At Padua the student even had to take an oath to the rector that he had diligently completed the entire course of study.158 Once these requirements had been met, the promotor presented the student to the bishop or his vicar, the archdeacon, then to the prior of the college who would set the date of the examination. The graduation consisted of two parts: a private examination (examen privatum) that gave the candidate his licentia ubique docendi and a public examination (examen publicum or conventuatus) that gave him the actual title of doctor. A day or two before the examination the candidate was assigned his puncta, the material for his exam.159 In the private examination the candidate had to explain the text assigned and comment on it. This was followed by objections from the doctors and a discussion. After discussion there was a (majority) vote on the ability of the candidate ( promotores excluded): approbatus (pass) or reprobatus (fail). As in most university voting, beans were used, white for ‘pass’ and black for ‘fail’. With approbation a candidate could go forward to the public examination. This was a formality compared to the (real) private examination. It took place in the cathedral or the bishop’s palace. The bishop or his vicar was present, so were the rector, friends and members of the nation of the candidate. After a brief, formal examination the bishop or vicar granted the candidate the title of doctor and his promotor gave him the insignia doctoratus (signs of doctoral dignity: bonnet, ring, book and the kiss of peace). One of the reasons that graduation was not all that common surely had to do with the high costs of graduating. The candidate had to pay enormous sums of money in gifts (gloves for the doctors and a

158

There were other requirements such as age (over 20), legitimate birth, good behaviour, etc. There was also a formal requirement to teach for a certain period (a year at Bologna). Students could ask dispensation for this obligation which was nearly always granted. For exact descriptions, cf. Piana, Liber secretus iuris caesarei, 60*–64* and the introduction to Martellozzo Forin, Acta graduum. 159 Apparently this was done by the opening of one of the authorative texts at random. For civil law a law from the Corpus iuris civilis, for canon law one from the Corpus iuris canonici, for medicine a passage from Hippocrates’ Aphorisms or the Ars parva by Galen.

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banquet) and cash (to the doctors, university and ecclesiastical oﬃcials). In Padua in the late ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries prices ﬂuctuated between 17 and 40 ducats for a graduation in medicine—50 being a year’s wages for a skilled artisan—, while graduation fees in law were even higher, 40 ducats and a number of books as gifts (private examination) and 19 pounds plus 4 soldi for each of the examining doctors and bonnets, rings and a whole bunch of gloves for everyone involved in the public examination. In Bologna graduation costs amounted to 100 pounds for the private examination and the candidate had to give an additional 40 soldi to all doctors and other oﬃcials present at the public examination. The obligatory banquet for the examining professors can, with an understatement, only be described as a gourmet dinner.160 It is therefore no great surprise that several students only took a licentia and left the doctoral title for granted. However, if a student did wish to take the doctorate he had formally ended his studies and could start his professional career where he wanted, with a title that was valid and respected throughout the Christian world. More than just a successful ﬁnish of a course of studies—for this the licentia might have been satisfactory—the doctorate has also been viewed as a rite de passage, in which the ritualistic character of the ceremony signiﬁed the incorporation of the candidate among those who were responsible for the maintenance and furtherance of scientia.161 As has been established in the previous sections of this chapter, students from the Northern Netherlands rarely travelled to Italy to study arts, which they had already done at a studium like Louvain. Their chief objective was to study law and medicine. Their ultimate goal could therefore, if they so desired, be taking a degree from a prestigious Italian university. As most Italian studia did not oﬃcially award

160 For various procedures: Grendler, Universities, 172–95; R. Palmer, The “Studio” of Venice and its Graduates in the Sixteenth Century (Padua 1983) 31–33; Ohl, ‘University of Padua’, 64–65; Piana, Liber secretus iuris caesarei, 62*–63*; G. Minnucci, ‘Il conferimento dei titoli accademici nello Studio di Siena fra xv e xvi secolo. Modalità dell’esame di laurea e provenienza studentesca’ in: A. Romano (ed.), Università in Europa. Le istituzioni universitarie dal Medio Evo ai nostri giorni. Strutture, organizzazione, funzionamento, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Milazzo 28 Settembre–2 Ottobre 1993 (Messina 1995) 213–226. 161 W. Frijhoﬀ, ‘Careers of Graduates’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, II, 355–415.

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the title of baccalaureus—this was merely a term to designate that a relatively advanced student was teaching the lectura extraordinaria—, the options open to them were to take the licentiate or the doctorate.162 A graduation to doctor could take a while. Apart from the usual statutory minimum study duration,163 the high cost of the actual doctorate must have been a high hurdle to take. It was substantially cheaper to stick to the licentia. The doctorate nevertheless exerted a considerable attraction to former students. Consider the case of Johannes Snavel of Zwolle, who became licentiatus on 21 June 1432. After this graduation he returned to the Netherlands where he took up lecturing at the University of Louvain in 1435. He continued to do this until 1440, with a short break however: in the summer of 1439 he returned to Padua, where he got his doctorate on 17 August, more than seven years after his licentiate. His teaching probably must have earned him enough money to take the coveted title of doctor decretorum. This caused a minor problem since two of his former promotores had died in the meantime.164 He is certainly not the only one to have taken this course of action. We know of at least ﬁfteen students who postponed their graduation to doctor for a considerable number of years. In most cases they devoted themselves to another career during their break from university life. A most notable example of this behaviour we can ﬁnd in 1456. We have already met Ludolphus Nicolai of Hoorn, canon of St Salvator, Theodoricus Utenweer of Leiden, canon of St John’s, and Alfardus of Montfoort, canon of St Mary’s, all in Utrecht, who were

162 For more general information about graduation at Italian universities the various publications of Weigle in QFIAB; the introduction of Sorbelli, Libri; Anna Laura Trombetti Budriesi, ‘L’esame di laurea presso lo Studio Bolognese. Laureati in diritto civile nel secolo xv’ in: G.P. Brizzi and A.I. Pini (eds.), Studenti e università degli studenti dal XII al XIX secolo, Studi en memorie per la storia dell’università di Bologna, nuova serie vol. VII (Bologna 1988) 139–191, where the number of graduates from the Northern Netherlands is severely underestimated. 163 The actual duration of study and the statutory requirements will be dealt with in more detail in section 2.5 of this chapter. 164 Zonta, Acta graduum, I, 288–9 and II, 90: “Publica doctoratus in i. can. d. Iohannis Snavel de Swollis art. mag. traiectensis dioc. alias cum rigore examinis—licentiati et pro defunctis aliis duobus suis promotoribus, videlicet d. Iohanne de Imola et Prosdocimo de Comitibis u. i. doct., d. Paulus de Aretio superstes eius promotor—ei in—doctorem creato per—d. vicarium tradidit insignia—in presentia d. Matthei de Corbinellis—rect.”

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sent to Rome in 1455 to get conﬁrmation of Pope Callixt III for the election of Gijsbert of Brederode as bishop of Utrecht.165 They had all studied in Italy and all had studied canon law. Alfardus was already doctor iuris canonici. This was not the case for the other two. Both had careers besides their position in a chapter, Theodoricus Utenweer had even been councillor at the Hof van Holland. On their journey back Dirk and Ludolf obviously decided to combine their duty with their own personal goals and stopped by two university cities. On 25 January Dirk graduated in canon law at the University of Bologna.166 Several months later, on 1 July, Ludolf became doctor iuris canonici in Padua, seventeen years after he became licentiatus!167 Not just the costs of graduation could cause students to postpone the conventuatus. Sometimes the ceremony was delayed by disturbances of another nature, often to do with the administration. When Martinus de Hegherdoer from Middelburg wanted to graduate in both civil and canon law at the University of Bologna on 8 October 1451, the prior of the collegium doctorum of canon law had not informed the prior of civil law that both ceremonies were to be celebrated. Because there was some uproar between the various professors, the prior of civil law decided to convoke the entire collegium of canon law. It then came out that the prior of canon law was at fault, because he had all the necessary information and did not give this to the civil law prior, who was all too ready to make a note of this in the Liber secretus.168

165

Brom, Archivalia, I, 489–90, nrs. 1227 and 1229. Piana, Liber secretus iuris pontiﬁcii, 19. 167 “Publica doctoratus et conventus Ludolphi Nicolai de Hoyrn alias licentiati in i. can. anno MCCCCXXXVIIII die sexto maii”: Ghezzo, Acta, 140, nr. 440. 168 [1451] Die VIIIº octobris licentiatus fuit d. Martinus . . . de Alamania, presentatus per d. B[artholomeum] de Lanbertinis et d. Mel[chionem] de Mulgio; aprobatus nemine discrepante. Et eodem die et tempore fuit examinatus in iure canonico, presentatus per d. Antonium de S. Petro ac supradictum d. Melchionem. Et ﬁnitis istis actibus, in continenti asumpsit gradum in utroque iure, nam in iure civili tradidit insignia d. Antonius, in iure canonico d. Melchion. Et inter doctores fuit de hac re altercatio, videlicet quod eodem tempore duo actus forent celebrati, et maxime non consultis super hoc per prius doctoribus; et ego ingnarus quod vole[ba]t in iure canonico se expedire, feci convocare collegium. Et hoc processit culpa prioris iuris canonici, qui omnium supradictorum habebat notitiam, et nichil mihi dixit. [Piana, LSIC, 6]. 166

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Notwithstanding the high cost and other diﬃculties that might have arisen in their attempt to obtain degrees, students from the Northern Netherlands who travelled all the way to the Italian peninsula seem to have been relatively anxious to take them. As has been mentioned before, a degree, especially in one of the higher faculties was a rarity, even more so for the doctorate than for the licentiate. A very general estimate claimed nevertheless that even in the ﬁfteenth century less than 3 per cent of all German university students managed to obtain a degree—from baccalaureus to doctor—in one of the higher faculties.169 In certain cases, for instance Heidelberg in the ﬁfteenth century, as much as 70 per cent of the total student body remained without any status in studio, including degrees in the arts faculty.170 Particularly the conferment of the doctorate was a rare event: according to the list drawn up by Valerius Andreae, only 32 doctorates were awarded in the entire law faculty in the ﬁfteenth century at the University of Louvain.171 Cologne might once again serve as an example, this time for the popularity of taking degrees in the faculty of medicine. Between 1392 and 1538 only 33 doctorates in medicine were awarded for the entire faculty of medicine.172 Seen in this context, students in the population seem to have had a high percentage of graduates and constitute themselves as a very successful and ambitious group of students. Out of 640 students a minimum of 463 (72.3 per cent) acquired a certain status in studio. In 91 cases (14.2 per cent) students went no further than a degree from the faculty of arts, as far as can be substantiated in the sources.173 More signiﬁcant is the quite substantial number of students with degrees in the higher faculties. The following table (2.4.1.) will show the ﬁgures of the highest degrees found for students of the entire population.

169

Peter Moraw, ‘Careers of Graduates’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History,

261. 170 171 172 173

Fuchs, Nobilis, 81–2. V. Andreas, Fasti academici studii generalis Lovaniensis (Louvain 1635), 101–7. Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’, 133, n. 81. 78 (12.1%) magister artium; 4 (0.6%) licentiatus artium; 9 (1.4%) baccalaureus artium.

dutch students and italian universities (1426‒1575) Degree

N

% Faculty

DUI LUI (+1BUI) D.I.Can. L.I.Can. D.I.Civ. L.I.Civ. D.M. D.T. (+1 B.T)

113 6 38 6 22 6 172 9

34.7 1.8 11.7 1.8 6.7 1.8 80.6 90.0

Total Degrees

373

105

% Total Population 17.7 0.9 5.9 0.9 3.5 0.9 26.9 1.4 58.3

Table 2.4.1. Degrees in the higher faculties awarded to students in the population in absolute numbers and as a percentage of both subject total and absolute total of the population.174

Both the absolute number of degrees (373), especially doctorates (353), and the graduation ratio seem exceptionally high. Nearly all these degrees in the higher faculties were awarded at Italian universities. For the period as a whole this means that on average every ten years almost twenty-ﬁve Dutchmen left Italy with a degree in one of the higher faculties. It would be fair to take the universities of northern Italy as a university pole. It will be interesting to compare the numbers of higher degrees in law taken at the university pole Italy to those of the most popular university pole for law students from the Northern Netherlands: Orléans (table 2.4.2.). There are some signiﬁcant diﬀerences observable. First, one observes that canon law—especially where it concerned a graduation to doctor—was a speciality which was not that popular at the university on the Loire. For this subject students seem to have preferred the Italian universities, notably Padua and Bologna. The number of doctorates obtained by law students who visited the University of Orléans amounts to 17 (4.5 per cent of the total). Only three doctorates were actually awarded in Orléans. Thirteen—11 doctorates among them— out of the 105 titles were actually taken in Italy (and therefore part of the population studied here). Take, for example the Frisian Douwe

174 The abbreviations refer to the following degrees: DUI = doctor utriusque iuris; LUI = licentiatus utriusque iuris; I.Can. = iuris canonici; I.Civ. = iuris civilis; DM = doctor medicinae; DT = doctor theologiae.

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N

% of Total Population

DUI LUI D.I.Can. L.I.Can. D.I.Civ. L.I.Civ.

9 26 0 12 8 50

2.4 6.9 0.0 3.2 2.1 13.2

105

27.6

Total

Table 2.4.2. Higher degrees in law taken by students from the diocese of Utrecht at the University of Orléans in the period 1444–1546, and as a percentage of total number of registered students from the diocese (= 377).175

Tietema, or Dominicus Tettema as he is referred to in Latin, who visited Orléans from 1505 until 1507 and obtained the title of licentiatus in civil law there. He did not content himself with this degree and is found to have taken the doctorate in civil law at the University of Siena on 6 September 1511.176 In the comparable period 1450–1550, the Italian universities awarded 8 licentiates and 106 doctorates, all in all 114 higher degrees. The total number of law students in this period was 189. Some 60.3 per cent of them were granted a title. All of these degrees were obtained in Italy. Therefore, Italy as a university pole, with Bologna at the top, has to be seen as the place to take the ﬁnal degree, that of doctor, in law. The fact that close to 10 per cent of law doctorates awarded in Italy involved ex-Orleanenses, who had studied there between 1444 and 1546, is deﬁnitively noteworthy. Not only is the absolute amount of degrees higher, the number of doctorates is what really sets the universities of Italy apart from those in the north of Europe, even when we are speaking of a highly valued specialized institution as the law University of Orléans. When we compare the degrees awarded in the higher faculties— here, law and medicine—of the separate universities in Italy to important universities for law and medicine north of the Alps, the following picture emerges. The prestigious law University of Orléans awarded a very considerable number of degrees, four every ﬁve years. The

175 176

On the basis of De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’. Ridderikhoﬀ, Premier livre, Biographies, I, 254, nr. 431; Weigle, ‘Siena’, 237.

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number of doctorates, however, is insigniﬁcant compared to the individual universities in Italy. Bologna and Siena issued the highest average of graduation certiﬁcates in law of the Italian studia. Their average amounts to half that of Orléans, but the average of doctorates awarded is substantially higher for all the Italian universities mentioned here, including Padua. For degrees in medicine one might say that the universities of Bologna, Padua and Ferrara were all important for students from the Northern Netherlands, when compared to either the medicine University of Montpellier or the ‘home’ University of Cologne. Both the absolute number and the average of graduations were higher for the studia on the peninsula.

Law Bologna Padua Ferrara Siena Orléans Medicine Bologna Padua Ferrara Montpellier Cologne

Degrees p. year

Doctorates p. year

Graduation ratio %

0.4 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.8

0.4 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.0

45.8 16.2 75.0 74.5 23.5

0.3 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.2

0.3 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.1

70.0 37.4 75.7 22.2 22.0

Table 2.4.3. Yearly averages of degrees and doctorates awarded to students from the Northern Netherlands at the universities of Bologna, Padua, Ferrara, Siena, Orléans, Montpellier and Cologne, with the graduation ratio per university.177

177

The graduation ratio is the number of students from the Northern Netherlands that obtained a degree as a percentage of the total number of students from the Northern Netherlands studying a particular subject at a university. It deals here with the number of degrees obtained at the university mentioned; not degrees obtained at another university at a later stage in a student’s curriculum. For the universities of Orleans, Montpellier and Cologne ﬁgures were calculated on the basis of De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’; Gouron, Matricule; Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’. For Orléans the period 1444–1546 was selected; for Montpellier the period 1503–99; for Cologne the period 1392–1538.

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Another interesting point is that the graduation ratio at these Italian universities was in most cases extremely high. Looking at law, one observes that the ratio for the entire population of law students at Italian universities is almost double that of the studium in the Loire city. When the individual universities are considered, the Italian ones, with the notable exception of Padua, stand out once more; with a graduation ratio twice that of Orléans in the case of Bologna to three times as high in the case of Siena and Ferrara. The graduation ratio in medicine at the Italian universities is even higher and diﬀers considerably from those at the faculty of medicine at the specialist university of Montpellier and of the so popular ‘home’ University of Cologne; Padua again with a relatively low, but considerable graduation rate and booming ﬁgures for both Bologna and Ferrara. One has to bear in mind that calculating the success rate on the basis of graduations for Italian universities can be deceptive.178 In many cases the graduation registers constitute the only source. Though they frequently mention witnesses, which enables us to assess the level of attendance to a certain extent, one has to be very careful in immediately extrapolating these ﬁgures to calculate a graduation ratio. Where both matriculation records and graduation registers exist, one is in a far more comfortable position to make any sort of claim in this respect. There are instances where exactly these sources are available. Of the 104 students who registered with the German Nation of the law University of Bologna, 53 (51.0 per cent) took either the licentiatus or, in most cases, the doctorate, though not always in Bologna itself. Ferrara and Siena were attractive alternatives, certainly from a ﬁnancial point of view. Consider the following list of options open to Georgius Wagner of Augsburg, who studied law at the University of Padua in 1570–1. Graduation fees at both Padua and Bologna amounted to some 50 scudi, while at Siena a degree cost 34. Ferrara, with 28 scudi, was the cheapest option available to him.179 Although one must be extremely cautious in trying to assess a reliable graduation ratio, what little evidence there is points in the direction of a graduation ratio that seems to have been substantially higher than that for universities in the north of Europe. Where 178

See also: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Place de l’Université de Bologne’, 87. A. Luschin von Ebengreuth, ‘Nuovi documenti riguardanti la nazione alemanna nello Studio di Bologna’ in: Atti e memorie della R. Deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna, ser. III, 2 (1884) 183–200. Also cited in Palmer, Studio, 16. 179

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degrees in the higher faculties are concerned, it might amount to a ﬁgure that comes close to 50 per cent in the case of law students. It might even have been somewhat higher for students of medicine. For Padua we have the matriculation records for the German Nation of the faculty of arts and medicine at our disposal for the period from 1553 onwards. Out of the 16 students who matriculated oﬃcially until 1576, 11 returned home with a doctorate in medicine. Again, they did not always graduate in Padua. Four of them got their title elsewhere. Especially where students of medicine are concerned a certain caution is necessary, since more so than in the case of lawyers one has to rely on graduation records and witness lists. There seems, however, little doubt about the extraordinary position of Italian universities as the end-goal in getting degrees. In the example discussed earlier, the number of doctorates in medicine taken at the University of Cologne (1392–1538) was set at 33, while the number of students of medicine would have been close to 330. The total number of graduations in medicine, including the baccalaureatus and the licentiatus was 72. Of these degrees, 25 were awarded to students from the diocese of Utrecht.180 In the comparable period 1419–1550 no less than 51 out of 68 students of medicine from the northern Low Countries at the studium of Ferrara took the degree of doctor medicinae. At the University of Bologna, for instance, in the relatively short period between 1419 and 1434, no less than 65 degrees in medicine and 1 in surgery were awarded.181 It is most telling that between 1457 and 1472 Ferrara was actually the most popular university to graduate for students of medicine from the University of Cologne.182 This immense diﬀerence does point in the

180 Following the ﬁgures stated by Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’, 123–6. The number of 330 is an estimate on Bernhardt’s ﬁgures up to 1520. 181 On the basis of C. Piana, ‘Lauree in arti e medicina conferite a Bologna negli anni 1419–1434’ in Id., Nuove ricerche sulle Università di Bologna e di Parma (Florence 1966) 110–74; also quoted by Siraisi, ‘Faculty of Medicine’, 373, who justly warns not to extrapolate these ﬁgures to the other periods in the university’s history. 182 Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’ 133. Bernhardt goes on to explain this in stating that graduation at the University of Ferrara was cheaper than graduating at the University of Cologne, though he mentions no exact costs. It may be true that graduations at the University of Ferrara were signiﬁcantly lower than those at other universities in Italy, but I have my doubts that this holds true for Cologne as well, apart from the fact that travel to and living in Italy—visiting other universities as well—would have substantially heightened the cost of this ‘cheaper’ option. The other thing one has to bear in mind is that the deﬁnition of “gelehrte

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direction that the larger universities in Italy were indeed also destinations for graduation. This quite astonishing number of doctorates, both in absolute and relative terms, may come as something of a surprise. For one thing, the immediate material eﬀects of a doctorate in terms of career possibilities, were still hardly visible in the sixteenth and certainly in the ﬁfteenth century. The bureaucracies of Church and State generally did not stipulate statutory requirements for their oﬃcials until well into the sixteenth century and then the degree of licentiatus was in most instances called for. In a manner of speaking, one might have contented oneself with just that degree. Obtaining a doctorate was of course a requirement to become a member of the professorial corps, if a student wanted to become a doctor regens. We shall see that this indeed was the purpose of quite a few students—predominantly in medicine though—, albeit very rarely at an Italian university, where accession to the colleges of doctors, and consequently for the teaching corps, was generally limited to local candidates. There is some evidence that suggests that a title of doctor medicinae, certainly when taken at a distinguished Italian studium might have been a prerequisite for a successful career as a physician, most distinctly in sixteenth-century Holland, when the density of physicians increased sharply to attain a level in the seventeenth century that only the large Mediterranean cities had.183 This might provide some sort of explanation for the quite substantial graduation rate in the faculty of medicine. One might question whether something of the sort was equally true for students of law. Though there is evidence for the Republic of the Seven United Provinces that those who had obtained a degree in one of the higher faculties, certainly the doctorate, could expect to have a higher income than those functionaries without a degree,184 it is impossible to exactly calculate this for the sixteenth and certainly the ﬁfteenth century. What does remain is the relatively immaterial aspect of the doctorate: its prestige! This most deﬁnitely applies

Mediziner” used by Bernhardt is broader than the one I use. No proven track record of study in the faculty of medicine was necessary to be counted as a “learned physician” in Bernhardt’s view. A later Tätigkeit in medicine was suﬃcient to be counted among his population. Therefore his population counts among it arts students who later practised medicine. 183 Frijhoﬀ, Gradués, 210–246, especially 230–2. 184 W. Frijhoﬀ, ‘Université et marché d’emploi dans la République des ProvincesUnies’ in: Julia, Chartier (eds.), Populations étudiantes, I, 226–9.

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to those students who managed to get a doctorate in law. Based on the teachings of authors like Bartolus of Saxoferrato, Accursius and Franciscus Zabarella, a doctor of law could claim the rank of a nobleman. Certainly a doctor who had been teaching for twenty years should be appointed comes et dux and automatically enter the ranks of the nobility. For those doctors who were not actively involved in teaching at a university, a number of not insigniﬁcant privileges remained. In terms of rank they could vie with the knighthood.185 Although this view of the doctorate seems to have originated in Italy and Spain, where this sort of ideological rhetoric was particularly relevant in the rivalry between old nobility and emerging bourgeoisie in the wealthy cities of northern Italy of the later Middle Ages, it was a coveted export product that the sons of the ambitious, wealthy town elites in the Northern Netherlands—on whom more than just the sheer magnitude of the Italian cities must have made an impression—could take with them on their journey northwards.186 In addition to an undetermined expectancy in terms of career and income, the doctorate bestowed on the candidate a certain rank that put him on a distinguished and privileged level in society. It seems plausible that exactly those students who visited Italian universities, where the exalted rhetoric concerning the doctorate was most pronounced and the number of doctorates awarded relatively high, were more prone to take the ultimate step in the course of their studies than their peers who remained north of the Alps. On the other hand, universities were very keen themselves to write down the names of those doctorandi of illustrious birth or connections. Thus, when Cornelius Vincentii van Mierop graduated in law on 30 April 1533, the scribe immediately mentioned all his titles and that Cornelis was none other than the son of the treasurer of “his imperial majesty” Charles V.187 185 Hermann Lange, ‘Vom Adel des doctor’ in: Klaus Luig and Detlef Liebs (eds.), Das Proﬁl des Juristen in der europäischen Tradition. Symposion aus Anlaß des 70. Geburtstages van Franz Wieacker (Ebelsbach 1980) 279–294; I. Baumgärtner, ‘Uber Gelehrtenstand und Doktorwürde im späten Mittelalter’ in: Historisches Jahrbuch 106 (1986) 298–332. 186 Frijhoﬀ, ‘Careers’, 355–415. There is a lack of in depth research as into the stature of doctors in the Northern Netherlands society for the later medieval period, although it is true that they are in general referred to as “meester” or “doctoer” and a general sort of reverence is clear from the sources. 187 “D Cornelii de Myerop art. doct. et mag. et decani in eccl. S. Salvatoris et in arce Hagensi f.—mag. Vincentii thesaurii cesaree maiestatis in inferioris Germaniae

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The anxiousness to take degrees, no matter what subject, was an important feature for a majority of the population under investigation, but there certainly seems to have been some development over time. It was mentioned earlier that a degree in canon law per se was on its way out. The importance of a doctorate in only canon law seems to have declined over the years, until it virtually ceased to exist in the latter part of the sixteenth century; at least where students from the Northern Netherlands were concerned. Most students in the sixteenth century would opt for a graduation utriusque iuris, in both laws. This development is most clearly visible when one looks at the law degrees taken at the University of Padua, where nearly all law students chose to graduate in canon law up to about 1475 and where in the sixteenth century students all graduated in both civil and canon law. It is true though that this development occurred to some extent in all universities on the peninsula. Another development that is not without signiﬁcance is the fact that the licentiatus became increasingly less important as the ﬁnal degree taken at an Italian studium. In general, the doctorate was the degree to aspire to in Italy.188 Certainly for the sixteenth century one might say that students did not content themselves anymore with anything less than the doctorate, entirely in accordance with the common Italian practice of awarding the doctorate very soon after the licentiate. Were there still 13 licentiati in the ﬁfteenth century, the ﬁgure dropped to 4 in the sixteenth. This is true much more so for students of law than for students of medicine. Students of medicine never were really anxious for the licentiate. Indeed, from the beginning of the period under investigation students of medicine seem to have been focused on the doctorate. But over the years this was to become fact for law students as well, to such an extent, that one might say that whoever wanted to take a degree from an Italian university, opted for the doctorate. A third development involves an increasing relative popularity of graduating in general. When one compares the relative number of graduations in the ﬁfteenth century to those of the sixteenth, one observes a not insigniﬁcant increase. Out of the total number of 338

partibus, apud nos vulgari nomine tresorier de ﬁnantia appellati”; ACVP, Ser. Divers., inv. nr. 54, f. 75v. 188 Grendler, Universities, 172–8.

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students visiting Italian universities from 1425 until 1500 174 (51.5 per cent) managed to obtain a degree in one of the higher faculties. For the next seventy-ﬁve years the number of degrees conferred on students from the diocese of Utrecht amounted to 199 out of 302 (65.9 per cent)!189 Even in the last time cohort, 1551–75, when the number of students travelling to Italy increased spectacularly—and when the element of gran turismo started making an impact on mobility—the percentage of students that were awarded degrees was higher than in any other cohort of the ﬁfteenth century: 97 out of 167 (58.1 per cent).190 Other developments concern the popularity of the various universities in Italy to take a degree. The level of attendance does not always reﬂect the level of graduation. It seems worthwhile to take a closer look at the degrees bestowed at the various universities on the peninsula. To start with the most ancient university, Bologna, one may say that it awarded a considerable number of degrees to students from the diocese of Utrecht in the period 1426–1575. No less than 117 Dutchmen left Bologna with a licentiatus or, in most cases, a doctorate of the Alma Mater Bononiensis. In terms of the level of attendance that can be established, Bologna awarded degrees to 52.9 per cent of its suppositi from the Northern Netherlands. In absolute numbers, Bologna awarded the most degrees to students from these parts. In terms of issuing graduation certiﬁcates the university certainly outdid its closest rival in terms of level of attendance, Padua. Although Padua awarded more degrees in the period up to 1450–60, Bologna took over convincingly from then on. From a level of turning out almost one Dutch doctor every two years up to 1475, it increased substantially towards the end of the century reaching a ﬁrst peak in the decade 1486–95. Students of law were responsible for this increase. Together with a rise in attendance came a rise in the number of graduations. This was not a development exclusive to students from the Low Countries. A similar signiﬁcant increase in graduations in law can be observed for English students who travelled to Bologna

189 Percentages for the time cohorts were as follows: 1426–51: 55.9%; 1451–75: 45.5%; 1476–1500: 53.0%; 1501–1525: 71.4%; 1526–50: 78.9%; 1551–75: 58.1%. 190 It is worthwhile to note that for the period 1551–75 the sources are richest where registration is concerned. Where the graduation ratio in the ﬁfteenth century tends to be close to a maximum, ﬁgures are more accurate for the period 1551–75, for which both enrolment registers and graduation registers are available.

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(graph 2.4.2.). After 1500, the average level of graduation in Bologna remained fairly stable in that she turned out a Dutch doctor every two years. Up to 1536 there are a number of clusters of years when no degrees were awarded at all. They coincide with years of political and social upheaval that have been discussed above. After this one can observe two more peaks, from the late thirties to the late forties and once again in the late ﬁfties. The peak in the period 1537–49 is accounted for almost entirely by a crowd of ambitious and promising students of medicine, who opted for a degree from Bologna rather than of any other university in Italy they visited. Petrus Forestus of Alkmaar is exemplary for this group. In the years 1540–3 he travelled through Italy and visited Padua and Ferrara before taking the doctorate at the University of Bologna 29 November 1543.191 The second peak, in the late ﬁfties, reveals a shared responsibility between students of law and medicine. It is plausible that the war between France and the Habsburgs up to 1559, which severely inﬂuenced attendance at the University of Orléans, may have persuaded a number of students to seek learning and a degree elsewhere, from which Bologna seems to have proﬁted. Although attendance did not grow in Bologna, the number of degrees issued remained stable and was still higher than the other Italian universities: at least where students from the diocese of Utrecht were concerned. If anything, this suggests that a doctorate from Bologna was considered to be very valuable. The decline that set in the late sixties may be due to factors indicated above. Unquestionably, the number of doctorates awarded to students from the diocese of Utrecht seriously declined after 1575.192 Padua was in all likelihood the most popular university to visit, but this is deﬁnitely not true for its process of graduation. It has already been seen that Padua was outrun by Bologna in the number of degrees awarded.193 Ferrara, too, managed to issue considerably more graduation certiﬁcates and even Siena—with far fewer students

191

Bronzino, Notitia, 34. E.g. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 55, tables 2 and 3. This was not true for students from the Southern Netherlands, who continued to graduate in Bologna right into the seventeenth century: Ead., ‘Place de l’Université de Bologne’, 92, table 1. 193 See the ﬁgures presented by Trombetti Budriesi, ‘L’esame’, 176, where Bologna is said to have awarded a signiﬁcantly higher number of degrees. 192

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Graduations at the University of Bologna (1426–1575) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1426

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Graph 2.4.1. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna. Graduations in Law of English and Dutch Students at Bologna 2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0 1426–35

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Graph 2.4.2. Graduation averages in law of students from England and the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna compared (1426–1505).

attending and graduation records lacking up to the eighties of the ﬁfteenth century—managed to almost come close to Padua in the number of degrees conferred. Although the studium pataviensis started out by conferring a substantial number of degrees, higher than any other university in Italy, in the period up to about 1455, that level declined rapidly towards the end of the 1450s, while attendance does not nearly decline as fast. The decline in graduations in Padua coincides with the sudden rise in degrees awarded at the University of

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Ferrara. This is not a coincidence, though. No less than 27 students who attended Padua (11.1 per cent of the total number attending Padua between 1426 and 1575!) eventually were awarded doctorates of the University of Ferrara. The bulk of these happen to occur in the second half of the ﬁfteenth century. The reasons for this development have been discussed earlier. Degrees were considerably cheaper in Ferrara and there was an active policy on the part of its ruler to attract students from the nearby bigger institutions. The coﬀers of Padua’s studium suﬀered most because of this. The exorbitant costs of degrees must have played a major part. It is signiﬁcant that out of the 37 degrees awarded at the studium of Padua between 1426 and 1475, no less than 12 were actually gratis. In other words, nearly one third of these degrees were given “for the love of God”. Most of these gratia were given to students of medicine. And it is exactly the larger group of medical students who travelled in numbers to obtain their doctorate at the University of Ferrara. Thus, after Arnoldus Bernardi of Amsterdam attended the University of Padua in 1458, he proceeded to Ferrara to get his doctorate in medicine 28 May 1460.194 This feature is worthwhile to note, for when the social background of the population will be discussed. The rapid decline in attendance at Padua after 1480, aggravated after 1509 and continuing up to the early thirties, is reﬂected in the number of degrees awarded to students from the diocese of Utrecht. They were very few indeed. The deplorable state of the city in general after the French invasion of 1509 has already been stated. Though attendance makes a hesitating recovery in the thirties and forties, graduation was slow to follow. Most visitors seem to have preferred getting their degrees at Bologna—medicine especially—or Ferrara in these years. In the ﬁfties and sixties graduation was equally slow to follow the explosion of attendance at the studium. Most degrees taken in the 1560s by students from the Northern Netherlands were awarded on authority of the emperor rather than on authority of the pope, which was the usual procedure. Quite a few of these students managed to avoid the bishop and the oath on the Catholic faith in graduating this way. This practice continued right up until the seventeenth century. Egbertus Bodaeus of Amsterdam, who graduated in medi-

194

Ghezzo, Acta, 156, nr. 494; Pardi, Titoli, 36–7.

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cine 13 December 1597, was clearly not a Catholic!195 Though the level of graduation only rises slowly—with a dip in the seventies because of the ban and possibly the ﬁrst troubled years of the Dutch Revolt—it was to herald a period in which Padua would produce more Dutch doctors than any other university on the peninsula, awarding doctorates to 33 students from the northern Low Countries up to 1600 and 55 alone in medicine up to 1625.196 In conclusion one might say that after 1450 Padua was relatively unattractive where it came to obtaining a degree.197 It was most popular with students of medicine, for whom the high graduation costs must have been a very high hurdle to take, and they frequently opted for a cheaper solution. Degrees could be taken elsewhere. The graduation-overspill198 from Padua accounts for 28.3 per cent of students from the northern Low Countries attending and was by far the highest of the major Italian studia. It would seem that for a degree in law, especially civil law, Bologna exerted a greater prestige. Only one student visited ﬁrst Bologna and then Padua to get his degree, while in the reverse case the number of students was ten. The deplorable state of the Paduan studium in the ﬁrst half of the sixteenth century did not do much to improve its attraction in terms of graduation. It was only in the last four decades of this century that this changed. From then on a degree from Padua started to gain a greater prestige that one from its closest rival, Bologna. If Padua was relatively unpopular for graduation certiﬁcates, this could deﬁnitely not be said for the university so near to it: Ferrara. With the rather spectacular graduation ratio at the studium itself of 60.9 per cent it might well be labelled the graduation university on the Italian peninsula. That it received the reputation in historiography of being a factory for cheap graduation diplomas—especially

195 For this practice see n. 95. Graduation record for Bodaeus: ASP, AN, Francesco Repetto, vol. 4104, fol. 340 r. 196 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 55 and own ﬁgures. 197 This phenomenon is also true for students from the Southern Netherlands, albeit that the situation shows a more rosy picture for students of arts and medicine. Compare the numbers given in: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Place de l’Université de Bologne’, 92, table 2. 198 “Graduation-overspill” is deﬁned as the percentage of students who studied at university A and who graduated at another university minus the percentage of students who graduated at university A.

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Graduations at the University of Padua 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1426

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Graph 2.4.3. Number of Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua (1426–1581).

doctorates—is not entirely deserved.199 True, a signiﬁcant portion of Ferrara’s students did move and obtain the doctorate there after having studied at other Italian studia, most notably at Padua. Also, the number of licentiati among graduates is negligible. Only one student left Ferrara with the degree of licentiatus iuris civilis, Theodoricus Petri of Haarlem.200 When one looks, however, at the graduation ratio over time, it will be clear that during its most impressive years in terms of attendance, the third quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, the graduation ratio was lowest. This would imply that Ferrara was a university where students travelled to study, not just graduate! The earlier mentioned example of Georgius Wagner of Augsburg, who stated that the cheap degree from Ferrara lacked prestige,201 dates from the 1570s, when the number of students from the Northern Netherlands attending and graduating had sharply declined already. It is doubtful, however, that a law degree from the university where Alciatus taught law would have been frowned upon for the earlier period 1540–55. One might add that the 8 per cent graduation-

199

See n. 102. Pardi, Titoli, 36–7. 201 Luschin von Ebengreuth, ‘Nuovi documenti’, 183–200. Also cited in Palmer, Studio, 16. 200

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Graduations at the University of Ferrara 7 6

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Graph 2.4.4. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara.

overspill from Ferrara was low compared to its neighbours, but not entirely insigniﬁcant. It means that almost one out of twelve students from the diocese of Utrecht attending Ferrara left the university to take a degree elsewhere. The proﬁle of the Ferrara-graduate changed radically from the ﬁfteenth to the sixteenth century. Had the medical corps dominated the graduation ceremonies up to 1500, the reverse was true for the next sixty years. After 1500 and most notably around 1550 the lawyers dominate degree conferment. In the sixteenth century medical students seem to have preferred more expensive Bologna for their doctorate. This suggests that medical students were better able to cope with the high costs of degrees in the sixteenth century than before, which presupposes a somewhat more elevated social background. There is some evidence to substantiate this claim, which will be dealt with more fully in chapters 4 and 5. When discussing the graduation records of Siena, one might again be brief. Though the ﬁrst Dutchman to graduate in the Tuscan city was a medical student, Theodoricus Johannis of Rotterdam, graduation ceremonies held after the 1480s were predominantly for lawyers. Of the 40 graduations, 39 were in the law faculty and only one in that of arts and medicine. They cluster together in three periods. The ﬁrst one running from 1500 to 1515, the second in the 1540 and the last most impressive cluster in the decade between 1560 and

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Graduations at the University of Siena 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1426

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Graph 2.4.5. Number of graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Siena.

1570, when Siena turned out one Dutch doctor of law on average every year. Six of them visited Padua before graduating. In terms of graduations in law Siena’s record looks very impressive. It is therefore somewhat surprising that the number of degrees conferred declined substantially, only two in law having been awarded from 1575 to 1599 and a further ﬁve up to 1649, while attendance was very strong indeed.202 The other universities attended by students from the northern Low Countries all awarded degrees to them. In most cases the subjects in which degrees were awarded did not diﬀer signiﬁcantly from the universities discussed before. Pavia issued six doctorates in law, seven in medicine and a last one in theology. The universities of Pisa/Florence had almost the same record with six degrees in law and a further seven in medicine. Although we do not have direct evidence for graduations at the University of Perugia, it seems highly plausible that some four lawyers were awarded degrees from this studium. When in 1567 the proctors of the German Nation at the University of Orléans mentioned that “Johannes Montanus Ultrajectinus, juris civilis doctor in Italia promotus”,203 and no trace of his graduation can be 202 Frijhoﬀ, Société, 383; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities’, 55, table 4. The graduation ratio over the period 1575–1649 was only 6.3%. 203 Ridderikhoﬀ, Deuxième livre, II, 591–2.

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found at any of the other universities and when we know that more members of the Montanus family attended the University of Perugia— such as “Guilelmus Montanus Ultrajectinus” in 1563204—it does not seem unlikely that Perugia was indeed the studium where he got his degree. As was mentioned in section 2.2. Parma seemed to have been a university for cheap graduation only, especially for students of medicine. All those students from the diocese of Utrecht attending Parma’s university were there to pick up a graduation certiﬁcate; one in arts, four in medicine and one utriusque iuris. The odd one out is once again Rome. The studium urbis did not to our knowledge award degrees to students from the Northern Netherlands. The Germanicum diﬀered very much from the other institutions of higher learning in Italy. This is clearly visible in the degrees issued by it; one in arts and two doctorates of theology. With so few degrees awarded to Dutchmen, the college seems to have not attained its main objective: to train a learned clergy for the Northern regions of Europe. This claim is substantiated by incidental evidence of serious misconduct on the part of certain students, which resulted in them being kicked out, as in the case of Hubertus Luetanus, and even attempts to escape from the college. Lucas Ritzardi of Friesland, who registered 10 December 1556 is mentioned to have left the college “fraudulenter” and it should therefore not come as a great shock that he became a Protestant minister at a later stage in his career.205

2.5. Students’ Age and Duration of Study Now that we have a clearer picture of the university curriculum of this group of relatively undertaking and successful students, it would be very interesting to know something more about the age at which they started and ended their studies. Contrary to the situation for town and church schools, where lists of pupils have not survived, university records do often allow us to determine both start and ﬁnish of a student’s course of study. The one necessary piece of information is a date of birth. Unfortunately we are severely hampered here by an almost total lack of systematic sources. Both birth

204 205

Weigle, Matrikel Perugia, 146, nr. 1905. Jacobs and Beghyn, ‘Noord-Nederlandse studenten’, 84 and 86.

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and baptismal records are lacking for this period in the history of the Northern Netherlands. This means that we have to rely on incidental information of this kind. It can be found in university sources, ego-documents, students’ publications, epitaphs, and so forth. In view of the source situation it has to be said that this tends to be biased in favour of the sixteenth century, for which such sources are richer. It also seems to overemphasize those students who at a later stage of their lives made a distinctive mark on politics or culture, in other words: the powerful and the famous. To give an indication of the age at which students were expected to start university, one might consult university sources to see what general terms they set for registering students. Earlier on we have seen that municipal acts sometimes give clues as to the age at which pupils were expected to start school, and consequently, assuming a normal course of study, an age at which they were likely to leave it. Depending on the number of classes a town school had a pupil would normally have ﬁnished between age thirteen and seventeen.206 University statutes give us other clues. Students could matriculate at a very young age, but if they were younger than fourteen, they could not swear the oath themselves and had to present somebody older to swear it in their place. A matriculating student younger than fourteen would be labelled minorennis, a minor. The statutes of the arts faculty at the University of Louvain stipulated that one had to be fourteen at minimum to obtain a bachelor’s degree.207 The impression created is that a student would normally be older than thirteen. Of a section of 72 students (11.3 per cent of the total population) for whom we are able to calculate their average age at ﬁrst matriculation, generally not at an Italian university, the outcome is 17.4 years.208 Compared to ﬁgures existing for a somewhat similar group of students from Brabant, visiting the widely famous law university of Orléans, where the average age was ﬁfteen-and-a-half,209 this seems

206

Post, Scholen, 133; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 71. J. Paquet, ‘Statuts de la Faculté des Arts de Louvain, (1567–68?)’ in: Bulletin de la Commission royale d’histoire 136 (1970) 255. 208 Apart from the arithmetical average, two complementary measures of central tendency will be used to illustrate the assembled data: the median and the mode. For the age of students at ﬁrst matriculation the median is 17, and the mode is 15. 209 H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders aan de rechtsuniversiteit van Orléans, 1444–1546. Een socio-professionele studie’ in: Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis 61 (1978) 195–347, here 213–6. 207

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somewhat high. The ﬁgures for the Brabant students concern their ﬁrst matriculation in arts. For those from the Northern Netherlands it concerns ﬁrst matriculations as such and thus includes ﬁve students who registered immediately with the law faculty. If they are discounted the average age diminishes somewhat to 17.2 years.210 If we look at graph 2.5.1. it is clear that for this population the most common age to start university studies was ﬁfteen, which is considerably closer to the ﬁgures found for Orléans. There are indications that the average age to visit universities would be somewhat higher for the sixteenth century than for the ﬁfteenth. Their average age when ﬁrst registering is 15.6, almost exactly the age found for the Brabanders. An explanation could be the changed nature of town schools in the Northern Netherlands. It is clear that from the late ﬁfteenth century onwards and certainly in the sixteenth the quality of pre-university education increased. There were more schools, more teachers per school, the teaching programme was extended and humanist models were introduced. Several schools appropriated teaching subjects that used to be taught only in university. Obviously, this development could facilitate postponement of registering with a university.211 Attending school was cheaper than attending university. Another factor that can inﬂuence the average age at which a student would register is the fact that he might not visit a university immediately after ﬁnishing school. The younger years of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt provide an example. At age seven he started school in the town of Amersfoort. He ﬁnished school at age sixteen, after which he worked as a lawyer’s clerk in The Hague for two years before leaving for Louvain, where he matriculated in 1566 at age eighteen.212 As we have seen, the majority of students started out their university curriculum by studying in the arts faculty. To determine the age at which they changed from the arts faculty to another one, be it law, medicine or theology, we need to get the date of birth and 210 It is worth mentioning that the average is also inﬂuenced by the fact that we know the age for quite a few students of the Germanicum. They tended to be somewhat older (18 to 22) when sent to Rome. 211 Post, Scholen, 133–6; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 68–74. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 16 argues that the improved quality of town schools had a negative eﬀect on university attendance as such. 212 Fölting, Landsadvocaten, 35–42.

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an exact date at which this switch took place. Often this is quite impossible, since a student needed to matriculate only once at a university and following the course of study after that is sometimes diﬃcult. We need a date at which a student graduated from the faculty of arts and a consecutive matriculation at another university to be able to determine the average age at which a student started in a second faculty. These data are only available for 38 students (5.9 per cent of the population). Their average age starting in a second faculty is 21.7 years.213 As can be told from graph 2.5.2. the most common age at which a student switched faculty was 20. If we compare these ﬁgures once again with those of students from Brabant at the law university of Orléans, we notice a remarkable similarity. Their average age at matriculation at the university in the Loire town—which must surely be seen as a second choice of subject, since most of them studied arts before law—was 21.214 On average a student who started his studies in one of the higher faculties would be in his very early twenties. To tell at what age students would normally ﬁnish their university education, we need to have a precise date at which they formally ended their studies by graduating in one of the higher faculties, combined with dates of birth and the exact moment at which they started their university education. Graph 2.5.3. shows the distribution of age at last graduation of 62 students (9.7 per cent) for whom we have these data at our disposal. Their average age at last graduation is 26.8 years.215 The most common age at which students would receive their ﬁnal graduation certiﬁcate is 24. One has to bear in mind that these ﬁgures only represent a relatively small part of the total population and that this section tends to be highly successful in later life. If we calculate the parameters of the average duration of study for this section of students, it would be over nine years, 9.4 to be exact. As we shall see, this is only slightly lower than the ﬁgures for a much larger sample for which we can determine their parameters of study duration.

213

The median is 21 and the mode is 20. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’, 214. 215 The median being 27 and the mode 24. The picture seems to be somewhat more consistent for graduates in law than for those in medicine, where the most common age to graduate is 28. 214

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Distribution of Age at First Matriculation (N=72) 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 10

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Graph 2.5.1. Distribution of age at ﬁrst matriculation (N=72).

Distribution of Age at Second Faculty (N=38) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 15

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Graph 2.5.2. Distribution of age at matriculation in higher faculty (N=38).

Another very interesting aspect of the study curriculum is the duration of studies of the students of the prosopography. This will allow us to determine what sort of time frame was set to complete—or at least advance substantially in—a relatively specialist course of study. For 261 students in the prosopography (40.8 per cent) it is possible to more or less accurately determine the parameters of their

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Distribution of Age at Last Graduation (N=62) 12

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Graph 2.5.3. Distribution of age at last graduation (N=62).

curriculum (graph 2.5.4.).216 Generally we are dealing with a maximum here. One has to bear in mind that it is not possible to exactly measure the time they were engaged in studying. Travel between diﬀerent universities could be quite time consuming. Frequently a student who had graduated as master of arts would stay teaching a while at their university as a regent master before moving on to another university. Not to mention the fact that these young men might be tempted to explore more than just the university cities on their travels. Nonetheless, the ﬁgures we have are relatively precise and in most cases deal with graduates in one of the higher faculties. There is another category of students with a rather absolute time limit to their course of studies: those who died during their university education. Among the 261 there are ﬁve who died prematurely, like Kempo van Burmania, procurator of the German Nation in Bologna, who died of plague on a trip to Rome in 1526.217 The average duration of study for this group of 261 amounts to little over ten years.218 The most common duration of study is also ten years. The precise

216 Students for whom we have information that they have been engaged in other, professional activities than studying or teaching between the two parameters, without us knowing exactly how long these other activities lasted have been omitted from the calculations and the graphs. 217 Acta, 292, 40. 218 The median being 10 and the mode 10.

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duration could vary enormously, from just over two years to as much as twenty-two, but from graph 2.5.4. one can clearly conclude that the crux lies between seven and twelve years. Almost two thirds completed their studies between seven and twelve years. For an additional 182 students (28.4 per cent of the population) we have several dates from their university curriculum, but it is unfortunately not possible to ascertain a deﬁnitive end (for some cases beginning) to their course of studies. In this case one has to reckon that the calculated average is generally a minimum duration, where the students involved for the most part did not graduate in one of the higher faculties. This ﬁgure also includes two students who died during their studies. For instance IJsbrand Werﬀ of Leiden, master of arts from the University of Paris, who died during an epidemic at Bologna in 1466 when he was procurator of the German Nation, like the above mentioned Kempo van Burmania—clearly not a very healthy position.219 Nevertheless, even these ﬁgures, albeit rather limited in value for analysis, give an impression that even or this section of the population one might speak of a substantial duration of studies. On average a student of this sample studied just a little over six years, 6.3 years.220 Duration of the Arts Curriculum and Further Studies As mentioned before, most students started out by studying arts at a university relatively close to home. This was considered to be a solid basis for enrolment in one of the higher faculties. Formally there was no obligation for law students to have studied arts ﬁrst, although most of them indeed had some experience in the arts faculty. For medicine, to a certain extent, and deﬁnitely for theology a previous graduation in arts was formally obligatory. It would be very interesting to know what part of entire course of studies of the students in the prosopography was devoted to the study of the arts, in

219

Acta, 210, 29; 211, 7 and 27. The exact mean being 6.1, the median 6 and the mode 6. Students of law of this section seem to have studied that bit longer, 6.7 years, than those who had chosen medicine as their subject, 6.3 years. In these ﬁgures, we have to discount those students of medicine who appear to have studied two years for our understanding. This is certainly due to a lack of sources that could tell us their real course of study. Two years of study in medicine would have been an impossibility, since a thorough education in the arts was a prerequisite for the study of medicine. 220

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other words: how long did they study arts? There are three moments in the arts course, where we can determine the time factor. The ﬁrst is the graduation as baccalaureus artium, the ﬁrst status in studio. The second is the graduation as licentiatus artium, which meant that the student in question had proved to be worthy to get to the last stage in the arts formation, the graduation as magister artium. The last title Distribution of Parameters of Study Duration (N=261) 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2

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Graph 2.5.4. Distribution of parameters of study duration (N=261).

Distribution of Study Duration of Law Students (N=156) 25

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Graph 2.5.5. Distribution of parameters of study duration of law students (N=156).

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Distribution of Study Duration of Students of Medicine (N=94) 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2

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Graph 2.5.6. Distribution of parameters of study duration of students of medicine (N=94).

was a (again costly) formality. The licentiatus was already granted the licentia, and had done the toughest examination. It is not very often that we can determine the duration of the arts course for the students in the prosopography. Most of them had studied arts before choosing one of the higher faculties. An overwhelming majority of them had done so at a university in or relatively close to the Netherlands. Louvain, Cologne and Paris were by far the most popular for this group, as we have previously seen. Louvain has a source problem, where the graduations are concerned. The time frame, therefore, is very diﬃcult to assess for suppositi of this studium.221 For Paris we generally have only information concerning people who already graduated as baccalaureus artium and licentiatus or magister artium.222 In this case it is therefore almost impossible to

221 One notable exception is the following study: E. Reusens, ‘Promotions de la Faculté des Arts de l’Université de Louvain (1428–1797)’ in: Analectes pour servir à l’histoire ecclésiastique de la Belgique 1 (1864) 378–383; 2 (1865) 222 a.f.; 293 a.f.; 3 (1866) 1 a.f.; 243 a.f.; 348 a.f.; 446 a.f.; 4 (1867) 232 a.f. 222 H. Deniﬂe and E. Chatelain (eds.), Auctarium Chartularii Universitatis Parisiensis, vols. II, Liber procuratorum nationis Anglicanae (Alemanniae) in universitate Parisiensi 1406–1466 (Paris 1897); Ch. Samaran and E.A. van Moë (eds.), Auctarium Chartularii Universitatis Parisiensis, vol. III, Liber procuratorum nationis Anglicanae (Alemanniae) in universitate Parisiensi 1466–1492 (Paris 1935); and A.L. Gabriel and G.C. Boyce (eds.), vol. VI, Liber receptorum nationis Anglicanae (Alemanniae) in universitate Parisiensi (Paris 1964).

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pinpoint the exact beginning of the arts studies of the students in question. Fortunately, this is not the case for Cologne, where we can almost exactly determine the length of the arts course for a considerable number of students.223 For 75 students (11.8 per cent of the population)—mostly studying at Cologne and some individual cases from other universities—we know exactly how long it took them to Duration until Degree of Baccalaureus Artium (N=75) 12

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Graph 2.5.7. The time it took students in the population to obtain the degree of baccalaureus artium in months (N=75). Duration until Degree of Magister Artium (N=62) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1.5

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Graph 2.5.8. The time it took students in the population to take the degree of magister artium in months (N=62).

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get their B.A. On average it took them seventeen months, or nearly a year and a half.224 Similarly it was possible to exactly determine the length of time it took a group of 62 students (9.7 per cent)—again for Cologne and some incidental cases from other universities—to graduate as licentiatus or magister artium. On average they studied three years and three months before they could take those degrees.225 We can compare these ﬁgures to those for arts courses at the University of Louvain of 19 students from Brabant who later studied at the university of Orléans. It is noteworthy that there is very little diﬀerence between the 3.5 years that they took to get their L.A. or M.A. and the 3.3 of the students from the Northern Netherlands.226 Set against the statutes of the arts faculty of the University of Louvain, stating that a student had to attend courses for three winters and two summers, one can see that there was a certain amount of ﬂexibility, but that the group as a whole did follow the path laid out in the statutes.227 This was still a long way from what the earlier statutes prescribed for the arts course in thirteenth century Paris, which was supposed to last six years. Up to the early modern period the University of Oxford even set a term of seven years for completion of the arts course. Universities in the Holy Roman Empire nearly all had shorter courses of study for their artistae.228 With the arts course completed, most of the students in the prosopography moved on to study in one of the higher faculties. For those who wanted to study and graduate in law, a normal course of studies of six years was required to do the examinations that would grant the student the licentia or the doctoratus.229 Nevertheless, all sorts of exceptions could be made. Who could prove to have studied a

223 H. Keussen (ed.), die Matrikel der Universität Köln, vol. I, 1389 –1475 (Bonn 19793); vol. II, 1476–1559 (Bonn 1928); vol. III, Nachträge 1389–1559 und Register zu Band I und II (Bonn 1931). 224 The median being 15 months and the mode 14. A year and a half—or three semesters—was what the University of Erfurt required for a student who wanted to obtain his B.A. See: Schwinges, Wriedt (eds.), Bakkalarenregister, xxiv. 225 The median being 35 months and the mode 35. 226 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’, 215. 227 Paquet, ‘Statuts’, 255. 228 Leﬀ, ‘Die artes liberales’, 294. 229 Statuta Universitatis Iuristarum, f. 44v, ms. 1381 Bibliotheca Universitaria di Padova.

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certain amount of time at another university, could be entitled to a dispensation. If one looks at the graph that states the parameters of study duration for law graduates, it will be clear that there was a clear level of ﬂexibility. In general though, the average calculated as the start and ﬁnish of the period of study—10 years—does allow for a completed arts course of three-and-a-half years, a considerable amount of time to travel and a period of six years to immerse oneself in the law. Michael Gerardi of Deventer might be taken as an example. On 27 February 1476 he enrolled in the Lily College in Louvain to study arts.230 In 1479 he registered in the German Nation of the law university of Bologna—after which we ﬁnd magister Michael mentioned several times—and just over six years later, 13 June 1486, he was awarded the doctorate in civil law.231 His entire period of study took some ten years. For approximately three years he mastered the arts and he took little more than six to obtain his doctorate. The situation for the study of medicine is somewhat more complicated. A satisfactory knowledge of the artes was a prerequisite for a successful course of studies in medicinis. At Italian universities, however, arts and medicine were located in the same universitas. It was possible for students to graduate in arts and medicine at the same time. This happened to Gisbertus van Ewijck of Meerkerk, when he graduated at the University of Ferrara on Christmas Eve 1550. Where it comes to medicine speciﬁcally, diﬀerent universities set diﬀerent lengths of time for a medicine student to graduate. The statutes of the arts and medicine faculty in Bologna from 1405 speak of three years each of philosophy and astrology, as well as another four years each of theoretical medicine and the so called practica, in which lectures were held about speciﬁc illnesses and their treatments, a total number of fourteen years. Of course some of these subjects could be studied together which would reduce the duration of study substantially.232 In Ferrara the statutes of the Universitas scientiae medicinae et artium, issued between 1474 and 1489, speak of minimum three years of attending lectures for the candidate in medicine, if he has

230

Wils, Matricule, II, 341, 173. Dallari, Rotuli, I, 221a. 232 Malagola, Statuti, 274–7; Siraisi, ‘Faculty of Medicine’, 379 argues that since these requirements are all in the same article, they must pertain to students of medicine. 231

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been instructed in primitivis. Before a student could ask to be presented for the examination in any of the arts, however, he had to have studied four years in Ferrara or at another university.233 This suggests a seven year period of study before a young man could take the doctorate in medicine. Their Stay in Italy All this information about the prescribed and average course of study is very helpful. An sich it does not tell us very much about how long the students in the population actually spent in Italy. In international literature warnings have been issued not to take matriculation and graduation as absolutes to determine the length of study at a certain university.234 Students enjoyed a certain level of freedom in choosing where and when they would they would study and obtain their degrees. A student could decide, after having taken a degree at the university of Louvain or Cologne, to continue to study there in one of the higher faculties for some time, even if this might not always be found in the sources. As has been stated before, enrolment only took place once! A graduation found at an Italian university does therefore not mean that the young man in question completed the prescribed course of study there. Albertus Johannis of Friesland had already studied law for a considerable period of time at the University of Cologne, even obtained a bachelor’s degree, before he came to Italy to get his doctorate.235 More exact data are required if we would like to know how long the sojourn of these students on the peninsula lasted. In certain instances it was possible to establish the duration of stay of a number of students at the various universities in Italy. These data were most reliable for the German Nation of the law University of Bologna and to a lesser extent for the German Nations of both law and arts and medicine Universities of Padua, where matriculation records exist. The ﬁgures found for Bologna are therefore the most trustworthy. For 47 young men—or 21.4 per cent of Dutch students

233

Caputo and Caputo (eds.), L’Università, 117, article 43. See e.g. Frijhoﬀ, Société néerlandaise, 33–36. Also take note of section 2.4 on graduation in this chapter. 235 Keussen, Matrikel, II, 676. 97; Verde, ‘Dottorati’, 676–7, nr. 121. 234

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attending—it was possible to relatively precisely calculate the minimum duration of their stay. It involves a minimum duration, as the starting point would normally be the moment of registration with the German Nation. This might not always be accurate for determining the exact duration of stay in a city. Dirk van Hekeren, prepositus of the church of Oldenzaal in Overijssel, matriculated in 1425, but we know from a notary act that he was in fact in the city 3 July 1424, where he is mentioned as a witness.236 It is however the only means we have to gather some information about the length of students’ sojourns in the Italian university cities. On average a stay at the University of Bologna lasted for close to four years, tree years and eleven months to be exact. Wilhelmus Jacobi Piin of Delft is one of those students who studied for close to four years at the University of Bologna.237 Of course, this is just an average. Enormous variances were possible. We know that Johannes van Hoogelande, son of Jasper van Hoogelande, judge at the Court of Holland, cannot have spent more than two months at the University of Bologna. He was there primarily to obtain the prestigious doctorate utriusque iuris after he had studied law for a considerable time at the universities of Louvain and Orléans.238 On the other hand, someone like Arnoldus Boot of Dordrecht studied at Bologna for more than eleven years, in which period he managed to ﬁrst graduate in civil law and years later in canon law.239 From Graph 2.5.9. a picture emerges that a stay from two to two and a half years was the preferred option.240 Of this section of 47 students 11 only remained in Bologna for up to two years. This could mean that they were simply there for a year on a more elaborate peregrinatio academica, or that they visited the university to take a degree, as in the case of Johannes van Hoogelande. A further 29 students apparently stayed at the university of Bologna from two to six years, which might be deﬁned as a substantial part of their studies in the higher faculties. Finally, there were 7 students whose sojourn in Bologna lasted for

236

Acta, 174, 34; Piana, Nuove ricerche, 135, nr. 30. Acta, 282, 26; 283, 21; 287, 35; Knod, 408, nr. 2789. 238 Ridderikhoﬀ, Premier livre, Biographies, II, 919 239 Acta, 223, 35; 226, 20; Piana, LSIC, 234–5; Id., LSIP, 103. 240 The median for this section points to a stay from three and a half to four years, the same as the average. 237

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more than six years. All in all these ﬁgures, albeit incomplete, suggest that a signiﬁcant majority of young men from the Northern Netherlands that visited Bologna (76.6 per cent) were there to spend— at the least—a substantial part of their study in the higher faculties. For the studium of Padua it was possible to calculate the minimum duration of stay for 50 students (20.6 per cent of the total). The ﬁgures found are somewhat less accurate than for the University of Bologna, because the matriculation records in Padua only start in 1543. Before this date—and even sometimes after it—the researcher has to rely on a combination of other sources. Witness list of graduation records and sometimes the acta of the German Nations can ﬁll this gap. The results found for Padua are depicted in graph 2.5.10. On average a young man from the diocese of Utrecht spent two years and ten months, close to three years, as a minimum stay at the University of Padua. Johannes Petri of Reimerswaal in Zeeland almost represents this average, as his sojourn there amounted to two years and eleven months. Again, however, there were enormous diﬀerences between individual students. We know from his study curriculum that Stephanus Rumelaer of Utrecht cannot have stayed in Padua for longer than six months. Alternatively, Folquinus Wilhelmi Horst of Naarden, cleric of the diocese of Utrecht and medical student at Padua, spent more than ten years there. He is ﬁrst found as a witness on 28 May 1449 and was still present at the University Duration of Stay at the University of Bologna (N=47) 12

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Graph 2.5.9. Minimum duration of stay of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in half year periods (N=47).

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29 October 1459, one year and eight months after his graduation to doctor medicinae. The preferred duration of stay would lie between two and two and a half years.241 Exactly two thirds of this section of students spent between one and three years at the University of Padua. A majority of 57.1 per cent of them spent more than two years studying at the studium patavinum. Even though these ﬁgures are less precise than for Bologna, they still suggest that Padua was a destination for study where students would spend a considerable— and be it kept in mind: almost always a minimum—amount of time to supplement or complete their study curriculum. There seems to have been some development over time. What little evidence there is suggests that study duration for students from the ﬁfteenth century was somewhat lengthier than for those who visited Padua in the sixteenth. This seems to be most marked for the period after 1550, the era of the peregrinatio academica, when Padua was high on the list, but more universities had to be attended.242 Such was the case for Antonius Wilhelmi Buser of Utrecht, who enrolled in the German Nation of the law University of Padua 7 April 1565, but left in May 1566 to visit Siena, where his peregrinatio was unfortunately cut short by his untimely death. In other cases, as in the case of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt who spent some ten to eleven months in Padua to obtain his law degree, Padua was the ﬁnal destination of an already impressive student journey. For the university of Ferrara there was information on the minimum duration of stay for 25 students (16.6 per cent of the total), based solely on the witness lists of the graduation records.243 Even though these ﬁgures might be even more unsatisfactory than those for Padua, they nevertheless give us an impression of what sort of length of stay one might come across. The results indicate that students spent less time in Ferrara than in its neighbouring university

241

Both the mode and the median give these results. For 33 students from the ﬁfteenth century their duration of stay could be calculated. 13 (39.4%) spent less than two years at the University of Padua. For 16 students from the sixteenth century I was able to more or less exactly determine their length of stay at the studium. 8 out of 16 (50%) spent less than two years in Padua. For the period after 1550 7 out of 11 (63.6%) attended the university for less than two years. 243 Again it is useful to stress that this represents a minimum, as there were no matriculation records for the University of Ferrara at all. Calculations are based on the combination of witness lists and graduations. 242

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Duration of Stay at the University of Padua (N=50) 12

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Graph 2.5.10. Minimum duration of stay of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in half year periods (N=50).

cities. On average a student would stay in Ferrara for two years and four months, as Mainardus Theodorici of Huisduinen apparently did. Of course, a stay in Ferrara could vary from just three months, as in the case of Mainardus of Leeuwarden, to several years like Rodolphus Agricola did. On the whole, though, the impression is that students would not stay in Ferrara as long as in Padua or Bologna. The most popular period to spend here was from six months to a year.244 This would be consistent with Ferrara’s reputation as a graduation university. Students would not have to spend years there. A number of years at either Padua or Bologna and a much shorter period at the University of Ferrara, in most cases to obtain a degree, were common enough, as we have seen in the example of Arnoldus Bernardi of Amsterdam. A couple of months could be enough to make the necessary contacts with a professor who would be willing to act as a promotor and graduation proceedings could start from there. For 124 students (19.4 per cent of the total population) it was possible to get relatively accurate information about their minimum duration of stay on the Italian peninsula, where they might have

244

The median was from a year and a half to two years.

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visited more than one studium. This is information that concerns not necessarily the stay at one particular university but the total length of time that a particular student spent at—possibly—several universities in Italy. The results found are visible in graph 2.5.11. The average length of a stay in Italy was three years and eight months. Someone like Theodoricus Jacobi Persijn of Amsterdam would be more or less representative of this sort of stay. First found as a witness in January 1473 at the University of Pavia, he travelled on to Bologna, where he registered with the German Nation of the law university in 1475. He taught law there and managed to become proctor of the nation. He brieﬂy left Bologna to get his doctorate in both laws at the University of Ferrara on the Ides of March 1476, after which he returned to Bologna. He lingered there for some months announcing his plans to return to the Netherlands, where he is found registering with the University of Louvain in September 1476. The same huge diﬀerences apply to the duration of stay in Italy; from the two months that Johannes van Hoogelande spent there to get his degree to the many years Rodolphus Agricola stayed on the peninsula to visit several universities. Overall one might say that a stay of some two to three years was most common.245 While these ﬁgures indicate that there was a signiﬁcant part of the total population that did not spend more than two years in Italy—37 out of a 124 (29.8 per cent)—either as part of an elaborate peregrinatio or to obtain a prestigious degree, they also suggest that a substantial majority of students from the northern Low Countries—87 out of 124, or 70.2 per cent—did spend quite some time in Italy, more than two years at least. These ﬁgures, set against the statutory requirements for graduation—that do not apply to all students, one might add!—broadly point to three types of trips to Italy. The ﬁrst would involve a sojourn of up to two years, either to take a degree within months, or to acquaint oneself with Italy and Italian universities for a year or two as part of the peregrinatio academica. The second type points to a somewhat extended stay of more than two years up to some six years. A (sometimes very) substantial portion of the curriculum in the higher faculties would be followed at an Italian university, which would

245 The mode was two to two-and-a-half years; the median two-and-a-half to three years.

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Duration of Stay in Italy (N=124) 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0.5

1

–

2

–

3

–

4

– 5 – 6 – 7 – Duration of Stay in (Half ) Years

8

–

9

–

10

–

11

–

Graph 2.5.11. Minimum duration of stay of students from the Northern Netherlands visiting Italian universities (N=124).

mean more than just a mere acquaintance with Italy and its studia. A combination of some years of study at a ‘home’ university and a couple at a later stage on the peninsula, often ﬁnished with a degree, seems likely. What evidence there is, suggests that a majority of the population, 69 out of 124 (55.6 per cent), would fall into this category. Finally there was the sort of itinerary that would involve a prolonged stay of more than six years in Italy. It would not be exaggerated to say that one is talking about a deep immersion into the Italian university and its functioning. A student in this category might have followed his entire university curriculum here, or would have taken more than one degree. Often he would combine teaching at an Italian studium with his own goals which would in most cases be a doctorate in one of the higher faculties. It seems that the number of students falling in this category was considerably smaller, amounting to close to 15 per cent of the population.

2.6. Summary The journey to Italy was a relatively exclusive aﬀair. In peak periods maybe more than one out of every twenty students from the Northern Netherlands actually undertook the long journey to the peninsula. With regard to the curriculum of this privileged minority, the following

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observations were made. After some sort of previous schooling, which in most cases took place in one’s home town, an average student would start his university curriculum relatively close to home. Louvain and Cologne were the obvious choices. Generally, he underwent some training in the arts faculty, where taking the degree of magister artium gave him an ideal preparation for further studies. He could decide to study some years at the ﬁrst university of his choice, but often went to another studium specializing in—in most cases—law or alternatively medicine before travelling on to Italy. The goals for travel were clear: a number of universities stood out as most popular, Padua, Bologna and Ferrara being the top three. Siena followed suit and several others also managed to attract some students from the diocese of Utrecht. The popularity of a particular university could change over time, due to circumstances within the studium, the socio-political situation on the Italian peninsula or to external factors for which explanations have to be found in the northern Low Countries themselves. Nevertheless, student mobility from the Northern Netherlands to Italy shows two peak periods in the period under investigation: the third quarter of the ﬁfteenth and the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Mobility was not constant. The fact that students frequently travelled in groups and periods of crisis—be it in the university city, Italy or even the Netherlands— account for the ﬂuctuating attendance and matriculation ﬁgures. Over longer periods some clear trends were observable, though. Universities were each other’s rivals and could proﬁt from a competitor’s bad fortune. Padua and Bologna were the most popular and vied for the status of most popular among Dutchmen. Ferrara, neatly located between these two giants, managed to proﬁt from both in various ways. Although the number of students that travelled to Italy for study was relatively small in comparison to the total number of students coming from the Northern Netherlands, the signiﬁcance of this small body of young men was clearly shown in their choice of subject in Italy. An overwhelming majority opted for the higher faculties that were so rarely chosen in the ‘national universities’ like Cologne and Louvain. Two types of student come to the fore: the student of law in ﬁrst place and the medical student as a convincing second. Their number cannot be called small or insigniﬁcant, especially in the case of medical students. Italy as a university pole for both law and medicine was clearly an important destination!

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A second, very signiﬁcant aspect of the population was the comparatively high graduation rate. Both in an absolute and a relative sense this group brought home an astonishing number of degrees, especially doctorates. Some universities issued more certiﬁcates than others. Bologna and Ferrara holding top positions here, albeit for slightly diﬀerent reasons. It is justiﬁed to state that graduation—and thus the elevated status of doctor—was a clear objective for a signiﬁcant portion of students who made the journey to the peninsula. In terms of the number of law and medicine graduates coming back from an Italian studium, we are dealing with an important body of men. The word ‘men’ is used with some justiﬁcation. Although such information was scarce, there were enough clues with regard to age and duration of study to give us a good impression of the matter. When ﬁrst starting at a university generally in the faculty of arts, the average student would be a very young man, some ﬁfteen to eighteen years old. When he would have completed the arts curriculum, he would move on to one of the higher faculties in his early twenties. A minimum of six years of study was fairly common. If a students wanted to go all the way and graduate, the whole period in which he wanted to study at various universities in Europe and obtain a degree in one of the higher faculties in Italy, the entire process might well take up ten years of his life. He would return to the Netherlands when in his mid- to late twenties. A considerable part of this period was spent in Italy. There might have been enormous diﬀerences; from a couple of months to graduate or to add another university to the list of universities visited on the peregrinatio, to more than ten years. Generally, though, a Dutch student would spend at least some two to three years in Italy before returning home to his parents. Where ‘home’ was and who his parents were shall be the subject of the next chapters.

CHAPTER THREE

GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN

Now that we have taken an in-depth look at the curriculum of students from the Northern Netherlands who visited Italian universities, we need to take a closer look at their geographical origin to further complete their proﬁle. It has been established that there was some considerable development over time in numbers, choice of faculty and the curriculum of the students. There was also considerable change in the territories they came from. When the ﬁrst students in the population were born, the northern Low Countries were little more than a conglomerate of relatively small principalities on the western borders of the Holy Roman Empire, governed by various rulers, of which the count of Holland, the bishop of Utrecht and the count of Guelders were the most powerful. When the last students in the population died, the Northern Netherlands had transformed into a federal republic that was a major power on the world stage, rapidly building up a colonial empire. In between the Netherlands had been part of the Burgundian and Habsburg empires, experienced civil war, regional wars, religious strife and a prolonged struggle for independence. In chapters 5 and 6 more attention will be devoted to the role the students in the population played in these developments. Here we shall be primarily concerned with the connection between ‘home’ and the Italian studia. From which parts of the Northern Netherlands did they originate or even felt that they originated? In what sense does their geographical background contribute to our understanding of the nature of student mobility to Italy and how did developments in the Netherlands inﬂuence the iter italicum?

3.1. Seven Provinces: Not Yet United. Their Numbers Fortunately, the sources for the diﬀerent universities in- and outside Italy enable us to gain an almost perfect picture of the regions the

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students in the population came from. Broadly the Northern Netherlands—roughly, the diocese of Utrecht—can be subdivided as follows:1 the county of Holland, the county of Zeeland, the duchy of Guelders, the worldly territory of the bishop of Utrecht, consisting of the ‘Nedersticht’ which will be referred to as Utrecht and the ‘Oversticht’, consisting of the land north of the river IJssel, here named ‘Overijssel’, which included the Hansa-towns along the river. Then there was Friesland and ﬁnally Groningen and the ‘Ommelanden’. These regions all varied in size and in population. The following table (3.1.1.) gives an indication of the population within the Northern Netherlands around the year 1500. Subdividing a territory like the Northern Netherlands, that were not a political entity, over a period of some 200 years, is always going to involve a number of problems and a certain amount of arbitrary decisions. Border disputes existed. Even an entity like the diocese of Utrecht is not as clear-cut as it would seem, since parts of the northeast of the Netherlands belonged to the diocese of Münster, and a very small part even belonged to the diocese of Osnabrück. Then there were parts of the diocese of Utrecht that were formally part of the county of Flanders in the ﬁfteenth century, but became part of Zeeland later on. Roughly speaking, though, the diocese of Utrecht constitutes that part of the Netherlands that overlaps with the Northern Netherlands.

Region Holland Guelders Friesland Overijssel Groningen + Ommel. Utrecht Zeeland Total

Total population

%

Urban population %

Rural population %

268.218 133.000 75.000 52.660 49.400 23.638 ? 85.000

39.1 19.4 10.9 7.7 7.2 3.4 ? 12.4

45 41 22 48 39 76 ?

55 59 78 52 61 24 ?

686.916

100.0

?

?

Table 3.1.1. Population of the various regions in the Northern Netherlands around 1500.2

1 2

See for geographical origin also the introduction. Sources: Prevenier and Blockmans, The Burgundian Netherlands, 392, table 4. Id.,

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For just 20 students (3.1 per cent) their region of origin could not be established. The addition “Traiectensis diocesis”, from the diocese of Utrecht, is not always enough information to successfully locate a particular student, as Utrecht was a fairly large diocese in Christendom. Nevertheless, this means that for 620 students (96.9 per cent) the region of origin could be established. The students in the population have been attributed to their regions of origin in table 3.1.2.

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Gelre Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unkn. Total 1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

46 85 42 22 33 61

7 26 9 2 4 14

5 5 18 5 5 20

10 4 3 3 8 22

14 7 10 3 1 8

4 4 1 18 10 27

5 5 15 9 6 14

2 7 4 1 5 1

93 143 102 63 72 167

Total reg

289

62

58

50

43

64

54

20

640

%

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Gelre Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unkn. Total

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

49.5 59.4 41.2 34.9 45.8 36.5

7.5 18.2 8.8 3.2 5.6 8.4

5.4 3.5 17.6 7.9 6.9 12.0

10.8 2.8 2.9 4.8 11.1 13.2

15.1 4.9 9.8 4.8 1.4 4.8

4.3 2.8 1.0 28.6 13.9 16.2

5.4 3.5 14.7 14.3 8.3 8.4

2.2 4.9 3.9 1.6 6.9 0.6

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total reg To.PNN

45.2 39.0

9.7 12.4

9.1 3.4

7.8 19.4

6.7 7.7

10.0 10.9

8.4 7.2

3.1

100 100

Table 3.1.2 and 3.1.2a. The population according to regional origin in absolute numbers and percentages, compared to the Northern Netherlands’ population.

De Bourgondiërs, 174. For Groningen and Ommelanden: Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 15. Corrections for Utrecht on the basis of Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren van de Kerk, 22. The number for Zeeland is an estimate that is slightly less reliable than ﬁgures for the other regions.

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In 593 out of 640 cases (92.7 per cent) it was furthermore possible to come up with a name of a city, town or village, where a particular student was supposed to have come from. I speciﬁcally say “supposed”, as it is not always clear from university sources what the addition “de Traiecto” means. Was the student in question born there, or did he live there prior to going to study? Is it accurate, when Jacob Schellinkhout mentioned that he came from the town of Hoorn? Did he not originally come from the village of Schellinkhout next to Hoorn rather than from the town itself ?3 Together these place names cover almost all of the territory of the Northern Netherlands (map 3.1.). Although relatively few young men actually went to university and only a fraction of them managed to ﬁnd the way across their Alps, ﬁgures for this relatively small group of students nevertheless show a considerable similarity with the regional distribution of the overall population of the Northern Netherlands, albeit with some interesting variances. The ﬁrst remarkable feature is the relative overrepresentation of students from the county of Holland. A second interesting phenomenon is the relatively large contribution from the ‘Nedersticht’, given its small population. Lastly, there was the relatively small contingent of students from Guelders, compared to its quite numerous population. Apart from these points, there are other interesting variations over time and overall that we explore in more detail here, focusing on the diﬀerent regions. Holland Before we turn to student mobility from each of these regions to Italy, it seems helpful to give a brief sketch of the diﬀerent political entities that made up the Northern Netherlands. Let us start with the most populous and most important region in the Northern Netherlands, in both political and economic respect: Holland.4 Demographically 3 Paquet, Matricules, discusses the problems dealing with geographical origin extensively. 4 For an overview of the abundant literature on politics, economy, and institutional development in the county of Holland: the separate sections in the AGN and NAGN; the various publications in the series ‘Hollandse Historische Reeks’ and ‘Hollandse Studiën’; some recent interesting publications in English, noticeably, Tracy, Holland; Blockmans and Prevenier, Burgundian Netherlands; Jan de Vries and Ad van der Woude, The First Modern Economy, Success, Failure, and perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 (Cambridge 1997). All these works have extensive bibliographies on specialized subjects and areas.

geographical origin

Map 3.1.A. Places of origin of the population and their relative weight.

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Map 3.1.B.

geographical origin

Map 3.1.C. (top) and 3.1.D. (bottom).

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it dominated the northern Low Countries in population size as can be seen from the population table. It had several large, prosperous towns that were not devoid of some power, numerous smaller towns, spread almost evenly over the region. Holland was highly urbanized. The south of Holland had some 54 per cent of its population living in towns in the beginning of the sixteenth century, a ﬁgure elsewhere only found on the Italian peninsula.5 Economically, Holland was only surpassed by Flanders and Brabant in the Netherlands at large. It had several important economic sectors of which seafaring trade with England, Rhine land and the Baltics, (herring) ﬁshery, brewing and clothmaking were the prime contributors. Periods of growth and crisis followed one another. Politically Holland went through a very interesting period as well. It passed from the house of Bavaria to the house of Burgundy when Jacqueline of Bavaria ﬁnally renounced her claim to Holland in favour of her cousin Philip of Burgundy in 1433. This marked the beginning of a period of political stability, combined with economic prosperity that would culminate in the third quarter of the ﬁfteenth century. Subsequently, this political stability disappeared after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 until it was restored in the nineties. The connection with the house of Habsburg made sure that Holland was to be part of the Empire of Charles V and later of Philip II until his authority was decisively challenged, culminating in the placaet van verlatinghe of 1581. The ﬁrst thing one notices is the preponderance of the county of Holland in the population. With 289 students it towers high above all other regions in the Northern Netherlands that sent young men to the peninsula. Student numbers are such that it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the development over time, not in periods of 25 years, but on a yearly basis (graph 3.1.1.) to see if one might identify factors that inﬂuenced student travel from Holland. Holland can function as a case study in this respect. Four broad trends suggest themselves. A gradual and then rapid increase up until the late seventies of the ﬁfteenth century, sharp decline in the eighties and nineties, after which a period of prolonged stagnation follows that lasts until the thirties of the sixteenth century. Then, another period

5 W.P. Blockmans et al., ‘Tussen crisis en welvaart: sociale veranderingen 1300– 1500’ in: NAGN, IV, 43–46.

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Student Mobility to Italy from Holland per Year 12

10

8

6

4

2

0 1426

1436

1446

1456

1466

1476

1486

1496

1506

1516

1526

1536

1546

1556

1566

Graph 3.1.1. Mobility to Italy from Holland (1426–1575).

of gradual increase, that temporarily suﬀers some decline in the seventies towards the end of this investigation. What inﬂuenced these broad trends? The ﬁrst thing one might say is that a presence from the county of Holland was almost continuous throughout the period under investigation, even in the direst years. Certainly when one takes into account that an average stay in Italy lasted for three years and eight months,6 it would be legitimate to say that there were nearly always Hollanders in Italy for the purpose of study. Nevertheless, there was a substantial diﬀerence between the years that no students from Holland appear in the sources and the year 1467, when ten new names appear in the various university records. Part of the nature of student mobility to faraway places is travel bands of students from the same region. This can oﬀer an explanation why some years many students from one particular region turn up in groups, while another year might not have seen any new arrivals at all. Nicolaus Johannis Raet of Haarlem and Nicolaus Johannis Aerschot of Gouda travelled together from Paris to Padua where they were witness to the graduation of Jacob Ruysch of Amsterdam in 1465. It would seem, though, that there were other factors of both incidental and structural nature that could have an impact on the popularity of Italian

6

Cf. Chapter 2.5 ‘Their Stay in Italy’.

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studia as a destination. In the case of the Holland we have a suﬃcient number of students to take a closer look at these developments. Both internal—the situation on the Italian peninsula, or in one of its university cities—and external factors—the socio-economic and political situation in the county—could contribute to them. The ﬁrst students from Holland one ﬁnds in this period emerge in the mid-twenties in Bologna and Ferrara. Padua was troubled by plague in the late twenties and did not have very many Hollanders attending its studium. This was to change in the thirties, when Padua was the most popular destination for students from Holland. They start turning up in considerable numbers. 1430 and 1437 were peak years. The forties seem to represent a downward trend in student mobility. Another period of plague in Padua—from 1436–40—does not seem to have had a severe eﬀect on students from Holland attending.7 Although it is problematic to link events and structures in Holland directly to the student numbers travelling to Italy, it is, however, very interesting that the period from 1438 until 1448 marks a period of considerable political and military upheaval for the county. A famine in 1438, a prolonged war with England and an emerging war with the Hansa-cities did not make this the most prosperous epoch in the county’s history.8 On top of this, the age-old civil strife between Hoeken and Kabeljauwen (Hooks and Codﬁsh) surfaced again.9 All in all, not the most promising prospects for Holland in this decade. Although it is not possible to make any deﬁnite claims that these developments have directly inﬂuenced student mobility to Italy, it is highly plausible that these adverse political and economic conditions may have deterred students—or their parents—from going all the way, in case this might prove a university ‘too far’ and too costly. Students might content themselves with a university closer to Holland. The late 1440s signal an—at times—rapid increase in student mobility, right up until the late 1470s. In external terms this period

7

Cf. Chapter 2.2, p. 63. H.P.H. Jansen, ‘Holland Zeeland 1433–1482’ in: NAGN, IV, 274–82. It should be kept in mind that there might be a bit of delay in the eﬀects of external factors, as students might have left Holland before emerging crises. 9 For this extremely complicated and sometimes confusing subject of Dutch history, see: Ibid.; Id., Twisten; Brokken, Ontstaan, and M.J. van Gent, “Pertijelike saken”. Hoeken en Kabelauwen in het Bourgondisch-Oostenrijkse tijdperk (Haarlem 1994). 8

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153

marks a period of political stability and economic growth in the county of Holland and in the Burgundian Netherlands in general, to such an extent that the entire territory in this era has been referred to as “Lands of Promise”.10 This was also a period of almost continuous mobility to Italy, students emerging in the sources almost every year, with a substantial number of peak years—eight in total— of more than ﬁve Hollanders showing up at Italian studia. Universities switched place when it came to the title ‘most popular’. The late forties and early ﬁfties were a rather unimpressive period for the University of Padua. So were the early sixties, when another outbreak of plague swept through the city. Up until 1480 this did not destabilize mobility from Holland. Interesting alternatives like Bologna and Ferrara were just around the corner. Particularly Ferrara was able to absorb a signiﬁcant number of students from Padua. The year 1481 seems to mark some sort of watershed. Very few new names appear in the sources after this year. There are a number of factors that might have contributed to this situation. The state of war between Padua and Ferrara in 1483–4 did not make the area in Italy a good place to visit. On top of this there was another wave of plague in Padua in 1485. The years 1494–5 saw more military activity in northern Italy, when French armies marched through it, followed by another wave of plague in Padua in 1499. All in all there were a number of internal factors of an incidental nature that could have persuaded students to temporarily avoid especially Padua and Ferrara. This was not the case for the University of Bologna, though. True, the French invasion saw armies on its way through the Romagna and the years 1494–5 mark a number of years of low mobility to the Alma Mater Bononiensis, but one should keep in mind that the three decades between 1476 and 1505 mark the period of highest mobility to Bologna. Indeed, the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century saw a substantial rise in attendance at the Bolognese studium for nearly al regions in the diocese of Utrecht, except for Holland and Zeeland. The eighties and nineties show a decline in the number of Hollanders travelling to Bologna, while other parts of the Netherlands started sending more young men that way.11

10

Blockmans and Prevenier, Bourgondiërs, 165–194. See Chapter 2.2, the sections on Bologna, Padua and Ferrara. It is also worth noting that the number of English students peaks in these years. 11

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The trend in the graph shows a small and temporary recovery— 1489–91 (Bologna) and 1494–5 (Ferrara)—in a line of sharp decline. It would seem that internal factors alone cannot account for this trend. Earlier, some reference was made to a period of political and social upheaval in the west of the Northern Netherlands, combined with economic crisis. Let us explore this in more depth here. The government of Philip the Good and his son, Charles the Bold, had proved to be quite favourable for Holland and Zeeland. When the frozen corpse—half eaten by wolves—of Charles was found outside the walls of Nancy in January 1477, this news was not received with any joy. Holland and Zeeland had enjoyed a special place in Charles’ government. Even his enormous ﬁnancial demands did not seriously upset his popularity as long as these regions continued to prosper economically. Charles’ untimely death did not bode well for the Burgundian lands, as war with France was inevitable. His daughter, Mary of Burgundy, who succeeded her father was forced by the States to grant all sorts of privileges, and married Maximilian of Habsburg, whose interest in Holland and Zeeland was primarily of a ﬁnancial nature to pay for his costly campaigns against France, while at the same time he tried for years to curtail those privileges granted by his wife in 1477. This succession crisis was aggravated by Maximilian’s rather opportunistic, though short-sighted, support for the Kabeljauwen (Codﬁsh), which triggered another outbreak of civil strife that took on the dimension of civil war, a war with involved Utrecht, rebellion and revolt in towns and on the countryside of Holland. The political situation did not stabilize until 1492.12 On top of this, Europe was enduring a general economic crisis in the eighties, from which Holland did not escape in the last two decades of the ﬁfteenth century. Bad harvests in the Baltic had serious implications for Holland that had to import most of its grain. Price rises were phenomenal—500 per cent!—in the early 1480s. This already precarious situation was made worse by the almost continuous military activity of wars with France that seriously aﬀected trade, and lasting internal conﬂict.13 It seems highly plausible that

12 See for this diﬃcult period: Blockmans and Prevenier, Bourgondiërs, 217–226; Jansen, ‘Holland, Zeeland’, 288–291; Van Gent, “Pertijelike saken”, chapters 5–14. 13 See for a brief sketch: Tracy, Holland, 24–32. De Vries and Van der Woude, First Modern Economy. For ﬁgures Leo Noordegraaf, Hollands Welvaren? Levens-standaard in Holland, 1450–1600 (Bergen 1985); Id. and J.T. Schoenmakers, Daglonen in Holland 1450–1600 (Amsterdam 1984).

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this adverse economic and socio-political situation ultimately had some eﬀect on student mobility to far away and costly destinations, where cheaper alternatives were available.14 Another indication comes from the number of poor students or pauperes that appear in Italy. Students, who at some stage in their curriculum were categorized as pauper, poor,15 from Holland surface in the sources continuously though the decades, varying from three to seven poor students per decade. In the seventies six paupers showed up in Italy. In the eighties only one and in the nineties two further students were qualiﬁed as pauper in Italian university sources: one of them was Cornelis Pieter Willemszz of Leiden. Mind you, neither at his enrolment at the University of Cologne in 1482 nor at his registration with the German Nation of the law University of Bologna was he called a pauper. In Bologna he simply paid the substantial sum of ﬁve Bolendinos. Only at his graduation as doctor iuris canonici 22 September 1492 was he declared a poor student, unable to aﬀord the huge costs of the doctorate.16 It would appear that Italy became a destination beyond the reach of students of modest ﬁnancial means exactly in these two decades, a situation that would last.17 Apart from the eﬀects of war and economic crises, which by nature are temporary phenomena, there were more structural forces at work that had an eﬀect on socio-economic development within the county, and traces of this can even be detected in student mobility to Italy, illustrated here by two examples: Leiden and Amsterdam, that sent an almost equal number of students to Italian universities, 33 and 34 respectively. The town of Leiden was economically dependent on the cloth industry. Because of economic trouble in the cloth centres in the south of the Netherlands, Leiden’s cloth industry managed to proﬁt and the city went through a prosperity peak in the years

14 Even close destinations like the University of Louvain could not escape the eﬀects of war and crisis. A downward curve, with some astonishing negative peaks, in registration numbers is clearly observable and ascribed to the crisis situation in the period 1477–93. Cf. Van Buyten, ‘Leuvense universiteitsmatrikels’, 20–1. Case studies for the cities of Leiden and Haarlem seem to conﬁrm this. The years between 1480–86 seems to have been temporary low points in matriculation ﬁgures for Louvain. 15 The exact qualiﬁcations of pauperes and their role in student mobility to Italy will be dealt with more fully in the next chapter. 16 Keussen, Matrikel, II, 375, 77; Acta, 239, 12. For his graduation and him being declared a poor student—“declareretur pro paupere”—: ASB, AS, inv. nr. 21, f. 227v. 17 The so called “aristocrization” of Italian universities will be discussed in chapter 4.

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1450–75. It is in those years that 17 students from Leiden appear at Italian universities, more than half of their total of 33 over the years 1425–1575! After 1480 a structural crisis hit Leiden’s industry that was dependent on expensive English wool. It was denied access to the Calais staple market and later things worsened because of export restrictions on English wool. Leiden’s cloth industry did not recover from this structural blow until the early years of the Revolt.18 Student mobility from Leiden to Italy mirrors this trend. Mobility continued but at a much slower pace, with Leiden never sending more than two students in a decade, not even sending one student in the overall peak period of the 1560s. Alternatively, a town like Amsterdam, that sent a total of 34 students to Italy, knew a very diﬀerent economic development. It was mostly involved in the seafaring trade, an industry that had been growing over the course of the ﬁfteenth century, as had Amsterdam. This did not mean that temporary crises could not hit the city. The years 1438–48, when the, especially for Amsterdam, very important war with the Hanseatic cities was fought and civil strife was rife, witnessed a setback—and surely enough, in the forties no student from Amsterdam appeared in Italy—, but the city continued to do well afterwards. Even the years of economic crisis in the last decades of the ﬁfteenth century could not structurally unbalance Amsterdam’s economy. Seafaring trade with the Baltic was an expanding industry and Amsterdam emerged as one of the richest towns in Holland at the beginning of the sixteenth century and it was to continue to grow in importance.19 The pattern of student mobility from Amsterdam diﬀers from Leiden in this respect. A peak of 6 students shows up in Italy in the seventies, but afterwards the number does not decline nearly as rapidly as that for Leiden. After 1480, Amsterdam sent 22 students to Italy, while Leiden sent 11. In the second peak period in the sixties of the sixteenth century another peak number of 6 students from Amsterdam emerge in Italian university sources. Let us return to the situation in Holland in the 1490s. The political situation had stabilised in 1493. There was peace. In 1494 the popular Philip the Fair took up government. Economic recovery also set in. In Italy the ﬁrst French invasion and plague in 1499 did act

18 19

Tracy, Holland, 22–5. Ibid. 21–32.

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as deterrents to potential visitors and student mobility hit a nadir in these years. However, student numbers pick up slightly again in the ﬁrst decade of the sixteenth century. Another heavy blow to student mobility was struck with the second French invasion in 1509. The disastrous consequences for Padua and Ferrara have already been discussed in Chapter 2. Whatever remained of Hollanders that chose Italy as their study destination was absorbed almost entirely by Bologna that was—by comparison—spared the ordeal that had befallen the more northern regions of Italy. There was no room for growth, though, for several decades. Continued military activity and outbreaks of plague in the twenties in Central and Northern Italy did not help to attract new students. Surely, the economic crisis in the Netherlands in the twenties and early thirties did not improve the sorry state of student mobility to the peninsula.20 After 1530 the situation in Italy stabilized somewhat. Student numbers also seem to grow, albeit slightly, but more rapidly towards the end of the forties, with a ﬁrst peak year of ﬁve new students emerging in 1549. This was to herald another period of growth of student mobility in the next two decades. Almost every year a new student from Holland appears at an Italian university, and four more peak years of ﬁve or more students—1557, 1565, 1567 and 1569—can be seen. This period overlaps with a period of economic growth in the Netherlands from approximately 1540 until 1565.21 The seventies as a whole show another sharp decline. Part of this development has to be explained by looking at the state of Italian universities. Ferrara was no longer a player. Siena convincingly took over this role. Bologna also lost its attraction to students from the Northern Netherlands as a whole—Holland being no exception. Padua took over the role of most popular university in Italy in the ﬁfties. Be this as it may, ﬂourishing universities like Padua and Siena did not manage to attract many Hollanders in these years. Again, it is plausible to look towards Holland itself for some sort of explanation. At

20 Again, Louvain was not spared either. A downward curve in attendance is clear from 1524–35. Van Buyten, ‘Leuvense universiteitsmatrikels’ 20–1, 29–9. 21 Herman van der Wee, ‘De economie als factor bij het begin van de Opstand in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden’ in: C.B. Wels et al. (eds.), Vaderlands Verleden in Veelvoud, I, (The Hague 1980) 55–70, there 61. This period of economic growth was followed by recession. It is again worth noting that there might be some delay in the eﬀects, where student mobility to Italy was concerned as many students would be well under way.

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the end of the sixties economic recession set in. This was accompanied by a socio-political crisis and religious strife in the period 1566–72. Holland was governed by the duke of Alba, whose severe regime of taxation and repression of Protestantism brought the county to the verge of rebellion. One of his government decisions was to prohibit students to study anywhere other than Louvain, Douai or Rome. The adverse eﬀects this could have on student mobility to Italian universities other than Rome are clear. In 1572 Holland rose in open rebellion against king Philip II. Several years of military campaigns—for instance, Haarlem, Alkmaar and Leiden were sieged— in the county followed. The early years of the Dutch Revolt were not a period of great student mobility and destination Italy was no exception. The seventies and early eighties marked another period of sharp decline that only picked up towards the end of the eighties. The nineties saw another peak period.22 This is the period when the military conﬂict was fought outside the borders of Holland and after the ﬁrst successes of the Republic in its Revolt against Philip II. Furthermore, the period 1585–1650 was also the era in which the Dutch economy did extremely well. Let us now turn to another interesting overall aspect of student mobility to Italy, and indeed in general: its highly urban character. Holland was one of the most urbanized regions in the Netherlands and this is more than reﬂected in the percentage of students coming from cities and towns in Holland. If one takes the, for this period, exceptionally high proportion of the urban population versus countryside in Holland—45 per cent against 55 per cent—and then looks at the number of students with an urban background (83 per cent) against those with a rural background (13.1 per cent), one notices that university mobility is disproportionnally urban in character.23 This is no surprise as the need for university-trained personnel would be higher for urban areas than for rural ones. Still, one should not trivialize student mobility from the countryside. Students literally

22 In the eighties, for instance, only ten students from Holland matriculated in Padua. In the nineties this number rose to 41 (based on: Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’ and Poelhekke, ‘Nederlandse leden’). In this decade the number of Hollanders travelling to Italy would outrun the number in the peak period 1466–75. 23 For the university of Louvain in the period 1485–1527 a similar percentage of urban origin was found. Some 82% of students from Holland came from cities and towns. Calculations based on De Prins, ‘Inschrijvingsfrequentie’, 64–6.

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came from all corners of the county. In the period 1426–50 almost a quarter of Hollanders studying in Italy had a rural background. One cannot but wonder about what motivated two students from the small island of Wieringen in the north of Holland, Rembrand Jansz and Siﬀried Boudewijnsz, to go and study medicine in Italy in that period.24 Furthermore there seems to be a correlation between the population size of a city and the number of students that travelled to Italy, although this correlation is by no means absolute.25 The six hoofdsteden (‘capital’ cities) of Holland, Dordrecht. Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda, were the most populous and powerful cities in the county and all—with the temporary exception of Gouda26—had more than 10,000 inhabitants in 1514.27 And indeed they appear highest on the list of places that sent students to Italy, all sending more than 15 students. There is just one name that manages to move in between them with 21 students: The Hague. The Hague is really the odd one out. It had no city rights and it was smaller in population than the six hoofdsteden. It was, however,

24 It is interesting that the percentages of students with rural backgrounds are lowest in the period 1476–1550, when several crises—both of internal and external nature—hit mobility to Italy. Does this suggest that in times of crisis in Holland it was comparatively more diﬃcult for young men from the countryside to accumulate the necessary means to ﬁnance an expensive study trip abroad? 25 The ultimate proof of this sort of correlation would be the number of students per capita of a particular place. As we are dealing with a lengthy period of 150 years and a relatively small number of students, this is almost impossible to fully substantiate. Even for a well-visited university like Louvain, this would prove a Herculean task, as there are not many instances when we can follow population growth and decline in the cities, not to mention for smaller towns and villages. There are some indications, though, that the bigger cities sent proportionally more students than smaller towns and villages. The six biggest cities and The Hague account for 59.4% of the urban population in Holland in 1514, but for 65.2% of all urban students from the county of Holland visiting Louvain between 1485 and 1527. Amsterdam had approximately three times as many inhabitants as the neighbouring town of Enkhuizen, but sent almost seven times as many students to Louvain in this period. The six capital cities and The Hague account for 59.4% of the total urban population of Holland, but for 69.6% of Holland’s urban students that visited Italian universities. Calculations based on Blockmans et al., ‘Tussen crisis en welvaart’, 44, 52 and De Prins, ‘Inschrijvingsfrequentie’, 64–66. 26 Gouda had more than 10,000 inhabitants for a large part of the ﬁfteenth century and experienced a sharp decline in population size between 1477 (12,600) and 1514 (7623), Blockmans et al., ‘Tussen crisis en welvaart’, 51. 27 The term hoofdsteden refers not just to their population size and economically dominating position in the county, but also to their role as permanent representatives in the States of Holland.

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the political-administrative centre of the county, the location where the States of Holland met, where the Court of Holland was located and where other ﬁnancial institutions like the Chamber of Accounts were housed. In short, it was the civil service capital. For the sixteenth century the number of students coming from The Hague is higher that for any other city in Holland except Amsterdam that also sent 16. Its role as a political, administrative and judicial centre is also reﬂected in the choice of faculty of Hagenezen in Italy. Three quarters of them chose law as their subject. The increasingly important role of The Hague as the civil servant residence in Holland is clearly visible in student mobility to Italy in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, when it accounts for 16.5 per cent of all students from Holland and 21.0 per cent of all law students from the county!28 Together, the six hoofdsteden and The Hague account for almost 60 per cent of all students from the county for the overall period, while in the sixteenth century this percentage was 63.8 per cent. Just below the six capital cities and The Hague we ﬁnd the cities of second category: Alkmaar, Hoorn, Rotterdam and Brill, the ﬁrst three of whom had some 5000–10,000 inhabitants. Their population was smaller than of the capital cities, although this was to change towards the end of the sixteenth century when Hoorn and Rotterdam surpassed Gouda in size. These cities also managed to acquire an occasional vote in the States of Holland in the ﬁfteenth and early sixteenth century and a permanent place in the seventies of the sixteenth century. All had a regional economic—some even a cultural— centre function.29 Even for these cities one might say that there existed a consistent notion of Italy as an, albeit exclusive, destination for study, as nearly every generation sent at least one student to Italy.30 If we add the numbers coming from these towns to the number of the six capital cities and The Hague, we can see that

28 Compare the numbers The Hague sent to the law University of Orléans. 34 out of 200 or 17%. Based on De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utecht’, 95. 29 On their size, Blockmans et al., ‘Tussen crisis en welvaart’, 48; for their role in the States: Kokken, Steden; Koopmans, Staten. For their economic role: De Vries and Van der Woude, First Modern Economy. For Alkmaar as a cultural centre Van Gelder, Latijnsche School; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’ Id., ‘Onderricht’. 30 In chapter 4 we shall see that this could be due to a number of important families in the town or city that traditionally sent their young men to Italian universities, e.g. the Van Foreest and Van Teylingen families in the city of Alkmaar.

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71.3 per cent of all Hollanders studying in Italy came from eleven of the most important towns in the county.31 From smaller towns like Beverwijk, Naarden, Medemblik, Schiedam and Heusden some three to four students travelled across the Alps. The other 40 places that have been identiﬁed managed to send only—in most cases—one or two students to the peninsula, in other words, mobility from these towns and villages was incidental. It would be justiﬁed to qualify the nature of the iter italicum from the county Holland as primarily urban, dominated by the bigger towns. This qualiﬁcation of student mobility as an overwhelmingly urban phenomenon goes far to explain the preponderance of Holland in the population, more than its part in the overall population of the Northern Netherlands would warrant. It was almost their most urbanized region and harboured six of the nine towns with 10,000 or more inhabitants in the Northern Netherlands, not to mention a whole range of smaller towns. A comparatively greater demand for university-trained personnel—especially, where it concerned the cream of the crop: doctorates in the higher faculties—seems to ﬁt a highly urbanized, economically and politically powerful county like Holland. This statement has to be nuanced a bit. This can be done by looking at the choice of faculty at Italian universities. For students from Holland, the iter italicum was of an equivocal nature. Law and medicine as subjects of study seem an almost equally popular choice of students from Holland with some 44 per cent of the Holland population. When compared with the total population in law and medicine, the picture changes considerably. With 45.2 per cent of the total student population, Holland only represents 38.8 per cent of the total number of law students. If Holland is comparatively underrepresented in the number of law students, one does well to keep in mind that by far the preferred studium for potential lawyers from Holland was that of Orléans, where with no less than 200 students between 1444 and 1546 they account for 52.2 per cent of the total from the diocese of Utrecht.32 In the period 1451–1550, by comparison,

31 Together the population of these cities accounts for almost 35% of the total population in the county in 1514. They represent 71.3% of the total urban population, but their share in the total of students from Holland in Italy with an urban background is 85.8%. Calculations on the basis of Blockmans, ‘Tussen crisis en welvaart’, 44, 51. 32 200 out of 383. See: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’,

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only 74 Hollanders studied law in Italy. Students of law from Holland seem to have been much more oriented towards France. By contrast, the preponderance of Holland is most noticeable in the number of students of medicine, where Holland delivered 59.3 per cent of all students coming from the northern Low Countries and no less than 60.8 per cent of all doctorati in medicine.33 Students from Holland who travelled to the peninsula were clearly more medicine-minded than their fellow students from the eastern parts of the Netherlands. This development is most marked for the ﬁfteenth century and is particularly true for the universities of Padua and Ferrara. In absolute and relative ﬁgures medicine seems to have dominated student mobility from Holland in the ﬁfteenth century. Though its relative importance does not alter signiﬁcantly when the number of students from Holland collapsed after 1480, a situation lasting until about 1550, the number of students of medicine from Holland hardly grew in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Its relative importance decreased with students of law more than doubling in this period. Why the number of medical students did not grow signiﬁcantly in this period, while this was the case for most other regions in the Northern Netherlands, is not clear.34 It does partly explain why Holland’s share in the second peak did not grow as fast as that for the total. Zeeland Zeeland was closely related to Holland. In historiography it is usually taken together with its bigger neighbour.35 Zeeland had been 94–5. 17 out of 37 students (45.9%) who combined a visit to Orléans with a visit to an Italian university came from Holland. 33 A similar percentage was found for learned physicians at the University of Cologne (1389–1520), where those from Holland account for 49 out of 86 students from the diocese of Utrecht (57%). Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’. 34 Possibly the universities of Paris, with extensive but hardly explored archival material, and Basle managed to attract a large number of Hollanders. Montpellier had some 13 students from the county in the sixteenth century and cannot be called a serious threat to the popularity of Italian universities. Based on: Gouron, Matricule. 35 There is very litle general literature of a general nature that deals with Zeeland. Partial studies and those concentrated on one city, town or island exist, see ‘Beredeneerde bibliograﬁe’ in: NAGN, IV, 481. Most attention has been focused on its economic ascpects, particularly, relations with England. Small contributions in Kokken, Steden en Staten, 32–6. General introduction to Rooze-Stouthamer, Hervorming, is very useful.

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Mobility from the Northern Netherlands and Holland Compared: Ten Year Averages 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1426–35 1436–45 1446–55 1456–65 1466–75 1476–85 1486–95 1496–05 1506–15 1516–25 1526–35 1536–45 1546–55 1556–65 1566–75

10-year moving av. NN

10 year av. NN

10-year moving av. H

10 year av. H

Graph 3.1.2. Mobility from the Northern Netherlands and Holland compared: ten year averages. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Holland 90 80 70 60 Oth/Unkn. Medicine Law

50 40 30 20 10 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 3.1.3. Choice of faculty in Italy: Holland.

fought over between Holland and Flanders since the eleventh century. In 1323 the situation was settled and the count of Holland acquired the county Zeeland. Since then, the two regions were united in a personal union, in that the count of Holland also was count of Zeeland. Nevertheless, close relations between Zeeland and the two

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regions south of it, Flanders and Brabant continued to exist. It developed its own representative institutions, the States, which were of a diﬀerent nature than those in Holland. Zeeland was not nearly as urbanized as Holland was. Local lords continued to enjoy considerable inﬂuence. This is not to say that Zeeland did not have towns. A coastal region with islands, seafaring towns developed of which Zierikzee and Middelburg were the most important. Trade developed, particularly with England. The close political and economic ties with Holland made that what passed Holland also visited Zeeland. Periods of crisis tended to hit both of them at the same time. This meant that the political and economic crisis of the late ﬁfteenth century also had drastic eﬀect on Zeeland. What goes for Holland, goes for Zeeland. In many ways student mobility from Zeeland seems to be a miniature of that of Holland, but even more pronounced, since we are dealing with a much smaller population of 62 students. It started out at a very modest level in the ﬁrst twenty-ﬁve years, when only seven students from Zeeland travelled across the Alps. This number nearly quadrupled in the third quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, when on average one student a year from the county found his way to the peninsula. As for Holland, this period was one of economic prosperity and political stability for Zeeland and this had its eﬀect on student mobility in general to which Italy was no exception. The subsequent collapse of the student number in the last quarter has to be ascribed to the same explanations that were oﬀered for Holland. Internal conﬂict, international war and economic depression also took their toll on the number of students travelling to far-away studia. In the low period 1501–1525 only a handful of medical students can be found in Italy. As for Holland, Padua and Ferrara were most popular with Zeeuwen and the crises that hit these universities most certainly had an impact on mobility. Lawyers from Zeeland seem to have preferred Orléans en masse in precisely the ﬁrst two decades of the sixteenth century.36 Only in the second and third quarter did numbers start to grow again. A second peak was reached in the era 1551–75, but it did not manage to reach the height it had in the peak period 1451–75. The seventies and early eighties were a period of limited mobility for the same reason as Holland. Zeeland was the

36

De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5.

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other region that immediately sided with the Revolt and it took some time before it recovered. Though Zeeland was not nearly as urbanized as Holland was, one observes that mobility to Italy had a predominantly urban character. Almost three-quarters of students had an urban background against 16.4 per cent with a rural one. The two cities that stood tall were Zierikzee and Middelburg with respectively 13 and 12 students, that together account for 40.3 per cent of all Zeeuwen in Italy. This is no surprise as these cities dominated the economic and political scene in the county. The towns of Goes (6), Borssele (4), Veere and the no longer existing Reimerswaal with both 3 students follow, the total of which accounts for 62.3 per cent of all students from Zeeland.37 Other towns and villages only sent two—one case—or just the one student to Italy. As for the choice of faculty in Italy, one might say that again there exists a striking resemblance to Holland. Law and medicine vie for prominence among students from Zeeland. The county accounts for some 13.1 per cent of all medical students in Italy and that is substantially higher than for all but one region in the Northern Netherlands. Zeeland student travellers too were more medical-minded than their peers from the eastern parts, particularly for the ﬁfteenth century. There are indications that the status of medicine and certainly the status of doctors of medicine was rather elevated in Zeeland towns. Particularly for the city of Zierikzee one might say that a circle of learned physicians existed that managed to acquire considerable inﬂuence in the city’s higher circles and even in government.38 Where law is concerned, the same might be said as for Holland. Orléans was the centre for potential lawyers. Between 1444 and 1546, 61 students from Zeeland studied law in the Loire city, whereas only 14 chose Italy as their study destination between 1451 and 1550.39 Maybe even more so than Holland, Zeeland was focused on the University of Louvain, where Zeeuwen accounted for 26 per cent of all students from the Northern Netherlands. A university in France

37 Unsurpisingly, exactly these cities are the top six on the list for the number of Zeeuwen at the University of Louvain. With the exception of Borssele, the other ﬁve are also top of the list for the University of Orléans. De Prins, ‘Immatriculatiefrequentie’, 67–8; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 95. 38 This network will be dealt with in more detail in Chapter 5. 39 De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5.

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Choice of Faculty in Italy: Zeeland 30

25

20 Oth/Unkn. Medicine Law

15

10

5

0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 3.1.4. Choice of faculty in Italy: Zeeland.

could be seen as a logical next step. It was only from 1526 until 1575 that Italian universities managed to attract some students of law again, especially in the third quarter, when two ﬁfths of all Zeeland lawyers set oﬀ for the peninsula. Utrecht Utrecht is a special case. The fact that both the diocese and the region are referred to as Utrecht points to the prominence of the city of Utrecht in the Northern Netherlands as a whole. As has been said, the diocese overlaps almost with the northern Low Countries. The region under the worldly authority of the bishop was usually referred to as ‘Het Sticht’, subdivided in ‘Het Oversticht’ and ‘Het Nedersticht’. The latter constituted what will be referred to as the region or province of Utrecht. Although the Nedersticht only held some 3.4 per cent of the population of the Northern Netherlands, this small region—both in territory and population—accounted for 9.1 per cent of students.40 In other words, it is strongly overrepresented in the population. The reason for this can also be detected

40 The percentage seems all the more exceptional, since both at Louvain (4.5%) and Cologne (5.4%) it did not manage to reach a high point like 9.1%; De Prins, ‘Immatriculatiefrequentie’, 140, 189.

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in the exaggerated percentage of urban students (98.3 per cent) against those with a rural background (1.7 per cent). The only two towns of any importance besides Utrecht itself were Amersfoort (7) and Rhenen (2). No less than 48 students claimed to come from the city of Utrecht itself. The city dominated the region. With some 13,000 to 20,000 inhabitants it was the oldest and largest city in the Northern Netherlands. Not only this, it was the seat of the one bishop of the Northern Netherlands up to 1559. Furthermore, it held the ﬁve richest and most important chapters in the northern Low Countries, chapters that were not devoid of political power. It was the ecclesiastical capital and in Chapter 5 we shall see just how often Utrecht was a career destination for students in the population. In addition to this, it was also the capital where the worldly government of the bishop was located, until worldly authority was transferred to Charles V in 1528. As such it had a double function. The dominance of the city in student numbers is therefore understandable, but perhaps somewhat exaggerated.41 The central place Utrecht held in the Northern Netherlands meant that other powers sought to gain inﬂuence here. The counts of Holland, the dukes of Guelders, and their respective nobles, the powerful families in Utrecht itself and in the cities along the IJssel all tried to win the bishop’s seat, reserve canonries in one of the chapters. As such ecclesiastical dignities could become the plaything of ‘foreign’ powers. These situations were frequently accompanied by the clash of arms. Sometimes one might detect the eﬀects of crisis in student mobility from Utrecht. Is it coincidental that in the ﬁrst years, when major conﬂict arose about the papal candidate for the episcopal seat (1423–32) which resulted in a state of serious war, schism between canons and enduring conﬂict with the pope, students show very little fervour for a trip to Italy? The ﬁfties and sixties saw very few Utrechtenaren travel to Italy. The succession war in 1455–6, in which several students of the population were involved at high diplomatic level for the locally favourite Guelders candidate Gijsbert van Brederode, gave at least two students in the population the opportunity to obtain their doctorate in law, but neither was from Utrecht. The early years of the Burgundian

41 The city of Utrecht accounted for 61.7% of students from the ‘Nedersticht’ in Louvain between 1485 and 1527; De Prins, ‘Immatriculatiefrequentie’, 143.

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candidate, David, a bastard son of Philip the Good, were diﬃcult enough. From about 1470 onwards, his power increased and this was most clearly visible in his attempts to centralize government in the 1470s. Though most of his attempts were neutralized after his brother and ally, Charles the Bold, died in 1477, a more lasting modernization is observable in the Bisschoppelijke Raad, where the constant presence of lawyers with a degree in civil law became a feature of the council. The establishment of a supreme court of appeal, the Schive, that had to include learned lawyers among its members, was another such policy. Though not all of these measures lasted, it signiﬁed the increased importance of (Roman) law in the government of Het Sticht, to which the States, as the opposing force of centralized power, had to respond in kind.42 The last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century does indeed show a substantial increase of the number of law students from Utrecht at Italian universities.43 A minimum 12 (and probably 16) travelled south in these years. The presence of a “Iohannes David de illustri stirpe ducis Burgundie, scolarium ultramontanorum rector”44 at the University of Bologna in 1484 is very noteworthy in this respect. In this period more than 20 per cent of all law students from the Northern Netherlands in Italy came from Utrecht! The ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century marks a period of decline, which culminates in the twenties and thirties, when only two students from Utrecht can be found in the sources. This period of general crisis in mobility to Italian universities coincides with a period of crisis for Utrecht. In 1527 war broke out. It all centred on the

42 See for political and institutional development of Utrecht: D.Th. Enklaar, Het landsheerlijk bestuur in het Sticht Utrecht aan deze zijde van den IJssel gedurende de regeering van bisschop David van Bourgondië (Utrecht 1927); D.A. Berents, ‘Het Sticht Utrecht, Gelre en Friesland 1423–1482’ in: NAGN, IV, 292–303; B. van den Hoven van Genderen, Het kapittel-generaal en de Staten van het Nedersticht in de 15e eeuw (Utrecht 1987). 43 In the seventies some ﬁve students started to study law at Orléans. In the next two no students enrolled. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5. 44 Piana, LSIP, 98; Id., LSIC, 271; Dallari, Rotuli, I, 119a: “Ioannes de Traiecto de Burgundia”; ASB, AS, inv. nr. 21, f. 147v–148r. I know of only one Johannes of Burgundy, son of Philip of Burgundy, David’s half-brother. He was born in the nineties, though. It is not unlikely that this certainly illegitimate young man was a bastard son of bishop David himself, to which the addition of the name “David” might point.

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Choice of Faculty in Italy: Utrecht 30

25

20 Oth/Unkn. Medicine Law

15

10

5

0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 3.1.5. Choice of faculty in Italy: Utrecht.

worldly authority over Het Sticht. In 1528 Charles V was recognized as lord over its territory. In 1530 he reformed the institutions of Utrecht and Overijssel thoroughly. A centralized court where Roman law would be more important than ever before was established.45 Mobility to Italy picked up in the forties, and increased further in the ﬁfties, reaching an absolute peak in the sixties. As for the choice of faculty, law seems to have been the preferred subject. This should not mask the fact that Utrecht sent students of medicine in every time cohort, and that their number increased particularly in the sixteenth century. If we look at the percentages, Utrecht holds the middle between the western regions and the northeastern regions, which reﬂects not only its geographical position, but also its position as the ecclesiastical centre of the Northern Netherlands. Guelders The duchy of Guelders was the largest political entity in the diocese of Utrecht. In population it was second only to the county of Holland. Although it remained predominantly rural in character, it possessed

45 It is signiﬁcant that no less than 10 students registered with the German Nation of the law University of Orléans in the thirties. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5.

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several towns, some of which were large and important. Nijmegen was by far the largest of the Guelders towns. It had some 11,000 inhabitants in the ﬁfteenth century and was in the top ten of the Northern Netherlands. Roermond—5,000 to 10,000—, Arnhem, Zutphen, Venlo and Tiel—all with some 2,000 to 5,000 inhabitants in the ﬁfteenth century—were also of some importance. Of all the eastern regions of the northern Low Countries, Guelders was by far the most focused on its eastern neighbours. The duke of Guelders had interests in the adjacent German territories and ties to the bishopric of Cologne were very close. The most noticeable feature of Guelders’ mobility to Italy was its comparatively small contribution. With almost 20 per cent of the total population of the Northern Netherlands, it sent only 7.8 per cent of students from the diocese of Utrecht to Italian studia. In other words, students from Guelders were underrepresented.46 Considering the position that several Bolognese alumni held at the Court of Guelders, this seems highly surprising. Of the seven know legal councillors attached to the Court from 1371 until 1473 no less than four had studied and three graduated at the University of Bologna.47 A closer look at curriculum of these councillors reveals that six of them had studied in Cologne. This small case study is indicative of student mobility from Guelders at large. Neighbouring Cologne was the university pole that attracted the overwhelming majority of young men from the duchy.48 There was some development over time though in their travelling to Italy. If one looks at the period 1426–1450, one notices that only Holland and Overijssel sent more students to Italy. Guelders had its ﬁrst peak period then—one-ﬁfth of all students from Guelders—with 10.8 per cent of all students from the northern Low Countries (especially, with 4 out of 33 lawyers, three of whom visited Bologna, there seems to be some continuity with the previous 25 years, when three lawyers visited Bologna). Bologna for law and Padua for medicine

46 The same applied to the law University of Orléans, where students from Guelders only represented 5.5% of the total from the Northern Netherlands. Ibid. 47 G.J.M. Nijsten, Het Hof van Gelre. Cultuur ten tijde van de hertogen uit het Gulikse en Egmondse huis (1371–1473) (Kampen 1992) 382–6, Johan van Nuwenstein, mr. Johan van Groesbeek, mr. Michiel van Brede and mr. Peter van der Moelen. All of them graduated before 1425 and therefore are not counted among the population. 48 Ibid.; Scheelen-Schutgens, ‘Gelderse studenten’; see also the table on geographical origin at the University of Cologne.

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were the most popular destinations. In the second period between 1451 and 1475, Guelders only sent four students to the peninsula. This period was one of internal conﬂict in the duchy, in which ‘foreign’ powers like the Burgundian dukes also tried to play a role. The latter succeeded in 1473 to acquire Guelders, but had to relinquish it again in 1477 after the death of Charles the Bold. Ever since then, the Habsburg successors to the Burgundians tried to conquer Guelders, which resisted with severity, by force. This process was only completed in 1543 when Charles V ﬁnally broke Guelders’ resistance against foreign powers. In this entire period, student mobility to Italy was very small, the occasional student making his way across the Alps. It is diﬃcult to judge whether the encapsulation of Guelders in the Habsburg empire and the subsequent reform of its institutions played an important role in the process, but mobility to Italy picks up rapidly after 1543, when no less than 27 out of the total of 50 students from Guelders emerge in university sources.49 Looking at the choice of faculty will clarify some of this development. Although law was the subject most chosen by Geldersen at Italian universities, the contingent of medical students cannot be dismissed. After Holland and Zeeland, their share in the total of students of medicine is the largest. What is especially signiﬁcant is the number of students that Guelders sent to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Ten out of ﬁfteen were Geldersen who specialized in either arts or theology. This seems to conﬁrm the strong ties between the University of Cologne and the college on the one hand and the equally strong links between Guelders and both universities on the other. Though mobility from Guelders to Italy was urban in majority, the majority is not as pronounced as for most other territories. This is in accordance with the more rural character of the duchy. Two of the most important cities in Guelders dominate with two-ﬁfths of students indicating that they were from either town. Nijmegen with 12 and Arnhem with 8 stood tall among the Guelders towns.50

49 It is noteworthy that several of them ended up as councillors in the States of Guelders. 50 Compared to the other cities in the Northern Netherlands that had more than 10,000 inhabitants, Nijmegen sent relatively few students. Only Gouda (16) and Delft (18) sent less than 20 students to Italy.

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20

15

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10

5

0 1426–50

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1476–1500

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Graph 3.1.6. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Guelders.

Overijssel Overijssel—or ‘Oversticht’—is another rather strange territory in the northern Low Countries. It was not really a political entity in itself, although it did have its own States, but was formally part of the worldly territory of the bishop of Utrecht until 1528, after which it became a separate province in the Netherlands. Overijssel was dominated by three of the Hanseatic towns on the IJssel, Deventer, Kampen and Zwolle. These had known a rapid development in the thirteenth and fourteenth century and dominated the economic and cultural landscape along the IJssel River.51 They had close ties with the German Hinterland. Although the region was predominantly rural in character, the towns harboured almost 50 per cent of the population. This domination is also visible in the number of students these towns sent to Italy. Mobility from the IJssel towns goes back as far as 1292, when Johannes and Henricus “de Daventria” registered with the German Nation of the law University of Bologna.52 In the period 1426–1575 no less than 34 out of 43 students from Overijssel came from these three cities. The two most important, Kampen (16)

51 It should be kept in mind that the Modern Devotion originated in the IJssel towns. The schools of Deventer and Zwolle were famous institutions in the fourteenth and ﬁfteenth centuries. 52 Acta, 40; 21 and 70.

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and Deventer (14) account for more than two-thirds alone!53 Mobility was decidedly urban in character, dominated by a handful of towns. It also seems to have concentrated itself in the ﬁfteenth century with 31 out of the total of 43 (or 72.1 per cent). The peak lies in the period 1426–1450, when 14 Overijssel students account for no less than 15.2 per cent of all students from the diocese of Utrecht. In the years 1451–75 their number halved, followed by a slight rise to 10 students in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, when they accounted for 10.2 per cent of all Northern Netherlands students, a second and last peak. It has to be said that the IJssel towns had already hit their economic zenith in the fourteenth and early ﬁfteenth century. There was hardly any growth after 1400. They continued to exert a certain cultural dominance in the Northern Netherlands. The schools in Deventer and Zwolle enjoyed quite some prestige. They were centres of the Brethren of the Common Life, where manuscript copying and illuminating ﬂourished. The printing press arrived in Deventer very early on. All this cannot conceal that the towns along the river IJssel had to face major structural problems, dealing with the river itself. The IJssel silted up in the course of the ﬁfteenth century. The towns lost out on economic ground to Holland in particular and especially in the sixteenth century had to content themselves with the role of regional centre rather than an interregional or even international one. Thus, when the crises that hit student mobility to Italy in the ﬁrst decades of the sixteenth century and that have to be explained by conditions in Italy itself, ended, mobility from Overijssel recovered somewhat, but certainly not to the extent that other regions managed to. From being the second strongest contributor after Holland to mobility to Italy in the ﬁrst time cohort, Overijssel fell back to the position of weakest contributor of the total Northern Netherlands in the period 1526–1575. The relative decline of Overijssel in the population partly reﬂects a change of heart in the choice of exclusive destinations, which has to do with the choice of faculty as well. Although one of the ﬁrst known doctores medicinae to be appointed town physician in the Northern 53 Similar percentages were found for Louvain, where 80.4% of Overijssel students came from the three towns (67.7% from Kampen and Deventer) and Orléans, where the percentage was 78.6. De Prins, ‘Immatriculatiefrequentie’, 63; De RidderSymoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5.

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Netherlands, Gerrit Jansz van Bentheim, had studied and graduated in Italy before moving to Kampen,54 the iter italicum of students from Overijssel was primarily focused on law (65.1 per cent). In the ﬁfteenth century, 22 students from Overijssel went to the peninsula to study law, but that number shrank to 6 (possibly 9) in the sixteenth. From about 1490 Orléans became a popular exclusive destination for the study of law for Overijsselnaars. Some students combined both Italy and France, like Dirk Gelmers who enrolled in Orléans in 1494 and travelled across the Alps to Bologna, where he registered with the German Nation in 1497 and graduated in civil law in 1500—with only one of the jury objecting! Orléans, however, seems to have taken over the role of Bologna as the most prestigious destination for law exactly in the nineties of the ﬁfteenth century, when 6 lawyers visited Bologna and 5 the Loire city. From 1426 until 1500, 15 students had visited the studium bononiensis. From 1490 until 1546 13 students would prefer Orléans, while Bologna managed to attract just 3 law students in the sixteenth century up to 1575. This prestigious French university thus managed to present itself as an attractive alternative to the Italian studia and was able to absorb quite a few students.55 Friesland The region of Friesland presents us with another interesting case. The name is connected with the early medieval kingdom of Friesland, the legacy of which still played a role in ﬁfteenth century politics.56

54 See for the situation of town physician and their academic training: Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’, 360–72. Gerrit, who graduated at the University of Ferrara, was salaried town physician of his home town from 1434 until the year of his death 1439. 55 For ﬁgures for Orléans: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’ 94–5. Italy as a university pole for law seems to have been more popular with students from Overijssel than France was, certainly in the ﬁfteenth century. In the period 1444–1546 14 Overijsselnaars travelled to the Loire city. In the comparable period 1451–1550 18 students of law travelled to Italian universities, 14 of whom alone opted for Bologna. In is not without signiﬁcance that the number of students from Overijssel visiting the University of Louvain between 1485–1527 more than doubles; De Prins, ‘Inschrijvingsfrequentie’ 145. Does this suggest a slight shift in focus on the part of Overijssel, that hitherto had been pointed at least in equal measure towards the east and now changed towards the west? Cf. Berents, ‘Sticht Utrecht’, 292. 56 Both Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold thought of this kingdom

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Choice of Faculty in Italy: Overijssel 30

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20 Oth/Unkn. Medicine Law

15

10

5

0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

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Graph 3.1.7. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Overijssel.

As with the name Friesland, students from Friesland visiting Italian universities go way back, as far as 1287, when a certain Adolphus de Frisia visited the University of Bologna. As was mentioned earlier, a quite spectacular number of students with the epithet “de Frisia”, “Friso” or “Frisius” can be found in the sources for Bologna from very early onwards. In the years 1287–1300 no less than 38 (!) students labelled “de Frisia” registered with the German Nation of the law University of Bologna. This number is astonishing by all standards and it poses the question what was meant exactly when scribes wrote down “de Frisia”.57 Let us content ourselves for now by saying, that whatever it meant exactly, the ﬁgure dropped substantially in the next 125 years, when 17 students called “Frisius” or “de Frisia” emerge in Italian university sources. This ﬁgure drops most after 1375, which period coincides with new university foundations in Germany of which certainly Cologne, Rostock, Erfurt and Prague made an immediate impact.58

when they sought to gain a royal crown, as Friesland was considered to be one of the eighteen ancient kingdoms of Christendom. See: A. G. Jongkees, ‘Het koninkrijk Friesland in de vijftiende eeuw’ in: Id., Burgundica et Varia. Keuze uit de verspreide opstellen van prof. dr. A.G. Jongkees (Hilversum 1990) 27–47. 57 The question of identity in university sources will be dealt with in more detail under the next heading. 58 Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 12; ﬁgures complemented by Schmutz, Juristen.

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Certainly, at the start of the period under investigation, Friesland sent the smallest number students of all regions in the Northern Netherlands and this situation did not alter until the early sixteenth century. The volte-face, though, is enormous. Though Friesland only sent 9 young men up to 1499, from 1500 up to 1575, 55 students from Friesland account for 18.2 per cent of all students from the northern Low Countries and for no less than 21.9 per cent of all law students. Friesland was second only after Holland in the total number of students sent to Italian studia in the sixteenth century!59 Certainly, part of this sudden hausse has to be viewed against the background of a general spectacular increase in the total student mobility from Friesland from 1500 onwards. A connection has been made with the political situation in the region. In 1500 the duke of Saxony managed to acquire Friesland and started to reform, modernize and centralize the government of the region, which would have had a positive eﬀect on the number of academics employed in bureaucracies.60 It would seem that especially learned lawyers with a doctor’s degree could proﬁt from this development. Up to 1515 no less than 15 students emerge in the sources. The more general decline in student numbers from Friesland in the period 1516–45,61 can also be observed in the numbers travelling to Italy, for in those three decades only 11 students travelled southwards, the period which also marks the nadir in general student mobility to Italy. Numbers peaked again in the ﬁfties when 15 students can be found on the peninsula. The ﬁgure drops again in the sixties to three and climbs in the seventies to 11, after which another period of decline set in, no doubt closely connected with the Dutch Revolt.62

59 It is certainly no coincidence that travel from Friesland to the law University of Orléans also starts with the year 1500. From then until 1546, 21 Frisians registered (note, Groningers are included in these ﬁgures); De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94–5. The situation is almost exactly the same in Bologna. Prior to 1500 only one student, Winandus Alama, registered in 1426. From 1500 until 1550 16 students appeared. 60 Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 16–7. He also observes an earlier general rise in student number since the 1460s, when after more than two decades of no Frisian presence in Italy, three students appear. 61 Ibid. Zijlstra connects this decline with the precarious political situation of the period when the duke of Guelders and Charles V vied for authority over Friesland. The crises that hit Italy in the twenties and thirties must also have made an impact on mobility to Italy. 62 Ibid. 16–7.

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Friesland was the northern Low Countries’ most rural region. When looking at the student population from it, it should not surprise that the minimum percentage of students with an urban background (48.4 per cent) is lowest of all the regions discussed here. Friesland also has the highest percentage of students of whom it was impossible to associate them with a particular location (32.8 per cent).63 It is certain that at least 18.8 per cent of Frisian students had a rural background, but this ﬁgure is too low. It is plausible that it was closer to the share found for Guelders (one-third). Be that as it may, even these smaller Frisian towns, where approximately only 22 per cent of the population lived, are overrepresented in the contingent of students that found its way to Italy. Especially Leeuwarden that was rapidly growing into a regional capital for government and administration in the course of the sixteenth century, shows signs of fulﬁlling a similar role to The Hague on a somewhat smaller scale. With 13 students Leeuwarden accounted for one-ﬁfth of all students from Friesland! Friesland is a very interesting case for the choice of faculty. With 70.3 per cent of Frisian students opting for law, one might say that their peregrinatio was decidedly legal in nature. The strange thing is that this percentage is not that diﬀerent from their choice of subject at other universities closer to home. At Louvain, for instance, 60 per cent of Frisian students chose law. At the University of Cologne this percentage was 52!64 Particularly the percentage of clerics that opted for the study of law was very high. Zijlstra has shown that these students of law played a necessary role in Frisian society at local level, where a centralized legal system was virtually absent. This explains the extraordinary percentage of law students from Friesland.65 It would seem that for those students who travelled all the way to Italy, the career path was somewhat diﬀerent. They tended to end up in the bureaucracies of state more often than as rural parish priests with certain legal duties.

63 A handicap for researchers lies in the strong sense of Frisian identity that is so clear even in university sources. It suﬃced for them to say that they were “de Frisia”. Section 3.3 will explore this in more detail. 64 Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 35. 65 Ibid. 96–8.

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Choice of Faculty in Italy: Friesland 30

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20 Oth/Unkn. Medicine Law

15

10

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0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

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Graph 3.1.8. Choice of Faculty in Italy: Friesland.

It is interesting to note that the sixteenth century also shows an increase in the number of Frisian students who want to study medicine, indicating that Italy was ﬁrmly located on the medical map of Europe, even in a relatively rural and remote area like Friesland. Groningen Groningen and the ‘Ommelanden’ present us with a case that is not dissimilar to that of Utrecht, in more than one aspect. Formally, Groningen and the surrounding territories were under the worldly authority of the bishop of Utrecht, until 1536 when Charles V was recognized as lord. Then there was the central position the city Groningen had in the region. It was by far the largest city in the north-east of the Northern Netherlands with some 19,400 inhabitants in 1520. As with Utrecht, it will be shown that the city accounted for nearly all of the student mobility to Italy with an exaggerated 43 (out of 54) claiming to be from the city of Groningen, it suggests a similar dominant position to the one Utrecht had over the ‘Nedersticht’.66 After Utrecht, Groningen was the city that sent most young

66 For student from Groningen visiting the University of Louvain, the percentage claiming to be from the city was as high as 97%! Based on ﬁgures by: De Prins, ‘Inschrijvingsfrequentie’, 61.

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men to Italy. The nature of the iter italicum from Groningen was therefore overwhelmingly urban, even though the region had a rural character. Although the student numbers in the beginning of the period under investigation were not that diﬀerent from the neighbouring region of Friesland from 1426 until 1475, 10 Groningers against 8 Frisians, the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century shows a remarkable peak, when 15 Groningers emerge in the sources and account for 14.7 per cent of all students from the Northern Netherlands and one-ﬁfth of all law students! Zijlstra has shown that there was a general rise in student numbers from Groningen from about 1460 onwards, and particularly from 1475 until 1485. This development corresponded with Groningen’s Golden Age as the dominant power in the wider region, which culminated around 1490.67 The number of students travelling to the peninsula, tripling in the last quarter compared to the previous 25 years, seems to conﬁrm this explanation. The ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century, the number declined but stayed at a relatively high level. As was the case for other regions, the period 1526–1550 was the low point for the sixteenth century. Besides the troubles that hit student mobility to Italy in general in this period, the overall number of students coming from Groningen declined in the twenties and early thirties, most likely corresponding with the downfall of the city as a regional super power and its conquest by Charles V.68 Recovery set in the forties when 4 students from Groningen went southwards. The ﬁfties show another peak, when 9 Groningers turned up. In the late sixties another period of decline set in, that has to be connected with the period of Revolt, turning Groningen and the Ommelanden into a theatre of war.69 When students from this region travelled to the peninsula, it was predominantly a question of law. With an overall percentage for law students of 74.1 per cent, Groningen could be called the most legalminded region where the peregrinatio academica to Italian universities

67 Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 15–7. The number of students travelling to Italian universities follows this pattern. The seventies (12) and early eighties (6) mark a high point, while in the nineties only one Groninger can be found in Italy. 68 Ibid. Again the student numbers travelling to Italy ﬁt the more general pattern for Groninger students. After the decline in the nineties, the ﬁrst two decades show another rise with eight students emerging in the sources until 1519. From 1520 until 1539 only two students from Groningen can be found at Italian studia. 69 Ibid.

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Graph 3.1.9. Choice of faculty in Italy: Groningen.

is concerned. Like its neighbour, Friesland, though, the popularity of Italy to study medicine picked up in the third quarter of the sixteenth century.

3.2. General Tendencies: The Catchment Areas of Italian Universities For most regions it could be established that not only factors of incidental or more structural nature in Italian university cities or on the peninsula in general could play a role in the ﬂuctuation of student numbers, but also that certain structural factors within the home region could have either a positive or negative eﬀect on student mobility to Italy. The various periods of hausse and baisse, therefore have to be seen and explained in regional perspective as well as from the Italian point of view. For the moment it seems worthwhile comparing regional mobility to Italian universities with some of the universities that were mentioned earlier. As might be expected, the University of Louvain had its recruitment area most marked in the western parts of the Northern Netherlands. Between 1485 and 1527, 85 per cent of students came from Holland, Zeeland and the Nedersticht. Especially Zeeland’s contribution to Louvain is remarkable. This region was economically and culturally very close to its southern neighbours, Flanders and Brabant. The eastern regions are underrepresented, but none more

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so than the duchy of Guelders, which harboured about one-ﬁfth of the northern Low Countries’ population, but whose percentage of attendance at Louvain constituted only 3. One of the reasons for this situation becomes clear when one looks at the recruitment area of the University of Cologne. The division according to regions is much more in accordance with population division in the Northern Netherlands at large, be it that Guelders is somewhat stronger represented. The close ties with the diocese of Cologne, which was next-door, go far to explain this phenomenon. The eastern regions represented no less than 48 per cent of Northern Netherlands’ attendance in Cologne, a ﬁgure that closely resembles their part in the population of the northern Low Countries.70 When one looks at institutions that were specialized—as the Italian universities were—in the subject of law, the University of Orléans, one notices that there is a strong resemblance to the picture for the University of Louvain, in the sense that the western parts dominate with some 79 per cent of attendance against just 16 per cent for the eastern regions. If we compare these ﬁgures to those for law students visiting Italian universities, we notice that ﬁgures resemble those of Cologne (though Guelders and Friesland seem to have switched positions). The eastern parts of the Northern Netherlands constitute 41 per cent of law students in Italy against 57 per cent for the western parts. Here one might hint at a distinct feature of mobility to Italy. It seems to have been much more focused on law for students from the eastern regions. For instance, the two decades 1460–79 show that student mobility was dominated by the booming regions Holland and Zeeland, that accounted for 67.7 per cent of all students from the northern Low Countries. In the next twenty years their absolute number declined enormously and their relative share of Northern Netherlands’ mobility fell to 45.0 per cent, while other regions—Utrecht and Overijssel— show an increase. The adverse economic situation in the western regions, aggravated by political crisis and war, suggests itself as a possible and plausible explanation for this absolute and relative decline.

70 The close ties of especially Overijssel and Guelders are reﬂected in more that just the student numbers these regions sent to Cologne. Close economic ties existed between them and Westphalia and the Rhineland. Cf. D.A. Berents, ‘Het Sticht Utrecht, Gelre en Friesland’ in: NAGN, IV, 292–3.

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Italy Louvain Cologne Italy Law Orléans % Total (N=640) (N=4952) (N=2577) (N=327) (N=383) Pop NN Holland Zeeland Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unknown Total

45 10 9 8 7 10 8 3

56 25 4 3 3 6 3 –

38 9 5 24 9 4 11 –

38 8 11 6 9 14 12 2

53 16 10 5 4 7 u.f. 5

39.0 12.4 3.4 19.4 7.7 10.9 7.2

100

100

100

100

100

100

Table 3.2.1. Attendance by region: Italy compared with Louvain, Cologne and Orléans in percentages.

Similarly, the take-oﬀ of mobility from Groningen in the seventies of the ﬁfteenth century and that of Friesland in the ﬁrst decade of the sixteenth could be ascribed to changes in the political-institutional situation in those regions. The low period 1510–39 seems to almost apply to all regions in the northern Low Countries. This development has to be largely explained in terms of the situation on the Italian peninsula, though.71 It would seem that only the peaks in the decades 1550–69 can really be called a Northern Netherlands phenomenon in general. Surely, it is more than a coincidence that the process of uniﬁcation of the Netherlands as a whole was more or less completed in the 1540s, with the conquest of Guelders in 1543 and the proclamation of the Burgundian Circle in 1548. The period 1540–65 was also one of economic growth for the Low Countries. Even the decline of the student number in the seventies, the ﬁrst years of the Revolt, is an almost general phenomenon.72 The slow process of integration of these regions into a federal state, which was to happen with the foundation of the Republic, is somewhat visible in the phenomenon of student mobility to Italy. Although diﬀerentiation between the

71 For law students there was an excellent alternative: Orléans. With such an unstable situation in Italy, this university was able to absorb those young men with aspirations. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 94. 72 The deviating ﬁgures for Friesland and Guelders have to be largely explained in terms of their contribution to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome.

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various regions is a necessity, this seems to be even more of an imperative for the period before 1535–40. The example of the towns of Amsterdam and Leiden has showed that even within regions the need to diﬀerentiate is a useful and necessary process to explain the phenomenon of student mobility. The need for diﬀerentiation in terms of region was also most clearly shown where the subject of study was concerned. Student mobility to diﬀerent Italian universities meant something diﬀerent for diﬀerent regions in diﬀerent periods. For the ﬁfteenth century especially, the choice for medicine seems to have been one primarily for the western regions of Holland and Zeeland, with 83.1 per cent of all medical students. The town and city density of these regions and the emergence of a systematic health care organization, with learned town physicians employed by the respective governments, go far to explain this.73 This applied much less to the north-eastern regions of Friesland, Groningen and to a lesser extent Overijssel.74 Their choice for Italian universities had to do with the study of law in overwhelming majority. Utrecht and Guelders seem to have held some sort of middle position between the east and the west. If we explore the ﬁgures for law from a regional perspective, we notice that the further east one goes, the more law-focused the iter italicum was. This by no means suggests that the western regions were less legal minded than their eastern neighbours. Far from it. Holland and especially Zeeland, the region most closely connected with Flanders and Brabant, opted in general for a diﬀerent peregrinatio, the one to Orléans. Again, Utrecht and Guelders hold, the middle position, while the regions of Overijssel, but especially Friesland and Groningen seem to have favoured the Italian university pole more than the one on the river Loire. Pinned down on the most popular university for law in this period, Bologna, one observes that the relative popularity of the Alma

73 Much research needs to be done to shed light on the position of learned physicians in the Northern Netherlands prior to 1575. Apart from some case studies for certain towns and cities, e.g. J. Steendijk-Kuypers, Volksgezondheidszorg in de 16e en 17e eeuw te Hoorn. Een bijdrage tot de beeldvorming van sociaal-geneeskundige structuren in een stedelijke samenleving (Rotterdam 1994), there is the review article by Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’, who draws a considerable amount of information from the IJsseltowns, Deventer and Zwolle. 74 Cf. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, chapter V, 242–55, and more in particular 242, note 6, which passage gives an indication of the importance of Italian universities, where the study of medicine was concerned.

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Mater Bononiensis runs from the south-west (Zeeland-lowest) to the north-east (Groningen-highest), while the reverse is the case for the studium of Orléans.75 It is no coincidence that the regions more closely connected with the German lands are relatively overrepresented at the law faculties of Italian universities. Potential law students from the Holy Roman Empire overwhelmingly preferred Italy to France as a destination for study.76 Diﬀerentiation in terms of regions and choice of faculty also allows us to make some further comments on the popularity of the various universities on the peninsula. Bologna was relatively more popular with students from the eastern parts of the northern Low Countries. Apart from the period 1451–75, the booming years for Holland and Zeeland with 73.5 per cent of attendance, the eastern regions always delivered more than their fair share of students, certainly so after about 1480. This becomes even more obvious when one concentrates on the study of law. In the sixteenth century—up to 1575—Overijssel, Friesland and Groningen accounted for exactly 50 per cent of all law students. Alternatively, Padua was comparatively more popular with students from the western regions of the Utrecht diocese. Especially for the period up to about 1480 their dominance in attendance is clear. Northern Netherlands’ students of medicine in Padua, most marked for the time cohort 1451–75 with 91.3 per cent, came from Holland and Zeeland. If Padua was considered to be the medical centre of Europe from 1540 onwards, one can ask if this was not already the case in the early ﬁfteenth century, when it certainly attracted an impressive number of students from the west of the Low Countries. The picture changed somewhat after the major crisis that hit Padua in the ﬁrst decades of the sixteenth century. Attendance from Holland remained relatively strong, although the absolute number collapsed. Once recovery started in the 1540s, one notices that virtually all 75 In response to De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 74 and n. 16. 76 If we look at students coming from the Holy Roman Empire (minus the Netherlands) studying at Orléans from 1444–1546 (some 354) compared to those at Bologna in the period 1451–1550 (1570), the diﬀerence is obvious. Figures based on Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Les origines géographique et sociale des étudiants de la nation germanique de l’ancienne Université d’Orléans (1444–1546). Aperçu général’ in: J. IJsewijn and J. Paquet (eds.), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages (Louvain 1978) 455–475, there 458, 469; Ead., ‘Brabanders’ 202–4; Dotzauer, ‘Deutsches Studium’, 101.

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regions partake in travel to Padua. Even the choice of subject shows a more homogenous structure for the diﬀerent regions than was the case heretofore, with law now the dominant choice, but with all regions represented in the faculty of arts and medicine. In other words, student travel to Padua started to look like a phenomenon of the Northern Netherlands—maybe even the total Netherlands—in general. For the ﬁfteenth century similar things might be said about the regional division of attendance at Ferrara. Holland and Zeeland dominated at this studium. Most clearly in the number of medical students, which remained true for Holland even in the sixteenth century, even though numbers declined. The shift in focus from medicine in the ﬁfteenth—Angelo Cato, being one of the professors—to law in the sixteenth century—the famous Andreas Alciatus hired—is visible in the numbers for the various regions. Students from Friesland, Groningen and Utrecht kept coming, opting for law in most cases and their relative share in attendance increased. Groningen seems to have had a special relationship with the University of Ferrara. Groningers appear in all time cohorts, even in those when crisis hit hardest. The fact that a number of notable citizens of the city had studied and graduated there, starting with Johannes Canter in 1444, culminating in the presence of Rodolphus Agricola, who managed to befriend the duke of Ferrara himself, might go a long way to explain this. As for the other universities on the peninsula, one might say that there existed a relationship between choice of faculty and regional division. In the law dominated studium of Siena, the share of Holland and Zeeland was relatively low. Siena seems to have been very popular with students from Utrecht in particular. Pavia, also a law dominated institution, was most attractive to students from the northeast of the Netherlands. Nearly half of the Northern Netherlands’ students came from Friesland, Groningen and Overijssel. The 10 Hollanders studying there in majority opted for medicine. At the University of Pisa/Florence matters were very diﬀerent. Medicine was the most popular choice here and students from the western parts dominated attendance, Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht accounting for three quarters of all students from the diocese of Utrecht.77 77 It is well worth remembering that Pisa/Florence was also very popular with students from the Southern Netherlands.

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As for Rome, and the Collegium Germanicum in particular, it is again worth mentioning the close ties between the University of Cologne and the college. Students from Guelders, the town of Nijmegen in particular, were very keen to travel to Rome. They account for half of students found.78 The results found for the various universities seem to point to the more general pattern that students from Holland and Zeeland were in equal measure interested in law and medicine, while the other regions in the northern Low Countries were in majority focused on the study of law. Towards the end of the period under investigation, the picture became more homogenous and one might speak of the iter italicum from the Northern Netherlands in the sense that this study trip was primarily for the study of law, but that a signiﬁcant part of the population opted for medicine. Something that was true for all regions—albeit in diﬀerent shapes and sizes—was the comparatively large urban contingent in the total population. Even for the most rural region, Friesland, where not even a quarter of the population lived in towns, the majority of students that travelled to Italy probably came from its relatively small towns. There also is a correlation between the size of cities and number of students sent to Italy. Naturally, more students came from bigger cities than from small towns, but proportionally this seems to hold as well. Thus if we look at the nine biggest cities in the total Northern Netherlands—Utrecht, Groningen, Amsterdam, Leiden, Dordrecht, Haarlem, Delft, Gouda and Nijmegen, all with some 10,000 inhabitants or more—one observes that with some 17.2 per cent of the population of the northern Low Countries, they represented 38.9 per cent of all students travelling to Italy.79

3.3. Batavus, Frisius, Belga? University Sources as a Mirror of Identity The attempt to attribute students to a particular region and city or town was a highly successful one, where Italian university sources were concerned, but they can they also tell us something more about 78

Jacobs and Beghyn, ‘Noord-Nederlandse studenten’. Similarly, these cities account for 41.9% of the total urban population of the Northern Netherlands, but for 51.3% of all students from the Northern Netherlands in Italy with an urban background. 79

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the sense of identity of students registering and graduating? Do they leave us traces of what students considered themselves to be in terms of belonging to a city, a region or an entity even bigger than that: the Netherlands? Can we connect this to the picture painted in recent historiography?80 This can be done by carefully analysing name giving in these—albeit very diverse—sources. Another way of looking at this is to try and assess if students mingled with fellows from their own region, or an even wider area. This, of course, is very diﬃcult as we have few sources at our disposal in which students explicitly state their preference in company. There might be a way out of this situation using administrative sources. One way of doing this is using the witness lists attached to some of the graduation registers. Who were present? Whom did the scribes of these registers or separate charters mention by name? Does this reveal anything about the circles in which the graduation candidate mingled? Graduation registers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are not very useful for our purpose. The Libri secreti of the colleges of doctors of the University of Bologna, for instance, were reports on what happened in the meetings of the college. As such they mention graduation proceedings, but not in a very elaborate way and no witnesses are named. Very often the prior in question contented himself with mentioning that “dominus Martinus de Alamania”—tall, probably blond and a funny accent in Latin, mentioned some funny name as his place of origin, therefore from the far north, ergo Alemania— had graduated in civil law on 8 October 1451.81 It is up to us to ﬁnd out that this Martinus was actually Martinus Hegherdoer of Middelburg. If, however, the notary minutae have come down to us, or the oﬃcial register of the notary of the bishop, then the situation is diﬀerent. Not only do these documents give more clues about

80 The last ﬁfteen years have shown a substantial increase in literature on the subject of ‘national identity’. W.Th.M. Frijhoﬀ, ‘Identiteit en identiteitsbesef. De historicus en de spanning tussen verbeelding, benoeming en herkenning’ in: BMGN 107 (1992) 614–34. For this period cf. Karin Tilmans, ‘De ontwikkeling van een vaderland-begrip in de laat-middeleeuwse en vroegmoderne geschiedschrijving van de Nederlanden’ in: N.C.F. van Sas (ed.), Vaderland. Een geschiedenis van de vijftiende eeuw tot 1940 (Amsterdam 1999) 7–53; S. Groenveld, “Natie’ en ‘patria’ bij zestiendeeeuwse Nederlanders’ in: Ibid. 55–81; P.J. van Kessel, ‘Van Fiandra naar Olanda. Veranderendevisie in het vroegmoderne Italië op de Nederlandse identiteit’ in: Mededelingen KNAW, afdeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks 56 (1993) 177–196. 81 Piana, LSIC, 6.

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the graduate—one would like to see one’s name written out correctly—, but witnesses to the act of conferring the doctorate are mentioned explicitly as well. The graduation charters in the notary archives of Ferrara and of the notary archives and episcopal archives of Padua will be taken as a case study here. There was a total of a 108 charters or sections in registers with 108 graduates from the Northern Netherlands in which 430 witnesses are mentioned with their names and place of origin. In 25 charters (23.1 per cent) another student from the same city or town as the graduate in question was mentioned. When Philippus Schoen of Nijmegen graduated in medicine at the University of Padua 31 October 1435, the ﬁrst student mentioned in the witness list was Johannes Vighe of Nijmegen, a student of civil law at the same studium.82 In 64 charters (59.3 per cent) at least one other student from the same region as the candidate was mentioned. In no less than 90 out of a 108 charters (83.3 per cent) at least one other student from the Netherlands was present at the festive occasion that celebrated the graduation of a fellow student from the Low Countries, and mentioned explicitly. If we want to narrow this further to individuals, the following picture emerges: in these 108 charters 430 names of individuals were mentioned as witnesses of whom 27 (6.3 per cent) came from the very same city, town or even village as the graduate in question. Then, 117 witnesses (27.2 per cent) could be attributed to the same region as the candidate. No less than 303 witnesses or 70.5 per cent of all witnesses explicitly mentioned in these graduation charters came from the Netherlands.83 There is the possibility to look at this from another angle. At what graduation ceremonies were students from the northern Low Countries present—graduations other than from these regions, that is? For the universities of Padua and Ferrara there are an additional 82 charters where people from the Northern Netherlands are named as witnesses. In most cases it involved graduations of students from the Southern 82 ACVP, Ser. Divers., 1429–35, II, c. 5; Zonta, Acta, II, 3, nr. 1215. Other witnesses mentioned were one from Holland, three from Brabant, two Germans and one Sicilian. 83 A further 69 (16%) came from the Holy Roman Empire; 58 (13.5%) came from other countries, in overwhelming majority from Italy. Oﬃcials such as scribes and the rector that had to be present have been excluded from these calculations. 84 The number of graduations of students from French speaking parts was small (17%).

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Netherlands (36.6 per cent).84 Next, were graduation ceremonies of students from the German speaking parts of the Holy Roman Empire (35.4 per cent). In the other cases (28 per cent) young men from the diocese of Utrecht attended and were explicitly mentioned in charters that concerned graduations of students from the rest of Europe; Eastern Europe, Italy, France. What does this pattern imply? Belonging to the German Nation did not limit their engagement within the international community that a university constituted, but from the point of language and political constellation it would appear that, for most students from the Northern Netherlands, their loyalty and friendship was directed to exactly those regions that they had closest ties with. If we look at how students from the northern Low Countries appear in the sources, there are a number of interesting points. It would seem that the diocese as identifying geographical unit—so common at universities in the North of Europe—was not as important at Italian studia. It was certainly not used consistently. This is true for all source-producing institutions connected to Italian studia, whether it was the scribes of the German Nations in the various cities, a notary public in Ferrara or the notary of the bishop of Padua. Therefore the range of identifying geographical units is enormous and can vary from “de Alemanea” to “Henrico Echtel de prope Tielam”,85 which allows us to establish that this Hendrik was from the village of Echteld near the town of Tiel in the duchy of Guelders. The level of accuracy in some of the graduation registers, where students clearly wanted a level of accurate information, allows us to identify a number of cities, towns and even the tiniest of villages. These graduation charters are therefore one of the best and most complete university sources. We have to see how students were presented or even how they themselves wanted to be presented in writing. On the basis of 203 graduation charters of students from the Northern Netherlands, from nearly all universities studied covering the entire period up to 1575,86 I have tried to categorize how students were identiﬁed in this source, split up in the various regions of the northern Low Countries. All sorts of combinations came up. Schematically they can be subdivided as follows: 85 Zonta, Acta, II, 165, nr. 1720. Hendrik, by the way was present at the graduation of Hendrik Spiker of the town of Tiel. 86 It involved charters for the universities of Ferrara, Padua, Siena, Pavia, Bologna, Pisa/Florence and Parma.

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190 Hol name diocese city/village region cityvil/reg. city/reg./dioc. reg./dioc. cityvil/dioc. cityvil/aleman. rel. order Total Reg.

Zeel. Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesl. Gron. Tot.

2 0 32 10 35 7 2 13 10 1

0 0 3 3 13 0 1 2 2 0

1 1 9 0 0 0 1 1 1 0

0 0 4 1 1 0 0 2 0 0

0 2 1 0 0 0 0 7 1 0

0 0 1 8 1 0 2 2 1 0

0 0 10 1 4 2 1 1 0 0

3 3 60 23 54 9 7 28 15 1

112

24

14

8

11

15

19

203

%

Hol.

Zeel. Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesl. Gron. Total

name diocese city/village region cityvil/reg. city/reg./dioc. reg./dioc. cityvil/dioc. cityvil/aleman. rel. order

1.8 0.0 28.6 8.9 31.3 6.3 1.8 11.6 8.9 0.9

0.0 0.0 12.5 12.5 54.2 0.0 4.2 8.3 8.3 0.0

Total Reg.

100.0 100.0

7.1 7.1 64.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.1 7.1 7.1 0.0

0.0 0.0 50.0 12.5 12.5 0.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0

0.0 18.2 9.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 63.6 9.1 0.0

100.0 100.0

100.0

0.0 0.0 6.7 53.3 6.7 0.0 13.3 13.3 6.7 0.0

0.0 0.0 52.6 5.3 21.1 10.5 5.3 5.3 0.0 0.0

1.5 1.5 29.6 11.3 26.6 4.4 3.4 13.8 7.4 0.5

100.0 100.0 100.0

Table 3.3.1. The way students ﬁgure in 203 graduation charters in absolute numbers and percentages.

What can we infer from this information? A ﬁrst conclusion must be that the diocese of origin as an identifying factor was relatively unimportant. It was mentioned in only 47 cases (23.5 per cent) and in only three cases (1.5 per cent) it was the sole identifying geographical unit. Often it is used to stipulate that a student was a cleric of the diocese of Utrecht. The region of origin, which often constituted a political entity, like the county of Holland, is mentioned much more often—92 cases or 46.0 per cent—than the diocese. In 11.5 per cent of the charters the region of provenance was the sole geographical identiﬁer. By far the most often mentioned geographical

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unit to identify a student was the city, town of village where he claimed to come from. In 163 cases (81.5 per cent) the name of a location was mentioned and as the sole means of establishing geographical origin it was clearly the most important with 58 cases (29.0 per cent). It should not come as a surprise that these 58 cases apply to only a handful of cities, and always the largest and most important ones in a region. Amsterdam, Dordrecht, Delft, Haarlem and Leiden for Holland; Zierikzee and Middelburg for Zeeland; Utrecht for the Nedersticht; Nijmegen for Guelders; Deventer for Overijssel, Leeuwarden—once in the sixteenth century!—for Friesland and of course Groningen. It might plausibly be argued that no further information was necessary in these cases, as most of these towns were large well-known names, perhaps even abroad. It also suggests that for a signiﬁcant part of the population their city or town was the geographical entity that they felt most closely associated with. Are there diﬀerences between the various regions in the way students from these regions appear in these graduation acts? Some regions seem to have made more of an impact than others. In none of these charters the Latin for Overijssel (transinsulanus) or an equivalent for the “Oversticht” was mentioned. In nearly all cases, 9 out of 11, students from the IJssel towns were identiﬁed by their diocese. They were identiﬁed with a city to the same extent. The Oversticht—later Overijssel—did not really possess a coherent political structure, as it was under the worldly authority of the bishop of Utrecht, later under the lordship of Charles V. Some of this is visible in the way students appear in the sources. They tended to be associated or associate themselves with the town they came from— the IJssel towns—and the diocese, not the region. Equally the duchy of Guelders was not a term that turned up often. Only twice was it mentioned and in both cases this was in the middle of the sixteenth century: for instance when Godfried Wijnandsz Pannekoeck graduated in Siena in 1545, it was explicitly mentioned that he came from Elst and from the “ducatus Geldriae”.87 Guelders as a political entity was relatively dispersed territorially with little political integration. It consisted of four more or less separate quarters, in which local noble factions sought to gain inﬂuence by both allying themselves with the towns and other noble factions. Only the conquest 87

Minnucci and Morelli, Lauree, 138, nr. 62.

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of Guelders by Charles V and the subsequent attempt to encapsulate the duchy in the Habsburg Empire seems to have given it some more coherence. It is not surprising that students from Nijmegen thought of themselves as citizens of this powerful city rather than Geldersen. Students from Utrecht seem to have been though of, or thought of themselves as citizens of this large and well-known city. “Ultrajectinus” or “de Traiecto” points to this proud city and was much more often mentioned than the wider political structure it belonged to, the bishopric. If we look at Holland and Zeeland in its wake, one notices that both city—more so in the case of Holland than Zeeland—and region are relatively more important identiﬁers than for most other regions. “Hollandus”, “de Holandia”, “comitatus Hollandiae” all indicate that Holland as a geographical entity, even as a county, was well-known and that students from these parts were very much associated with it or wanted to be. Indeed, the county, that as a political entity dates back to the tenth century, was more developed in terms of its political structure and identity than most other regions in the northern Low Countries. Something similar can be said for the Zeeland that was under a personal union with the Holland. The close association between these two neighbouring counties can sometimes be seen when students from a town in Zeeland are nevertheless attributed to the region Holland, as in the case of Cornelis Florisz of Goes who graduated in Ferrara in 1478.88 Friesland and Groningen present us with possibly the most interesting cases. Students from Friesland were rarely mentioned with their place of origin. In three quarters of their appearance in the sources there is an identiﬁer of a wider geographical area: “Frisius” or “de Frisia”. These students were thought of as and though of themselves as Frisian! For students from the city of Groningen one can detect similarities with the Utrecht case. They nearly always mention that they come from this city. If, however, they are also identiﬁed by a region this is always as “Frisius” or “de Frisia”! These regions did not form a political unity. Friesland was a seigneury traditionally claimed by the counts of Holland and their successors,

88

Pardi, Titoli, 68–9.

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the Burgundian dukes, even though these claims did not materialize until the 1530s partly because of strong Frisian resistance. Groningen and the Ommelanden belonged to the bishopric of Utrecht and fell under the worldly authority of its bishop. Even the incorporation of these regions in the Habsburg Empire in the thirties of the sixteenth century or subsequent political changes did not alter the way these students appear in the sources. They thought of themselves as Frisian. Other than is the case for students from Holland, where there seems to have been a close connection with the formation of a political entity, students who claim to be “Frisius” seem to have associated themselves with a nation, one that transcended political divisions and roughly drawn, arbitrary borders. Even in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries the term Frisius can point to people coming from a wider geographical region that included “Ostfriesland”, Groningen and the Ommelanden, Friesland, parts of Overijssel and one might even argue parts of West-Friesland in the county of Holland. When thinking of the incredible number of students claiming to be “Frisius” or “de Frisia” visiting Bologna in the last quarter of the thirteenth century, it is worthwhile to keep this bit of geography in mind. They might have come from North-Holland in the west to as far as Bremen in the east. There is more evidence for this early form of Frisian ‘nationalism’. A long-lasting dispute, that was taken to the local courts, over what natio Frisian should be part of, was ﬁnally settled in 1292. From then on students from “Frisia” were assigned to the Natio Germanica of the University of Bologna because of its proximity to other territories assigned to the German Nation.89 This did not stop Frisian students from consistently using “Frisius”, “de Frisia” or “Friso”, when they enrolled in the Nation. Clearly a sense of identity was strongest developed in Friesland and neighbouring Groningen. A perhaps even more valuable source constitute those matriculation registers in which students themselves wrote their names and where they came from. Both the register for students of law at the German Nation of the University of Padua, starting in 1545, and that of the students of arts and medicine of the German Nation at the University

89

Cf. Kibre, Nations, 10.

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of Padua, from 1553, contain 71 autographs and can serve as another case study here.90 In this situation the student registering was free to write down exactly what he considered to be appropriate. Using a similar table to diﬀerentiate between the various regions and the way students presented themselves in writing, the outcome was as follows:

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesland Groningen Total Name City/town Region Town+Reg.

5 14 3 12

1 0 1 6

0 5 1 1

0 1 1 3

0 1 0 1

0 0 12 0

0 0 1 2

6 21 19 25

Total R.

34

8

7

5

2

12

3

71

Table 3.3.2. The way students present themselves in 71 autographs in the University registers of Padua.

As we can see, the diocese as a unit of identiﬁcation has disappeared entirely. Students in the second half of the sixteenth century saw themselves primarily as belonging to a town and/or a region. Those students who contented themselves with just writing their names were in most cases noble. Robertus of Brederode, son of Reinout III of Brederode, the foremost Holland nobleman, clearly felt no need to give further details, as his name should suﬃce.91 In other cases there was no need for the student to mention an adjective of geographical origin, since the person inscribing himself immediately before the student came from the same town. Cornelius van der Mijle had already mentioned that he was “Dordracensis”, so there was no need for his brother Adrianus to do the same.92

90 Excerpts from these matriculae for the Northern Netherlands can be found in: Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’ and Poelhekke, ‘Nederlandse leden’. They include inscriptions in Alba Amicorum as well. 91 It is noteworthy that in a witness list to a later graduation charter, ACVP, Ser. Divers., inv. nr. 54, f. 313v, d.d. 14–5–1557, he is mentioned as “rev. d. Rubertus de Brederode Cambrensis [my italics: A.L.T.]. This is not an indication that he came from the city of Cambrai. In 1556 he sought to become bishop of the diocese of Cambrai, in vain as it turned out. 92 Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 65, nrs. 76–77.

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In a majority of cases, 46 out of 71 (64.9 per cent), the town of origin was mentioned explicitly. If these were mentioned just by themselves, it was the same list that we have seen before: Amsterdam, Dordrecht and The Hague for Holland, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Zwolle and Groningen. Compared to the graduation charters that dealt with the entire period, the frequency with which the name of a wider geographical area turns up was considerably higher, 62 per cent. Students from all regions now mentioned a wider area. Even Overijssel now bears a name—“Transinsulana”—courtesy of Bernardus ten Broecke of Steenwijk.93 Students from Guelders now mentioned their duchy in most cases, possibly to distinguish themselves from other regions within the Burgundian Netherlands to which they had just been added in 1543.94 The strongly developed Frisian identity— which extended itself to Groningen—is conﬁrmed in the way students from Friesland registered with the German Nation. They did not even mention their home towns. “Phrisius” was enough for them. Groningers did mention their city, but always included the adjective “Phrisius”. Students from Utrecht still proudly mentioned their city as the signiﬁcant identifying geographical unit, although it is sometimes diﬃcult to distinguish exactly between the province and the city. The students from Zeeland nearly always mentioned their town of origin and their region. For the county of Holland nothing much seems to have changed. The town was still the most important geographical unit of identiﬁcation for them and in nearly half of the cases they also referred to their county. There was an interesting development though in the way they indicate that they were from the county Holland. In addition to the traditional “Hollandus”, mentioned seven times, a new adjective had sprung up: “Batavus”, written down six times. Humanist discourse had reintroduced this term as pointing to a Germanic tribe that was supposed to have lived in the territory of Holland, as described by several Roman authors.95

93

Poelhekke, ‘Nederlandse leden’, 300, nr. 33. About the awkward relation of Guelders to the Netherlands in general: Blockmans and Prevenier, Bourgondiërs, 253. 95 This was not without contradiction though. The Guelders humanist Gerardus Geldenhauer of Nijmegen was of the opinion that the Batavi lived in the Betuwe, hence the name of this region located in the duchy of Guelders. The “Bataafse Kwestie” will be dealt with in more detail in chapter 6. 94

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The use of the term batavus indicates that there was a sense of a rediscovery of Holland identity—even if this was mistaken—of having belonged to an ancient Germanic tribe. Another interesting point is that out of these 71 autographs there were four students who wrote down a completely diﬀerent geographical unit. They called themselves “Belga”96 or “Flander”, indicating that they belonged to a wider geographical territory comprising all the Netherlands, a term found on maps to signify the Burgundian lands in general. There is therefore some indication that students from the Netherlands developed a sense of belonging to some larger entity than just their province or county, a supra-regional sense of identity, maybe even of belonging to the Netherlands at large.

96 This term also has a long history going back to Julius Caesar’s, De bello gallico, where the bravest of Gaulish tribes, inhabiting the Southern Netherlands, were called Belgae.

CHAPTER FOUR

SOCIAL BACKGROUND

The long and costly journey to Italy, the prolonged stay at an expensive, prestigious Italian university, not to mention the exorbitant expenses of a doctorate all seem to presuppose a strong ﬁnancial basis to be able to aﬀord this. One might wonder if the iter italicum was the sole privilege of those wealthy enough to pay up. This begs the question for the social background of the students in the population. As we have seen previously, the group of students that visited Italian universities represented just a small proportion of the overall student body coming from the Northern Netherlands. Is it true that it consisted only of the few wealthy and privileged that managed to undertake this adventure, or is the picture more complex than this?

4.1. Social Status in Universities In historical literature on universities, especially the medieval ones, the question about students’ social background only really entered the debate in the last decades. In 1957 Herbert Grundmann stated that universities were the medieval institutions per se where masters and students, with disregard of social layer, order and class, were equal parts of the same entity, and where social rank nor nationality played a part: an egalitarian scholarly community. Consequently, he saw the medieval university as the means par excellence of social mobility.1 His thesis has certainly provoked much research into this area of university history and it has ever since been empirically tested and contested. Historians who have studied the social history of universities could not and have not neglected to ask the question on the way universities—and society as a next step—dealt with students from various social backgrounds. Without giving a deﬁnite verdict

1

H. Grundmann, Vom Ursprung der Universität im Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1964) 17.

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on Grundmann’s thesis it is fair to say that universities in the later Middle Ages and the early modern period in many ways reﬂected the society that they originated in and that a student’s background was assessed almost at the entrance gate. It is certainly true that students in the university community, whatever their background may have been, enjoyed the same privileges, guaranteed by the statutes. Despite this legal equality that did not exist outside the walls of a studium, universities did discriminate their suppositi on the basis of their rank and some signiﬁcant changes took place in exactly the two centuries under investigation here. To a certain extent the degree of ‘discrimination’ gives the historian a grip on the social aspects of the subject he works with. University oﬃcials, and consequently the records they kept, often label a student as belonging to this or that social category. The way students were labelled when registering in a studium broadly resembles the division into three orders: clergy, nobility and third order. The clergy would often be labelled according to their status in the Church. Nobles were referred to with a whole stratum of diﬀerent titles. The third order could be subdivided into categories such as divites, semidivites, semipauperes, pauperes, and so forth.2 In the present context, aimed at locating students in their social layer, I shall limit these categories to three broad social ones, rather than the statutory categories, which would include a separate category for the clergy.3 As a ﬁrst category there are the nobiles, the nobles. Secondly, there are the divites, literally, the rich, but referring to those students who simply paid their university fees, and lastly there are the pauperes, the poor. These categories were not nearly as straightforward as they might seem here on paper. Every noble student, of whatever rank, was allowed to register as nobilis. In addition to this there was a group of students that pretended to be noble or that behaved in a noble fashion. They are

2

De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Social Stratiﬁcation’, 160–1. For this reason, the contingent of clerics will not be considered as a separate social class. They invariably belonged to particular layers of society, from the high nobility to low social levels. The variety of church oﬃces and dignities will be dealt with in the section on ‘Financing University Studies’. Here, those students with the epithet clericus will be subsumed under the social category rather than statutory category of nobiles, divites and pauperes. A minimum of 86 students (13.4% of the population) belonged to the clergy during their studies. 3

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usually referred to as in specie nobilis or pro nobilibus se gerentes: in other words, students that did not have an oﬃcial noble title. Furthermore, there is the problem that students registered as nobilis in one university, but did not claim any such right at another studium. With the help of prosopographical research these problems can be solved. Here, only those who held an oﬃcial noble title or were of noble rank are counted among the nobility. The second category, the divites, also knew more categories, such as the semidivites, but generally refers to those students who were able to pay the entrance fees stipulated in the statutes. The last category, that of the pauperes, is a more complex one. In broad terms one might say that it referred to those students who were unable to pay the required sum. This could mean that a student only had a very modest income, that was not enough to cover the costs of study, or that his family was not able to support him. University oﬃcials could also make exceptions for those students whose poverty was due to a temporary crisis. Regulations concerning poor students varied from university to university and also changed over time.4 What is straightforward is the overall conclusion that the vast majority of the students who travelled to Italy belonged—by default— to the category of the divites. One look at table 4.1.1. should convince that a vast majority belonged to the category of those who simply paid their dues to the university in question and did not claim noble rank nor needed any ﬁnancial privileges or assistance from it. Four-ﬁfths of the population fell into this category. Their percentage never sank below three-quarters of the total population and was at times almost as high as nine-tenths. It is this group, the ‘rich’, that dominates the population. We will come to speak a little bit more about the rather complex social composition of this group, simply labelled as divites, in the next section. The divites seem to have had an overall preference for the study of law, with medicine as a

4 On the general categories, see: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Social Stratiﬁcation’. The poor students have been the subject of many specialized studies. A general introduction in J. Paquet, ‘L’universitaire “pauvre” au moyen âge: problèmes, documentations, questions de méthode’ in: J. Paquet and J. IJsewijn (eds.), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages (Louvain 1978) 399–425; Id., Matricules, 70–76; Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 443–4; Fuchs, Dives.

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very strong second subject. Indeed, in the period 1426–50 and 1526–50, medicine was the most popular subject by some margin. Nobilis

%

Dives

%

Pauper

%

Total

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

4 6 9 5 13 36

4.3 4.2 8.8 7.9 18.1 21.6

74 112 84 55 57 127

79.6 78.3 82.4 87.3 79.2 76.0

15 25 9 3 2 4

16.1 17.5 8.8 4.8 2.8 2.4

93 143 102 63 72 167

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total

73

11.4

509

79.5

58

9.1

640

100

Table 4.1.1. The Population divided into three categories, Nobilis, Dives and Pauper. Nobiles, Divites and Pauperes in the Population (1426–1575) 180 160 140 120 Pauper Dives Nobilis

100 80 60 40 20 0

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500 1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 4.1.1. Nobiles, Divites and Pauperes in the population in 25-year cohorts (1426–1575).

Of more immediate interest here are the two other categories, the nobles and the paupers. Starting with the former, one notices that 11.4 per cent of the total population was of noble origin, but that there was considerable development over time. Furthermore, there was a considerable diﬀerence in noble participation between the various regions of the northern Low Countries as well as between the diﬀerent faculties at the universities on the peninsula. One notices

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Divites: Choice of Faculty in Italy 140 120 100 80

Oth./Unkn. Med. Law

60 40 20 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1556–1575

Graph 4.1.2. Divites: choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts.

that the number of nobles in the diﬀerent time cohorts can vary enormously, from four to thirty-six. There seems to have been a trend, though. The number of nobles undertaking a study trip to Italy was on the increase. With the exception of the period 1501–1525, when only ﬁve nobles travelled this way, there was a rise in noble participation culminating in the last time cohort, when more than one out of every ﬁve students was of noble origin!5 If we add the faculty dimension to this it becomes clear that noble students had a marked preference to study the law. 86.3 per cent of noble students in Italy opted for either canon law, civil law or, as in most cases, both. The overall percentage of noble law students amounted to 20.2 per cent, culminating again in the last 50 years of the period under investigation when close to one third of law students was of noble origin.6 One might conclude that members of

5 It needs to be said that nobles are strongly overrepresented in the student population. On the basis of material presented by Van Nierop, Ridders, chapter 3, an estimate of 0.4% of nobles on the population of the county of Holland would be a fairly accurate one for the ﬁfteenth century. Percentages declined even further to 0.36 in the beginning of the sixteenth century and declined to 0.29 by the 1550s. 6 This percentage is somewhat higher than the percentage of noble law students at the University of Orléans (13.8%) in the period 1444–1546. If the third quarter of the sixteenth century is discarded, noble participation at Italian law faculties

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Nobiles: Choice of Faculty in Italy 40 35 30 25 Oth./Unkn. Med. Law

20 15 10 5 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1556–75

Graph 4.1.3. Nobiles: choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts.

the Northern Netherlands’ nobility showed an increasing interest in university studies, starting in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century. As such they seem to follow a more general trend that applied to the Southern Netherlands as well. A combination of factors, such as an increased participation of the educated town elites in government, forcing the nobility to respond, and the humanist idea of education might account for this phenomenon.7 If we look at the regional dimension, one notices that there were huge diﬀerences between the various regions in the Northern Netherlands. The wide gap between the number of noble students coming from Zeeland and Friesland is quite remarkable. If we take both the regional and the time dimension, one might say that the few students from Friesland who found their way to Italy in the ﬁfteenth century were not noble, but when Frisian students rediscovered the route to the peninsula, their nobles travelled to it in numbers—sometimes accounting for two-ﬁfths of Frisian students— nearly always to study law. The ﬁgures for Zeeland and Holland are lower than those for most other parts of the northern Low

amounted to 14.4%, which is comparable to the ﬁgure found for Orléans; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 75. 7 In general see: Maria Rosa di Simone, ‘Admission’ in H. de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, II, 285–325, speciﬁcally the last section; for the Southern Netherlands: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’, 231; ead., ‘Adel en universiteiten’.

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Social Categories compared to Regional Percentage 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0%

NR%NTot. PR%PTot. DR%DTot. R%Tot.

30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Holland

Zeeland

Utrecht

Gelre

Overijs.

Friesl.

Groning.

Unkn.

Graph 4.1.4. Social categories, Nobiles, Pauperes and Divites, of each region as a percentage of the total category, compared to the total regional percentage of the population.

Countries. The substantially higher ﬁgure of medical students from these regions is certainly one explanation for this, as law was always the more aristocratic faculty of the two. If we look at the noble percentage of law students from Holland and Zeeland, they account for 19.8 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively.8 In some of the literature on noble participation in university studies it is mentioned that in general noble students were relatively reluctant to take degrees. Advancement in society through university degrees and teaching obligations that sometimes accompanied graduation could be considered detrimental to the status of a noble student.9 This seems not to have been the case for noble students from the Northern Netherlands. Out of the total of 73 noble students 42 managed to obtain a degree (57.5 per cent) and this percentage is very close to that of the overall population. There was

8 This development is even more marked for the law University of Orléans, where 46.5% of Frisian and Groninger students were of noble origin. Similarly, the percentage of noble students from Holland and Zeeland was considerably lower than the average. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 75–6. 9 See e.g. Schwinges, ‘Student education’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, I, 198–9. This statement is somewhat modiﬁed by Fuchs, Dives, 32, who states that it is speciﬁcally the high nobility that considers taking a degree as not in accordance with their rank.

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some development over time in that the gradation ratio in the sixteenth century with 60.4 per cent of nobles taking a degree was higher than the ﬁgure for the ﬁfteenth century (52.6 per cent). This rise in the popularity of degrees did not, however, diﬀer signiﬁcantly from that of the overall population.10 It seems that the noble students followed the general pattern of the iter italicum from the northern Low Countries, with this remark, however, that they in nine out of ten cases they graduated in law. The prestige of an Italian law degree was obviously not considered unstandgemäßisch. True, very few of these students belonged to the high nobility. Only Robertus of Brederode, son of the ﬁrst noble of Holland, Johannes David of Burgundy, an illegitimate son of House of Burgundy, ruling most of the Netherlands at this stage, and lastly Johannes van Diepholt, son of a noble bishop of Utrecht, can be considered of high noble birth. Nevertheless, the last two—both illegitimate, one must add— both taught and graduated at the University of Bologna. Overall there are a number of observations to be made. The ﬁrst of a more general nature is that the aristocratic element in student mobility to Italy increased in both absolute and relative terms over time, culminating in the second and third quarters of the sixteenth century. The second general one is that noble students had an overwhelming preference for the study of law. The third observation closely connected with the second is that the eastern parts of the northern Low Countries sent comparatively more noble students than the western parts. The fact that students from Holland and Zeeland were relatively more oriented to the study of medicine than their fellow students from the east cannot explain this alone. The nobility of these regions was more reluctant to go and study and it was really only in the second half of the sixteenth century that young noblemen found the way to the Italian law faculties.11 Turning to the last social category of students, the pauperes,12 we

10

Cf. chapter 2.4, pp. 112–3. Cf. chapter 2.3 on choice of faculty. Orléans seems to have been the preferred travel goal for many a law student from Holland and Zeeland, though even at Orléans the percentage of noble students for Holland and Zeeland was also low (7.3%). Cf. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 75. The percentage of noble law students from Holland and Zeeland at Italian studia in the comparable period 1451–1550 was quite close to that for Orléans: 7.9%. 12 The criterion for the status of pauper for my purpose was that the student had to be labelled as pauper at some stage during the course of his studies. This either 11

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Pauperes: Choice of Faculty of Italy 40 35 30 25 Oth./Unkn. Med. Law

20 15 10 5 0 1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Graph 4.1.5. Pauperes: Choice of faculty at Italian universities in 25-year cohorts.

shall see that there is almost a mirror image in these observations. There were 58 students—9.1 per cent of the total population—who at some stage during their studies were labelled as pauper. The relative exclusive nature of the iter italicum is partly reﬂected in this relatively low number of students labelled as pauper. Levels of poor students at the universities close to home, Louvain and Cologne, where the arts students dominated the student population, show a diﬀerent picture altogether. At the University of Louvain 19 per cent of students were qualiﬁed as poor in the university registers. At Cologne no less than 25 per cent of students from the diocese of Utrecht were mentioned to be pauper.13 If the overall number of pauperes was low compared to the home universities, one should bear in mind that there was considerable development over time. The number and percentage of poor students, that had been at the stable and relatively high level of just over 16 per cent in the second and third quarter of the ﬁfteenth century, with almost one out of six students labelling themselves as poor, decreased rapidly since. In the sixteenth century, only 2.3 per cent of the population was labelled as pauper. happened at registration—at most northern European universities this frequently happened—, or at graduation, when a student of modest means was awarded a graduation gratis, amore Dei, propter paupertatem, etc. 13 Van Buyten, ‘Universiteitsmatrikels’, 25; Schwinges, Universitätsbesucher, 458–9.

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The social composition of a faculty seems to be one of the determining factors for the social status of the suppositi of a particular studium. The ﬁgures for nobiles, divites and pauperes at the various Italian universities do not diﬀer very much from ﬁgures found for law faculties at other universities in the north of Europe. The law faculty at the University of Heidelberg in the early ﬁfteenth century shows a very similar pattern to the overall population of law students visiting Italian studia. To a lesser extent the same goes for the law University of Orléans.14 Along with the aristocratization of—among others—the Italian studia one can see the development of these universities slowly becoming almost beyond reach for students of modest ﬁnancial means. One indication for this development lies in the way Italian universities operated. The practice of awarding gratia—graduations for free for poor students by universities like Padua and Bologna—already decreased in the ﬁfteenth century, but virtually disappeared in the sixteenth. In the time cohort 1426–1450 nine degrees were awarded amore Dei, in the next cohort four and we ﬁnd two more in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century, then no more.15 The attitude towards ‘poor’ students changed in this particular period. Those who started out as the pauperes Christi in the high Middle Ages increasingly became a burden on society in the sixteenth century. In this respect universities reﬂected society at large.16 It is also worth taking a closer look at regional variations in the number of poor students travelling to Italy. What catches the eye is that pauperes from Holland, Zeeland and Groningen account for 87.9 per cent of all poor students in the population, while the student total for these regions only amounted to 63.3 per cent of the total. One could suggest that the high level of urbanization and economic diversiﬁcation in these regions made it easier for young men of modest ﬁnancial means to ﬁnd their way to university than for those

14 Heidelberg: Nobiles 17.9%, Divites 75.8%, Pauperes 6.3%; Fuchs, Dives. Orléans: Nobiles 13.8%, Divites 84.3%, Pauperes 1.9%; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’. 15 Similar conclusions for the law University of Orléans, where the number of grants and places in colleges for poor students decreased in the course of the sixteenth century. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 77. 16 E.g.: C. Lis and H. Soly, Poverty and Capitalism in Pre-Industrial Europe (Hassocks 1979).

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in more agriculturally oriented regions.17 Looking at regional variation does also oﬀer an explanation for the rather rapid decrease of the number of poor students from 17.5 per cent in the second time cohort to just 8.8 per cent in the third. Exactly those regions that sent most poor students to the peninsula—Holland and Zeeland— were the regions whose total number of students declined most noticeably in the last two decades of the ﬁfteenth century partly because of these regions’ period of economic depression. Understandably, it would have been much harder for relatively poor students to undertake a costly study trip to the expensive universities in Italy under these circumstances. Therefore, the number of poor students from Holland and Zeeland travelling south actually declined twice as much as the total number of young men from these regions. The link between urbanization and overrepresentation of poor students can be found by taking a closer look into the population. The number of ‘poor’ students with a rural background—whatever the region they came from, even the most urbanized regions like Holland and Zeeland—was considerably lower percentage-wise than that for their peers from cities and towns. Alternatively, noble students from the countryside were over-represented compared to noble students from the cities. It would seem that students with modest means from a rural background were less inclined to go and study than their fellow pauperes with an urban background. As for the choice of faculty of ‘poor’ students, it was very diﬀerent from their noble fellow students. Nearly half of the poor students (28) that went to Italy chose to study medicine. A further 20 (35.7 per cent) opted for law. Only one student, Theodorus Lindanus, the later papal legate who registered as a poor student with the University of Louvain in 1549, chose to study theology when he travelled to Rome. A further three studied arts. Of eight poor students I was unable to determine their subject of study.18 It should nevertheless be clear that their chosen path of study was quite diﬀerent from their noble peers, almost all opting for law. Medicine was their preferred subject. No less than 13.1 per cent of all medical students

17 Ibid. It was a surprising result to ﬁnd so few poor students from the city of Utrecht. Results as found for the city of Groningen lay more along the lines of expectation. As of yet I have no explanation for it. 18 Two students combined diﬀerent subjects: arts and law in one case and medicine and law in the other.

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from the northern Low Countries in Italy were at some stage during their studies qualiﬁed as pauper.19 For those students showing a desire to study the law the percentage of pauperes was less than half that of poor students of medicine and amounted to 6.1 per cent. This reaﬃrms the notion that the faculty of law was indeed the most aristocratic of all disciplines taught in university.20 Students of medicine seem to have held an overall social position between the arts students and those of law. The number of poor students at the expensive, specialized Italian studia was comparatively smaller than at the arts dominated universities north of the Alps. There were even several students that matriculated as dives at Cologne and Louvain that were labelled as poor in the more expensive Italian studia. Another hurdle for students with relatively little ﬁnancial room for manoeuvre must have been the exorbitant cost of the graduation ceremony. At ﬁrst sight one might conclude that this was not the case. No less than 35 poor students out of 58 (60.3 per cent) managed to take a degree in one of the higher faculties. This ﬁgure is even somewhat higher than the graduation ratio for the population at large. On closer inspection a diﬀerent picture emerges. Out of 20 poor law students only six managed to obtain a degree, two of which were awarded gratis. This percentage is signiﬁcantly lower than for the category of law students as a whole. The relative low participation rate of pauperes in the law faculty seems to have declined even further at the last hurdle to take, the doctorate. The picture seems much more positive for medical students. Out of 28 pauperes in the faculties of medicine 27 came home with the title of doctor medicinae. This phenomenal graduation

19 If this percentage is quite high for Italian universities, one has to bear in mind that the percentage of pauperes at the faculty of medicine at the University of Cologne was higher than that. Over the period 1389–1520 15.5% of medical students were qualiﬁed as poor. The period 1389–1419, however, had a majority of students whose status at registration could not be determined. The percentage of poor students in the period 1420–1520 amounted to 22.7%. Based on ﬁgures given by Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’. 20 The ﬁgure of 6.1% is considerably higher than that found for Orléans, where only about 2% of students from the Northern Netherlands could be qualiﬁed as poor. If we compare the ﬁgures found for Italian universities to those found for the law faculty of Heidelberg, one notices a strong resemblance. Of the law faculty at this studium 6.3% of students were labelled as pauper, while the percentage of noble students amounted to 17.9%. Based on the ﬁgures given by Fuchs, Dives, 21.

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rate also deserves some extra attention. Apart from the caution necessary when looking at graduation rates in medicine,21 it is very interesting to note that no less than 12 of these doctorates were awarded gratis, at no expense to the student. The one doctorate in theology awarded at the Collegium Germanicum to the poor student Theodorus Lindanus was entirely sponsored by the Church. Seen in this light, one must conclude that without some sort of assistance the graduation rate of pauperes—20 out of 58 (34.5 per cent)—with one third of them taking degrees that they themselves had to pay for lagged behind that of the overall population, where more than half ﬁnally obtained a degree. It is also signiﬁcant to look at where they took these degrees. Padua was the most popular university for taking the doctorate with 15 students graduating there, but 11 of those were gratia! Bologna awarded 8 doctorates and one licentiate, two of them gratis. Nine medical students chose Ferrara as their graduation destination and another one opted for Parma, in other words they took the cheap route to less expensive studia. It is deﬁnitely the case that Ferrara was the university for poor students who wanted to go to Italy. With 13.1 per cent of its students from the Northern Netherlands qualiﬁed as poor at some stage during their studies. At the same time only 5.9 per cent of their Dutch visitors were noble. Other Italian studia were more exclusive in this sense. Bologna and Siena almost mirrored Ferrara’s record in that 14.0 per cent percent of their students from the northern Low Countries were noble, while respectively only 4.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent of their visitors from these regions had been labelled as poor during their studies. Padua took a middle position in this respect. Of its students 12.5 per cent were qualiﬁed as pauper, while 13.8 per cent were of noble rank. There was considerable development over time, though. From one of the destinations for students of medicine with modest means up to about 1480, Padua had changed into the destination for students—of law in particular—from the elevated ranks of society by 1550. From 1550 onwards Padua took Bologna’s place as the most popular destination for wealthy and noble students.

21

See chapter 2.4.

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chapter four 4.2. Students and Social Stratiﬁcation in the Netherlands

As a next step in the reconstruction of a proﬁle of students who studied in Italy it will be useful to further investigate what the division nobilis, dives, pauper really meant when focusing on society in the Northern Netherlands. For this one needs a clear idea what the social stratiﬁcation in the Northern Netherlands looked like. Furthermore, one needs to be able to trace the students’ background in this stratiﬁcation. It is imperative that there is information about the family of the student, on his father’s profession, and so forth. In spite of considerable diﬃculties,22 it was possible to reconstruct the social background of 322 students in the population (50.3 per cent).23

22 First, there is the question of the student’s name. If only a ﬁrst name is given, the situation is incredibly diﬃcult. This improves once a patronymic is added to the ﬁrst name. Not always, though, as the name Johannes Johannis—the Latin equivalent of Jan Jansen, a name so common that has taken on the status of a proverb—would be so widespread as to make identiﬁcation a Herculean task. If a student bears a proper surname, one is in the best possible position to identify him. We are handicapped by the fact that the introduction of surnames happened relatively late in the Northern Netherlands, even compared to the close-by Southern Netherlands. Surnames seem to have been the prerogative of nobility for a long time. Even the wealthy town elites that held posts in the magistracy do not always bear family names, certainly not in the ﬁfteenth century. Even in the sixteenth century one might encounter important families that did not use a consistent family name. A second diﬃculty arises when no clear place of origin is given. It is nice to have a name, but if the only geographical clue one gets is that the student came from the diocese of Utrecht, it is equally diﬃcult and often impossible to trace the student, as we do not have a clue where to look for him. A third diﬃculty concerns archives in the Northern Netherlands. For some smaller towns and villages they have not survived from this period, if they ever existed. In some cases, the forces of nature and the course of time have played their part in the disappearance of archival material, sometimes for almost an entire region. The most noticeable example being the archives in Zeeland that severely suﬀered as a consequence of the 1953 ﬂood. Then, there is the noticeable lack of genealogical sources for most of the Northern Netherlands in this period. Sources such as baptismal and marital records only survived since the later sixteenth century, which further complicates the task of identiﬁcation, particularly for the ﬁfteenth century. 23 This is statu quaestionis. With this type of research the knowledge of a particular population will slowly increase over the course of time. The percentage of students traced is considerably higher, for instance, than for a recent study on students at the University of Heidelberg that deals with a period up to 1450. Results are lower than for the study of students from Brabant at the University of Orléans in the comparable period 1444–1546 (De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’), where the social background of some 73% of the population could be traced. As we shall see, the fact that this was a prestigious law university is of great help to the researcher. Something similar is true for law students in Italy where the percentage of students traced back was 64.5%.

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As we shall see later on, there are considerable diﬀerences between students of law, medical students, theology students and the category unknown in terms of results found. First it will be necessary to introduce a scheme of social stratiﬁcation that would apply to the Northern Netherlands. In contrast to the Southern Netherlands, where studies on social stratiﬁcation—or certain social groups within it— for the later Middle Ages and the early modern period go back some decades,24 similar research for the Northern Netherlands is a fairly recent phenomenon. The eighties and nineties have seen a sudden increase in studies that deal with social stratiﬁcation, from which we are able to proﬁt.25 These studies have not just enriched our understanding of the complexities of the debate, so that we may tread with care, but furthermore have given us some idea of what the social stratiﬁcation in the Northern Netherlands looked like. On the basis of these recent studies I have chosen to use the following—albeit artiﬁcial—scheme of the diﬀerent strata of society in the northern Low Countries. Nobility/Knighthood: it makes sense to diﬀerentiate between high nobility, dukes and counts, and the rest of the nobility. The complexities of the term nobility are plenty, even for a region like the Northern Netherlands. There was considerable diﬀerence both in wealth and status between Robertus of Brederode, son of the ﬁrst noble of Holland, and a second son from a Frisian hoofdelingengeslacht, who could and in most cases did claim to be noble! The situation for the northern Low Countries is so complex that any further division would drown in a sea of nuances. If a student belonged to a family that by law could be considered to be noble (including those nobles living in a city or town and who in a political sense were part of the patriciate), he was counted among the nobility.26

24 For a brief survey of the debate with regard to the Southern Netherlands, see: H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Beschavingsoﬀensief ’, where she proposes a scheme based on own research and the research of Blockmans, Van Uytven, Boone. 25 Studies on nobility for Holland, Utrecht and Friesland Van Nierop, Ridders; Antheun Janse, Ridderschap in Holland. Portret van een adellijke elite in de late Middeleeuwen (Hilversum 2001); Feenstra, Adel in de Ommelanden; Marshall, Dutch Gentry. E.g. on the town elites of Leiden, Arnhem, Dordrecht, Amsterdam, and even town and countryside around Heusden; Van Kan, Sleutels; Brand, Macht; Lamet, Men in Government; De Boer, ‘Politische Elite’; Verkerk, Coulissen; Elias, Vroedschap; Hoppenbrouwers, Middeleeuwse samenleving. 26 For the problems involving the term ‘noble’ see: Van Nierop, Ridders, chapter 1; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 228–234.

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Burgerij: subdivided in: 1. Patriciate, those families who had considerable inﬂuence in town government, since the magistracy (aldermen, burgomasters, raden, tresoriers, vroedschap, veertigen, and such) was elected from their ranks (excluding those who were of noble birth). It consisted of wealthy merchant (or previously involved in trade) families who managed to live of their fortune and devoted most of their time to town politics. 2. Hogere burgerij, those in a town who belong to the economic elite of a town or city, but whose political inﬂuence for various reasons just fell short of their economic position. They might get the occasional family member into the magistracy, but cannot be considered a force in town politics. Wealthy merchants, civil servants like the pensionaris, the town physician, the rector of the town school would fall into this category. 3. Lagere burgerij, those in a town who are involved in administrative and other minor intellectual professions (clerks, schoolmasters, chaplains, etc.) and those involved in trade/banking that just fell short of reaching for top positions in the town. The dividing line between hogere and lagere burgerij is extremely thin and depended on social background and income. In smaller towns such a distinction may have been even more diﬃcult to make. A signiﬁcant part of the clergy, those with minor beneﬁces, would fall into this category. Gemeen: 1. Ambacht: those involved with manual labour, which covers a lot of diﬀerent professions. The gap with the lagere burgerij is somewhat bigger because of the dichotomy manual versus intellectual labour. The gap could be crossed, though. Especially masters in the various guilds did have an excellent chance of crossing this divide. 2. Dagloners: those who depend on wage labour for their existence. Frequently living below the poverty line. They would be the ﬁrst hit in times of economic crisis and could end up in the bottom category of society. 3. Marginals: permanently living below the poverty line, depending on their fellow citizens or institutions for ﬁnancial assistance. For smaller towns, villages and the countryside in general this scheme would be much more compact. The divide between hogere and lagere burgerij was hardly there and the line between burgerij and gemeen

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213

was much easier to cross. Wealthy farmers, with considerable inﬂuence in local aﬀairs, and peasants, whose position would compare to that of het ambacht, have to be introduced as categories. With this scheme in mind—albeit sometimes rough and ﬂawed— we may go one step further and try to locate our students in it so that one has some idea what the terms dives, nobilis and pauper actually meant in the context of the Northern Netherlands. Nobility %

Patric.

%

HBurgerij

%

LB/Amb. %

T. Period

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

4 6 9 5 13 36

4.3 4.2 8.8 7.9 18.1 21.6

8 15 19 14 15 42

8.6 10.5 18.6 22.2 20.8 25.1

5 13 6 15 9 25

5.4 9.1 5.9 23.8 12.5 15.0

13 19 8 4 8 11

14.0 13.3 7.8 6.3 11.1 6.6

93 143 102 63 72 167

Total fac.

73

11.4 113

17.7

73

11.4

63

9.8

640

Table 4.2.1. Students, whose background could be reconstructed, categorized according to the scheme in absolute numbers and percentages (italics) of the total population.

Law

Nobility

Patric. HBurgerij

LB/Amb.

Total Cat. T. Period

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

3 5 8 4 12 31

5 10 15 8 10 34

3 7 4 10 4 17

5 5 3 3 0 5

16 27 30 25 26 87

33 51 60 44 35 104

Total fac.

63

82

45

21

211

327

%

Nobility

Patric. HBurgerij

LB/Amb.

Total Cat. T. Period

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

9.1 9.8 13.3 9.1 34.3 29.8

15.2 19.6 25.0 18.2 28.6 32.7

9.1 13.7 6.7 22.7 11.4 16.3

15.2 9.8 5.0 6.8 0.0 4.8

48.5 52.9 50.0 56.8 74.3 83.7

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total fac.

19.3

25.1

13.8

6.4

64.5

100

Table 4.2.2. Law students whose background could be reconstructed categorized according to the scheme in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population.

chapter four

214 Medicine

Nobility

Patric. HBurgerij

LB/Amb.

Total Cat. T. Period

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

0 0 0 1 1 1

1 3 3 5 4 11

3 4 1 5 4 6

8 9 5 0 8 6

12 16 9 11 17 24

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total fac.

3

27

23

36

89

214

%

Nobility

Patric. HBurgerij

LB/Amb.

Total Cat. T. Period

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

0.0 0.0 0.0 6.3 3.2 2.4

2.1 5.7 11.5 31.3 12.9 26.8

6.4 7.5 3.8 31.3 12.9 14.6

17.0 17.0 19.2 0.0 25.8 14.6

25.5 30.2 34.6 68.8 54.8 58.5

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total fac.

1.4

12.6

10.7

16.8

41.6

100

Table 4.2.3. Medical students whose background could be reconstructed categorized according to the scheme in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population.

As we have seen earlier, 73 students could be labelled as noble. Only three of them belonged to the high nobility. It is typical for the attitude of the high nobility to university studies that one of them a was younger son, destined for a career in the Church, and that the other two were bastards, who were therefore unable to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. The rest of the noble students has to counted among the knighthood (Ridderschap) and the lower nobility. Somebody like Willem van Zijl, who registered with the law university in Bologna in 1466, belonged to the riddermatige Van Zijl family of Leiden.27 Just how tricky these social categories worked in a university context is shown in a later member of the Van Zijl family, Pieter, who graduated at Bologna in 1554, but registered with the University of Louvain among the divites of the Castle College.28 The strong contingent of noble students from Friesland and Groningen, nearly all in the sixteenth century, belonged to the local hoofdelingenge-

27 28

Acta, 211, 27. For the Van Zijl family, see Brand, Macht, 255. ASB, AS, inv. nr. 24, f. 62v–63r; Schillings, Matricule, IV, 182, 353.

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215

slachten, like the Burmania’s, who sent several of their sons to Italian universities.29 Not counted among the nobility were eight students who acquired noble rank during their careers, or whose fathers achieved such status after the birth of the students in question. They invariably belonged to the wealthy town patriciate and managed to get careers in the provincial bureaucracies, were frequently in possession of a manor, but were not oﬃcially counted among the nobility. Cornelius Junius (or De Jonge) is an example. Cornelis, who graduated in law at Bologna in 1568, was the son of Cornelis de Jonge, rekenmeester at the Chamber of Accounts, carrying the title ‘Lord of Baardwijk’, although he was not counted oﬃcially among the nobles of Holland. Cornelis jr. also managed to become rekenmeester and carried the title.30 All these students were counted among the top level of burgerij, the patriciate. No less than 113 students came from patrician families (17.7 per cent of the total population and 35.1 per cent of all those whose background was reconstructed). Members of patrician families of all major cities and many minor towns, and even villages could be found at Italian universities. The Van der Mijle’s of Dordrecht, members of the Ruysch family of Amsterdam, the Canters of Groningen, but also the Van Teylingens of the smaller town of Alkmaar, the Sager family of Zierikzee all had sons at prestigious Italian studia. As it stands this social category was the most populous among those students whose background could be more or less determined. This is not very surprising as this social category was more interested in university studies than the nobility whose interest would only really develop in the late ﬁfteenth and early sixteenth century. The wealthy town patriciate was well able to aﬀord expensive university studies abroad and especially a law degree would enable members of the town elite to access the bureaucracies on a provincial or even the central level.31 The next category, the hogere burgerij or higher bourgeoisie, had a

29 About the Frisian nobility, see Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 42–5. Other ‘foreign’ universities, like Orléans, Basle, Geneva and Heidelberg also had a strong noble presence from Friesland. 30 See also: Van Nierop, Ridders, chapter 6 on relations between nobility and civil service. 31 More about the social mobility factor will be revealed in chapter 5.

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considerable number of students in Italy. At least 73 students (11.3 per cent of the total population and 22.6 per cent of those students whose social background is known) could be categorized among this social group. Often there was a distinct connection with intellectual professions. Someone like Willem Lemnius, son of Livinus Lemnius, a notable physician in the town of Zierikzee is an example, of Hugo Adriani of Dordrecht, whose father was a professor of medicine at the University of Cologne. To indicate that the line between patriciate and higher bourgeoisie is sometimes not that easy to determine, let me cite another example. Henricus Gerardi van Bladeghen of Dordrecht. He has been labelled as belonging to the higher bourgeoisie. His grandfather, Tielman, was pensionaris of Dordrecht, as was his father, Gerrit. Gerrit also managed to become raad of the same city and belonged to the magistracy. The family, however, could not (yet) be counted among the governing elite of Dordrecht, which eventually determined Hendrik’s present categorization. The connection with intellectual professions and universities is not always there. Henricus Arnoldi Brouwer of Amsterdam was the son of a wealthy merchant, but his family did not belong to the city’s governing elite. The distinction between higher and lower bourgeoisie is a ﬁne one and is not always clear-cut. The same applies to the distinction between the lower bourgeoisie and the higher echelons of the ambacht. Of 63 students we know that they have to be counted among either lower bourgeoisie or ambacht. At least 25 could be positively identiﬁed as belonging to the lagere burgerij. Erasmus, son of Gerrit Heyle, a priest, could be counted among this social group. Then, 7 seven students deﬁnitely belonged to the ambacht. Allardus Cooltuyn, whose father was involved in ship building is a good example, although he did not register as pauper at any university as far as we know. The diﬃculty involved in categorization can be shown by looking at Martinus Johannis Aedituus, son of Jan Cornelisz Coster, who was dean of the goldsmiths’ guild in Amsterdam. Technically, Jan would be an artisan. The goldsmiths, however, were at the very top of the manual labour pyramid and Jan was their dean, which certainly gave him extra standing in society. His ﬁnancial position would be much more comfortable than that of a priest who lived on a beneﬁce of a chapel or maybe even than that of a practising physician. Of the remaining 31 students about whom we have information on their social background—all of them were at some stage during

social background

217

their studies categorized as pauper—we may assume that they either come from the lower layers of the bourgeoisie, for instance when a father is found in university sources, or from the ambacht. This is further evidence that the label pauper did not indicate that a student was entirely destitute, but that his family did have some sort of status in society. A lower bourgeoisie or artisan background did not automatically mean that the student in question had to register as pauper, although this was a deﬁnite possibility. They could also, however, register among the divites. This would indicate that the line between pauper and dives could be a ﬁne one. A student with a ‘mediocre’ income, along the lines of that of an unskilled labourer, would qualify for the label pauper.32 The divites as a social category at universities, therefore, comprise a vast spectrum of young men of diﬀerent social rank: from the son of a wealthy patrician urban family about to enter the ranks of the nobility to the illegitimate son of a parish priest who had to carefully handle his ﬁnances, if he wished to avoid the stigma of poverty at the studium of his choice. On the basis of these qualiﬁcations it would be justiﬁed to say that poor students came from those layers of society who had to struggle to send their sons of to study. A small church beneﬁce, a scribe’s salary, the earnings of a small shopkeeper would fall into this category. Typical would be a student like Johannes Agricola of Groningen, the son of a tailor, who matriculated as pauper at the University of Cologne in 1454. No wonder that the University of Ferrara was his travel destination in Italy.33 It came as no great surprise that no students could be categorized as belonging to the layers of day labourers and the marginals in society. On the basis of these ﬁgures we may state that at least 29.1 per cent of the population (57.8 of those whose background could be reconstructed) came from the top of the Northern Netherlands’ society. The noble and patrician students came from either noble families

32

Diﬀerent universities had diﬀerent regulations about what a ‘poor’ student was. Diﬀerent amounts for qualiﬁcation are mentioned varying from 10 Rhenish guilders to 20 at various universities during the ﬁfteenth century in the north of Europe. Cf. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Social Stratiﬁcation’, 162; Fuchs, Dives, 59; E. De Maesschalck, ‘De criteria van de armoede aan de middeleeuwse universiteit te Leuven’ in: Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 58 (1980) 346. One can imagine what sort of a hurdle the graduation costs in Italy must have meant to students who registered as pauper at universities like Louvain and Cologne. 33 Keussen, Matrikel, I, 577, 48; Pardi, Titoli, 67.

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whose inﬂuence in the Netherlands cannot be underestimated34 or from the governing elites of the cities and towns, whose economic and political power was on the increase in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth century Netherlands. One might add that this involved both the top layers of both countryside and urban society. No less than 27 students out of 94 who came from the countryside were of noble origin. A further 12 students came from the governing elites of the countryside. In short, out of 94 students with a rural background 39 (41.5 per cent) came from the top of the rural social pyramid. There were 46 noble students with an urban background. Combined with the 99 students who came from the patriciate of cities and towns the ﬁgure amounts to no less than 145 students (29.9 per cent) of those with an urban background that belonged to the most powerful and inﬂuential sectors of the urban community. Figures for higher and lower bourgeoisie and artisans are probably too low. Admittedly, sometimes the way students ﬁgure in university sources is such that they could belong to any section of society, even be noble, without us having a clue. However, students from the former categories per se are more diﬃcult to identify, as they less frequently carried family names, which makes them less easily traceable. Students with a background in either burgerij or ambacht are most likely underrepresented here. Though this may be the case, we are still confronted with the fact that probably more than one third of the entire population came from the wealthiest and most inﬂuential strata of the Low Countries. If we look at the choice of faculty of all those whose background we know something about, the following can be said. As we have seen earlier, the nobility opted in overwhelming majority for the study of law. As we climb down the social ladder, this percentage diminishes with every category, and this points once more to the fact that the law faculty was indeed the most prestigious in terms of its social make-up, as 44.3 per cent of law students from the northern Low Countries in Italy were recruited from the nobility and patriciate! The faculty of medicine held a position between the faculty of law and the arts faculty with its substantial pauper participation. Though medicine as a subject drew students from all walks of

34

This is one of the central theses of Van Nierop, Ridders.

social background

219

life, from the nobility to relatively poor city dwellers, it seems plausible that the majority of them came from the middle shifts of society. The few theology students came from very diverse backgrounds and most of them came through their studies destined for and therefore heavily sponsored by the Church. To give this image of the students in the population more depth, it will be worthwhile to not just trace their family background, but to investigate what the fathers did for a living, to try and ﬁnd what profession we can ﬁnd them in. This was not an easy task, even more complicated than asserting the family background of the students. Nevertheless, it was possible in 163 cases (25.5 per cent of the total population) to exactly determine what profession the fathers35 were involved in. We ﬁnd them in very diﬀerent walks of life. I shall use seven broad categories to clarify the various professions of our students’ fathers. The largest single category was that of town government and administration with 48 cases (29.4 per cent of cases). No less than 43 fathers were involved in town government as aldermen, burgomasters or treasurers. A further 4 were pensionaris (ﬁrst civil servant of a town involved in legal matters) and another one was a notary public. A second category of 23 consisted of noble fathers who exercised all sorts of noble oﬃces, which includes those with a position in the army. Then we ﬁnd 22 fathers in the bureaucracies at provincial level, ten of whom were councillors in the provincial courts. A further 7 were ﬁnancial civil servants such as gemenelandsontvangers (treasurer for the common lands). Then, the last 5 were lawyers attached to the provincial courts. 18 Fathers acted as regional government oﬃcials, such as schout, baljuw, ambtman or as in one case as a regional oﬃcial involved in water management, as hoogheemraad. Then one encounters professions of an entirely diﬀerent nature, what we might label as intellectual professions: 21 cases. We meet

35 In four cases the fathers of students had died very young. In these cases the guardians have been taken as the father ﬁgure. Three uncles and one adopted guardian.

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9 learned physicians, 8 university professors, 2 university lecturers, 1 schoolmaster and 1 doctor of theology.36 A next category of 17 cases involved merchants, bankers, tradesmen, craftsmen and a well-oﬀ farmer. There was some diﬀerence between these professions. It included a very wealthy banker like Lodovico Porquin on the one hand and a barber, Willem van Noordwijk on the other. Hubert van Rossum, even though he claimed to be related to the Guelders warlord Maarten van Rossum, was in fact the son of a bow maker. In 14 cases fathers held a church oﬃce. We meet 5 parish priests, 4 canons—of whom 1 became dean of the chapter, Herman van Lockhorst—, 1 praepositus, one abbot and no less than 3 bishops. As in the former category, there were huge diﬀerences in status between these oﬃces and therefore in the status of the respective sons. Johannes van Diepholt was the son of Rudolf van Diepholt, bishop of Utrecht. His start in life would have been much more comfortable than that of Erasmus, son of the priest Gerrit Heyle. What does this tell us about the social proﬁle of the student population in general? In both their family background and fathers’ professions there were substantial diﬀerences. In other words, we have met students from very diﬀerent walks of life, from very modest backgrounds to the elevated ranks of the nobility. Overall, students who made it all the way to Italy came from the relatively well-oﬀ sections of society in the Northern Netherlands. There was no indication whatsoever that any of the students, not even the pauperes, belonged to the marginal sections of the Low Countries. Moreover, when we meet fathers who were craftsmen like bow makers and boat builders, they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. There was a development over time. There is the deﬁnite suggestion that the top layers of society, the nobility and patriciate, increasingly participated in the iter italicum until they dominate the population in the period 1526–1575. Even though the social background of an increasing number of students could be traced as time went by, that section of the students population coming from the ranks of the lower bourgeoisie and those involved in trade and crafts decreased. I am convinced that this gives further evidence that the term pauper in a university situation has to taken with great caution. It deﬁnitely

36

It is in this category that we ﬁnd the guardians.

social background

221

does not suggest that the students in question had no means whatsoever. The earlier mentioned example of Johannes Agricola, the son of a tailor, who had to register as pauper with the University of Cologne, was considered to be typical. It is somewhat more surprising that Johannes Bogerman of Dokkum, who came from a bourgeois family, was a servant when he ﬁrst registered with the law University of Bologna in 1505 and graduated as a pauper.37 A good indication for the relativity of the term pauper is that one and the same student might have registered as pauper at one university and as dives at another. The very high costs of studying and graduation at an Italian university might explain why several students who were awarded a graduation gratis pro Deo, pro paupertate, and so forth, did not register as pauper at the universities of Louvain and Cologne. No wonder that quite a few students had to take on a job to pay their way through university. This is a further way to give more depth to the picture on social background; to look into the way students actually ﬁnanced their university studies or supplemented their income.

4.3. Financing of University Studies With the cost of studying amounting to sometimes exorbitant sums, the question how students could ﬁnance this becomes pressing. It is clear that in quite a few cases the question did not even arise. We have seen that a signiﬁcant percentage (29.1) came from those strata in the Low Countries that—one might expect—could pay for the costly education of their sons abroad. This would not hold true for every student in the population, though. In any case, one comes across a number of alternative means of ﬁnancing university studies, other than parents bearing the total burden. A view across the population rendered no less than 246 cases with alternative means of ﬁnancing the curriculum. Brought back to some 200 individuals, this implies that around one third of the population somehow felt the need to—at least partly—supplement their income through various other means of generating money.

37

Acta, 266, 13; Knod, Deutsche Studenten, 94, nr. 657.

14 16 13 3 3 10

59

Cl.

15.1 11.2 12.7 4.8 4.2 6.0

9.2

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Total Cat.

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Total Cat.

3.1

7.5 2.8 4.9 3.2 1.4 0.6

Can.

20

7 4 5 2 1 1

Can.

1.3

2.2 2.1 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0

Ord.

8

2 3 3 0 0 0

Ord.

4.1

2.2 3.5 3.9 9.5 11.1 0.6

R.A.

26

2 5 4 6 8 1

R.A.

0.5

1.1 0.7 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

R.M.

3

1 1 1 0 0 0

R.M.

3.4

4.3 4.2 2.9 7.9 4.2 0.6

R.I.

22

4 6 3 5 3 1

R.I.

12.2

0.0 1.4 17.6 15.9 18.1 21.0

Bu./Co.

78

0 2 18 10 13 35

Bu./Co.

1.9

2.2 5.6 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Scr.

12

2 8 2 0 0 0

Scr.

0.8

1.1 0.0 2.0 3.2 0.0 0.0

Ser.

5

1 0 2 2 0 0

Ser.

0.9

0.0 0.0 0.0 1.6 0.0 3.0

Pra.

6

0 0 0 1 0 5

Pra.

1.1

1.1 0.7 2.0 0.0 0.0 1.8

Sc./Oth.

7

1 1 2 0 0 3

Sc./Oth.

38.4

36.6 32.2 52.0 46.0 38.9 33.5

%TotO

246

34 46 53 29 28 56

Tot O

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total

640

93 143 102 63 72 167

Total

38 The following abbreviations have been used: Cl = clericus; Can = Canonicus; Ord. = belonging to a religious order; R.A. = lecturer on the arts rotulus; R.M. = lecturer on the medicine rotulus; R.I. = lecturer on the law rotulus; Bu./Co. = student in a bursa or college; Scr. = copiist; Ser. = servitor; Pae. = paedagogus; Sc./Oth. = private scholarships and other jobs.

Table 4.3.1. Oﬃces, student jobs and scholarships of Northern Netherlands’ students during their studies in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population in 25-year cohorts.38

Cl.

Oﬃces

222 chapter four

social background

223

The traditional way of ﬁnancing university studies was through an oﬃce in the Church. The Church had encouraged the clergy to take up university studies by granting them enjoyment of the fruits of a prebend, while visiting a university. The connections between Church and university were so close that the dividing line between clericus and scholaris almost faded. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, when the laity increasingly participated in university life, this form of ﬁnancing lost its relative importance.39 Looking at the population one might come to the same conclusion where the study trip to the Italian peninsula is concerned. A minimum of 86 students (13.4 per cent) could be positively identiﬁed as belonging to the clergy during their studies. There was a huge diﬀerence, though, between the ﬁfteenth and the sixteenth century. While in the ﬁfteenth century 66 students (19.5 per cent) enjoyed clerical status, there were only 20 such students in the sixteenth (6.6 per cent). This is a clear indication that the process of laicization holds true for the iter italicum. Having the status of clericus made a student eligible for a church beneﬁce with which he could (partly) ﬁnance university studies. This does not mean however that every student whom we ﬁnd mentioned as clericus actually did enjoy a beneﬁce. The category of clerici could justiﬁably be subdivided into three small categories: those belonging to religious orders, those in possession of a canonry and a larger group of clerici of diﬀerent standing. To start with the latter, one could say that this group harbours all sorts of men connected to the Church. This varies from somebody who is mentioned as clericus Traiectensis diocesis, somebody who might just have taken lower orders and who possibly received some money from an altar in some church, to clerics whose beneﬁce is speciﬁed. We know that Wilhelmus Thomae of Steenbergen enjoyed a beneﬁcium in the town of Hulst in Flanders. Similarly, we know that Johannes Sixtinus of Bolsward was arch-priest in Haccombe in England when he came to Italy for a second time.40 Such clear information about the beneﬁce enjoyed is rare. There were various ways through which a student could acquire a beneﬁce; through local channels, or through the university rotulus with requests for beneﬁces. These could be addressed to the pope,

39

Trio, ‘Financing’. “Iohannes Sixtinus Phrysius rector sive archipresbiter in ecclesia Hacconbensis in Anglia Alamanus”, Minnucci, Lauree, II, 46, nr. 57. 40

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a practice that was in decline in the ﬁfteenth century, or other patrons, such as bishops. The success rate of this form of ﬁnancing remains an item of debate, but recent research has shown that one should not exaggerate the importance of these requests.41 This is easier to establish for those students who already possessed a canonry in some or other chapter. Although canons going to study occupy a special place in literature on university history,42 the importance of canonries as a means of ﬁnancing university studies should not be overestimated for the ﬁfteenth and certainly not the sixteenth century, at least where the students travelling to Italy were concerned. Twenty students (3.1 per cent) already held a canonry when they set oﬀ for Italy. The traditional image of noble canons who got permission to study law at a prestigious Italian studium holds true to a certain extent, as choice of faculty of these twenty was decidedly one-sided. Apart from three students of theology and one in arts the other 17 all studied law. Somebody who ﬁts this traditional picture of a younger son of a noble family destined for the Church who ﬁnalized his study period in Italy was Petrus de Mera. This native of the eastern part of the Netherlands, from the village of Meer in Overijssel, was already prepositus of the Emmerich church when he went to the University of Cologne. In 1428 he was mentioned as procurator at the Curia in Rome. When he came to study in Italy, he was also a canon of the cathedral chapter in Utrecht. Apart from his graduation to doctor decretorum on 23 March 1430, he was mentioned as a witness no less than eight times, always with one of his church dignities.43 As with the category of clerici, the diﬀerence between the ﬁfteenth (16 or 4.7 per cent of the total population) and sixteenth (4 or 1.3 per cent of the total population) centuries was considerable. The earliest time cohort 1426–1450, when 7 out of 93 students (7.5 per cent) were canons during their studies, stands out. It seems that a canonry as a starting point for university studies was on its way out and that a canonry had to be seen increasingly as a career goal for students rather than the starting point of it. Those who were sup-

41

Cf. Trio, ‘Financing’; Schmutz, ‘Erfolg oder Mißerfolg’. For instance, canons are considered a separate category in university social hierarchy in Fuchs, Dives. 43 Keussen, I, 151, 11; Zonta, Acta, I, 232, nr. 732; Ibid. 243, nr. 765; Heeringa, Archief van het Kapittel, nrs. 251, 2570, 2674. 42

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ported in this way were exceptions rather than the rule and they must have held strong cards to acquire one before studying.44 Let me illustrate this by some examples. When Dirk Utenweer came to Bologna to graduate in law, he was already a canon of the chapter of St John in Utrecht. He had not acquired this position just like that. This son of a Leiden burgomaster had already served as councillor in the Hof van Holland and acted as an ambassador on several occasions. He was one of several students whose career in one of the bureaucracies of state earned him the dignity of canon in one the Utrecht chapters.45 The same can be said for the sixteenth century. Two of the four students who went to Italy as canons came from the same family. Nicolaus Ruysch had to thank his uncle, Jacob Ruysch, for his canonry in the chapter of St Salvator. Jacob was a very inﬂuential political ﬁgure in the county of Holland.46 He even managed to marry oﬀ his illegitimate daughter Maria to the comptroller-general of the Habsburg Netherlands, Vincent van Mierop. In 1525 the chapter of St Salvator awarded an expectancy of a prebend in the chapter to the son of Vincent and Maria, Cornelis van Mierop, “et hoc propter evidentem utilitatem quam idem magister Vincentius in causis ecclesie favere poterit”.47 In other words, the chapter was of the opinion that close relations with Vincent van

44 Van den Hoven van Genderen in his exemplary study of the chapter and canons of St Salvator or Oudmunster looks at it from the canon perspective. He diﬀerentiates between noble canons who needed one if not more prebends to be able to represent themselves as noble clerics on the one hand and those learned men in bureaucracies for whom a canonry has to be seen as a reward for services rendered. Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 349. While I subscribe to his conclusions in general, the proﬁle of students who went to Italy for study as canons shows that not only noble canons were in the market for prebends but that students belonging to the urban patriciate also managed to lay hands on canonries early on. As the next paragraph will show, the diﬀerence between noble and nonnoble students was not always as black and white as Van den Hoven van Genderen suggests. 45 This career path will be looked at in more detail in chapter 5. 46 For Jacob Ruysch see chapter 5, p. 287; Mario Damen, ‘Serviteurs profesionels et proﬁteurs loyaux. Hommes d’Église au conseil et à la chancellerie de HollandeZélande (1425–1477)’ in: Publication du Centre Européen d’Études Bouguignonnes (XIV–XVI e s.), Rencontres de Dijon-Dole (25 au 28 septembre 1997), “Hommes d’Église et pouvoirs à l’époque bourguignonne”, 38 (1998) 123–137; Geertruida de Moor, ‘Magister Jacob Ruysch. De Haagse mini-Granvelle (ca. 1440–1519)’ in: J.C. Ockema et al. (eds.), Heidenen, Papen, Libertijnen en Fijnen (Delft 1994) 83–106. 47 RAU, OM, inv. nr. 21–2, 1525 November 3. Quoted in Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 329.

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Mierop might prove to be of some use! It should also not be forgotten that the young Cornelis had a strong supporter within the chapter: his cousin Nicolaus Ruysch, who would later acquire a very inﬂuential position in the chapter. In short: noble birth and/or strong relations certainly counted if one wanted to be ﬁnancially supported by a canonry during the costly study period in Italy. This will become even more evident if we look at the social background of these 20 canon-students. The status in society of 15 of them could be positively established. Six students were of noble birth and nine belonged to patrician families of cities like Utrecht, Amsterdam and Deventer. The third category of clerical students who could count on support were those who belonged to the various religious orders and who were often sponsored by them to study and graduate, often in theology. One such student was Johannes van Houdaen of Kampen, a Dominican from an Utrecht convent, who graduated in theology in Ferrara 18 April 1468.48 There were 8 students (1.3 per cent of the total population) of whom could be positively established that they belonged to religious orders during their studies in Italy.49 All of them studied in the ﬁfteenth century, giving more evidence to support the hypothesis that a clerical way of life as a means of supporting oneself was in decline, certainly from 1500 onwards. Four of them belonged to the Dominican Order, one was a Benedictine monk, another belonged to the German Order and a last one was a Hospital Knight. A second traditionally very important way of ﬁnancing university studies—or at least part of them—was to secure a place in a college.50 In general, one can say that only a relatively small propor-

48 Pardi, Titoli, 46–47: “Iohannes de Hondaen, ord. Predic. conventus traiectensis provintie Saxonis”. 49 This is a minimum. Members of the religious orders are not easy to identify and even more diﬃcult to trace. It is possible that the population harbours greater numbers of the orders. Out of the 383 law students from the diocese of Utrecht in Orléans, for instance, 9 students belonged to the religious orders; De RidderSymoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 77. A percentage of 3.9 in Heidelberg up to 1450; Fuchs, Dives, 49. 50 On the history of colleges in this period, see D. Maﬀei and H. de RidderSymoens (eds.), I collegi universitari in Europa tra il XIV e il XVIII secolo, Atti del Convegno di Studi della Commissione Internazionale per la Storia delle Università, SienaBologna 16–19 maggio 1988 (Milan 1990); for the Italian case: Peter Denley, ‘The Collegiate Movement in Italian Universities in the Late Middle Ages’ in: History of Universities XI (1991) 29–91; some of the problems with this way of ﬁnancing

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tion of students actually enjoyed such a scholarship.51 This was equally true for those young men who ended up at Italian studia. It was possible to trace 78 students (12.2 per cent of the population) who managed to secure a place in a college or acquire a scholarship supported by a college fund. Now, a place in a college did not mean ﬁnancial support per se. First of all, scholarships suﬀered from inﬂation so that in some cases merely the cost of lodging was covered.52 As for 20 students—all of whom were in college during the sixteenth century!—, explicitly mentioned as divites of this or that college, it is certain that they paid rather than received any money towards their expenses. If we subtract these wealthy students from the 78 individuals we are left with 58 students (9.1 per cent of the population) who apparently stood to gain from their scholarship or place in college. Most of these students, 42 at least, stayed in the paedagogia, Castle, Porc, Lily and Falcon or in one of the other residential colleges of Louvain. The Castle—especially in the period 1551–75, when 9 students were resident there—and the Porc colleges were deﬁnitely the most popular with students that later moved to Italy.53 In Cologne, 21 students were mentioned as residents in one of the colleges, named bursae. The most popular one with our population was the Bursa Laurentiana, where 10 students lived. It is worth noting that the college had been founded by a citizen from Groningen and that nearly all 10 students came from the north-east of the Low Countries. The Bursa Montana with 6 resident students from the population came second.54 Although collegiate life at Italian universities was not nearly as bleak as it has been portrayed in the older literature on university

university studies are mentioned in Paul Trio, ‘Financing of University Students in the Middle Ages: A New Orientation’ in: History of Universities IV (1984) 1–24, there 2–3. 51 Trio, Ibid. 52 Ibid. 53 The Porc College and the Castle College in Louvain seem to have harboured quite a few rich students who later went to Italy. No less than 8 out of 9 students resident in the Castle were listed as dives in the period 1551–1575. 54 Unfortunately, there was little information available to me on the colleges in Paris, where a signiﬁcant number of students are known to have studied. The total might therefore be somewhat higher. Brockliss, ‘Patterns of Attendance’ 507, estimated that some 5% of the students in the arts faculty were genuinely poor and could depend on ﬁnancial assistance through a bourse. Some 600 bourses existed on a total number of 10–11,000 students around 1550.

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history,55 there was nevertheless little evidence that it made any sort of serious impact on students from the diocese of Utrecht. Apart from the 15 students who were almost banging at the gate of the Collegium Germanicum in Rome as soon as it was opened in 1552, there was hardly any indication whatsoever of students residing in the colleges of the university cities, with the sole exception of Jacobus Francisci Huygh of Leiden, who stayed in the Casa della Sapienza in Siena, possibly for a period of ten years between 1532 and 1541.56 There were certainly alternatives for students in Italy. The powerful nations in the various university cities were helpful in securing board and lodging for their suppositi. They even mediated with money lenders on behalf of their students. One such alternative was to ﬁnd board and lodging with one of the professors, as Michael Gerardi of Deventer did. He lived in the house of the law professor Petrus de Ancharano.57 The only substantial group to live in college in Italy consisted therefore of those who registered with the Collegium Germanicum. The rather strict life in the college—they were after all destined for the priesthood—did not agree with all of those 15, though. No less than 4 of them were kicked out of college for various reasons, varying from an obsessive interest in humanist letters to outright insanity. A further 2 left of their own accord.58 A church beneﬁce or a place in a college was, however, not the only means for a student to make some money during their life in university. Another road open to them was to teach. Originally, at the university of Cologne, for instance, those who took the degree of magister artium were obliged to stay on for another two years to teach, as regent masters. This practice had lost the status of law in the period under investigation, but it still oﬀered students a way of making a decent, if not spectacular living.59 This was certainly one way of ﬁnancing the costly study period in Italy. We know of at

55

Cf. Peter Denley, ‘The Collegiate Movement’. He is mentioned twice as a resident in the college. Minnucci/Kosuta, Studio, 543; 24–9–1532 in Casa della Sapienza (M. Iacomo Tedesco); 1533 stud. in i. civ. (D. Iacobus Francisci Chuc Alamanus); 22–6–1534 testis (D. Iacobus Francisci Hugh Holandinus); 1541 in Casa della Sapienza. 57 “Nam die XIII mensis iunii doctoratus d. Michael de Alamania, studens et scolaris collegiatus in edibus bone memorie d. Petri de Ancharano habitans”. Piana, LSIC, 293. 58 Jacobs and Beghyn, ‘Noord-Nederlandse studenten’, for the juicy details. 59 Verger, ‘Teachers’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, 144–5. 56

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least 51 students (8 per cent of the total population) who ﬁgured on the rotuli of the various universities on the peninsula. This might provide the student with a modest income, some 20–25 ﬂorins per year.60 Teaching as a means of supporting oneself seems to have been relatively more popular with those in the faculty of arts and medicine than with law students. Out of the 214 students of medicine 29 appear as lecturers (13.6 per cent). In most cases (26) they taught arts, while attending classes in medicine. Three students actually taught medicine during their studies in Italy. The faculty of arts and medicine at the University of Bologna even oﬀered poor foreign— in the sense of non-Bolognese—students an extra chance of gaining a one-year lectureship in the faculty. This was done through disputations on various arts subjects. The successful student would be eligible for a one-year lectureship. One of our students, Adrianus of Leiden, was lucky enough to win such a lectureship after his disputation 31 March 1515 on the quaestio whether the earth in any of its ﬁve zones was habitable. His reward: the following academic year he taught astronomy at the studium.61 There were 22 students of law (6.7 per cent of law students) who taught either canon or civil law. In a number of cases, students who were rector universitatis were obliged

60 For problems involved in the interpretation of the rotuli, cf.: Peter Denley, ‘Career, Springboard or Sinecure? University Teaching in Fifteenth-Century Italy’ in: Medieval Prosopography 12 (1991) 95–114. The ﬁgure of teaching students represents a minimum. The source situation was most structural for Bologna, where the rotuli were the subject of close scrutiny by Dallari, Rotuli. For Siena, Florence and Pavia there was also structural information on the rotuli, for instance: A.F. Verde, Lo Studio Fiorentino (1473–1503). Ricerche e documenti, vol. I–IV (Pistoia 1977–1994), esp. vol. 3; Dante Zanetti, ‘A l’Université de Pavie au xve siècle; les salaires des porfesseurs’ in: Annales: économies, sociétés, civilisations 17 (1962) 421–433. For Padua and Ferrara the sources have incidentally survived: A. Belloni, Professori giuristi a Padova nel secolo XV. Proﬁli bio-bibliograﬁci e cattedre, Ius Commune Sonderheft 28 (Frankfurt 1986). Tiziana Pesenti, Professori e promotori di medicina nello Studio di Padova dal 1405 al 1509: Repertorio bio-bibliograﬁco, Contributi alla Storia dell’Università di Padova 16 (Padua 1984); Adriano Franceschini (ed.), Nuove documenti relativi ai docenti dello studio di Ferrara nel sec. XVI, Serie Monumenti VI (Ferrara 1970); Codice diplomatico dell’Universtà di Pavia, vol. 2, Parte prima 1401–1440 (Parma 1913); Parte seconda 1441–1450 (Parma 1915); Memorie e documenti per la storia dell’Università di Pavia e degli uomini più illustri che v’insegnarono, 3 vols., (Pavia 1877–78; reprint Bologna 1970 = Athenaeum. Bibliotheca di storia delle scuola e delle università, vol. 12). Other ways to ﬁnd out about students teaching involve gradation charters, where promotori are often mentioned explicitly. 61 ASB, AS, Libro Segreto 1504–1575, f. 24v. Quoted in: Herbert S. Matsen, ‘Students’ “Arts” Disputations at Bologna around 1500’ in: Renaissance Quarterly 47 (1994) 533–555, there 548. Also Dallari, Rotuli, 2, 12b.

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to take up a student lectureship. It would seem that future lawyers were less inclined to teach to support themselves. A relation with their somewhat more elevated social background seems plausible. This is not to say that noble students did not teach. Evidently, someone like the already mentioned Johannes van Diepholt, of—albeit illegitimate—noble birth and already a canon, did not consider it beneath him to lecture on the Decretales on feast days in the academic year 1475–6.62 It was possible to exactly reconstruct the social background of 21 students who lectured—11 in law and 10 in arts—during their stay in Italy.63 All social categories were represented. The 11 lecturers in law came from respectively the nobility (4), the patriciate (3) and the higher bourgeoisie (4). The 10 lecturers in arts, on the other hand, came from the patriciate (1), the higher bourgeoisie (5) and lastly the lower bourgeoisie and the ambacht (4). This does conﬁrm the earlier statement that the faculty of law had a somewhat more elevated social proﬁle than the other faculties. It also seems to show some reluctance on the part of noble students to be involved in the teaching of arts. If we look at what these ﬁgures represent when we compare them to the total number of the social categories found, it emerges that students from the high bourgeoisie especially were successful in securing lectureships during their study period. These positions may not have been so desirable for students of noble descent or those who came from the vastly wealthy town elites. The fact that relatively few young men from lower bourgeois and ambacht families were identiﬁed, as well as the existence of disputation competitions for lectureships for poor students suggests that there were other mechanisms at work than mere ability to teach a particular subject. On the other hand, it can not be excluded that those lecturers who could not be identiﬁed, like “mag. Ermano de Frisia” who taught astrology in 1500 at the University of Bologna,64 might have come from exactly those milieus that are diﬃcult to identify; the lower middle classes.

62

Dallari, Rotuli, I, 97. It was diﬃcult and often impossible to identify those mentioned as lecturers, as the way they ﬁgure on the rotuli is rather brief (e.g. “Henricus de Frisia”). 64 Piana, Ricerche, 246. 63

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An interesting point is that teaching was apparently not very popular in the third quarter of the sixteenth century. Both in absolute and relative terms the number of students teaching while in Italy was lowest. It seems plausible that this might be related to the apparently shorter stay of students at the universities in Italy after 1550 and the more elevated social proﬁle of the population in this last cohort.65 There were other categories of student jobs in which students from the Northern Netherlands were involved during their Italian journey.66 An obvious one is that of scribe. At least 12 students were involved in copying texts during their studies, in most cases texts that were on the curriculum. One such student of law was Hugo Petri of Goedereede who is known to have copied a lectura on books I and II of the Digesta by Franciscus de Capitibus Listae (or Capo di Lista), a law professor at Padua, in whose house he also happened to live.67 Similarly, the medical student, Gerardus Weghe of Amsterdam, who taught philosophy at Bologna in the academic year 1433–34,68 copied a Commentum libri de anima Aristotelis secundum veram interpretationem Alberti Magni et commentatoris Averrois during his stay at Bologna.69 The last example of a student from the northern Low Countries whom is known to have copied texts during his stay in Italy was Cornelis of Reimerswaal, who copied a text in Padua in 1479. For obvious reasons, copying texts as a means to support oneself was a slowly dying profession, when the coming of the printing press started to make an impact. There was no indication that any of the students in the population were involved in copying books in the sixteenth century. The late-medieval equivalent of the photocopier was certainly not the only means of making money during studies outside the institutional

65

Cf. chapter 2.5, p. 136. Various jobs on the side are mentioned in the general article by Jacques Paquet, ‘Coût des études, pauvreté et labeur: fonctions et métiers d’étudiants au moyen âge’ in: History of Universities, II (1982) 15–52. 67 Maﬀei, et al., Codici, 556–7. 68 Dallari, Rotuli, IV, 65a. 69 Piana, Nuove ricerche, 173, nr. 92: “Finitum atque scriptum anno M.CCCC.XXIIII [sic! A.L.T.] per Gerardus Weghe de Aemstehedam, XXIIII die septembris”. This is probably an error. It is much more likely that he ﬁnished the commentum in 1434. He is most likely identical with the Gerardus Alberti of Amsterdam who had previously studied in Rostock in 1427 and then moved on to Padua to study medicine, where he is mentioned as a witness 10 April 1430; Zonta, Acta, I, 246, nr. 771. 66

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alternatives of church beneﬁces, college beds and lectureships. Another option open to a student of relatively modest means was to attach himself to somebody with more ﬁnancial latitude. Evidence of this sort is scattered and incidental, not least because students themselves might have chosen in later life to leave this fact unknown. Nevertheless, we know of 11 students (1.7 per cent) who made the decision to hook up to some noble or rich student willing to pay for services. There were two ways in which this happened. One way was to enter the service of a noble young man as a servant and pay—or be allowed to be paid for—one’s way through college in this fashion. These students were labelled as famuli or servitores, servants. Five students in the population are known to have served their fellow students. This may have been early on, during their stay at Cologne for instance. Henricus Phippen of Zevenbergen was a servant of master Johannes van Wachtendorp and Wilhelmus Adriani Stoep of Dordrecht was a servant of Johannes of Leiden, dean of the faculty of medicine, when he came to Cologne in 1481.70 Some acted as servants during their stay in Italy, like Johannes Bogerman of Dokkum, from a bourgeois Dokkum family, but nevertheless a servant during his years at the University of Bologna. Because of his status as a famulus he got a reduction in the fees he had to pay to the German Nation when he registered in 1505.71 The other road was to act as a mentor or tutor to a young man of standing and wealth. They were called praeceptores or paedagogi. A noble or otherwise wealthy parent would look for a mature student or scholar to accompany their young son on his peregrinatio academica. The praeceptor was supposed to keep an eye on the academic and other achievements of the pupil entrusted to him for a sum of money, which enabled him to continue his studies as well. At least six students in the population acted as praeceptores. Some of them made a virtual career out of it, like the already mentioned Hugo Blotius. There were more humanists involved in this tutoring. Willem Obrecht of Delft, a friend and correspondent of Erasmus, was the praeceptor of the three sons of Hieronymus Lauwerijnz, chamberlain and lord treasurer of Philip the Fair.72 As has been said, these students were 70

Keussen, Matrikel, I, 131, 31; II, 371, 100. Acta, 266, 13. 72 Acta, 268, 43; Collected works of Erasmus. The Correspondence of Erasmus, 2, Letters 142–297, 1501–1514, Translated R.A.B. Mynors and D.F.S. Thompson, annotated by Wallace K. Ferguson (Toronto 1972), 124, nr. 201. 71

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often somewhat older than their pupils. They could even be quite advanced in age. Gerardus Nodianus of Arnhem ﬁrst went to the University of Cologne in 1532.73 Only in 1557 did he arrive in Italy as the tutor of the young nobleman Willem van der Duyn and he must have been in his early forties then.74 Other—not always student—jobs of an entirely diﬀerent nature may have been taken, but there is very little evidence for it. Occasionally, some information reaches the surface. Rodolphus Agricola, when he studied at the University of Ferrara, was employed by Duke Ercole d’Este as an organist of the ducal chapel from October 1475 until 1477, for which he received ﬁve gold pieces a month salary. This apparently enabled him “to buy Greek books and live in a decent manner.”75 He might not have been the only student from the north who found employment as a musician at the court of Ferrara. In 1538 a certain Henricus de Campis was mentioned as “cantor domini Ducis”.76 There were yet other forms of ﬁnancing the expensive years of study in Italy. Apart from the sponsorship of the Church and scholarships in colleges, ﬁnancial support could be received through scholarships set up by private persons or institutions.77 We know of at least six students in the population who received (extra) funding though such channels. The money could come from somebody close, as was the case with Nicolaus Tilmanni Oﬀhuys of Amsterdam. This student of medicine at the University of Padua was given 20 ﬂorins, when a relative of his, Nicolaus Johannis Oﬀhuys of Brussels, entered the Dominican convent in Bologna 12 September 1441 and bequeathed

73

Schillings, Matricule, IV, 81, 8. Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 59, nrs. 44–5. 75 Quotation from the biography on Agricola by Dietrich and Johann von Plenningen, quoted in F. Akkerman and P. Kooiman, ‘Agricola musica studiosus’ in: F. Akkerman, A.J. Vanderjagt and A.H. van der Laan (eds.), Northern Humanism in European Context, 1469–1625. From the ‘Adwert Academy’ to Ubbo Emmius, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 94 (Leiden 1999) 43–51, there 45–6 and the references in the footnotes. Rudolf scored many points with the duke. In the university records, when he attended the graduation of Cornelius Florentii of Goes 31–1–1478, he was even mentioned as a “familiaris illustrissimi nostri ducis”, quoted in Pardi, Titoli, 69. 76 Pardi, Titoli, 131. It is not entirely clear whether he was a student or just a musician. He might be the same as the “Henricus a Campis ﬂandrius”, mentioned as a witness 8–2–1548. Ibid. 141. 77 See also Trio, ‘Financing’. 74

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some of some of his earthly belongings to various churches and persons.78 The money probably came in handy, but apparently it was not enough, since he graduated “amore Dei”.79 Gisbertus Arentsma, who came from a patrician Leeuwarden family, received a grant to go and study abroad from his uncle, Otto Truchsess. Another way was through scholarships set up by cities that enabled their young citizens to go and study. The case of Groningen deserves a special mention here. Town government had bought the possessions of an impoverished nobleman in 1456 to set up a fund for young Groningers to visit universities. Johannes Eelts who graduated in law at Ferrara in 1555 was supported through this fund.80 This was also the case for Volkert Coyter who was awarded 20 Emden guilders to study abroad, something which he most certainly did, as he visited no less than seven universities in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy. One has to ask the question, though, how far a sum like 20 Emden guilders or 20 ﬂorins would go at expensive universities in Italy. Even students from a relatively wealthy background may have borrowed money to ﬁnance the costs of their deer education. Take, for example, the case of Stephanus Rumelaer, who came from a patrician Utrecht family. After studies in Paris, Padua and Bologna, where he graduated, he accumulated several church beneﬁces and ended his life as a very wealthy man, as can be gathered from his last will and testament, although at his death he still had a debt outstanding, concerning his studies going back at least 30 years.81 The fact remains that it is very diﬃcult to exactly establish how students managed to make their way through university. It would seem most likely that those coming from the nobility, the patriciate and the higher bourgeoisie could generally rely on their family to make a contribution, if not pay for the lot. One might question if this were the case for those students who fell short of this wealth and for whom

78

ASB, AN, Pietro Bruni, Busta 8, nr. 55, quoted in Piana, Nuove ricerche, 327–8: “d. Nicolao Ofhuys eius consorti, scholari studenti Paduae.” Nicolaus Johannis Oﬀhuys must have been quite wealthy as he had 300 ﬂorins to dispose of before entering the convent. The document also mentioned that the noble Alfardus Lodovici van Montfoort, a law student at Bologna, was well acquainted with the testator. He was the only non-Dominican witness to the testament. 79 Zonta, Acta, II, 149–50, nrs. 1650 and 1652. 80 Pardi, Titoli, 170; Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 170. 81 Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren van de Kerk, 441, note 103.

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these ‘student jobs’ were an absolute necessity to pay for those coveted years of study—not to mention graduation—in Italy.

4.4. Social Background and Family Tradition A further interesting aspect to take into account would be the continuity of popularity of Italy as a destination for study in families, in the same social environment. A survey of the population reveals that the same family names keep coming up several times. There is two ways of looking at this aspect. One may be called intragenerational—more members of one family in one generation—, the other intergenerational, members of the same family of diﬀerent generations who chose Italy as their travel destination. The population counts various families in both categories, often combined. In certain cases one might speak of a real family tradition in their choice of university. Because of the earlier mentioned problems with name giving, it is often very diﬃcult to determine family relations for the students in the population. In certain cases it seemed plausible that students were related, but concrete evidence was lacking. For instance, when Suger Dirksz van Beek of Medemblik in Holland graduated in medicine in Padua 14 January 1441, a certain Jacob Dirksz of Medemblik, a law student, was present.82 It seems more than likely that these to students from the same town with the same patronymic at the very least knew each other quite well and were possibly even related. In this case it was not possible to substantiate this hypothesis. As it turned out, a minimum of 110 students (17.2 per cent) were related to at least one other student in the population. Students that travelled to Italy after 1575 have not been included, even though it is clear that a family tradition may have continued well into the seventeenth century. There were all sorts of connections. Students might have belonged to the same lineage, as was the case with the students of the Van Zijl family of Leiden who studied at Bologna and where two generations seem to have skipped the trip to Italy. In most cases the relations were much more direct. In ten cases the

82 “In med. mag. Çogeri Theoderici de Beka de Medemblick” and “Iacobo Theoderici de Medemblick in u.i. scholare”, Zonta, Acta, II, 114, nr. 1486.

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most direct relation of (grand)father—(grand)son could be found. In most cases the father would send the son to the same studium where he himself had studied, as was the case with Jacobus Wilhelmi Piin and his son Wilhelmus Jacobi Piin of Delft, who both studied law and graduated in Bologna, senior from 1478 until 1481 and junior from 1517 until 1521. Willem, proctor of the German Nation in 1520, was possibly involved in a marginal note in the register which explained that the Jacob who registered in 1478 was the “father of our lord proctor in the year 1520”.83 Similarly, it seems more than coincidental that Johannes Johannis Vredewolt, the son of a law graduate of Pavia in 1441, picked the same studium when his moment of graduation was at hand in 1473.84 Other direct relations involved brothers. In thirteen cases one or more brothers travelled to generally the same university, as Antonius and Valerius van Cuyck of Utrecht did. Both studied law in Padua in 1559,85 or the Van Ethen brothers, Bartholomeus and Reinerus, who both chose Pavia as their ultimate travel destination in the thirties and early forties of the ﬁfteenth century.86 Often, in twelve cases, we also ﬁnd that two or more cousins in the same generation travel to the same university to study. Philippus Coebel and Nicolaus Valckesteyn were ﬁrst cousins and both studied law in Siena. Other relations, for instance, uncles and nephews who picked the same studium also exist. Johannes Gasparis van Hoogelande graduated in Bologna, where his nephew Cornelius Balduini van Drenckwaert also graduated in law.87 All in all, the choice for a particular university pole, Italy, a particular university or even a faculty within it seems to have been a family feature for a signiﬁcant section of the population. This could be within a generation, but often it involved family members of diﬀerent generations. Almost invariably, these students belonged to either the nobility or the patriciate. True, because of their more consistent names—often they bear family names—they were easier to

83 “Pater dni. procuratoris anno 1520”. Acta, 225, 39; 226, 19, 282, 26; 283, 21; 287, 35; Piana, Liber secretus I.C., 243; Knod, Deutsche Studenten, 408, nr. 2789. 84 See chapter 2.2, p. 77. 85 ACVP, Ser. Diversorum, inv. nr. 55bis, f. 70 r. 86 Codice Pavia, 340, nr. 485; 450, nr. 591. 87 Acta, 318, 47; Knod, 203, nr. 1467; ASB, AS, inv. nr. 25, f. 225 v; inv. nr. 34, f. 78 v.

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trace. It stands to reason, though, that exactly those wealthy layers of society were in a better position to simply select—and stick to— a university in accordance with their standing and educational requirements without worry about the costs than those students who had to rely on scholarships, lectureships or other student jobs to ﬁnance such an expensive adventure. Their freedom of choice in deciding where to study, not to mention graduate, was rather more limited. Thus, through all the changes in the university landscape in Italy, the names of a number of noble and patrician families keep coming up at certain universities. The Gelmers family of Deventer seems to have preferred Bologna—and Orléans as well—to study law.88 The Van der Mijle family of Dordrecht made the law faculty of Padua their usual stop on the peninsula throughout the sixteenth century, and a next generation carried this tradition into the seventeenth century.89 Family relations within the population were much more complicated than can be sketched here. Noble and patrician families from a certain town or region were often interconnected. Families intermarried and thus other close relations developed. For instance, Johannes Mepsche of Groningen was connected to other families with sons in Italy. On his father’s side he was related to the Huynge family that sent Theso to Italy. On his mother’s side of the family he was related to the important Jarges family and also to the Entens family, all with representatives at Italian universities. Several members of the patrician Van Foreest family of Alkmaar had a desire to study medicine at Italian universities. It started with Theodorus in the early sixteenth century. His nephews, Petrus and Jacobus, followed in his footsteps and also travelled to the peninsula to study at Padua and graduate respectively at Bologna and Ferrara later on. Through marriage, the Van Foreest family was closely linked to another patrician family from Alkmaar, the Van Teylingens, who also sent the cousins Augustijn and Adriaan to Padua. To what extent the sons who followed in their father’s footsteps were actually sent by their fathers or rather chose themselves for a

88

Gelmarus Gelmers, Theodoricus Gelmers and a later Theodoricus Gelmers. In the sixteenth century Arnoldus, and his sons Adrianus, Cornelius and Johannes visited Padua. His grandsons Cornelius, Arnoldus and Hermannus visited Padua in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. 89

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particular studium is almost impossible to determine. Incidentally some information could be found. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, law graduate of Padua in 1569, later on set aside a considerable sum of money for his sons to travel to Italy, where the universities of Bologna and Padua were on the list. We know that his son Willem indeed studied law at Padua like his father. One might ask if it was more than just sheer coincidence that both his daughters married men who had studied law in Padua, Arnoldus van der Mijle and Reinout of Brederode, both of families that had sent sons to Padua before!90 Certainly in the late sixteenth century one gets the impression that a visit to Italian universities—later culminating in the Grand Tour had become a desirable way of ﬁnishing of the education of a young man of rank and standing.

4.5. Summary Although Italy was an expensive and rather exclusive destination for study, it cannot be said that students from the northern Low Countries who travelled to the peninsula were all members of noble and wealthy families. One has to be more nuanced than this. Apparently, an overwhelming majority of the population—nobiles and divites together— was in the position that it could pay for the study expenses without any real qualms. In the ﬁrst ﬁfty years of the period 1426–1575, however, there was a signiﬁcant section of the population that did require some sort of assistance from the various universities visited, the pauperes. After about 1480 their numbers dwindled and in the sixteenth century just 3 per cent of the population could be labelled as ‘poor’. The contrary could be said for noble students. In the ﬁrst ﬁfty years not even one in twenty ﬁve students could be positively identiﬁed as noble. Their numbers increased after that until in the last ﬁfty years under investigation roughly one out of every ﬁve students was of noble origin. This widespread process of aristocratization in the university landscape—brought about by more serious competition from the patriciate for places of power—was arguably

90 Fölting, Landsadvocaten, 35–42; Den Tex, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt; Id., ‘Nederlandse studenten, passim.

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even more intense in the iter italicum than for other studia in the north of Europe. We have seen that there was a considerable diﬀerence in the social composition of the cohorts from the various regions in the Netherlands. Comparatively more noble students came from the eastern, more rural parts of the Netherlands. It was diﬃcult to exactly establish what dives and pauper meant in the context of the northern Low Countries. It would nevertheless seem plausible to say that poor students came from lower bourgeois and artisan milieus. The category ‘rich’ could include students from these layers of society as well as those from wealthy and inﬂuential families about to be ennobled and everything in between. Students from patrician families and those from high bourgeois circles more often came from the more urbanized regions: Holland, the cities of Utrecht, Groningen and the IJssel cities. Students from the lower bourgeois and artisan classes who made it to Italy tended to come predominantly from the towns in the west and Groningen. The social composition of the population also had its eﬀect on the nature of the iter italicum. Increased participation of nobles and students from the wealthy town elites after 1475 shifted the accent from medicine—terrain of upcoming bourgeois—to law. Padua was an exemplary case in this respect. It changed from a university where a signiﬁcant number of ‘poor’ students managed to obtain a graduation gratis in the ﬁfteenth century to the place in Italy for young noblemen and wealthy townsmen to study the law in the last ﬁfty years of the sixteenth century, at which stage Italy was almost beyond the grasp of students from lower bourgeois and artisan backgrounds. It was this last category speciﬁcally that we ﬁnd involved in all sorts of student jobs during the study years. With the exception of canons—almost all from noble or patrician families—and the odd law teacher of noble descent, most occupations were held by students from bourgeois and artisan backgrounds. They could not fall back on a family fortune that would allow for a family tradition of sending sons to expensive Italian studia. It was these students who had to work to ﬁnance costly years of study abroad, hoping for a graduation “amore Dei”, that would enable them to start a career that might further their standing in society.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE STUDENT IN SOCIETY: CAREERS, NETWORKS AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

An expensive study trip in the south of Europe and a more than average social background might at ﬁrst sight suggest a successful career. In this chapter we shall try to assess if this presupposition holds ground. The main focus will be on the careers of the students in the population. The aim is to get beyond a list of professions. In a way one is trying to assess whether the investment—a stay at one of the costly studia in Italy—yielded a proﬁt, or at least to form an idea what students from diﬀerent backgrounds and with diﬀerent subjects could expect. Can the information gathered from the population tell us something about university education as a means of social mobility? Can we detect if and in what way education contributed to a student’s advancement in society? The results found for the population here can be compared to the ever increasing body of literature on the subject of careers of university students and graduates that has been published over the last decades, no to mention prosopographical studies on diﬀerent professions in the late-medieval and early modern period.1 First I shall deal with the careers of the students themselves, and take inventory of the range of professions chosen(!?). Several career categories will be scrutinized. It also seemed plausible to distinguish between students with diﬀerent choices of subject, as the career paths might also be considerably diﬀerent, not to mention that they could change over time. To diﬀerentiate even further, it seemed appropriate

1

For a status quaestionis see Moraw, ‘Careers of Graduates’ and Frijhoﬀ, ‘Careers of Graduates’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, I and II. Most prosopographical studies on university students now take into account the professional dimension. Recently, Fuchs, Dives; Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland; Schmutz, Juristen. Prosopographical studies on particular professions have also accumulated over the last decades. For a status quaestionis: De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Prosopograﬁe’. More recent: Bijsterveld, Laverend; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren; Mario Damen, De staat van dienst. De gewestelijke ambtenaren van Holland en Zeeland in de Bourgondische periode (1425–1482), Hollandse Studiën 36 (Hilversum 2000).

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to compare the data on careers and study with those on social background. This will enable us to gather information about how education—in concreto university education—could contribute to a student’s advancement in society. Ultimately, the status of a student in his environment was determined by a combination of factors. Examining the socio-political or even cultural network of the student population could clarify the mechanisms at work in social mobility, and how the itinerant students who visited Italy ﬁt in this pattern.

5.1. The Career Path Examined There are a number of complications in assembling the necessary data on students’ careers. Apart from those concerning their names and places of origin, there were further diﬃculties in tracing their walks of life. Despite these diﬃculties, commented on shortly, information about status, activities, oﬃces, professions and careers of the students—or obvious lack thereof—in the population was found for 407 individuals or 63.6 per cent of the population. Results diﬀered according to time cohort and choice of faculty.2 The results in brief are presented in table 5.1.1. Law %LawP. Med. %Med.P. Oth./Unk. %O/UP. Total Car. %TotalP. 1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

26 43 43 30 25 74

78.8 84.3 71.7 68.2 71.4 71.2

22 26 8 12 18 25

46.8 49.1 30.8 75.0 58.1 61.0

10 13 13 2 3 14

76.9 30.2 81.3 66.7 60.0 60.9

58 82 64 44 46 113

62.4 57.3 62.7 69.8 63.9 67.7

241

73.7

111

51.9

55

53.4

407

63.6

Table 5.1.1. Numbers of students per faculty (and as a percentage of faculty in italics) about whom career information or explained lack thereof was available.

2 In his interesting study of the social aspects of students of the University of Heidelberg up to 1450, Fuchs managed to trace career information about 40% of his overall population, which is comparable to the ﬁgures found for the ﬁrst ﬁfty years of our investigation. His ﬁgures also diﬀered according to status and faculty. Fuchs, Dives, 4 and 90–1.

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This is not the whole story. To come to a number with which one can eﬀectively work a number of subtractions was necessary. First and foremost of those students for whom we know why there was little or no career information because they did not have the time to make one: those who died during or just after their studies. There were nine early deaths to mourn, curiously enough all lawyers.3 Whether the austerity of theology and the closeness to health care for students of medicine formed any sort of protection against disease can be contested, though. Furthermore, those students whose career activity consisted solely of an oﬃce in the Italian student universities can also be omitted, when dealing with gainful employment. Though the oﬃce of proctor of a nation, whether this was in Italy or France, does tell us something about the status of students within the studium, I have chosen to eliminate this as career information. The same can be said of those who held the oﬃce of rector universitatis at Italian universities. As will be argued further on, those clerics whose beneﬁces could not be identiﬁed, can be counted among the clergy, but will be omitted when dealing with the inventory of oﬃces as well. A last category not counted here consisted of those noble students who were able to live of their property, but did not hold any sort of oﬃce in any of the bureaucracies. This leaves us with 337 individuals about whom reliable information could be traced concerning their career activities. Split up in time cohorts and distinguished by choice of faculty the following picture emerged (table 5.1.2.).

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Law %LawP

Med. %Med.P

Oth./Unk. %O/UP Total Car. %TotP

20 26 37 34 22 70

60.6 51.0 61.7 77.3 62.9 67.3

15 16 8 13 16 23

31.9 30.2 30.8 81.3 51.6 56.1

6 12 4 2 4 9

46.2 27.9 21.1 66.7 66.7 37.5

41 54 49 49 42 102

44.1 37.8 48.0 77.8 58.3 61.1

209

63.9

91

42.5

37

34.3

337

52.7

Table 5.1.2. Numbers of students per faculty (and as a percentage of faculty in italics) about whom there was clearly deﬁned career information.

3 The percentage of early deaths, 1.4, seems too low, certainly when we take the frequent visits of the plague to Italian university cities into account. Higher ﬁgures

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As can be seen from the table, there were considerable diﬀerences in the recovery rate, both in terms of time and subject of study. The recovery rate for the sixteenth century was better than for the previous one. Apart from the fact that the source situation in general improves with time, there was the factor that it was easier to identify students as the use of proper surnames deﬁnitely increased in the course of the sixteenth century, a development closely connected to the more elevated social proﬁle of the population in that century compared to the ﬁfteenth. The other factor that had considerable inﬂuence on the recovery rate was choice of faculty. Students of theology were most easily traced (nine out of ten), as they were almost invariably destined for some position within the Church. There existed signiﬁcant diﬀerences between students of law (63.9 per cent) and medicine (42.5 per cent). This by itself is very telling. It seems that lawyers stood more of a chance of getting to those positions that were documented most precisely.4 Consequently, a law student from the last time cohort was much easier to trace than a student of medicine from the ﬁrst time cohort. This also had consequences for the recovery rate viewed by region, which could vary quite a bit. Obviously, students from Friesland, predominantly travelling in the sixteenth century and mostly opting for law were overall easier to trace than the student population from Holland, for instance, with such a substantial proportion of them studying medicine in the ﬁfteenth century. When students of law from Holland and Friesland in the sixteenth century are compared, the comparative recovery rate was virtually identical. A number of students who had died during or shortly after their studies must have escaped our attention. Equally, the careers of an

have been mentioned. Percentages of mortality rate among students as high as 6–8% have been found. Frijhoﬀ, ‘Careers of Graduates’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, II, 409–10. Also De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 77, where a percentage of 2.9 was established. 4 Students of medicine who set up their own practice are very diﬃcult to trace, particularly for the ﬁfteenth century. The situation for the sixteenth century was much more generous, in the sense that both in ego-documents and publications traces survive of practicing physicians. Another factor is that for many towns proper inventory of servants of the city (town physicians) has not been taken, often because of a lack of the most important sources in this respect, the town accounts (stadsrekeningen). Cf. Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’.

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unknown number of students who did not return to the Netherlands were not recovered. A number of students had careers outside the Netherlands and for a number of generally well-researched institutions (universities, the chapters in Cologne, the Reichskammergericht) the presence of students from the population was clear. As for a number of oﬃces in the various towns and cities of the neighbouring German lands or France (there are indications that particularly physicians travelled quite a bit), it would be impossible to trace all of them. The percentages found, though not perfect, are signiﬁcant enough to make a number of observations about the career paths for the students in the population.5 Choice of Faculty and Career Sectors Before discussing the various career sectors and professions in-depth, the broad results found justify closer scrutiny on the basis of choice of faculty. As we shall see, the walks of life for the diﬀerent types of students (law, medicine, arts and theology) varied considerably, and diﬀerent careers sectors, that developed over time could be identiﬁed for the diﬀerent groups of students. The following career sectors were used to categorize that careers of the students: 1. Academia; 2. the Church; 3; health care; 4. town government and admin-

5 For law students from the diocese of Utrecht at the University of Orléans (1444–1456) the recovery rate was 61.5%, extremely close to that for our law population; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 80. For students of medicine at the University of Cologne a higher percentage was found: 57%. The results for this study were highly inﬂuenced by the ﬁrst time cohort when a phenomenal percentage of 66% of careers could be traced, largely due to the fact that this is the founding phase of the university, when a number of important men of medicine were attracted. If the earliest time cohort is omitted, the percentage comes close to the results found for the medicine population here (30–40%); Cay RüdigerPrüll, ‘Die “Karriere” der Heilkundigen an der Kölner Universität zwischen 1389 und 1520’ in: R.C. Schwinges (ed.), Gelehrte im Reich. Zur Sozial- und Wirkungsgeschichte akademischer Eliten des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Beiheft 18 Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung (Berlin 1996) 135–158. Fuchs, Dives, 4, came to an overall recovery rate of 40%, though one has to bear in mind that he dealt with an earlier period, which included a huge arts population. For the students population of Tübingen between 1477 and 1534 a recovery rate of 28%, also including the vast arts population; W. Kuhn, Die Studenten der Universität Tübingen zwischen 1477 und 1534, II vols. (Göppingen 1971). Problems in dealing with careers of students in general see Frijhoﬀ, ‘Careers of Graduates’ in: De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History, II, 355–415.

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istration; 5. regional government and administration; 6. provincial (county, duchy, etc.) government and administration; 7. government and administration of the representative institutions, the States; 8. government and administration at central level; 9. other, including a wide range of diﬀerent professions and oﬃces. The results for the overall population are presented in table 5.1.3.6 From the overall picture it is obvious that the Church was the biggest employer of students who had made the iter italicum. Some nuances need to be made though. At ﬁrst sight, the Church as a choice to get further in life seems to have faded away particularly in the period 1526–75 for students who visited Italian studia (table 5.1.4). Especially in these last ﬁfty years, careers in the Church became rarer. On closer inspection, though, we have to identify some nuances. Although the overall percentage of clerics between 1426 and 1525 always remained well over 25 per cent, varying from 28.0 to 41.3, something had changed after about 1475. If one takes the faculty dimension into account, one notices that percentages for law students, medical students and the category ‘other’—consisting students of arts and theology, and students whose choice of faculty was unknown— varied considerably. Apart from the small contingent of theologians, students of law were clearly the most likely to opt for a career in the Church. Even the proportion of law students with ecclesiastical ambitions, however, seems to have diminished considerably over time. From a relatively high 54.5 per cent of law students in Italy in the period 1426–50, it gradually fell to just over 40 in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century. This is precisely the period when the relative number of law students in the population peaked.7 The proportion further decreased in the last ﬁfty years until it fell to only one in thirteen law students who chose for the Church in the cohort 1551–75. Students of medicine were less interested (or less successful) in procuring a career in the Church. Most of those who pursued one, did so in the period 1426–75. Twice more than a quarter—last in

6 Separate ﬁgures for students of law and medicine are presented in the appendix 5.1. 7 The number of medicine students dropped in these cohorts. Crises that hit both Padua and Ferrara, as well as crises in especially the western parts of the Northern Netherlands explain this phenomenon. See chapters 2 and 3.

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the period 1501–25, when only 16 students studied medicine—was part of the clergy during their studies or opted for an ecclesiastical future. Except for the cohort in the last twenty-ﬁve years, when an ecclesiastical future was generally less fashionable, their percentage was always substantially lower than that for students of law. The career path for medical students was, as we shall shortly see, much more professionalized c.q. restricted than that for their peers who had studied the law. With this nuance, the overall conclusion must be that the Church as a career path for young men who visited Italian studia became signiﬁcantly less important, even though it did by no means disappear. This is perhaps most clearly shown by looking at law students. The (career) proﬁle of a law student at an Italian university had changed radically in the period under investigation. More than half of them were in some way connected to the Church up to 1475, in the sense that they either supported themselves through a beneﬁce during or that they successfully sought oﬃce in the Church after their studies. By 1575 the situation was very diﬀerent. The Church as a sponsor for university studies in law had almost ceased to exist. And only one in thirteen students now opted for the clergy after their years in university. As for the category other, one might be brief. The theologians all ended up somewhere in the Church hierarchy, if not in one of the religious orders, then in the papal curia. Even among the arts students and students whose choice of faculty was unknown one ﬁnds clerics, percentage-wise even more than among students of medicine. The role of the Church as an employer for law graduates was taken over by the bureaucracies of state at diﬀerent levels. Although the number of students that ended up in one of the governmental or administrative oﬃces of the various bureaucracies of state was rather modest in the ﬁrst 25 years of the period, the ﬁgure increased over time until for the law students in the time cohort 1551–75 more than three-fourths of all oﬃces and professions found were in the bureaucracies of state, from the town to the pinnacle of power at central level. If we had to illustrate this transformation in an extreme and simpliﬁed manner, one has only to look at the diﬀerence between Alfardus van Montfoort and Adrianus Arnoldi van der Mijle. The ﬁrst was the illegitimate son of a rural nobleman, who was supported by at least two prebends during his studies in the ﬁrst cohort 1426–50. After his graduation at Bologna he continued his career within the

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Church, which typically involved a canonry in Utrecht. Adrianus Arnoldi van der Mijle, a graduate of Padua in the last cohort, 1551–75, on the other hand was the eldest son of town magistrate, educated in Italy. His ambitions did not lie in a career in the Church, but in worldly bureaucracies, also typically in The Hague. He managed to become a councillor in the Hof van Holland and ultimately became a member of the Raad van State. In a sense their choice of university also exempliﬁes this change. Bologna had been the most popular Italian studium for law and many a clericus from the diocese of Utrecht set out to study there. In the second half of the sixteenth century this situation changed and Padua took over as the law university, albeit for a diﬀerent type of law student: generally laymen from the wealthy town elites or even the nobility, though not always the younger sons and only in a small minority of cases destined for the cloth. Diﬀerent career orientation is clearly observable in these ﬁgures. The prospect for law students was very diﬀerent than that for medical students and this became more pronounced as time passed by. Chances of a medical student making it to the corridors of power were much more limited than for his peers in the law faculties of Italy. Although we ﬁnd a signiﬁcant number involved in the administration and government of towns, only ﬁve students of medicine managed to reach beyond that level, and this stopped after the period 1501–25. Two of them acted as representatives to the States, two were involved in administration at county level. Only one graduate of medicine in the ﬁrst cohort 1426–50, Bartholomeus Nicolai van Ethen, became a member of the Hof van Holland. Their career path was much more deﬁned in terms of the eventual outcome. Academia and health care were the main sectors in which they found employment. Certainly up to the cohort 1501–25 ecclesiastical careers seem to have been an important option, although its level can by no means be compared to that of law students. As with law students, students of medicine gradually moved to positions in town government and administration instead of the Church. Medical doctors managed to ﬁnd their way back to town in all time cohorts. Their representation within the towns was rather weak for the ﬁfteenth century cohorts, but comparatively strong for the ﬁrst ﬁfty years of the sixteenth century. For the period 1551–75 their presence in town government and administration dropped again.

the student in society Sector Academia Church Health City/town Region Province States Central Other (%TCar) Academia Church Health City/town Region Province States Central Other

249

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. 14 25 6 4 0 5 0 0 0

21 22 6 17 0 6 9 0 6

12 25 3 12 1 7 3 4 0

13 23 6 12 3 10 3 3 6

19 7 13 11 5 7 2 5 2

9 16 19 23 16 27 15 7 16

88 118 53 79 25 62 32 19 30

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. 34.1 61.0 14.6 9.8 0.0 12.2 0.0 0.0 0.0

38.9 40.7 11.1 31.5 0.0 11.1 16.7 0.0 11.1

24.5 51.0 6.1 24.5 2.0 14.3 6.1 8.2 0.0

26.5 46.9 12.2 24.5 6.1 20.4 6.1 6.1 12.2

45.2 16.7 31.0 26.2 11.9 16.7 4.8 11.9 4.8

8.8 15.7 18.6 22.5 15.7 26.5 14.7 6.9 15.7

26.1 35.0 15.7 23.4 7.4 18.4 9.5 5.6 8.9

Table 5.1.3. Career recovered (= 337) by sector of the population, and as a percentage of careers recovered in italics.

Clerics 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Law

%

Med

%

Other

%

Total

%

19 28 26 19 7 9

57.6 54.9 43.3 43.2 20.0 8.7

13 10 3 4 1 3

27.7 18.9 11.5 25.0 3.2 7.3

5 5 7 3 1 5

38.5 11.6 36.8 100.0 16.7 20.0

37 43 36 26 9 17

39.8 30.1 35.3 41.3 12.5 10.2

108

33.0

34

15.9

26

24.5

168

26.3

Table 5.1.4. Clerics in the population per faculty and as a percentage of faculty in italics.

Academia The pursuit of learning and the necessity or desire to communicate this learning to a next generation of young men presuppose that some individuals sought—or, alternatively, had to settle for—a career within university walls. At least 88 individuals were at some stage

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in their career involved in teaching at one or other studium. No less than 51 students taught during their college years. Although for many students the teaching done then was the last they saw of the lecture hall, the corps of university lecturers and professors, excluding other high university oﬃces often held by professors—during and after their studies—in total grew to 88 (13.7 per cent of the total population). Categorized according to position and faculty over time, the picture looks as follows (table 5.1.5.): 1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. lect. artes prof. artes lect. med. prof. med. lect. law prof. law prof. theol. Total teach.

2 3 1 1 4 4 0 15

8 2 1 4 6 2 1 24

4 4 0 1 3 0 0 12

8 1 0 0 4 2 1 16

7 2 0 4 3 4 1 21

1 2 2 4 1 0 1 11

30 14 4 14 21 12 4 99

Total Ind.

14

21

12

13

19

9

88

proc. nat. cons./stat. dec. fac./ other rect. univ. Total cat.

3 0

9 0

6 0

7 0

5 0

17 5

47 5

1 3 7

0 2 11

1 1 8

0 0 7

1 5 11

1 4 27

4 15 71

Table 5.1.5. Positions in Academia.

Between the two largest groups, students of law and medicine, the conclusion must be that medical students were far more willing to take up teaching, not only during their studies but afterwards as well. A minimum of 45 of this group (21 per cent of all medical students; almost half of those medical students about whom we have career information) taught at some stage during their careers. No less than at least 21 of them—or one out of every ten medical students—claimed a professorship, either in medicine (14) or in the arts (7). This is a ﬁrst indication that the study of medicine was much more closely deﬁned, more professionalized in terms of career outcome.8

8

Rüdiger-Prüll, ‘“Karriere”’, uses the term “Verlaufbahnung”.

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Although a doctorate in medicine was a degree that was more than required for a teaching position or professorship in arts, one cannot simply say that medical graduates settled for less than they could ask for.9 True, professorial chairs in medicine at the universities of northern Europe were few and competition was ﬁerce. Universities sometimes recruited almost entirely from their own graduate pool. An overqualiﬁcation avant la lettre does not explain this phenomenon entirely. Especially in the ﬁrst ﬁfty years of the sixteenth century, some medical graduates made a deliberate choice for one of the arts subjects. Gisbertus Longolius, who graduated at Ferrara, had the honour of becoming the ﬁrst oﬃcial professor of Greek at the University of Cologne in 1538. Justus Velsius, doctor medicinae of Bologna, taught Greek at the universities of Louvain and Cologne in the forties and ﬁfties. In certain cases the choice for arts could be interpreted as one motivated by the humanist ideal.10 Lecturing in medicine and particularly a professorial position were attractive career options for most students of medicine. Lawyers were not as eager to pursue a teaching career. 39 Law students were at some stage involved in teaching (11.9 per cent of law students, but just 19.1 per cent of those law students of whom we have career information). On top of this, quite a few law students, nineteen in total, just taught as part of their studies and after graduation moved on to pursue careers elsewhere, most often in the Church and frequently combined with the aﬀairs of state. Students of law were also less interested in taking up teaching positions in arts. Only two law students took up lectureships in arts, one of them during his studies. Five law students have been known to occupy professorial chairs in the artes, but Martinus Hegherdoer, professor of arts at the University of Louvain actually gave up this position to go study the law in Italy. This he did successfully. He left the University of Bologna with a degree in canon law. Another law

9 It is worth keeping in mind that at Italian universities arts and medicine were taught within one faculty. 10 Heinz Finger, ‘Gisbert Longolius (1507–1543)’ in: Rheinische Lebensbilder 14 (Cologne 1994) 93–114; E. Feist-Hirsch, ‘The Strange Career of a Humanist. The Intellectual Development of Justus Velsius (1502–1582)’ in: Aspects de la propagande réligieuse, Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance 28 (Geneva 1957).

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students who accepted a professorship in the artes was the humanist Rodolphus Agricola, who came to Pavia studying the law, but had a complete change of heart, especially when attending the studium of Ferrara. His international reputation as a man of letters eventually led the University of Heidelberg to oﬀer him a post in the arts faculty. He cannot exactly be called typical for the population of law students in this sense. Even the number of professorships in law is relatively small. A total of 17 were found, 5 in the arts and 12 in the law (5.2 per cent of the total number of law students; 8.3 per cent of the law students whose careers could be traced). This is not to say that there were no eminent law professors in the population. Nicolaus Everardi of Amsterdam, graduate of Bologna, was an important academic. Not only was he professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt as well as rector of the university, he also was the founding father of an entire line of important lawyers. His two eldest sons, Nicolaus and Georg, eventually joined him in teaching law at Ingolstadt, after their own iter italicum. A pattern emerges which tells that a lectureship in arts at an Italian studium was a good support basis for a student of medicine who wanted to take the degree of doctor medicinae. A professorship in the arts was also a career option for medical students. The subjects were closely related and especially in the sixteenth century the subject of Greek became an interesting one. This was not so much the case for law students. They were not that interested in teaching arts. Their focus was on teaching the law during their studies, but they moved on rapidly after graduation. Comparatively, they were less inclined to take up lecture- or professorships. This has to be explained in various, but interconnected ways. As we shall see, the options open to law students were more numerous than for those of any other subject studied. It is signiﬁcant that eight law professors in the population managed to acquire their seats almost upon graduation, which was not always the case for their peers in medicine. Their higher social proﬁle was also a contributing factor. The combination of rank and degree would enable them to reach higher or wider than a professorial chair. Apart from this explanation on the supply side, there was the demand side to this question as well. It was diﬃcult to gain a professorship at Italian studia, where dynasties of local professors dominated the colleges of

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doctors. To a lesser extent this was the case in northern European universities as well.11 The few students of theology were very eager to teach. Four professorships were found for ten students. Petrus Canisius, professor of theology at Vienna and the only saint of the Church in the population, is one of the most famous among them. The universities in which these students taught were—apart from those in Italy during and after their studies—generally those close to the Netherlands. Both the studium of Cologne and that of Louvain took in several former students. Louvain seems to have had a preference for lawyers, whereas Cologne was more inclined to employ graduates in the faculties of arts and medicine, both in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth century. Other studia were mentioned. Paris, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Basle, Douai, Trier, Vienna, Ingolstadt, Marburg and Copenhagen all ﬁgure on this list. After 1575 the list was extended with another university that was to play a considerable role in the history of universities: Leiden. Several students of arts and medicine in the population went one to teach in this newly founded studium.12 Even the University of Franker in Friesland was mentioned. The Church Traditionally the relationship between Church and University had been a very close one. The distinction between clericus and scholaris was hardly discernible in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The process of laicization of the university population only really started in the fourteenth century. Even in the ﬁfteenth century the proportion of clerics at the various studia, especially in the north of Europe was still considerable. Ergo, vere dignum et iustum est to examine the careers

11 This relatively low ﬁgure, or even lower ﬁgures of teaching personnel among law students is found more often. Out of the 306 students from Brabant at the University of Orléans between 1444 and 1546 only 6 students taught as part of their career (2%). Only 3 of them became law professors (1%). Similarly for the students from the diocese of Utrecht at this university only two students became law professors. De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’ 288–90; Ead., ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 79. Cf. also Fuchs, Dives, 95, who comments on the relative small numbers of teaching positions. De Coster, ‘Vreemde docenten’. 12 Relations between the faculty of medicine in Leiden and the Italian universities will be dealt with more thoroughly in chapter 6.

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of those students belonging to the clergy. To a certain extent the Italian institutions for higher education, particularly those specialized in (Roman) law, form an exception to an almost European rule. From an early stage the laity had found the way to their gates. This did not apply to all its suppositi. In the thirteenth and fourteenth century approximately 80 per cent of Swiss students in Bologna still belonged to the clergy.13 In the previous chapter we have seen that a not insigniﬁcant (13.4 per cent), but ever declining percentage of students from the Northern Netherlands travelling to the peninsula belonged to the clergy during their studies.14 Here, we shall examine the various functions and dignities within the Church that the students in the populations managed to obtain not only during but after their studies as well. A minimum of one out of every four students (26.3 per cent) held some sort of position in the Church, either before, during or after their studies. They can be called members of the clergy. Their actual position within the Church is, of course, another matter. It is true that taking orders allowed a student to be eligible for a church beneﬁce, but is very doubtful if they all held one. Similarly, students who were mentioned as sacerdos or presbyter, indicating their ordination as priests, were according to canon law entitled to a beneﬁce, but it is equally doubtful whether this was always the case in practice. Further discussion of careers in the Church will therefore take place on the basis of actual beneﬁces found for particular students.15

13

Stelling-Michaud, Juristes suisses; Id., L’Université de Bologne. Cf. Fuch, Dives, 17, where he states that the number of students supported by a church beneﬁce at the University of Heidelberg was also declining. He is correct in warning that this should not be automatically interpreted as a process of laicization. He explains that the careers at the end of his period of investigation (1450) were still very much focused on the Church. Students became involved in the Church at a later stage in their lives. Cf. also Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 349, on the careers of the canons of Oudmunster. The ﬁgures found for the population studying in Italy seem to conﬁrm the ﬁndings of Fuchs and Van den Hoven van Genderen. 15 I follow the same guidelines Fuchs, Dives, 14–5 proposed. They are somewhat diﬀerent from those handled by Schwinges, Deutsche Universitätsbesucher, 399, who does count students labelled as presbyter and sacerdos as members of the beneﬁced clergy. This means that a number of clerics with a beneﬁce might escape our attention, because their beneﬁce could not be traced. Fuchs further points out the diﬃculties with the term clergy. It was sometimes used rather randomly, apart from the fact that we seldom know which orders were actually taken. Those students studying canon law, but for whom no beneﬁce could be traced, were left out and if there 14

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255

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat.

Parish Canon Regional Diocese Bishop Curia pap. Order Abbot/rect. Court chapl.

15 13 4 4 1 5 3 1 1

15 10 5 2 0 0 5 2 1

14 11 3 5 1 2 4 2 1

15 7 3 2 0 1 2 0 0

2 4 3 2 0 1 1 2 1

5 7 2 5 1 5 4 4 0

66 52 20 20 3 14 19 11 4

Total oﬃces

47

40

43

30

16

33

209

Table 5.1.6. Positions in the Church held by students in the population (categories are individuals).

An ecclesiastical career could look very diﬀerent. Dignities could vary from a small beneﬁce attached to a chapel to the position of bishop, even bishop of Rome (though none of the students in the population got to wear a tiara). In many cases they was a cumulation of several beneﬁces. For 118 individuals no less that 263 clearly deﬁned dignities could be found. Table 5.1.6. showes the various oﬃces in diﬀerent church levels found. It is worthwhile to look at these church dignities separately.16 A large number of students were mentioned as belonging to the clergy in terms like clericus, presbyter, sacerdos, and such, but only a limited number of precisely deﬁned church beneﬁces could be traced. An absolute minimum of 66 individuals, 39.3 per cent of the clerics in the population, or one in ten of the total student population, held one or more identiﬁed lower oﬃces in the Church. Even among these lower church oﬃces held by secular clergy enormous diﬀerences existed. Some students already held a beneﬁce on their way to university, and they would have the opportunity to let the income from this beneﬁce pay for or at least contribute to the cost of study, while another cleric functioned as his substitute.17 Others only acquired was no mention of them belonging to the clergy, they have not been counted among the overall clergy. 16 For the institutional history of the Church in the Netherlands, and the various dignities mentioned see: W. Nolet and P.C. Boeren, Kerkelijke instellingen in de Middeleeuwen (Amsterdam 1951); R.R. Post, Kerkgeschiedenis van Nederland in de Middeleeuwen, II vols. (Utrecht 1957); J. van Herwaarden, ‘De kerkelijke organisatie van de Nederlanden: bisdommen, kapittels, parochies’ in: NAGN, IV, 392–5. 17 Clerics with a beneﬁce who chose to go and study were exempt from paying

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one later in their career. The diﬀerence between a “beneﬁcium in Hulst”, probably a chapel or even an altar, and the dignity of persona of an important church like St Martin’s in Groningen was a substantial one. We meet students in chapels, vicaries and parish churches all over the Northern Netherlands, in the diocese of Utrecht and a further number of lower church beneﬁces in other dioceses, of which Liège and Cologne were clearly the most important after Utrecht. Churches in most of the important towns, from Alkmaar to Zierikzee, were mentioned, but also several beneﬁces in smaller communities and villages. Johannes Alardi Vos for instance was persona of the parish of Avezaet in Guelders in 1522.18 Some beneﬁces seem to have had a special relationship with students from Italy. The substantial contribution that Groningen made to the iter italicum is reﬂected in the appointments made to its most important church; that of St Martin. The persona of St Martin’s church held supreme ecclesiastical authority in the town and its immediate environment, apart from the fact that he also had considerable inﬂuence on city government. For this important church beneﬁce a distinguished study curriculum had become an unwritten law. No fewer than ten students in the population were either persona (5) or vicaris (5) of this church. Wilhelmus Frederici, graduate of Ferrara and persona from 1489 onwards, is perhaps the best example and was the one responsible for shaping this important position. Apart from wielding power over the aﬀairs of the churches in Groningen, he played an inﬂuential role in town politics.19 Most were explicitly mentioned as persona (30), a number as chaplains (27) and vicars (14). As was the case in the late-medieval and early modern period, these clerics often held more than one beneﬁce. Ten students combined diﬀerent lower church oﬃces. A minimum of four further students were involved in church bureaucracy at the lower level, as either secretaries to bishops or procurator ﬁscalis of Cologne, where someone like the cleric Petrus Ivonis of Alkmaar could use the legal skills acquired during his studies. The relationship between chapters and universities had been a

for their absentia. They only had to pay for their substitute. Cf. Bijsterveld, Laverend, particularly pp. 27–86. 18 Brom, Archivalia, I, 97, nr. 270. 19 For both St Martin’s Church and the role of Wilhelmus Frederici, see: Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 117.

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long lasting and a fruitful one, certainly up the beginning of the fourteenth century. Canons were often encouraged to go study, while still enjoying the fruits of their canonicatum on their peregrinatio academica. The iter italicum was no exception. A minimum of 52 students (8.1 percent of the total population and almost one-third of all clerics) managed to attain the rank of canon in one or more chapters. The position of canon did not disappear from the career perspective for students from Italian universities. Canons appear in all time cohorts, although there was some change over time. They were comparatively more numerous in the period 1426–1525. If we look at the number of canons as a percentage of the clerics in the time cohorts, one notices that the dignity of canon remained a stable, attractive position throughout. Obviously, those who travelled the long way to Italy and returned with a degree could aspire to the generally rewarding oﬃce of canon. The widespread practice of cumulation of church oﬃces is clearly visible in the cohort of canons. These 52 canons accumulated at least 84 canonries in diﬀerent chapters in more than one diocese. Only two of them were regular canons, the overwhelming majority were secular canons. The city of Utrecht with its ﬁve chapters was the place where most of these canons were to be found. An indication for both the ambitions of the students in the population and their success-rate is the fact that most of them managed to obtain a canonry in either the cathedral chapter of Utrecht or the second most prestigious chapter in the diocese, St Salvator, also called Oudmunster. The other chapters in the Dom-stad follow with many more beneﬁces, the total amount of canonries in Utrecht amounting to 42! Other popular chapters in the diocese were the chapter of St Lebuin’s in Deventer and, for instance, the chapter of St Pancras in Leiden, two of the oldest and most prestigious chapters in the diocese after those in the Domstad. Canonries for students from the Northern Netherlands were not limited, however, to their own diocese. In the neighbouring bishoprics of Cologne, Liège, Cambrai and Tournai more beneﬁces could be found, usually in the episcopal cities itself, but a chapter like Our Lady’s in Breda, in the diocese of Liège also took in three students from the population. They can be found as far as Bratislava, where Theodorus Lindanus managed to obtain another beneﬁce.20 20

For the list of chapters see the appendix 5.1.

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Twenty students were known to have used the prebends in chapters to ﬁnance their university studies. The rest seem to have acquired their canonries at a later stage in their professional life. Recent literature on the subject seems to suggest that in the late Middle Ages the position of canon became less of a starting position in the Church, but that it evolved into a station that a diligent and successful student might attain at the middle or even later stages of his career; as a reward for services rendered to a higher authority. The results found for our population seem to partly conﬁrm this thesis. Although the number of students supported by a canonry during their studies was still signiﬁcant in the ﬁfteenth century, this number declined in the sixteenth. Also, the students lucky enough to have the prebend to pay for their university fees, board and lodging, came without exception from the nobility and the extremely well-connected patriciate. For the majority of the clerical population a canonry was a career goal rather then a stepping-stone. Did a prestigious degree count within a chapter? It is certain that university studies had become important in trying to obtain a canonry for those students who were not of noble descent. University visits and degrees had become a standard feature of canons, especially in the ﬁfteenth and certainly the sixteenth century.21 For the 52 canons in our population no less than 44 degrees in the higher faculties (84.6 per cent) could be found, the bulk of which were in law, 1 bachelor’s degree, 4 licentiates and 39 doctorates.22 If one wanted to make progress within a chapter, a university degree, preferably in law, seems to have been of great advantage. No less than 22 students who visited Italy, with one exception all graduates in law, managed to become dean of one or more chapters. In other words 42.3 per cent of the canons in the population managed to attain the highest oﬃce within a chapter. Other oﬃces in chapters were also found, praepositi, treasurers, scholastici, etc. Many a canon held various oﬃces, before attaining the highest oﬃce within a chapter. An excel-

21 From the abundant literature on canons in general J. Pycke, ‘Les chanoines de Tournai aux études’ in: The Universities in the Late Middle Ages (Louvain 1978) 601; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 248–73, in particular the comparison with other chapters in Europe, 250. 22 The exact numbers are 12 doctores iuris canonici, 3 doctores iuris civilis, 2 licentiati iuris civilis, 14 doctores utriusque iuris, 2 licentiati utriusque iuris, 7 doctores medicinae, 3 doctores and 1 baccalaureus theologiae.

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lent example is probably Gerardus Suggerode, law graduate of Bologna, who became a canon of the chapter of St Salvator in Utrecht in 1498. In 1503 he held the oﬃce of socius of the praepositus of Oudmunster, which oﬃce he held until 1526. He partly combined this with the dignity of treasurer of the chapter (1509–1527). In 1527 ﬁnally he became dean of the chapter.23 A further 20 students managed to climb the ladder of church hierarchy a little bit higher. There were various regional church positions available. Chief among these was the much sought after dignity of archidiaconus, as the income attached to this oﬃce was very considerable. In the diocese of Utrecht there were eleven archdeaneries. These positions were held by the provosts of the ﬁve chapters in Utrecht, the provosts of the chapters of the four oldest collegiate churches outside Utrecht (Deventer, Emmerich, Oldenzaal and Arnhem), the archdeacon of the cathedral chapter and one designated canon of the cathedral chapter. Eleven students held the post of archdeacon, eight of them in the diocese of Utrecht, three in other dioceses, Tournai, Bratislava and Liège. Other oﬃces like ordinary dean (of Drenthe: 1) provisor (of Delﬂand: 1) and certain proosdijen, held by provosts (10) can also be subsumed under this category. For the Ommelanden, under the diocese of Munster, these provosts were very important church oﬃcials as these proosdijen were relatively far from Munster. Four students were provosts, two of Loppersum and two of Humsterland, all law graduates. The top layer of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the Northern Netherlands was extremely narrow. For one, up to 1559, there was only one diocese, Utrecht, which included most of the territory of the northern Low Countries. Only one bishop, therefore only one episcopal court and consequently there were not that many oﬃces to compete for. Nevertheless, 20 individuals24 managed to reach the highest oﬃces in a diocese, short of becoming a bishop. This means that almost one in eight students connected with the Church eventually moved on to the diocesanal summit. Among these 20 individuals the students with a degree in law—ﬁfteen doctores and one licentiatus— were most numerous. A further two doctores in medicine and two more in theology also managed to ﬁnd their way to his level. 23

Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 716–7. 3.1% of the total student population, 5.9% of the students whose careers are known and no less that 11.9% of all clerics in the population. 24

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Two diﬀerent dignities stand out, the oﬃce of oﬃciaal (oﬃcialprincipal) and that of vicaris-generaal (vicar-general). The oﬃciaal was the church oﬃcer—in essence a judge—presiding over the episcopal judicial court, one of the ﬁrst ‘professional’, often graduated judges in Europe. It is therefore not surprising that from the very foundation of the ﬁrst universities these oﬃcers were generally trained in both canon and civil law. This applied to the students in our population as well. Nine law graduates held this prestigious position. As was to be expected, eight of them were connected to the diocese of Utrecht, another was oﬃciaal of the diocese of Cologne and the last one of the diocese of Munster. The other elevated church position was vicaris-generaal, the oﬃcial substitute of the bishop and as such possessed full episcopal authority. Six students rose to hold this prestigious oﬃce, ﬁve in the diocese of Utrecht and one, the often mentioned Theodorus Lindanus was vicar-general of Breslau.25 The Northern Netherlands were almost identical—with the exception of a few small areas—with the diocese of Utrecht. There was only one episcopal see to compete for and this was beyond the reach of virtually every student in the population, as only the most important noble families of Holland, Guelders and Utrecht, joined by the illegitimate sons of the house of Burgundy and high nobles from the Empire, could make a serious bid for the episcopal seat, that up to 1528 was a prince-bishopric.26 None of the students in the population managed to reach the position of bishop of Utrecht. Two students in the population had the honour of being illegitimate sons of bishops of Utrecht, Johannes van Diepholt and Johannes David of Burgundy. Three students managed to attain the position of bishop or coadjutor. Robertus of Brederode, younger son of Holland’s most important nobleman, tried to get the seat of Cambrai in the year he matriculated at the University of Padua. He was unsuccessful because of Antoine, Cardinal Granvelle’s inﬂuence, but eventually managed to become coadjutor of the archbishop of Cologne. Petrus de Mera,

25

See also Fuchs, Dives, 98. There were very few positions anyway. Rudolf van Diepholt (1424–56), Gijsbrecht of Brederode (1455–56), David of Burgundy (1457–96), Frederick of Baden (1496–1517), Philip of Burgundy (1517–24), Henry II of Bavaria (1525–1529), Willem van Enckenvoirt (1529–34), Georg of Egmont (1535–1558). 26

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of noble origin and career-maker in the Church hierarchy, eventually got the position of choreepiscopus of Utrecht. The last case was a special one. Paulus Adriani of Middelburg was most deﬁnitely not of noble origin. His origins have to be sought in the bourgeoisie of the town of Middelburg. He owed his appointment as bishop of Fossombrone to a large extent to the fact that he was a famous astronomer. After his years of studying and teaching astronomy at the University of Padua he became the personal physician and astronomer of Federico da Montrefeltro, duke of Urbino. An authority on calendar reform, he was given the seat of Fossombrone—near Urbino, one might add—in 1494 and therefore could attend the Fifth Lateran Council, where calendar reform was high on the agenda. The next category consists of clerics who made it to the corridors of the Vatican. Fifteen students managed to get a foot between the doors of the papal Curia. Most often mentioned among the dignities within the papal Curia were the protonotarii apostolici (5), a college of church oﬃcials charged with chancery duties as well as issues concerning beatiﬁcation and sanctiﬁcation. Furthermore, we found one papal referendarius, one papal legate, a papal inquisitor, one papal proctor and two familiares of a cardinal. Three more students succeeded in becoming papal chamberlains. The most well-known among them was certainly Wilhelmus van Lockhorst, law graduate of Siena, who followed Adriaan Boeyens, Pope Adrian VI, to Rome.27 At least nineteen students were members of diﬀerent religious orders either during and/or after their studies. Four of them belonged to the Dominican order and they seemed to have a preference for the study of theology at one or other Italian studium, especially Ferrara, like Johannes van Houdaen, who later exercised some authority as papal inquisitor in the diocese of Utrecht. Other orders were mentioned as well. Another three students belonged to the German Order, three to the Jesuits, one to the Benedictines, one to the Cistercians and one to the Praemonstratencians. Two students entered houses of the Brethren of the Common life, following the Rule of St Augustine. A last student, Theodoricus Persijn entered the Carthusian order towards the end of his fruitful career, after having held a professorship

27 Adrian VI had been the provost of the chapter of St Salvator, where Wilhelmus’ father, Herman van Lockhorst was dean. Herman also became a member of the curia.

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in law at the University of Louvain and a position as councillor to the Court of Holland. For one student the exact religious order was not entirely clear. These students held various degrees. Theology and law were most popular, but even medicine as a subject of study was mentioned. There was not one subject of study that really stood out. Within their religious communities these monks and friars were at any rate successful. Eleven of them managed to become either prior or abbot of a priory or monastery. We found one Dominican prior, two Jesuit ones, two priors of the German Order, two Augustinans, and one Cistercian abbot. Furthermore, Jacobus van Ameronghen became territorial commander of the balije Utrecht for the German order. Stephanus van Rumelaer, although there was no indication that he ever entered the German Order, nevertheless managed to become its proctor in Utrecht in 1490. All in all, one might say that the contingent of clerics in the population managed fairly well within the hierarchy of the Church. The absolute and relative dominance of law students among them suggests that this subject and certainly a law degree could give an ambitious young man who had taken orders a weapon he could use in the competition for prestigious church oﬃces. Physicians and Health Care With such a substantial number of students of medicine, it was no great surprise to ﬁnd that a number of medical students practised what they had heard preaching during their years in the college benches. There were strong indications that most students in the population who ended up as practising physicians did so in the Netherlands. Although we do have evidence of a number of individuals setting up shop in England, France, Italy and more frequently, the neighbouring German lands, the majority of them found a place in one of the cities or towns in the Low Countries. Health care and medical practice in the Northern Netherlands at the end of the Middle Ages were by no means strictly regulated. A whole spectrum of professions connected to health care existed. Care for the sick often took place in monasteries, priories and convents, where women were often minding the patients,—until the thirteenth century the religious orders were most important in medical matters. In towns, hospitals for those suﬀering from plague, leprosy and mental illnesses were founded and supported by the town govern-

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1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. Practice Town phys. Personal phys. Total prof.

4 2 1 7

7 3 0 10

2 1 1 4

3 2 3 8

8 10 3 21

14 7 8 29

38 25 16 79

Total Per.

6

5

3

7

13

19

53

%med car.

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat.

Practice 26.7 Town phys. 13.3 Personal phys. 6.7

43.8 18.8 0.0

25.0 12.5 12.5

23.1 15.4 23.1

50.0 62.5 18.8

60.9 30.4 34.8

41.8 27.5 17.6

Total Per.

62.5

37.5

53.8

81.3

82.6

58.2

40.0

Table 5.1.7. Positions in health care held by students in the population in absolute numbers and as a percentage of careers of students of medicine.

ment, guilds and fraternities. Next to these institutionalized forms of health care, there were individuals, such as barbers, surgeons and apothecaries who took care of those with ailments. From the foundation of the ﬁrst universities, these ‘craftsmen’ were joined by a diﬀerent sort of medical man: the learned physician. From the fourteenth century onwards these university trained—but not necessarily medically trained, nor graduated—physicians pop up in the sources. These learned physicians come in three shapes: personal physicians to princes and high nobles, town physicians and those setting up their own practice independent of noble or urban patronage.28 To start with the last type of medical doctor, he was pretty much his own man. He had to compete with other professionals in this line of work. Every town of any importance seems to have had at least one or more practising medical men. The level of organization of these medical professionals, whatever their qualiﬁcations might have been, varied from town to town. In some towns such as Delft and Leiden, the barbers and surgeons had their own guilds. Strangely enough, in Utrecht—not exactly a village, one might add—barbers and surgeons belonged to the guild of the riggers, because of the

28 For the situation on health care in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, see: Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’ and the ever growing body of literature on health care at local level.

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instruments used in their trade. Similarly, in Amsterdam barbers were part of the guild that included the makers of clogs and skates. In other towns such as Zwolle they were part of the stallholders’ and merchant’s guild.29 Physicians with a university background would hardly have been members of these guilds. Their mainly theoretical education set them apart from those medical men who lacked such education and who were involved in manual labour. There is evidence that those who had a degree in medicine enjoyed higher prestige than medical practitioners without university degree. There is also evidence that those with the degree of doctor medicinae could practice medicine without any mediation from the appropriate guild.30 Despite the fact that structural information about this category of health care professionals—the doctores medicinae —is lacking almost completely, there was incidental evidence that no less—and considering the lack of source material this is an absolute minimum—than 38 students (41.8 per cent of medical careers) had a medical practice in a town or city. These medical practices were set up by our students in various towns, in various regions, even in various countries, as the university degree would have international recognition. Thus we ﬁnd students in the towns and cities of the Netherlands, but also on occasion in Paris, where Hadrianus Junius had a practice, in England, where Reinier Snoy practised or Germany, where Abelius Silvius set up his practice in Lüneburg. The next category consists of town physicians. The term itself is very confusing and even from the sources in the towns themselves it is not always clear what it meant. From the fourteenth century onwards, cities and towns in the Netherlands frequently hired medical personnel. Often these were barbers or surgeons, but certainly from the late fourteenth century sources often mention a “stede medicus”, indicating that this town oﬃcial had had university training, but not stipulating what this training had exactly involved. In the ﬁfteenth century such town physicians are mentioned more often, on a more structural basis. By the beginning of the sixteenth cen-

29

Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’, 370–1. Ibid. Naturally, this has consequences for our grasping of the careers. If doctors of medicine could practise without further administrative ado, it seems extremely likely that most of them will have done so at some stage during their career. It is also very unlikely that they left an archive of their activities. 30

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tury every self-respecting town had a town physician, almost permanently. The oﬃce itself changed over time. Apart from dealing with medical crises (the frequent visits of epidemics) in their community, the town physician over time became an authority on medical practice within the town or city. As such, this by now always university-trained town servant was charged with overseeing the practice of medicine within the town walls, much like the college of medical doctors in the large Italian cities. At this stage, the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries, doctores medicinae had invaded this oﬃce en masse. Among them were at least 25 graduates of Italian universities. Starting with Johannes Bentheim of Kampen who became the ﬁrst known town physician of his native town almost immediately after his return from the peninsula in 1426, the population continued to provide the towns and cities of the Netherlands with experts not only on the care for the sick, but also authorities on how health care should be structured and organized. Maarten Jansz Coster, for instance, magistrate and town physician of Amsterdam in the 1570s, was responsible for a new instruction that all medical practitioners in town had to obey by law. These graduates can be found in many cities and towns in the Netherlands: Alkmaar, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Arnhem, Delft, Deventer, Enkhuizen, Gouda, Groningen, Haarlem, Kampen, Leeuwarden, Leiden, Middelburg, Utrecht, Zierikzee and Zwolle are among the towns that left sources to conﬁrm the important role that graduates from Italy played in the shaping of public health care in the Low Countries. The students were not limited to the Netherlands though. The already mentioned Maarten Jansz Coster had been town physician of Boulognesur-Mer before returning home to Amsterdam. Even as far as Nuremberg town physicians from the Northern Netherlands could be found. The last category that needs to be discussed is that of the personal physician. From the high Middle Ages onwards, emperors, kings and princes had employed physicians and surgeons to monitor their well-being. From the early fourteenth century there is evidence that this was the case in the Northern Netherlands too, when several personal physicians of the count of Holland were mentioned. As time went by the practice of hiring a personal medical man became more widespread among the nobility, particularly in the sixteenth century. From very early onwards, learned physicians had made their way to the courts to perform this task. Medical students

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in the population managed to get their share in this most proﬁtable of medical professions. At least 16 students (17.6 per cent of medical careers) were found as personal physicians to some or other noble ﬁgure. For the ﬁfteenth century, there were few, though this partly reﬂects the source problem. Bartholomeus Nicolai van Ethen, graduate of Pavia, became personal physician to three consecutive archbishops of Mainz and a string of German noblemen. During his time there he might even have dealt with the emperor himself. Paulus Adriani of Middelburg’s employer was none other than the duke of Urbino. The evidence for the cohorts 1501–75 is much more readily available. Almost one in six medical students secured a place somewhere at court. Apart from a host of high German noble families (the dukes of Bavaria, margraves of Hessen and Sleswick-Holstein) and (arch)bishops (Cologne, Bonn, Würzburg and even Wilna of all places), a number of royal and imperial patrons were found. Cornelis Baersdorp was one of the personal physicians of Emperor Charles V. His successors as emperors, from Ferdinand I until Rudolph II, were attended to by Godefridus Steegh of Amersfoort. Both Cornelis and Govert were rewarded for their services with the title of comes palatinus. Hadrianus Junius was personal physician to the king of Denmark, while Wilhelmus Lemnius was employed by King Eric XIV of Sweden and his successor John III. Three graduates from the population were involved with, and two stood at the deathbed of, William the Silent: Hadrianus Junius, Petrus Forestus and Johannes Heurnius. These three types of medical professions were almost completely monopolized by medical students. Apart from Joachimus Huberti van Bieselinge, who studied law but not medicine as far as can be established, all were students of medicine and most of them held a doctorate in medicine. Government and Administration of Cities and Towns Another sector where students could be located was the town and city government and administration. With the growth of towns and cities, accompanied by economic and professional diversiﬁcation, the need for educated personnel within the administration of town and cities increased. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries chanceries started to develop in a very simple form in the towns in the Northern Netherlands. In the ﬁfteenth century these early attempts at establishing a civil service had become more elaborate, with most towns and cer-

the student in society Town/City

267

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat.

Schepen Burgem. Tresorier General Pens/Secr. Schoolm. Notary Advo.

0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1

3 4 2 6 7 1 2 2

1 3 1 4 3 1 1 0

2 3 1 5 3 1 1 1

3 5 1 3 1 4 0 0

8 8 0 5 6 0 0 5

17 23 5 25 21 8 4 9

Total Prof.

5

27

14

17

17

32

112

Table 5.1.8. Positions in town government and administration held by students in the population.

tainly the larger ones employing several educated men to take care of certain aspects of the urban administration. Chief among these civil servants avant la lettre were the town clerks. Especially in the ﬁfteenth century speciﬁc town clerks had been charged with speciﬁc tasks in the administration and a hierarchy developed accordingly. The following is an oversimpliﬁcation of what happened to the town bureaucracies in the Northern Netherlands. Generally one might say that there was one outstanding, non-political ﬁgure among the town administrators, the chief secretary, also called pensionaris, sometimes also referred to as stede advocaat: the ﬁrst civil servant. This ﬁgure was increasingly charged with the town’s legal matters and was therefore often involved in ambassadorial tasks, pleading cases before the provincial courts, or acted as a deputy to the States. Signiﬁcant for his position was that he was the ﬁrst one named on the town’s payroll. In larger towns and cities he was assisted by a number of clerks and scribes.31 Two of the other most important town servants, usually number two and three on the payroll, were the town physician, discussed above, and the rector of the town school, the head schoolmaster.32 Together these three constituted the summit of the town’s administration. After them there were a number of slightly less important town servants, the other people working in the chancery, ordinary

31 An increasing amount of literature on this profession has appeared in recent years. For an overview, see Kokken, Steden, 171–91. 32 Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’.

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schoolmasters, and so forth. We know of 52 students (15.4 per cent of students with known careers) involved in one of these professions. Chief among these was the town physician, discussed already. A further 21 students succeeded in becoming pensionaris, the top civil servant of the town. As several of his tasks were of a legal nature, expertise in the ﬁeld of law was a deﬁnite plus. Law students consequently dominate this group of professionals. Out of 21 pensionarissen 19 had studied law, 15 with degrees beyond magister artium. Two of them had a degree in medicine. Another 8 students held the position of rector scholarum, head master, of town schools. The close ties between the study of medicine and arts—the trivium was after all the main set of subjects taught in town schools—made that in this small group the students of medicine also dominated. Just one law graduate brieﬂy taught at the city school of Rostock. All other had studied medicine and six of them held doctorates in medicina. The closeness of arts and medicine and of the position of town physician and town rector is further illustrated by the fact that three rectores also acted as town physicians during their contracts. Gerardus Wouman did so in Leiden, Hadrianus Junius in Haarlem and Gisbertus Longolius in Deventer. Although technically, they did not belong to the town’s bureaucracy, I have also counted the lawyers and notaries public working at town level as part of the town sector of employment. There were at least 6 students, all law students, who worked at town level and 4 students, all law students as well, who had been admitted as notary public in some or other town. These professions, but particularly the position of pensionaris, all constituted the last rung on the ladder of the town’s hierarchy in a professional sense, before entering the magistracy. From the magistracy the town’s daily government was chosen by the prince. The way in which town governments were put together was often very complicated and varied from town to town, while the number of magistrates also varied.33 Generally, the town’s government was elected from the town council composed of its richest and most important citizens by co-optation, and it was often called vroedschap. A number

33 Recent studies on how town governments were put together and how they functioned have appeared in recent decades, e.g.: Van Kan, Sleutels; Brand, Macht; Verkerk, Coulissen; Abels et al., Duizend jaar Gouda.

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of oﬃcials were selected from the ranks of the vroedschap. Although sometimes designated by diﬀerent titles, three sets of magistrates seem to have emerged in most towns and cities in the Northern Netherlands. Schepenen (aldermen), a college of judges at town level appointed by the prince of his substitute for a one-year term. Secondly, there were the burgemeesters (burgomasters), appointed in the same fashion, who eﬀectively formed the government on a day to day basis. The third type of magistrate was the tresorier (treasurer), who dealt with the town’s ﬁnances. These bodies, vroedschap, schepenen, burgemeesters and tresoriers together formed the town’s government, checked by an oﬃcial of the prince. Composed of the nobles, welgeborenen and the richest and most inﬂuential members of the bourgeoisie, the ranks were fairly closed. The governing elite, sometimes referred to as patriciate, almost monopolized the oﬃces in the magistracy and it was diﬃcult for individuals outside this group to ﬁnd their way in. Other than these social criteria there were no educational ones. No university training was required to enter the ranks of the town magistrates. Be this as it may, university educated individuals managed to ﬁnd their way to the town halls. For our population no less than 48 individuals were found in the magistracies of all the main cities and towns in the Netherlands. From Amsterdam to Zierikzee students managed to become schepenen (17), burgemeesters (23) and tresoriers (5). Another 25 held various positions such as councillor, hoofdman of Groningen or member of the College der Veertigen. Frequently these members of the town elite also held other positions, often as governors of its institutions, such as orphanages, hospitals, poor houses and the parish churches. Considerable wealth was expected of these magistrates as their oﬃces were not salaried like those in administration. They generally received a nominal small sum for attending the meetings of the vroedschap, some gifts in the form of wine and clothes. Although these forms of remuneration could accumulate to the annual wage of a skilled artisan in some towns, it would be overstretching it a bit to say that they were salaried. There was some development over time. The presence of graduates from Italy in town administration was continuous and particularly strong for lawyers in the ﬁfteenth century. Students of medicine appear more often in the sixteenth century cohorts, nearly always as town physicians. The situation was somewhat diﬀerent where positions in the magistracy were concerned. Comparatively few students chose or managed to attain the oﬃce of town magistrate, certainly

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in the ﬁfteenth century. There was also little diﬀerence between students of medicine and those of law in securing these places in town government. This situation changed somewhat in the following century. Students of law started to turn up in increasing numbers in town government, particularly for the cohort 1551–75. Students of medicine were not as successful. With the exception of four students in the cohort 1501–25, their number in town government remained relatively low. The impression is that by the middle of the sixteenth century a degree in medicine was considered too specialized and would lead the graduate to a career in one of the positions mentioned above.34 Increasing participation in town government of students who had been to Italy does fall into a more general pattern for the Northern Netherlands. For aspiring members of the magistracy, pedigree, family fortune and marriage were all-important factors. A university education was by no means a guarantee for entering the ranks of town government. Recent research does show that a university education, though not necessarily a university degree, became more widespread certainly from the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century for members of the magistracy. It would be plausible to state that a real appreciation of university education in matters of town government did not materialize until the second half of the sixteenth century, and only really gained momentum in the seventeenth century.35 When Christoﬀel Florisz Gaergoet entered the magistracy of his native town Gouda in the late ﬁfteenth century, and accumulated no less than twentytwo terms as schepen, burgemeester and tresorier, he did so not on the basis of the fact that he had studied medicine at the University of Padua, but because he belonged to one of the most inﬂuential families involved in Gouda’s main trade, breweries.

34 A comparative decrease of medical graduates in town government continued in the period 1575–1795. On the basis of Frijhoﬀ, Société, 189, table 1: from 30% of graduates in government in the period 1575–99, through 14.9% in 1600–1624, to 5.9% in the period 1625–49 (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Gouda, Zierikzee and Zutphen). 35 Studies by Brand, Macht, 267–71 for Leiden; own ﬁgures for Gouda and Alkmaar. The situation was similar for Haarlem (ﬁgures of prof. H. de RidderSymoens); Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 163–7 and 199; Frijhoﬀ, Société, 187–91.

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Regional Government Oﬃcials The term regional government oﬃcials refers to those oﬃcers appointed by the prince who acted as either princely representatives within cities and town (usually called schout) or in rural areas. They are referred to by a whole list of diﬀerent terms. Baljuw (bailiﬀ ), kastelein (castellan), drost are the most important of them. Traditionally these oﬃces were in most cases handed out by the prince to their noble protégés. In the areas of Friesland and Groningen, where princely power was very limited until the end of the ﬁfteenth century, a number of local and regional oﬃces had emerged that dealt with both local government and justice ( grietmannen, redgers, ambtmannen and hoofdelingen are some of these oﬃces). Usually, they were held by members of the Frisian land-owning nobility. Other positions of a more administrative nature, such as that of rentmeester (master of accounts) or ontvanger van de domeinen (receiver of princely domains) can be added to this list. As most of these oﬃces were of old the domain of the nobility and the powerful urban and rural patriciate, it was quite diﬃcult for non-nobles, not belonging to the elite, to enter the ranks of these princely oﬃcials at local and regional level. The same can be said for the population. Twenty-three students held a position in regional government at some stage during their career. It is only relatively late that students were found in these dignities. The majority belonged to Frisian and Groninger hoofdelingengeslachten or to patrician families from Groningen and Holland. Of only one student there was no clear information about his family background. Three came from

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Tot. Cat. Schout/ Baljuw/ Drost Ontvanger/ Rentmees. Dijkgraaf/ Hooghee. Total

0

0

2

3

4

14

23

0

0

0

1

0

4

5

0

0

0

0

4

4

8

0

0

2

4

8

22

36

Table 5.1.9. Positions held in regional government and administration by students in the population.

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higher bourgeois families, ten belonged to patrician families and nine of them were noble. To this category we might add those oﬃcials involved in a singularly Dutch activity: water management. The consistent ﬁght against water had to be organized at a regional and even supra-regional level. This was done in so-called hoogheemraadschappen (polderboards) in these centuries nominated by the prince. They could levy taxes at regional level to maintain and improve waterways and dikes. They consisted of a dijkgraaf and (hoog)heemraden, who were usually picked from the local nobility and other chief landowners. Five students in the population, all law students, held positions as either dijkgraaf or hoogheemraad or hoofdingeland. Hector van Hoxwier, from a land-owning family with noble aspirations, was dijkgraaf of Westergo in Friesland. The nobles Petrus van Bronchorst and Splinter van Hargen were hoogheemraad of respectively Delﬂand and Schieland. Later the oﬃce of hoogheemraad of Delﬂand was to be held by Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. In total 25 students were involved at this level, nearly all former law students, 24 (7.3 per cent of law students). In many ways, especially because of the age old link with local nobility and other powerful local, land-owning families, these oﬃces might have been more diﬃcult to attain for students from the bourgeoisie—the brilliant Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is the exception to the rule—than those at provincial level, the next category. Administration and Government at Provincial Level The Netherlands were not a uniﬁed territory, but originally consisted of several principalities, with diﬀerent traditions of government and administration, that only gradually grew closer together under the attempts at centralization, ﬁrst by the dukes of Burgundy and their successors, the Habsburgs. The governmental institutions on principality level were therefore somewhat diﬀerent in the counties of Holland and Zeeland, the prince-bishopric of Utrecht—which included Overijssel and Groningen, the duchy of Guelders and Friesland, where princely rule was almost completely non-existent until 1494. They did have a common origin in the sense that most of these institutions had emerged out of the princely curia, the princely council, in the sense that they had formed an advisory organ to the prince, usually consisting of his most important noblemen and representatives of the clergy. By the end of the ﬁfteenth century sections of these

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1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. Prov. Court Advocatus Other Civ. S. Leenkamer Landraad Stadtholder/ Chancellor

5 0 1 0 –

6 1 2 0 –

4 3 1 0 –

7 2 1 0 –

4 2 0 0 –

17 9 10 2 6

42 17 15 2 6

0

1

0

1

2

1

5

Total

6

10

8

11

8

44

88

Table 5.1.10. Positions in provincial government and administration held by students in the population.

institutions had almost all developed into judicial courts at provincial level.36 In the sixteenth century especially Charles V tried to homogenize these provincial courts. The incorporation of het Sticht, Friesland and Guelders in the Habsburg Netherlands made sure that by the mid-sixteenth century every province had its own court, Hof van Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland, and so on. There were a number of other bureaucratic entities at provincial level. Most important among these were the Rekenkamers (chambers of accounts), where the provincial ﬁnancial administration was dealt with. Other institutions like the provincial courts of ﬁefs carried less weight. There were 62 individuals in the population (9.7 per cent) who held oﬃces at provincial level, but we need to distinguish between students of law and students of medicine. Generally bureaucracies at provincial level were almost beyond reach for the latter, even for those with a degree in medicine. Only two medicine graduates made it to the provincial courts. Adriaan Dirksz van Leiden, a student of medicine for whom we could ﬁnd no information about any involvement with the study of law—although this might be suspected!—, was admitted as a lawyer at the Hof van Holland. Of Bartholomeus Nicolai van Ethen, the other student of medicine there will be more anon. This obviously capable man is the exception to the rule that

36 For these provincial institutions: Enklaar, Landsheerlijk bestuur; Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 145–152; Jansma, Raad en Rekenkamer; Jongkees, Staat en Kerk; Jappe Alberts, Geschiedenis; Damen, Staat; Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly, Recht voor de Raad. Rechtspraak voor het Hof van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland in het midden van de vijftiende eeuw, Hollandse Studiën 38 (Hilversum 2001).

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it was generally law students that succeeded in securing posts in the provincial administration. No less than 57 law students (17.4 per cent of law students) at some stage worked in provincial administration and government. Taking into consideration the legal nature of much of the tasks assigned to the various provincial courts, it is hardly surprising that law graduates were an obvious choice for the prince to appoint, next to a number of noble vassals. The choice for trained lawyers seemed to have become increasingly popular. In the ﬁfteenth century the success rate of law students from Italian universities was strong with almost one in ten holding oﬃces at provincial level. In the following seventy-ﬁve years this ﬁgure had more than doubled, culminating in the last cohort, when nearly a quarter of law students ended up in provincial courts. A signiﬁcant proportion of the population continuously served in these provincial courts as councillors. These 62 individuals accumulated 88 diﬀerent oﬃces in the various provincial bureaucracies. There were 17 students who were found as lawyers admitted to the provincial courts. Strictly speaking they were not servants of the prince, but rather worked for their own beneﬁt. A further 15 students held other oﬃces in service of the prince on provincial level, most often in the position of rekenmeester and other ﬁnancial oﬃces. Two individuals were member of the court of ﬁefs in Holland and a further 5 members of the landraad, a body created during the Troubles in the Netherlands. The vast majority of these oﬃcials, however, a total of 42, were raad or councillor in one of the provincial courts or held a seat in the princely council. Several existed in the Northern Netherlands. Most numerous among the raden were the members of the Hof van Holland (19). For Holland and Zeeland the count’s council was developed by Philip the Good into the Hof van Holland, the highest judicial institution in the counties, under the chairmanship of a deputy of the prince, called stadhouder (stadtholder). It consisted of the nobles from Holland, Zeeland and a number of lawyers often from other territories in the Burgundian lands, especially from Flanders. Besides the stadtholder, there were either six or eight salaried councillors and three to six unsalaried councillors. This court was located in The Hague. Although the lawyers attached to the court in the ﬁfteenth century were often foreigners’, a number of indigenous jurists also squeezed their way into this prestigious court. No less than 19 students managed to get appointed as raad of the Hof van Holland. This

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had started in the 1430s with the Zeeuw Gillis van Wissekerke, who had visited Bologna prior to 1425. He had 19 successors in the population, with the exception of Bartholomeus Nicolai van Ethen, all law students. Only in the 1550s there was no law student who had visited Italy present as councillor in the Hof van Holland. The absolute champion of them was Jacob Ruysch, who was a salaried member from 1474 until 1511 and raad extra-ordinaris, albeit with a pension, from 1511 until his death in 1519! Adriaan van der Mijle became president of the court. A second provincial council where a number of law graduates were found was the council of the prince-bishop of Utrecht. From the earliest cohort clerics of the diocese with a law degree from Italy could be located in the close vicinity of the bishop. These nine councillors were all canons of one of the ﬁve chapters in Utrecht. Apart from members of his council, Bishop David of Burgundy established a specialist juridical court for his territory, called the Schijve. Among its ﬁrst members were two law students from Italy, Theodoricus Utenweer of Leiden and its ﬁrst president, Ludolphus van Veen of Kampen, both graduates of Bologna. With the incorporation of the prince-bishopric in the Habsburg Empire, a proper Hof van Utrecht was founded by Charles V. A further four students became member of this court, including one of its presidents, Hector van Hoxwier. Service to the duke of Guelders was no unknown phenomenon to students that had visited Italy. Petrus de Molendino, graduate of Bologna before 1425 found a successor in Johannes Pollaert, who also was a councillor to the duke of Guelders. There was no centralized judicial court for the overall territory of the duchy. Even when Charles the Bold conquered Guelders, he did not dare make an attempt at centralizing the courts that existed for the four separate quarters of Guelders. Only when the duchy was incorporated in the Habsburg Empire in 1543, was the Hof van Gelre installed. Two more law students, Carolus van Arnhem and Johannes van Speulde, found a place as councillor at this court. The virtual absence of any central authority in Friesland made that there were no centralized institutions for government and legal matters. This changed when Albert of Saxony conquered Friesland in 1498. He established a ducal council that developed into the Hof van Friesland after the territory was added to the Habsburg Netherlands in 1524. Frisians were relatively slow in rediscovering the road to Italian law faculties, but attempts at centralization must have made

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an impact. No less than nine students in the population secured a post in the Hof van Friesland from its reformation in 1527 until it was dissolved in 1578. Three law students managed to acquire a councillor’s post outside the Northern Netherlands. Henricus van Dornum was councillor at the Court of Ostfriesland and Judocus Aemson of Delft held a post in the Raad van Brabant. Then there was Nicolaus Ruysch, who acquired a seat of the council of the bishop of Liège. The very top of the provincial ladder—other than the position of the prince himself—was that of his deputy, sometimes called chancellor, but more often referred to as stadhouder. There were other prestigious positions at provincial level as well. Usually, only very high-ranking nobles were elected to hold this prestigious oﬃce. Even though such very high ranking noblemen were almost absent from the population—with the exception of a few bastards and clergymen—, there were four students, all lawyers, who managed to rise to these positions of power, a total of ﬁve such oﬃces. Perhaps least surprising is the case of Johannes van Nieuwland, second son of an important Zeeland noble family, who had studied in Padua—together with another high noble student from Zeeland, Maximiliaan van Borsselen. After the death of his elder brother he became erfmaarschalk of Flanders. Even for Johannes de Mepsche, of a noble Groningen family, his appointment as lord-chancellor of Overijssel, Drenthe and Lingen in 1554 and as lieutenant-governor of Groningen in 1557, did not come out of nowhere, as he was both noble and well-connected. Besides this, he had already held important positions in other institutions at the central level. Again we meet Ludolphus van Veen, not for the last time. This cleric from a patrician Kampen family rose to important positions under Bishop David of Burgundy, but managed to secure his place in power under the next bishop, Frederick of Baden. Ludolf acted as his stadhouder in the bishop’s absence. Arguably most surprising is the appointment of Hubertus van Rossum, law graduate of Ferrara, as lord-chancellor of Friesland in 1534, even though he was the son of a bow maker in Groningen. Representative Institutions: The States Another sector of employment and governmental activity was the representative institutions: the States. These had emerged in the Middle Ages as the place where the prince would meet representa-

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tives of his subjects according to their estate. Although the traditional model for these meetings consisted of representatives of the clergy, nobility and lastly the burghers, there existed considerable diﬀerences and variations on this model between the principalities in the Netherlands. The four most important were those of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Guelders.37 The Burgundian dukes had a hand in reorganizing the way the States of Holland and Zeeland operated. In Holland, the States consisted of knighthood and the six capital cities (later expanded to nineteen), with exclusion of the clergy. In Zeeland the cities and nobility—represented by the ambachtsheren including the abbot of Our Lady’s abbey in Middelburg—made up the States. In Het Nedersticht, the States were dominated by the chapters and the cities, with Utrecht towering high above the other three towns, Amersfoort, Rhenen and Wijk bij Duurstede. The nobility was represented, but their inﬂuence in the actual meetings was very limited. With the incorporation of Utrecht in the Habsburg lands, the role of the chapters was severely reduced and now the stadhouder could call the meetings of the States, whereas hitherto it had been the dean of the cathedral chapter: the domdeken. In Guelders the States consisted of the nobility and capital cities of the four quarters, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Zutphen and Roermond. In Friesland the—often absent—prince who wanted to get in touch with his subjects—usually though a stadhouder could call the Landdag, where abbots and priors represented their houses, nobles and priests their grietenijen and where nobles and eigenerfden represented themselves. In Groningen and the Ommelanden a Landdag, of a similar composition except for the inclusion of representatives of the city of Groningen and Appingdam, could be called by the lieutenant of the Hoofdmannenkamer. From 1464 onwards these States, insofar as they were located within the Burgundian lands, met at supra-regional level in the StatesGeneral, instituted by Duke Philip the Good. The various constitutive parts sent deputies to the meetings of the States. The towns usually sent members of the magistracy (burgomasters and aldermen) but increasingly also their legal experts, like the pensionaris, to these

37 See for the representative institutions: Kokken, Steden; Tracy, Holland; Koopmans, Staten; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Kapittel-generaal; Jappe Alberts, Staten, I and II.

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1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. Deputies Advocate/other

0 0

9 1

2 2

2 0

3 0

17 3

33 6

Total oﬀ.

0

10

4

2

3

20

39

Table 5.1.11. Positions in the States held by students in the population.

meetings; somebody like Paulus van Ammersoyen, graduate of Bologna and later pensionaris of the town of Dordrecht, who held the town record of representing Dordt to the States of Holland.38 Among the population we meet many a deputy to the States: an absolute minimum of 33.39 Many of the magistrates and pensionaries of the cities and towns might have attended without us knowing about it. The development of these representative bodies is an interesting history in itself, but suﬃce here to say that both in its competence and administration the States, particularly those of Holland, grew into a force to be reckoned with by the prince, to such an extent that during the Dutch Revolt, in 1588—after several unsuccessful experiments with foreign princes in stead of Philip II—the provinces were declared sovereign and the States acted as the de facto government.40 One of the manifestations of this development was keeping an archive—especially in the second half of the sixteenth century— and hiring skilled salaried personnel to administer the aﬀairs of the States. Possibly most important in this context is the creation of the oﬃce of advocate of the States or landsadvocaat, later also called raadpensionaris.41 The landsadvocaat was a legal advisor to the States, who also kept the archive and monitored the meetings of the States. The ﬁrst landsadvocaat to be appointed by the States in 1480 was Barthout van Assendelft, law graduate of Ferrara. Incidentally, that there was

38

Kokken, Steden, 286, nr. 1. It is diﬃcult enough to trace exactly who was a deputy from the diﬀerent cities and in what capacity they attended the meetings of the States in the city archives and the archive of the States of Holland. See Kokken, Steden, 36–47 on the sources for the meetings of the States of Holland. His study gives an enormous amount of material in the appendices, pp. 285–305. 40 See e.g. Kokken, Steden; Koopmans, Staten and Tracy, Holland. 41 On the landsadvocaat see: Kokken, Steden, 71–90; Fölting, De landsadvocaten en raadpensionarissen der Staten van Holland en West-Friesland, 1480–1795. Een genealogische benadering (The Hague 1976). 39

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something rotten in the States of Holland is clear from the emergence of another servant of a part of the States, the advocaat van de ridderschap en de kleine steden (advocate of the knighthood and the smaller cities) in 1486. The ﬁrst one to hold this oﬃce was Jacob Willemsz of The Hague, also a law graduate of Ferrara. With the increase in power of the States, so did the duties of the landsadvocaat. Never more so than under the man who held the oﬃce of landsadvocaat— and incidentally also the oﬃce of advocate of the knighthood—from 1586 until 1619: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, law graduate of Padua, the last landsadvocaat to hold this oﬃce for the period under investigation. He managed to recreate this oﬃce to such an extent that the raadpensionaris could well be called the second most important man in the Republic, of which Johan could be called one of the founding fathers. The States of Utrecht, also referred to as kapittel-generaal, also had an all-important ﬁgure who took care of many of the duties that had fallen to the landsadvocaat at the States of Holland. The dean of the cathedral chapter acted as chairman, while the notary of the cathedral chapter was charged with the administration. The more often mentioned Ludolphus van Veen, domdeken, therefore was chairman of the States of Utrecht ex oﬃcio. In Aula Regis: Central Government and Administration The very pinnacle of a student’s career was to be admitted to the inner sanctum of power: the court—in a wider sense—of a monarch. In the context of the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth century Netherlands, this meant access to the central institutions of the Burgundian and Habsburg Empire, rather than the various constitutive principalities of the Low Countries. This top was very small. Just 20 students in the population made it to this level in society. With the exception of one student of medicine, all were law students, most of them graduates. Not only were there very few posts to be competed for, students from the northern Low Countries had to compete with candidates from the other parts of the Netherlands and beyond. None of the students in the population managed to become a part of the Burgundian court council, ﬁlled with the highest ranking nobles of the realm and a number of lawyers from the core principalities of the duke, Burgundy, Franche-Comté, mainly French speaking territories. The essentially French dukes relied heavily on servants from their core

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1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total Cat. Geheime Raad Raad Van State Raad Van Financ. Assessor RKG Advocatus RKG Raad GRM Advo/Proc. GRM Royal Counsel Total Oﬃc.

–

–

1

0

2

0

3

–

–

–

0

1

2

3

–

–

–

0

0

1

1

–

0

0

2

4

1

7

0 0

0 0

0 3

2 0

1 1

0 0

3 4

0

0

1

0

0

3

4

0

0

0

3

2

1

6

0

0

5

7

11

8

31

Table 5.1.12. Positions in central government and administration held by students in the population.

territories, and entrance into the Burgundian circle seems to have been granted at the pace with which the territories had been integrated into the greater Burgundian empire. Gradually a part of this Burgundian court council that travelled with the duke became a separate institution that became known as the Grote Raad that more and more stared to function as a supreme court for the lands under Burgundian rule. From 1473 until 1477, it had been established as the Parliament of Mechelen by Charles the Bold who aspired to be king. After his death this court of appeal for the Burgundian lands continued to exist as the Grote Raad. On this central judicial level men from the Northern Netherlands were underrepresented. The Grote Raad, or Parliament of Mechelen, had relatively few members from Holland and Zeeland in the period 1477–1531, certainly compared to the other regions represented in the Council. This is all the more quaint, since the demands made by the Hollanders and Zeeuwen in the Grand Privilege stated that they wanted as many councillors as Brabant, Flanders and Burgundy. Practice did not reﬂect this.42 To some extent this is true for students in the population as well.

42

A.M. Kerckhoﬀs-de Heij, De Grote Raad en zijn functionarissen, 1477–1531 (Amsterdam 1980), I, 71–6.

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There were four students attached to the Council as solicitors, advocati. Technically they worked for themselves. Their ﬁeld of practice nevertheless carried the stamp of being involved at the central level. As for salaried oﬃcials, only four, possibly ﬁve, students held positions as members or other functions within the Grote Raad. Joris van Theemseke, law graduate of Ferrara—even though he is consistently called a Hollander in university sources and though he did have many connections to the county, he was probably from Bruges—was one of the few students who made it as a member from 1504 until 1513. Gerrit van der Mye, who had studied law at Bologna, was commissioner of the Grote Raad in 1494. Johannes Alberti of Delft, also a student of Bologna, was procureur of the Council in the early sixteenth century. Viglius of Aytta, who will be mentioned more often, became a member in 1543. Cornelis Jacobsz van der Veer, ﬁnally, member of the Grote Raad in 1502, could be identiﬁed with Cornelis Jacobi of Reimerswaal, who studied at Padua and Orléans. There was, however, another judicial institution at a central level. In a legal sense, the Northern Netherlands were still part of the Holy Roman Empire. The one central, legal institution of this, at this stage, rather splintered territory was the Reichskammergericht. This supreme court of the Holy Roman Empire was still the ultimate legal route to go for the eastern regions of the Northern Netherlands in case of appeal to a higher legal authority.43 There were three students in the population who were registered as lawyers allowed to present cases before this court. Much more prestigious was the position as sitting judge of this body, referred to as assessor. Seven students, all doctors of law, managed to become assessor of the Reichskammergericht. Most of these assessores came from the eastern parts of the Netherlands, mostly Friesland and Groningen, not until 1548 confronted with the Grote Raad of Mechelen. One of the two Hollanders involved in the Reichskammergericht was Nicolaus Everardi of Amsterdam, who also was professor of law at the University of Ingolstadt. Reinerus van der Duyn only joined the ranks after he lost his position in the Hof van Holland when the Dutch Revolt got under way. Apart from these judicial bodies at central level there were other

43 The situation changed with the Pragmatieke Sanctie of 1548, when the Netherlands were declared a separate circle within the Empire. From then on the Grote Raad of Mechelen was to be the supreme legal body.

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institutions of government and administration. In every sense the most important among them were the Three Collateral Councils established by Charles V in 1531. They consisted of the Raad van State (Council of State; primary advisory body to the prince, until 1535 exclusively composed of the highest nobility of the Lands), the Geheime Raad (Secret Council; composed of lawyers) and the Raad van Financiën (Council of Finance). There was only one student in the Council of Finance, Nicolaus Gerardi van der Laen, but he served his term after the beginning of the Dutch Revolt. Only three students, Viglius van Aytta, Adriaan van der Mijle and Johannes van Speulde, made it to the Raad van State, though it must be said that for the last two this was only after the initial success of the Dutch Revolt, in the eighties, when the Raad van State continued to exist as a principal advisory body for the provinces that had seceded from the Habsburg empire. Viglius on the other hand, became president of the Council of State during Habsburg rule. Three students managed to acquire a position in the Geheime Raad. Originally it consisted of ﬁve learned lawyers, who had to be replaced on occasion, although it was diﬃcult to ﬁnd suitable candidates.44 Three students in the population, all law graduates managed to reach this extremely important and prestigious oﬃce. Georgius de Theemseke or Joris van Themsicke, who already was a member of the Privy Council prior to 1531 continued as one of the ﬁrst members of the Geheime Raad until his death in 1536. Philips Coebel, graduate of Siena, held this position and lastly,—again—Viglius of Aytta was a member from April 1542 onwards and even became president of the Secret Council in January 1549, which position he held until 1569. Apart from these institutionalized forms of council—whether this was governmental, judicial or administrative—, there were nine students who served various princes as personal counsellors. It should come as no surprise that the powerful Viglius of Aytta, also the chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, was among them. He had been a councillor to the duke of Bavaria before he really started his spectacular career within the central administration. During these years he had the ear of both Charles V and Mary of Hungary, his

44

Baelde, Collaterale Raden, 89–93.

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regent in the Netherlands. Charles’ successor, Philip II conﬁded in Philippus Coebel, member of the Geheime Raad. Other European monarchs were served by students in the population. Dominicus Tettema, also assessor of the Reichskammergericht, was a councillor to the king of Hungary and Bohemia. Bernardus Wigboldus of Groningen, law professor at the University of Copenhagen, was an advisor to King Christian III of Denmark. Adriaan van der Mijle worked closely together with both William the Silent and his successor, Prince Maurice. There were three more law students who acted in this advisory capacity. The only student of medicine in this company was Godefridus Steegh of Amersfoort. He had been personal physician to three consecutive German emperors, Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolph II. He diﬀered from his fellow personal physicians in the sense that not only was he granted the noble title of count palatine, but he was appointed imperial chamberlain as well! Other Career Circles Next to these mostly institutionalized forms of employment, there is another number of students who were involved in career activities that could not be categorized according to the scheme used above. A further 30 students would fall into this very broad category. A wide range of diﬀerent occupations was found. A number of these students we have met before: those six students who accompanied young noblemen on their peregrinatio academica: praeceptores or paedagogi. For most of these men acting as a mentor and supervisor of their young protégés was a career in itself. Though Wilhelmus Obrecht of Delft could also rely on a beneﬁce of the parish church in Hoorn, essentially his job was guiding his pupils through university in an appropriate manner. The same can be said for Hugo Blotius, who acted as mentor of a number of young noblemen, until he was asked to become the librarian of the emperor in Vienna, a post he accepted with relish. Some made their living in the realm of books, both in printing and in writing them. Three students were actually involved in setting up printing presses or running them. Wilhelmus Sulenius of Doesburg was director of the Jesuit printing house in Vienna, where he was charged with the edition of Petrus Canisius’ Cathechismus. Many more however were involved as editors and correctors. Gerardus Listrius, for instance worked with Johannes Froben in Basle, where

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he was involved in printing the Adagia of Erasmus. Then we meet three students who more or less lived oﬀ their pen. How could one possibly categorize the career of Desiderius Erasmus, who is exactly one of those students? He did work as a secretary of a bishop for some time and he did lecture at various universities. For several periods in his life he depended on patrons and friends, who took an interest in his work. For a further ﬁve students there was information that they were involved in trade and banking. Another eight students were employed by noble families as secretaries, proctors, and such. Finally, two students made a choice for the military as a career. Although this section set out to examine the career path, most attention has been devoted to taking inventory of the various oﬃces found for the population. It seems appropriate to take these results one step further and try and sketch some of the more common career patterns, in the sense of a sequence of oﬃces held. This is not always possible as only one particular position was found for 121 students in the population (35.9 per cent of careers). This could be due to various circumstances. For those entering the religious orders, a mentioning of their entrance is often the last trace. Some clergymen seem to have contented themselves with one prebend. For many of the praeceptores tutoring their noble protégés was all they did for a considerable period of time. Some university teachers were happy with their status and never left their Alma Mater. In a number of cases, more information was simply not discovered (yet). For 216 students in the population (33.8 per cent of the population and 64.1 of careers) there was information about a minimum of two oﬃces held. Even if we were to discount those students who stuck to one profession for their livelihood, we are still left with one-third of the population about whom we have information on diﬀerent stages of their working life, which is more than adequate to make a number of observations on certain patterns in the career paths of the students in the population. Before we take a closer look at some of these patterns, which by their very nature are schematic and often oversimpliﬁed, it is useful to introduce a number of case studies, very brief biographical sketches, outlining the oﬃces held by a number of students. These have the further advantage of illustrating the interesting complexity of career building in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries, as the discussion of patterns can do no justice to a career that often involved many

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stages. Three students of law, two of medicine and one in theology were chosen for this purpose.45 1. Ludolphus Nicolai van Hoorn Very little is known about the background of Ludolphus. We cannot even be sure where he was from. His name points the town of Hoorn in Holland, but he is also mentioned as coming from Haarlem. In any case, it was not possible to connect him with the leading lineages in these towns. A background in the lower bourgeoisie seems therefore likely for this law student. Possibly he visited the University of Louvain before coming to Padua, where he was ﬁrst mentioned as a witness 23 November 1437. He was mentioned more often right up to his graduation as licentiatus in iure canonico on 6 May 1439. We lose track of him for a number of years until he surfaces again the sources of the University of Cologne, where he enrolled 20 October 1442. He is mentioned with his title of licentiatus and another one is added, that of baccalaureus legum. From 1443 onwards he was welcomed by the law faculty and took up teaching of canon law. His name is found in several juridical consilia. His career took a turn in 1446, when he acquired a canonry in the chapter of St Salvator in Utrecht, which he held until 1449, when he was appointed oﬃcialprincipal of Utrecht. In this position he travelled to Rome in 1455 to plead for the already mentioned conﬁrmation of Gijsbert van Brederode as bishop of Utrecht. It is at this point that he emerges again in the university sources of Padua, where he took his doctorate 1 July 1456. From Padua he returned to Utrecht, where he next became advocatus consistorii and managed to get a seat on the council of Bishop David of Burgundy in 1461, the rival candidate of Gijsbert van Brederode! From 1464 onwards he was canon of St Salvator again until his death 5 November 1487, leaving a concubine and three children.

45 In the section on social mobility and networks more examples, concentrating on social background and career will be given. For a number of students extensive biographical literature exists: Rodolphus Agricola, Erasmus, Viglius of Aytta, Hadrianus Junius, Petrus Forestus, Petrus Canisius, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, etc. References can be found in the appendix, on CD, where short annotated biographical data are given.

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2. Bartholomeus Nicolai van Ethen Most likely born in the town of Heusden in Holland as the son of Claes Reiniersz van Ethen, who had been rentmeester of Heusden from 1397 until 1405 at least, and a daughter of a schepen of the town. He was the elder brother of Reinerus Nicolai van Ethen, who also studied in Italy.46 Bart started out studying at the University of Cologne in 1425, where he became magister artium and started teaching in 1429. From Cologne he travelled to Italy, where he graduated in medicine at the University of Pavia in 1434. After his graduation he travelled to Basle, where he was present at the Council and practised his medical skills on the clergy attending. We next meet him in Holland, where he was appointed councillor of the Hof van Holland in 1442. He was still a councillor in 1443 and was sent by Philip the Good as an ambassador on behalf of the count of Holland and the Dutch towns to the king of England to negotiate about compensation for war damages—his colleague was Theodoricus Utenweer, also a student in Italy. We next ﬁnd him in Germany in the city of Mainz from 1454 until 1468, where he was personal physician of three consecutive archbishops of Mainz. Among his other patients were the count of Katzenelnbogen, the counts of Nassau, the counts palatine of Thuringia and the abbot of Fulda until 1485 at least. In this extremely successful career he might even have dealt with the emperor himself.

46 The example of Bartholomeus is also a good case to illustrate some of the intricacies of this type of research. Bart had received his doctorate in medicine at the University of Pavia in 1434 and as such was a student in the population. It was not until I corresponded with Dr B. van den Hoven van Genderen—to whom I am indebted—about canons of St Salvator who had studied in Italy, that the name of Reinier van Ethen popped up as having graduated in Pavia in law—there is no record of his graduation in the sources of Pavia—and that he was a brother of Bartholomeus. I went back to my notes and discovered that a ‘possible’ student from the Northern Netherlands, a certain “Raynerius de Alamania” was mentioned 19–8–1442 as a witness in the sources of Pavia (Codice Pavia, 450, nr. 591). This is most likely the same student as the “Reinerus Nicolai” who enrolled in the University of Cologne together with “Gherardus Woman”—student of medicine at the University of Padua in 1437 and 1438—who was Reinier’s cousin and whom I had met in previous research (Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, II, 23–4) as rector scholarum of the town school in Leiden.

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3. Jacobus Jacobi Ruysch Jacob was born in the city of Amsterdam around 1440 as son of the patrician Ruysch family. Most likely a son of mr. Jacob Ruysch, burgemeester of Amsterdam in 1468, who had probably studied himself, and Aafje de Vroede. He was around fourteen years old when he went to study arts at the University of Louvain, where he registered in 1454. We lose track of him for several years, but he is found again as a student in Padua in 1465, where he graduated in canon law in 1467. After his studies he returned to Amsterdam, where he went to work straightaway. He represented Amsterdam as a lawyer during negotiations with the Hansa in 1467–8. In 1471 he was the legal representative of Amsterdam at the Hof van Holland. By this time he had already received an appointment as dean of SintMaartensdijk. In 1472 he was raad zonder wedde of the Hof van Holland. In 1473 he was ordained a priest. Before his ordination he had already fathered two children, Heyman and Maria. In 1473 we ﬁnd him mentioned as pensionaris of Amsterdam. On 17 June 1474 he was appointed raad at the Hof van Holland. He would remain a member of the Hof until 7 November 1511, after which he was appointed raad extraordinaris of the Hof van Holland. He also acted as president of the Hof van Holland. 23 February 1477 Bishop David of Burgundy appointed him as dean of the chapter of St Lebuin’s in Deventer. He also was chaplain in the St Salvator’s church in Utrecht and from 1478 onwards also of St Mary’s church in Amsterdam. In the beginning of the eighties he also was appointed dean of the church in The Hague (Hofkapel). Just before 23 April 1482 he was appointed persona of Noordwijk. In 1487 he also be came persona of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. He seems to have been the legal specialist in matters between Church and State and was particularly inﬂuential in matters concerning monasteries in Holland. He easily survived the many changes made to the Court of Holland in this turbulent period. On top of his already impressive list of church beneﬁces he received a canonry in the chapter of St Salvator in Utrecht in 1507, which canonicate he bequeathed to his nephew, Nicolaus Ruysch. He died in the saddle, while still involved in legal matters on 19 April 1519. 4. Johannes Johannis Vredewolt Johannes was born in the town of Groningen as illegitimate son of the priest Johannes Vredewolt, doctor decretorum of Pavia, and proost

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of Emden in 1442 and 1454, and a woman from a prominent Groningen family. His father did his best to take care of his future, and he was successful to the extent that Johannes junior already enjoyed the beneﬁce of the church of Bedum, when he went to college in Cologne in 1457. In the same year he was appointed rector of the Maartenskerk in Groningen. He became magister artium and baccalaureus theologiae at Cologne and travelled on to Paris, where he most likely left in 1472 for Italy. His stay in Italy was relatively short. On 26 January 1473 he graduated in theology at the University of Pavia, where his father had graduated in canon law. Present at his graduation were Rodolphus Agricola—still under his Dutch name of “Huusman”— and Theodoricus Persijn. After his graduation he moved to the recently founded University of Basle where he became professor of theology. He returned to Groningen and in 1494 we still ﬁnd him mentioned as persona of Bedum. Until 1505 he was vicar of Groningen. Although he showed little interest in town politics and was primarily interested in learning, he was involved in peace negotiations between the town of Groningen and the duke of Saxony in 1505. 5. Gisbertus Gerardi Longolius Gijsbert van Langerack was born in the town of Utrecht in 1507 as son of Gerrit van Langerack, a bastard son of the noble patrician Van Langerack family, and Machteld van Batenborch. He went to St Martin’s chapter school. From there he undertook his study trip to Cologne, where he registered in 1524 and became magister artium in 1527. He stayed in Bursa Laurentiana. Around 1527–8 he went to Italy, where he graduated at the University of Ferrara in 1531. In Italy he acquired a distinct taste for humanism and took the name “Longolius”. After his studies he returned to the Netherlands, ﬁrst to his native town and almost immediately afterwards to Deventer, where he became town physician and soon thereafter rector scholarum of the famous Lebuin’s school as well. In 1538 he was asked to become the ﬁrst oﬃcial professor of Greek at the University of Cologne for a period of four years. At the same time he was personal physician of the archbishop of Bonn. In autumn 1542 he was asked to come to the University of Rostock, where he was made responsible for the reformation of the university in structure and programme. He died 30 May 1543. He fell ill while being in Cologne to bring back his books to Rostock.

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6. Cornelius Johannis van Veen Cornelis was born in the city of Leiden in 1520 as son of Jan van Veen, from an important family in Leiden—direct natural descendants of Duke John III of Brabant—that was involved in diverse aspects of clothmaking. At the relatively advanced age of 24 he registered at the University of Louvain. He moved from there to Italy where he studied at Bologna before graduating in civil and canon law at the University of Ferrara in 1549. After his studies he returned to the Netherlands, where he practised as a lawyer at the Hof van Holland before he became pensionaris of Leiden from 1551 until 1561. In this capacity he represented the town to the States of Holland on several occasions. From his position as pensionaris he took his place in the magistracy and served as burgemeester in the years 1564, 1565 and 1569. A devout Catholic, he ﬂed to the Southern Netherlands in 1572, when the Revolt got under way in Holland. Some years after this he moved to Amsterdam. When Amsterdam chose to support the Revolt in 1578 he returned to his home town, Leiden. His important role in town politics was over, however. He had married Geertruyt Simonsdr van Neck. They had ten children, several of whom visited Italy. His eldest son, Simon, was a law graduate as well and held some of the same oﬃces as his father. What these short sketches illustrate is the many-fold ways in which a student could build a career, from diﬀerent backgrounds, through diﬀerent choice of faculty in diﬀerent sectors of employment. In many cases students wandered through the diﬀerent sectors of employment freely. Again, it is wise to diﬀerentiate between students with diﬀerent choice of faculty. Though the following can do no justice to the complexity of the careers of the students involved, it seems justiﬁed to take a closer look at ﬁrst positions held by students in particular positions to examine if there were any patterns. Three broad sectors suggested themselves. The bureaucracy of the state at various levels, church hierarchy and lastly the very speciﬁc career path within the circle of health care, almost exclusively applicable to students of medicine. To start with the last path of examination, the following could be said. Even though we have met medical students in other sectors than those immediately obvious in terms of their training (academia, health care at three levels), their number cannot be compared to those of law students. Again it is necessary to stress that the study of medicine at a university and the degree of doctor medicinae pointed

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to a specialized—one might say, increasingly restricted too—career path, that would lead the medical student to either the teaching profession or to the growing system of health care that was put in place in the Netherlands in this period. Links with the clergy or careers in the Church were hardly found for the last two cohorts. One of the ﬁve medical students studying after 1500 who had some position within the Church hierarchy, Jasper Stevensz of Arnhem, enjoyed a small beneﬁce in St Nicholas’ Church in Kampen and acted as ship’s chaplain—probably as the ship’s doctor at the same time, after having served as town physician.47 The rather spectacular career of Bartholomeus van Ethen is an exception, might even be called an aberration. He is one of very few medical students who managed to climb higher than city level in terms of level of power. Students of medicine were also found as representatives to the States, although their numbers did not come close to that for their fellow students who were well versed in the law. In most cases they had to content themselves with a position within town administration or even town government. As servants of the town, medical students—graduates in particular—were best positioned as town physicians or head schoolmasters and possibly could act as pensionaris, although lawyers were much more eligible for this oﬃce. Where positions in town government were concerned, the general, simpliﬁed picture seems to be that strong connections and birth rather than intellectual ability were necessary to force one’s way into the vroedschap. Some medical students seem to have possessed these connections and on that basis they could enter the magistracy. As a choice of subject useful to future positions in town government, medicine again lost out to the law faculty.48 Those destined for a place in the magistracy generally opted for law and those ﬁghting to secure a place as schepen or burgemeester were better equipped with a law degree than a medical mind. Many students of medicine changed position and employer during their career. The diﬀerence with their law colleagues was the relatively limited number of other circles of employment easily accessible to them. A substantial number of students of medicine in this group taught during their studies, both to gain experience and to

47 48

Lindeboom, DMB, 1882–3. Cf. n. 33.

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support themselves ﬁnancially. After graduation a number of options was open to them: preach or practice. In the second case, typically, a medical career would start with setting up practice somewhere, where a potential clientele existed. Out of 53 students involved in health care, 20 individuals could be found solely as physicians with their own practice. For 11 of them this was the only position found at all. Another 9 combined their practices with positions outside the sector of health care, in academia, the Church or in town government. The positions of town physician and personal physician seem to have been more desirable for medical graduates. Both in terms of security of tenure and emoluments, leaving aside the workload for personal physicians, these were more rewarding than being left entirely to one’s personal initiative. In most cases both town and personal physicians were allowed to continue to treat patients outside their immediate domain. It seems that if the possibility arose, a position as either town and/or personal physician was preferred to private practice. If we look at mobility within the health care sector, it is clear that the move from a private practice to either a position as town physician or as personal doctor to a wealthy patron was much more common than the reverse. Nine students moved from their practice to serving their town, ﬁve to act as watchdogs of their employer’s health, while four further students went from practice though town to the position of personal physician. Allardus Cornelii Cooltuyn returned from Italy in the summer of 1557 and practised as a physician in his home town Alkmaar. It was only in December 1559, when the then town physician, Petrus Forestus, had left to become town physician of Delft that Allard could succeed in this position, which he held until his death in February 1561.49 It is further clear from table 5.1.13. that a private practice was much more common as a starting point in a physician’s career than as its end point. Both the position of town and personal physician came up more often as the ﬁnal stage in a medical student’s career. Practising and teaching medicine were often combined within one career. Sixteen, or nearly one in ﬁve medical students, whose careers could be reconstructed, combined the two. This could be at diﬀerent

49 Vis, ‘Alkmaarse Jaren’, 75, 78; Vis, Cornis Cooltuyn, 27; RAA, Stadsarchief, inv. nr. 38.

292 Professions in Health Care

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Interm.

End

Private practice Town physician Personal physician

16 3 4

– 4 –

2 12 9

Total

23

4

23

Table 5.1.13. First, intermediate and last positions in health care held by students of medicine in the population with more than one position in health care.

stages in their career, although it was by no means uncommon for a professor of medicine to also act as personal physician of some noble patron. It is useful to point at the circle of professors of medicine at the newly founded University of Leiden, nearly all of whom had close contacts with the court of William the Silent. When Hadrianus Junius, who enjoyed international recognition as a physician, moved to Copenhagen in 1564 it was to both claim a professorial chair in medicine at the university and to become personal physician to King Frederick II. Generally, though, the step from practising medicine, especially as a private practitioner or town physician, to a professorship should be considered a move forward in career terms. In many cases this was the very pinnacle of a medical career. The following table (5.1.14.) shows ﬁrst oﬃce held by students who managed to accede to governmental and administrative positions at four bureaucratic levels: 1. town or city magistracy; 2. regional government oﬃcials; 3. servants of the bureaucracy at provincial level; 4. servants of the bureaucracy at central level. Though again we have to stress that the value of these samples is limited, as we are dealing with only a small section of the oﬃcials in function— only those who had studied in Italy—some patterns seem to emerge. What can we infer from this table? A number of conclusions can be drawn from the ﬁgures presented here. If we look at those students who held positions in the magistracy of towns in the Northern Netherlands, it seems obvious that the threshold of access was relatively low, as three ﬁfths of the oﬃcials moved immediately to holding a term as schepen, burgemeester or what have you. This appearance is somewhat deceptive. It may be true that immediate access to the ranks of the magistracy was comparatively easier than that for higher levels, as we shall see, but taking into account the social background of these functionaries reveals that things were not as easy as they

the student in society Adv/ Nota

Pens Mag Pers/ Prof Can Law

Reg

293

Prov. Stat. Cent Phys./ Total Oth Cat.

Magistracy Regional States Provincial Central

3 2 1 8 3

4 2 2 7 1

29 3 2 5 1

2 1 0 11 2

0 0 0 3 2

0 17 1 4 0

0 0 0 10 3

1 0 2 5 1

0 0 0 1 3

9 0 0 1 1

48 25 8 54 17

Total Oﬀ.

17

16

40

16

5

22

13

9

4

11

152

Table 5.1.14. First positions held by students in the population who ended up in the magistracy or as civil servants at regional, States, provincial and central level.

seem. It has been mentioned before that the value of a university education was limited and that pedigree and wealth were far stronger trumps to play if one wanted to be counted among the vroede vaderen. No less than 60.4 per cent of the oﬃcials came for the top of the city’s pyramid, the nobility and the patriciate. The other 39.6 per cent came from social milieus that could not lay any immediate claim to access the ranks of the town’s governing elite. In this context other oﬃces or dignities could be of great help. Among our sample (town) physicians50 and pensionarissen seems to have been relatively successful in getting their foot in the door. The town physician and the pensionaris were the town’s highest ranking servants. Particularly for the pensionary, who would often represent the town at meetings of the States, or who would represent her in court procedures—something which also applies to lawyer practising in a town—, a more active role in town politics was certainly not beyond reach. The table also restates the limits of a medical degree for climbing the career ladder, where worldly bureaucracies are concerned: not beyond the city limits. For government oﬃcials at regional level, the drosten and hoofdelingen, and the like, similar impressions could be gathered from the ﬁgures. Immediate access to this level for our sample was even marginally higher than for the magistracy. Three observations spring to mind. First, as we shall see, recruitment was overwhelmingly from the nobility and the urban and rural patriciate, much more so than

50 It is worth mentioning that some physicians (2 out of 8) came from patrician families.

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for oﬃcials at town level, higher even than for oﬃcials at provincial and central level. Connected to this was the lowest percentage of degrees from the higher faculties and the fact that no students of medicine managed to access this level of government.51 A third observation is that the regional level of government as a springboard for higher levels of administration was less signiﬁcant than most other categories mentioned. Students at this level seem to have been the most static in terms of continuation of their careers. Traditionally these functions had always been the terrain of the local nobility and the rural patriciate c.q. important landowners.52 It remains to be seen whether oﬃcials in this often rural, traditional sector of government were less inclined to engage in the more modern administrative levels like the increasingly professionalized courts at provincial and central level. Another factor that might have been of some importance is the fact that these oﬃces had a high level of venality. The nature of these functions—collection of ﬁnes, and such.— made them quite proﬁtable, but a considerable amount of money had to be invested before the oﬃce would yield a proﬁt.53 Understandably, those oﬃcials serving either the States, the provincial courts or central ones generally had a longer trajectory towards the oﬃces in these bodies. Although it was by no means impossible to directly move into these positions, the overwhelming majority of students ending up in the bureaucracies at these three levels walked many diﬀerent roads to get to them. A closer look at ﬁrst functions of these oﬃcials reveals that the positions of advocaat, pensionaris and member of the cloth, in particular the dignity of canon, as a springboard for a position on the episcopal council, come up most frequently. These oﬃces seem to have been very good starting points if one wanted to further one’s career in the high bureaucracies of state. The Church had traditionally been a source where the worldly powers could and would recruit consilium. The role of clergymen in

51 For Friesland and Groningen there is information about university education of those involved in regional government. The level of university educated regional government oﬃcials was relatively low, c. 20% for Friesland and even lower for the Ommelanden. Cf. Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 158–161 and 204–207. 52 Van Nierop, Ridders, chapter 6.3 has shown that the nobility in Holland lost their top position in the positions of baljuw and particularly schout to the urban and rural patriciate in the sixteenth century. 53 See e.g. Van Gent, ‘Pertijelike saken’, 37–8, for the oﬃces of schout and baljuw.

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worldly bureaucracies will be dealt with in more detail shortly. Suﬃce it here to say that the role members of the cloth played in the government and administration of bureaucracies at provincial and central level, although decreasing in the sixteenth century, was by no means over. In a sense, the era of lawyers and pensionaries had only just started. Our period had barely seen the moment when law graduates had to be formally admitted to be able to proceed before provincial courts.54 Similarly, the oﬃce of pensionaris, the permanent oﬃcial who represented the town in legal matters became a lasting one for most important towns and cities only in the course of the ﬁfteenth century. Nevertheless, they seem to have been key positions in terms of getting ahead in society. Working on the bar of a provincial court could oﬀer the possibility to show one’s capacities. The activities of Judocus Aemson of Delft who pleaded the case of Jean of Montfoort before the Parliament of Paris did not go unnoticed. Soon, in 1522, he was appointed as a councillor of the Raad van Brabant.55 In many ways, things worked much the same for the pensionaris. Although the position of pensionary must be seen as a respectable career in itself, as it gave an outsider the opportunity to become an important man in his new town,56 he could hold this oﬃce as a career springboard. He often pleaded cases for his town or city at various judicial levels. He often represented his employer to the States. There were plenty of opportunities for pensionaries to show their legal and administrative expertise. They could even be actively head-hunted by the prince.57 Rotterdam was loath to see its pensionaris go, but in 1586

54 From 1560 onwards, for example, a licentiatus in law was a requirement for lawyers to be adimitted to the Hof van Holland. R. Huijbrecht, S. Scheﬀers and J. Scheﬀers-Hofman, Album advocatorum. De advocaten van het Hof van Holland 1560–1811 (The Hague n.y. [1997]) 4. 55 Ridderikhoﬀ, De Ridder-Symoens and Illmer (eds.), Premier livre, Biographies, I, 326–7, nr. 564. 56 As in the case of Paulus de Ammersoyen, from the town of Hattem in Guelders and law graduate of Bologna, who became pensionaris of the town of Dordrecht and held this oﬃce for several years, after which the town still asked him for all sorts of legal matters. Kokken, Steden, 172–3. It is also worthwhile noting that even students with a noble background did not regard the position of pensionaris beneath them. 57 Mario Damen, ‘Education or Connections? Learned Oﬃcials in the Council of Holland and Zeeland in the Fifteenth Century’ in: Koen Goudriaan, Jaap van Moolenbroek and Ad Tervoort (eds.), Education and Learning in the Netherlands, 1400–1600. Essays in Honour of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 123 (Leiden 2004) 51–67, there 64–5.

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Johan van Oldenbarnevelt who had excelled on various missions for the town was called to higher duty and became landsadvocaat. Those who had served their town as magistrates, students at regional administrative level as ﬁrst oﬃces held, and those whose ﬁrst career activities concerned the States were equally in the running for oﬃces at provincial and central level. Another interesting point is that for oﬃces at provincial and central level recruitment could take place at another source of legal expertise: the university itself. Five students had held teaching positions in law as their ﬁrst employment, when their learning was noticed. This was the case with Adrianus Lottini of Leiden, who taught civil law at the University of Louvain, before becoming a councillor of the Court of Holland. As professors of law they could have been involved in consilia, legal advice sought by a prince or other authority on a particular problem with an intricate legal side to it. In many cases the law faculties played some role in this process. It is clear that princes had a use for specialists in this ﬁeld.58 What seems to be a common denominator at the three highest levels is expertise in the ﬁeld of (legal) administration, most clearly shown in the virtual absence of students of medicine—with two notable exceptions—and the high level of graduations in the higher faculties, particularly that of in utroque iure. As for social background, one can say that our sample shows that to get to the higher administrative levels noble birth or patrician connections were not absolutely necessary, as a not insigniﬁcant segment came from both higher and lower bourgeois environments, in some cases even from craftsmen background. Though this does by no means imply that birth and connections were not of the greatest importance, it does show that it was possible to overcome one’s relatively modest upbringing by virtue of (academic) excellence and make a career at either provincial or even central level. As for the other levels, is true that for stu-

58 Verger, ‘Teachers’, 153; De Ridder-Symoens,’ Conseils juridiques et monde universitaire au xv e siècle. Une étude prosopographique’, in: Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis LX (1992) 393–424. All faculties played a signiﬁcant role in advising authorities, though it would seem that in the case of law it had the most immediate eﬀect in terms of career perspectives. For the desirability of university professors in government cf. also: Nijsten, Hof van Gelre, 384–88, where at least ﬁve members of the Court of Guelders, four of them jurists, had been professors at the Universities of Louvain and Cologne.

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dents with a background in the town bourgeoisie or even crafts the way was longer and it involved many oﬃces at diﬀerent levels. In the medieval period the Church had always been a reservoir where worldly authorities searched for expertise in many ﬁelds.59 A considerable percentage of the clerics in the population were involved in the government and administration of worldly territories, 31 or almost one in ﬁve clerics. Most of them were involved in provincial government, with of course the council of the bishop of Utrecht as the central focus. Ten students took a seat on this council, all canons in one of the ﬁve Utrecht chapters and more importantly, all law graduates. Another student, Nicolaus Ruysch, was a councillor to the bishop of Liège. But the neighbouring principalities of Holland (5), Guelders (2), Utrecht, after incorporation in the Habsburg Empire in 1528 (2) and Friesland (2) knew clerics who were part of the provincial courts. Almost throughout the period clerics continued to play a part in government and administration. Only for the last cohort could it be said that the role of clerics in the population was almost exclusively limited to the Church itself. Clerics were involved at all levels of government and administration. Some were notary public in a town, others, like the often-mentioned Jacob Ruysch and Rodolphus Agricola, fulﬁlled the role of pensionaris. Their status of clerics was certainly no impediment to seeking oﬃce at whatever level of government.60 Recruitment for higher church oﬃces primarily took place within the institution of the Church itself. Those who managed to get to high oﬃce already belonged to the clergy. Experience outside the immediate environment of the Church did count, though. Legal experience in the service of princes or shown in universities through professorships—and we shall meet some students who personify this

59 An overview in: H. Millet and P. Moraw, ‘Clerics in the State’ in: W. Reinhard (ed.), Power Elites and State Building, The Origins of the Modern State in Europe, 13th–18th Centuries IV (Oxford 1996). Also for the case of Holland: Damen, ‘Serviteurs’. 60 Cf. H. Millet and P. Moraw, ‘Clerics in the State’, 179, where the authors mention that in the city-states the room for clerics to develop their administrative and legal potential was consciously limited. This statement might be true for the Italian city-states or even the metropoles in the Southern Netherlands, but does not seem to apply to the (smaller) towns in the Northern Netherlands, where the appreciation for the intellectual skills of the clergy continued to be a factor until the sixteenth century.

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move shortly—could well be a factor in a student’s advancement in the Church. Making a career in the Church did not just mean to get to higher positions within it. For members of the clergy acquiring more than one beneﬁce meant getting ahead at least ﬁnancially. Out of the 118 clergymen dealt with here, half enjoyed more than one beneﬁce. Thirteen held ﬁve or more positions in the Church. A champion was Johannes Pollaert who apart from some smaller beneﬁces, was dean of Arnhem, provost of Roermond and held six canonries in three diﬀerent dioceses. It has to be kept in mind that the status of cleric was by no means an absolute one and sometimes has to be taken with a grain of salt. For a number of church oﬃces, ordination as a priest was not a requirement. Many of the canons in the population did not receive ordination or postponed this until very late in their career. Johannes van Diepholt was only ordained in 1507, when he must have been in his sixties. On the other hand, relations with promising clergymen obviously counted and an ordination to priest could be an occasion to create the necessary bonds of friendship. When the cleric Jacob Ruysch, at the time pensionaris of Amsterdam celebrated his ﬁrst mass as a priest, he received the very generous sum of 9 pounds of all other ﬁve capital cities in Holland.61 There were a number of students who left the clerical status once their career got under way, sometimes when they had decided that marriage was a more favourable option. Viglius van Aytta seems to have been very unclear about what he wanted. His studies had been supported by a church beneﬁce that he had received through his uncle. Once he had made the important step into the central bureaucracy he thought it appropriate and leave the clergy to marry the daughter of a wealthy courtier, Pierre Damant. After the death of his wife in 1552 he once again took orders. In 1562 he was even appointed provost of St Bavo in Ghent and was ordained by Cardinal Granvelle. The iter italicum in Comparative Perspective The results found for the population will gather more meaning if compared to the student body at large, to give it more proﬁle and to assess how it diﬀered from the vast group of young men enrolling

61

GAH, AS, kast 19–47, f. 80r; GAL, AS, inv. nr. 549, f. 101r.

the student in society Town 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

299

Region

States

Province

Central

Total

1 4 2 2 2 0

0 0 0 1 1 0

0 0 1 0 1 0

4 6 4 1 3 1

0 0 1 0 2 0

5 10 8 6 9 1

11

2

2

19

3

37

Table 5.1.15. Positions in bureaucracies of state by clerics in the population.

in some studium. The exclusive nature of the iter italicum and the strong focus on both law and medicine also make it worthwhile to compare the careers of the population to similar student populations that had attended other universities. In the case of law, a comparison with students from the Northern Netherlands and students from Brabant visiting the famous law University of Orléans suggests itself. For medical students, one might look to the careers of those students attending Cologne. Although a comparison with the student body at large is a very diﬃcult task, simply because we do not have enough evidence, not to mention for the Northern Netherlands speciﬁcally, it is possible to at least make some remarks about the general career sectors for larger student populations. For the ﬁfteenth century and to a somewhat lesser extent for the sixteenth it could be said that the Church was by far the biggest employer and the place for students to look for a livelihood. Very illustrative in this respect is the study of Kuhn who examined the careers of the students of the University of Tübingen between 1477 and 1534.62 No less than 67.4 per cent of the careers of these students were in the Church, generally at the level of the lower clergy. On the other hand the students working as civil servants either in administration or the judiciary, including schoolmasters and lawyers, amounted to only 21.5 per cent. Comparatively the percentages for the students in our population here were 35.0 per cent

62 Kuhn, Studenten, 55. Kuhn’s career recovery rate was 28%, which in itself is very telling. Also Fuchs, Dives, 89–100. For this earlier period the percentage of clergymen of the total population was 37%, against 19% for Tübingen and 17.7% for Italy.

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ecclesiastical careers against 64.4 or almost half of the careers in the other sectors. If we look closer to home, Friesland, the picture is similar. Just over 70 per cent of Frisian students at the University of Louvain at the beginning of the sixteenth century ended up in the (lower) clergy, whereas those involved in the civil service, the legal profession and education amounted to only 11.5 per cent.63 How diﬀerent was the perspective for those Frisians that crossed the Alps to study in Italy. The percentage of students with clerical careers was decidedly lower, 18.8, of which half were clerics beyond parish level. Those involved in civil service, the legal profession and education amounted to 43.8 per cent of Frisian students. Despite the rather tentative nature of these ﬁgures, there seems to have been a rather diﬀerent perspective for students in general than for those who made it to the studia of Italy. For the overall student population the Church would for a long time be the institution, where one could hope to acquire a small beneﬁce.64 Outside the Church the university itself oﬀered possibilities. Furthermore, a whole range of administrative oﬃces, from town clerks to schoolmasters, were within reach.65 This reﬂects the general nature of the 63

Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 288. Apart from the already mentioned studies about Tübingen, Heidelberg and Friesland, studies such as that of Bijsterveld, Laverend, 143–212, that deal with the education of clergy members, in this case parish priests, can be highly informative. Especially telling in this context was the diﬀerence in choice of faculty between the actual personae and the appointed substitute priests who in reality provided the cura animarum. The latter category was almost exclusively trained in the artes (97%), while the oﬃcial beneﬁciaries had a much wider variety of choices. Only 53.3% were conﬁned to the arts curriculum, while over a third had opted for law. The same applied to their degrees. Substitute priests had no degrees beyond that of magister artium, while a ﬁfth of the oﬃcial beneﬁciaries had a degree in one of the higher faculties. For canons this percentage was 35.3%. Ibid. 192–203. Cf. also: Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 72–88; F.W. Oediger, Über die Bilding der Geistlichen im späten Mittelalter (Leiden 1953) 66–7. 65 On the basis of own research, partly laid down in Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 33–42, which deals with the educational background of schoolmasters in Holland, one comes to a minimum of 50% of schoolmasters in four Dutch cities who had studied at universities. An overwhelming majority of these schoolmasters, 85%, had limited their university visit to the arts faculty, though often returned with either a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The other 15% had studied mostly medicine and invariably attained the highest position within the schools, that of rector scholarum and moved on from there. The position of schoolmaster in general was the terrain of arts students. I have the impression, based on a.o. Kokken, Steden, 171–91 and Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 161–4 that something similar is true for most of the administrative oﬃces at town level, with the notable exception of the pensionaris, especially those of the larger towns. 64

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universities of northern Europe, where the huge arts faculties dominated and whose suppositi ended their lives in relative anonymity in a majority of cases. For those visiting the peninsula a more promising prospect was before them. Together the highly specialized nature of the iter italicum with its focus on law and medicine, the comparatively high proportion of graduates, as Italy was usual the last stage in a peregrinatio academica, and last, but not least, the relatively high social proﬁle of this travelling band explain this higher level of expectation. As the population is diverse, separating it into students of law and students of medicine, will give us two samples that are more easily comparable with smaller other such student samples. In the case of law the students form the Northern Netherlands and those from the duchy of Brabant who studied at the prestigious law University of Orléans present us with exactly that. Not only was law their primary concern, the sizes of these populations were very similar as well. These carefully documented and well-researched populations enable us to determine whether the career perspective for the Italian bunch resembled that of young men who attended the Loire university. According to a scheme of diﬀerent oﬃces and dignities the students that had visited Italian studia were compared to the other two groups (table 5.1.16.).

ItalyLaw N=327 Academia Clergy Parish Canon Decanus, provost, etc. Oﬃcial, vicar-general Curia Religious order Magistracy Civil sevice town Lawyers town level Notary public Regional Government Provincial civil servant Lawyers Provincial

7.0 32.4 16.2 12.2 5.2 5.2 3.4 2.1 10.4 6.1 2.8 1.2 7.3 15.6 3.4

OrléansNN N=377 1.0 29.0 16.7 15.7 0.5 0.8 0.3 2.3 8.6 11.7 3.7 1.8 8.9 11.5 3.7

OrléansB N=306 1.0 23.9 12.7 16.0 1.0 1.3 1.3 4.9 15.0 5.6 3.3 0.7 3.6 13.4 3.6

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Table 5.1.16. (cont.)

States Central civil service Lawyers Central Total

ItalyLaw N=327

OrléansNN N=377

OrléansB N=306

8.3 4.6 2.1

4.7 1.3 1.3

0.0 5.6 3.3

100.0

100.0

100.0

Table 5.1.16. Oﬃces held by law students from Italy, students from the Northern Netherlands and Brabant at the law University of Orléans compared, as percentages of total population.66

Overlooking this table, one notices that there was not that much diﬀerence between the career perspectives for law students of Italian studia and those who had visited Orléans. Largely, the perspective for these travellers was the same. There were some diﬀerent nuances here and there—somewhat less canons in Italy and somewhat more provincial civil servants and deputies to the States—, but in these cases the diﬀerent time frame often explains these discrepancies.67 The diﬀerent time frame, however, could not explain a number of diﬀerences that are not wholly without signiﬁcance. For one, the number of academics under the students who travelled across the Alps was signiﬁcantly higher. Even discounting those who taught law during their studies, often before graduation, which leaves us with the seventeen professors and a percentage of 5.2, the diﬀerence is substantial.68 Another signiﬁcant diﬀerence was, though the number

66 Figures for Orléans based on De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Brabanders’, 243–289; Ead., ‘Studenten uit het bisdom Utrecht’, 77–79; Ridderikhoﬀ, De Ridder-Symoens and Illmer (eds.), Premier livre. Seconde partie. 67 The terminus of 1575 for this thesis does slightly alter the balance compared to the Orléans population, where the terminus of research was 1546. If we omit the last cohort of students in Italy—when clerics in the population were very few and when students ﬂock to the provincial courts and the meetings of States—, the percentage of canons amounted to 16.2%, for provincial civil servants to 12.6% and for deputies to the States to 5.4%. All signiﬁcantly closer to the percentages found for Orléans. 68 The last cohort did not have any law students teaching at universities. Discounting the last cohort would increase the percentage to 9.9 for academics in general and no less than 7.7% of the law population with a professorial chair.

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of clerics did not diﬀer considerably, the extent to which these clergymen succeeded in attaining oﬃces at regional, diocesan and Curia level. In both these cases it does seem plausible to link the diﬀerence to the number and nature of degrees obtained by the population visiting Italian universities. Both in terms of the amount of graduates and in particular of doctores, Italy as a university pole for law seems to have outrun Orléans. Next, the high number of degrees involving canon law obtained in Italy was important, while the Loire university was much more focused on civil law. For professorships the doctorate was a requirement. Also, for a number of church oﬃcials, the oﬃcial-principal chief among them, a prestigious degree counted, almost became an unwritten requirement. Furthermore, it could be argued that for those clerics attached to the Curia it seems that an aﬃnity with Italy and things Italian might have worked in their favour. As for the other signiﬁcant diﬀerence, the percentage of students represented at central level, the following should be taken into account. In general, students from the Northern Netherlands who visited Orléans—overwhelmingly from the western parts of the Netherlands under Burgundian and later Habsburg rule—had to look to either Brussels or Mechelen for central institutions, where theirs peers from Brabant and even more so Flanders stood better chances.69 The situation was slightly diﬀerent for the Netherlanders who visited Italy, where the relative balance between students from the western and eastern parts was much more equal geographically than for Orléans. The contingent originating in the eastern parts of the Netherlands, that had closer ties with the neighbouring German lands, did have an alternative central institution that they could look to for employment, the Reichskammergericht. On balance the career perspective for both these groups of travelling students was similar and seems to have been signiﬁcantly better than for the larger student population. In fact, the two taken together hand us a very signiﬁcant proportion of the administrative and judicial apparatus in the Northern Netherlands, for both bureaucracies of State and Church. Another career comparison for the student of medicine can be

69

Damen, Staat, 432–6.

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made with the careers of students at the faculty of medicine at the University of Cologne. The faculty in Cologne was relatively small and rather exclusive in its social composition compared to the arts faculty, second only to the law faculty. There also seems to have existed to tightly knit network within the faculty, where relations did count and lineages of professors emerged. The career destinations of students who had visited Italy and those who had studied at Cologne are compared in table 5.1.17.

Academia Personal physician Town physician Private practioner Clergy Town government+admin. States+province+central Other

ItalyMed N=91

CologneMed N=121

46.2 17.6 27.5 41.8 17.6 23.1 7.7

49.6 24.8 32.2 – 14.9 – –

4.4

–

Table 5.1.17. Positions held by students of medicine in Italy and students of medicine at the University of Cologne compared, as percentages of careers recovered.70

Again, one might say that the perspective is not dissimilar. Academia seems to have been a common broad choice for both populations. The number of professorships, though, was twice as high for the students who had visited Italian studia. The number of personal physicians of the Cologne population was higher and could well be explained by the higher noble density and its relative importance in the German lands. Medical students who ended up in the Church for the two populations also diﬀered slightly.71 On the whole, a similar career perspective arises. Apart from the ‘obvious’ professions, there was a signiﬁcant section of the students that went to Italy that had careers outside the teaching and practice of the medical pro-

70

Based on Rüdiger-Prüll, ‘Karriere’. The deﬁnition handled for town physicians is not very clearly deﬁned in Rüdiger-Prüll, ‘“Karriere”’. I have the impression that those who had a private practice are sometimes counted among town physicians. 71

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fession. It would seem that they had explored a wider range of options in terms of career sectors. The number of students who combined oﬃces in diﬀerent career sectors—so called “Mischgruppen”— was higher for the Italian population (nearly half ) than for students of Cologne (almost one third).72 Another way of looking at the career perspective is to establish what segment of particular institutions had enjoyed an education in Italy. For the canons enjoying a beneﬁce of the prestigious chapter of Oudmunster or St Salvator in Utrecht in the period 1423–1528 it has been established that 98 had had a university education. No less than 13 of them (13.3 per cent) had studied in Italy. Of these 13 there were 9 canons from the Northern Netherlands (9.2 per cent). Where students of the Northern Netherlands who visited Italy only formed the smallest section—approximately 3 per cent—of the overall student population from the northern Low Countries, their relative presence in one of the most important chapters in the Netherlands was high. In the chapter itself these men played a role of some importance as well. Of the seven deans in function from 1418 until 1559, three, Utenweer, Suggerode and Van Mierop, had studied in Italy. The oﬃce of treasurer was held by Suggerode and Nicolaus Ruysch, so that two out of nine treasurers from 1418 until 1558 were educated on the peninsula.73 Similarly, out of the 33 counsellors in the episcopal council of bishop David of Burgundy (1456–96) who were listed as “meester”, which is an indication of university training, 7 had attended Italian universities.74 Of the 33 councillors of the Hof van Friesland in the period 1515–1578 who had had visited a university, no less than 9 had come though Italy on their travels, this while only some 4.3 per cent of the total

72 Ibid. Rüdiger-Prüll concentrates on what he refers to as “Verlaufbahnung”, professionalization, but he does not pay a lot of attention to careers outside the immediate range of ‘medical’ careers. 73 Based on Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 248, 716–7, and on more elaborate information kindly received from the author. If the canons from outside the diocese of Utrecht are omitted, the percentage of canons who had visited Italian universities as part of the total university trained population would rise to over 10%. One of the other deans, Herman van Lockhorst was the father of Wilhelmus van Lockhorst who had studied in Bologna and Siena. 74 Based on Enklaar, Landsheerlijk bestuur, 168–79. As a percentage of the total number of councillors—including those mostly noble councillors who never saw the inside of a lecture hall—it would still amount to 4.9%.

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number of Frisian students actually made it to the peninsula in those years.75 Of the c. 120 councillors appointed to the Hof van Holland between 1428 and 1600, who had visited universities, again, a minimum of 20 (16.6 per cent) had studied at an Italian studium. Out of the 18 advocaten-ﬁscaal at the Hof from the Northern Netherlands 3 had a law degree from an Italian studium.76 The relative overrepresentation of Italian graduates—that represent at best a few percentage points of the overall student population from the northern Low Countries—with posts at these prestigious institutions seems to reaﬃrm the rather strong career perspective for those young men who visited studia like Bologna, Padua and Siena.

5.2. Climbing the Ladder: Social Mobility and Networks After this close investigation of the careers and career paths of the students in the population, it is time to take a next step and see to what factors were important to claim their place in the social hierarchy. The purpose of this section is twofold. Close scrutiny of the social background and their careers should give us some idea about career expectations and the possibility of social mobility of the students in our population. A further focus on the social network in which they found themselves will reveal some of the mechanisms at work in the emergence and preservation of social elites and will hopefully allow us to see to what extent their education, in casu, their expensive stay in Italy contributed to their place in society, maybe even to their social mobility. This interesting question, nevertheless, presents a number of problems. Firstly, what do we exactly mean by social mobility? The term has undoubtedly strong ‘modern’ connotations, derived from modern sociology.77 Can we use such a contemporary concept for a small

75

Based on: Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 153–5. This sample included one nonFrisian student, Theodorus Lindanus. See also chapter 2.2. 76 On the basis of De Blécourt and Mijers (eds.), Memorialen, XXXII a.f.; some corrections in Van Gent, ‘Pertijelike saken’, 473; Damen, Staat. Not counted in this sample were the councillors who came from outside the Northern Netherlands. 77 Cf. J.W. Oerlemans, ‘Historische sociale mobiliteit’ in: Theoretische Geschiedenis 8 (1981) 161–86. He discusses a number of important issues, e.g. the extent to which people in particular social layers in the distant past might be more interested in consolidation of existing conditions rather than active pursuit of social mobility.

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population in a distant past for which so many of the vital data and sources are missing? For one, it forces us to label all the diﬀerent oﬃces and professions that have been mentioned before according to a strict scheme in order to assess their social value. The question arises what criteria can be used to perform such a task. These diﬃculties in trying to come to some sort of scheme to categorize social layers in the Northern Netherlands have been outlined in section 4.2. Similar problems arise here. We need to tread carefully in this landscape. Salary or attached income as a criterion to measure the social value of oﬃces is often insuﬃcient. For example, there was no salary attached to the various oﬃces in the magistracy. A very prestigious position like that of raad extraordinaris of the Court of Holland was unsalaried. A careful equilibrium between income, emoluments and such volatile concepts as power and prestige will have to do to give us some idea of the social value of the various dignities and oﬃces found for the students in the population. There are other aspects to take into consideration: the dignity of a clergyman for instance. Although the value of speciﬁc beneﬁces may have diﬀered considerably, even a chaplain of a relatively insigniﬁcant chapel was entitled to a certain amount of respect and reverence that can hardly be put into monetary value. In a wider sense this applies to most of the oﬃces mentioned in this chapter, as the regard for intellectual labour was higher than manual labour, even though in some cases there may not have been a clear dividingline in terms of ﬁnancial reward. These contemporary views naturally have to be taken into consideration. The desire to be elevated to the ranks of the nobility, though the immediate monetary consequences of this step might have been absent altogether, was seen as an important advancement. Not all contemporary notions about social mobility and social exclusion can be taken at face value, though. Many oﬃces and dignities were nominally inaccessible to those of illegitimate birth. As we shall see shortly, reality was not nearly as harsh as (canon) law prescribed. In short ‘social mobility’ in this study will refer to a process in which a student managed to go beyond his immediate environment and accessed positions in society that in terms of remuneration, prestige or power can be considered a promotion.78 The eﬀects of this

78

The term immediate environment refers to the categories as described in chapter

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upward mobility need not be permanent and do not necessarily apply to his family in the wider sense. Members of the clergy might have attained positions in the hierarchy of this institution that carried a lot of prestige, but that did not reﬂect immediately on their families. In many cases, though, there would be a lasting eﬀect on his heirs and other close family. Although this deﬁnition is still suﬃciently vague to illicit all sorts of questions, by using both the larger picture and concrete examples it will become clear that social mobility in the population was a realistic possibility for a number of students in the population. A ﬁrst way of assessing this phenomenon is to look where those students, who within the institution of the university itself were perceived to be of inadequate means—the pauperes—ended up in society. There was career information for 23 out of 58 pauperes. However, 7 of them were non-speciﬁed clergy and should be left out, although this is a ﬁrst indication of where a considerable number of them might be located. For just 16 students (27.6 per cent), qualiﬁed as poor, there was more concrete career information.79 If we compare this ﬁgure to those for the other two university categories, the divites (46.3 per cent) and the nobility (63.5 per cent), it will be obvious that there was some relation between status within the studium and career outcome. Students with a poor background were less likely to end up in those jobs that were prestigious enough to be well documented. So, where did they end up, these students that were considered to be poor during their studies? Most of them, nine altogether, were academics. Four students did not go beyond the rotulus artistarum often during their own pursuits in the higher faculties. Five of them, however, managed to become professors; three in arts, one in medicine

4.2. I shall look into what is referred to as ‘intergenerational’ mobility (with regard to the previous generation), but in some more spectacular cases ‘intragenerational’ mobility (within one lifetime or career) can be used to deﬁne the careers of certain individuals. Such is the case, for instance, for Philippus Nicolai Cobelius. He came from a privileged and extremely well-connected background that had lines running to the States of Holland and several patrician families in various Dutch towns. Still, his ascendancy to the Secret Council and his position as councillor to King Philip II single his career out as one that can only be characterized as upwardly mobile. Cf. Oerlemans, ‘Historische sociale mobiliteit’, 171. 79 Cf. Fuchs, Dives, 91–2, who came to 20% recovery rate of career information for pauperes at the University of Heidelberg until 1450.

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and a last one in law. Seven poor students ended up in the Church. Three at parish level where they were rector or chaplain, two of them entered the Dominican order and another one became procurator ﬁscalis at the curia of Cologne. The last poor student who became a member of the cloth was the already mentioned Theodorus Lindanus, whose apparent modest background did not prevent him from pursuing a career that not only brought him several oﬃces higher up in the Church (canon, vicar-general, inquisitor), but allowed him to become an ex oﬃcio councillor of the Hof van Friesland. He was the only pauper who was represented at provincial level. There were more poor students to be found at town level, another ﬁve: two of them town physicians (one of whom combined this oﬃce with that of rector scholarum), one pensionary and even two magistrates. Another three students acted as private secretaries to noble employers and a last one served certain young noblemen as praeceptor. There was only one poor student who made it to the corridors of power at the central level. Though from a bourgeois family from Dokkum, Johannes Bogerman worked as a servant during his years at Bologna and graduated pro paupere. After graduation he managed to become a lawyer at the Reichskammergericht in Speyer. He moved on and became professor of law at the University of Cologne and personal councillor to the duke of Kleves. It is somewhat sad that when he died after a career that took him well beyond the burgerij-milieu of the small Frisian town of Dokkum, he left his widow in dire straits. Although the careers of this small section of pauperes points to a rather limited number of sectors—and generally the lower echelons within these—, the possibilities of getting ahead were not absent. When Jan Florisz from the provincial town of Alkmaar, after having studied in Cologne as a pauper and graduated in medicine at Ferrara, managed to become a professor of medicine at the University of Cologne, this was a career move that can deﬁnitely be labelled as upwardly mobile. The cases of Lindanus and Bogerman illustrate that in some cases a move to the highest levels was not beyond reach.80

80 Cf. Fuchs, Dives, 91–2, where he assesses the careers of the pauperes. According to a scheme, where he identiﬁes, what he refers to as “grosse Karriere”, which include canons, bishops, abbots, teachers at the higher faculties, members of town magistracy and higher. He identiﬁed 4.6% (17) of his sample as having had a “big career”, nearly always in chapters. In the sample for the pauperes in our population,

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There is another way of trying to assess whether the students in the population managed to climb the social ladder. This can be done, albeit roughly, by comparing the social background of the holders the various oﬃces, to which a certain value has to be attached.81 Such an evaluation on the basis of the scheme of social stratiﬁcation used in chapter 4.2., will give a clearer idea where the students from these diﬀerent layers of society found employment in a general sense. Furthermore, this strategy will can give an indication to what extent students from the more modest social layers in the Netherlands, those from the burgerij and those from the crafts, succeeded in getting positions in society that were not immediately accessible to them. A number of oﬃces at diﬀerent levels and in diﬀerent sectors have been selected. Rather than dealing with a scheme on diﬀerent levels outright as in section 5.1., I have chosen to categorize the students from diﬀerent background in sectors of employment by employer. All of these samples involve over 40 individuals. Five categories will be dealt with. Students employed by universities as professors form a ﬁrst category. Students in the various dignities of the Church a second one. The third category consists of students who were either self employed—notaries, advocati and practising physicians, even though they often had to be admitted to exercise their profession by higher authorities, fall into this category—or students who were personally attached to a patron either as personal physicians, private secretaries or praeceptores. The next set of professions are the three most important positions within the town’s civil service, those of pensionaris, town physician and rector scholarum. These senior civil servants had to be appointed by town government.82 The last category involved those students involved in government and administration at town, regional, provincial and central level. Entering

according to Fuchs’ scheme, the percentage of students with a comparable career was 10.3% (6). Even though the numbers are very small, this at least hints at the possibility that the perspective for pauperes who made it to an Italian university was somewhat more positive. 81 The inventory of various oﬃces in section 5.1 gives an impression of how valuable/prestigious these oﬃces were considered to be on the basis of research done. The outline of social stratiﬁcation in section 4.2 would serve as the other qualiﬁer. 82 In the case of rectores scholarum the town government was not always responsible for their appointment. In some cases the prince or other collatores held the privilege of appointing head schoolmasters. Cf. Post, Scholen, 37–55; Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 11–18.

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Social Background of Career Sample

Nobility 14% Unknown 31% Patriciate 23% LB/Ambacht 9% HBurgerij 23% Graph 5.2.1. Social background of the career sample of students from the Northern Netherlands at Italian universities (N=337).

these ranks ultimately depended on appointment by the prince or his representative. It will be helpful to give a breakdown of the social composition of the total career sample to compare the diﬀerent categories to (graph 5.2.1.). Looking at the social composition of these categories, there are a number of interesting points to be made. A ﬁrst obvious one is the complete absence for this population of noble professors (table 5.2.1.). Although some noble young men taught during their studies, the pursuit of a chair as a career goal seems to have been alien to the noble psyche. The competition for these positions was predominantly the domain for those students from a bourgeois background. Among the faculties law seems to have attracted comparatively more professors from the urban and rural patriciate than the other faculties. Especially for those students from the bourgeoisie and the artisan milieu a chair could be considered a case of advancement in society. Furthermore, a position in university could open a range of career possibilities. Ludolphus Nicolai van Hoorn, most likely from a lower bourgeois background, was teaching law at Louvain before he received his appointment as canon of Oudmunster. He then moved on to become a councillor to Bishop David of Burgundy. Similarly, a chair in medicine could open the prospect of an attractive position as a personal physician.

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312 (N)

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij

LB/Ambacht

Unknown

Total

Arts Medicine Law Theology

0 0 0 0

2 1 4 0

5 4 6 2

4 4 1 1

3 5 1 1

14 14 12 4

Total Ind.

0

7

17

10

10

44

Unknown

Total

(%)

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij

LB/Ambacht

Arts Medicine Law Theology

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

14.3 7.1 33.3 0.0

35.7 28.6 50.0 25.0

28.6 28.6 8.3 25.0

21.4 35.7 8.3 50.0

100 100 100 100

Total Ind.

0.0

15.9

38.6

22.7

22.7

100

Table 5.2.1. Social categories of students in the population who became university professors in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

When we look at the social background of those students who made a career in the Church (table 5.2.2.), one immediately notices the substantial amount of students whose background was unknown. As was mentioned before, it is likely that these students have to be located in the bourgeois and crafts environment rather that the patriciate and the nobility. One third of the clergy could not be categorized. Almost another third came from bourgeois and crafts, while another third came from the wealthiest and most powerful shifts of society. Participation of those labelled ‘unknown’ is particularly strong in the lower levels of the Church hierarchy; at the parish level and for those who entered the religious orders. We notice that both nobility and patriciate got their fair proportional share of beneﬁces at parish level. It is doubtful, however, if the parish ﬂocks in question saw much of their shepherds. A majority of these privileged clergymen accumulated several prebends. The noble student Alfer van Montfoort was both rector ecclesiae of Polsbroek and a canon of St Mary’s in Utrecht. It seems likely that he had a substitute for the cura animarum in Polsbroek, as his duties as both canon and an episcopal ambassador would prevent him from visiting his parish often.83 83

Cf. Bijsterveld, Laverend, 106–124, in particular his conclusions about the diﬀerences between “beneﬁcianten” and “waarnemers”, p. 110, Table 1.15.

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313

As we go higher on the Church ladder, the percentage of students with completely unknown backgrounds decreases. The contrary is true for those with a noble or patrician origin, whose share of higher church dignities was well over 50 per cent for the generally more proﬁtable and prestigious ecclesiastical oﬃces. The oﬃce of canon was particularly sought after and it seems to have predominantly been the playground for students from the nobility and patriciate, both as a starting position and a ﬁnal destination in a career.84 For those students from more modest social backgrounds, a canonry has to be viewed as a signiﬁcant advancement to say the least, but often as the ﬁnal reward for services rendered. Although the share of students from less privileged and unknown lineage in the higher oﬃces in the Church was smaller, it was not absent. As an institution the Church did oﬀer opportunities to students not so well oﬀ. (N)

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij

LB/Ambacht

Unknown

Total

Parish Canon Region Diocese Bish/Curia Order

8 11 5 0 5 1

14 19 7 10 4 3

11 11 4 1 2 1

7 2 1 2 2 4

26 9 3 1 2 10

66 52 20 14 15 19

Total Ind.

16

25

24

13

40

118

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij

LB/Ambacht

Unknown

Total

Parish Canon Region Diocese Bish/Curia Order

12.1 21.2 25.0 0.0 35.7 5.3

21.2 36.5 35.0 71.4 28.6 15.8

16.7 21.2 20.0 7.1 14.3 5.3

10.6 3.8 5.0 14.3 14.3 21.1

39.4 17.3 15.0 7.1 14.3 52.6

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total Ind.

13.6

21.2

20.3

11.0

33.9

100

(%)

Table 5.2.2. Social categories of students in the population with oﬃces in the Church in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

84 Cf. Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 228–241. Although his scheme of stratiﬁcation is somewhat more reﬁned, his study shows that at least 50% of the canons of the chapter of St Salvator in Utrecht came form noble and patrician backgrounds.

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Turning to the next category, which might be labelled the ‘free professions’, the percentage of students whose background eludes us is high again, with just over one in four. As most of these students would fall into the categories of either the burgerij or the ambacht, it would be justiﬁed to say that these professions were more the terrain of students from bourgeois milieus supplemented by their fellow students from the crafts in the Netherlands. Although noble students and those from the governing town and village elites did not shrink from the private legal profession in particular, albeit at provincial and central level, rather than in a town, a majority belonged to those layers in society whose claim to power was relatively weak. In the previous section, the profession of lawyer was identiﬁed as one of those oﬃces that could provide a springboard for a career at some higher level or a salaried oﬃce in one of the bureaucracies of state, particularly for those students for whom the threshold of immediate access to these oﬃces was beyond reach. This is not so much true for the professions outside the legal domain. The medical profession was not an attractive option for noble students. Much more strongly one would say that the medical profession was the domain of the town elite and the bourgeoisie. Practising as a doctor medicinae—and this holds true even more for the personal physician—could be considered a step up in society for students from the lower echelons of the bourgeoisie and most deﬁnitely for those whose fathers were involved in manual labour. When Joris Willemsz of Noordwijk graduated as doctor medicinae in Ferrara in 1495 he had made progress in society, if we may believe that he was the son of a barber, as his matriculation record shows.85 A barber’s son who managed to become doctor medicinae and who pracised as a learned physician marks a successful climbing of the social ladder. Similarly, for the already mentioned Allard Cooltuyn who ﬁrst practised and later became town physician of Alkmaar, where his father had been a shipbuilder belonging to the lower regions of the middle shifts of the town, this career prospect cannot but be considered a step up in society.86 Students who freely entered the ser-

85 “Georgius de Noirtwyc ﬁlius Wilhelmi Barbitonsoris, Traj.” in: Wils, II, 472, 67. Also: Auctarium, III, 712, 11; 672, 3; 680, 40; 830, 832; Auctarium, VI, 638, 12; 652, 28; 654, 3; 687, 15; 691, 40; 728, 3, 8, 10, 13, 18, 27; 742, 5; 744, n. 5; Pardi, Titoli, 98–99. 86 According the the “kohier van verpondinghe” for 1534 (RAA, Stadsarchief

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315

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

Unknown Total

3

7

10

1

5

26

Nota/Advo Pract./Pers. Phys. Priv. Secr./ Praec.

1

9

12

8

13

43

1

2

5

3

4

15

Total Ind.

5

18

27

12

22

84

(%)

Nobility

Patriciate

Nota/Advo Pract. Phys. Priv. Secr./ Praec.

11.5 2.3

26.9 20.9

38.5 27.9

3.8 18.6

19.2 30.2

100 100

6.7

13.3

33.3

20.0

26.7

100

6.0

21.4

32.1

14.3

26.2

100

Total Ind.

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

Unknown Total

Table 5.2.3. Social categories of students in the population in the professions or in the service of individuals in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

vice of a noble patron as secretaries or praeceptores—again an option not so popular with those from the higher echelons of society—also came predominantly from the middle and lower layers of society. These professions, nevertheless, could also represent a possibility to move on. The fourth set of oﬃces are those in the town administration under control of the magistracy. These were the most prestigious oﬃces in the urban civil service sector. Generally the pensionaris, the stede doctoer and the rector scholarum did not only receive the highest salaries, but were also issued cloth for their gowns, together with the members of the magistracy. Learning and administrative skills were the requirements for the job. The social composition of this group of students diﬀered slightly from the previous category in the sense that the percentage of ‘unknowns’ was signiﬁcantly lower. Again all social categories were represented. Even noble students did sometimes not refuse the oﬃce of town pensionary. Nicolaus Gerardi van der

vóór 1815, inv. nr. 707), Cornelis Allardsz’s total property and capital was estimated at 250 Ponden Hollands. The cost of a year at the University of Louvain would amount to approximately one tenth of his father’s total assets. Cf. De Maesschalck, ‘Criteria’, 347–8.

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316 (N)

Nobility

Patriciate

Pensionaris Town Phys. Rector S.

2 0 0

7 5 3

9 4 3

1 7 2

2 5 0

21 21 8

Total Ind.

2

13

14

7

7

43

Nobility

Patriciate

(%)

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

Unknown Total

Unknown Total

Pensionaris Town Phys. Rector S.

9.5 0.0 0.0

33.3 23.8 37.5

42.9 19.0 37.5

4.8 33.3 25.0

9.5 23.8 0.0

100 100 100

Total Ind.

4.7

30.2

32.6

16.3

16.3

100

Table 5.2.4. Social categories of students in the population in senior civil servant positions at town level in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

Laen of Haarlem held this position in his native town after he had already worked as receiver for the States of Holland. No noble students were found who served as town physician or head schoolmaster. The action radius of this profession, the surgery and the class room much like the lecture hall, was clearly considered to be beneath somebody of noble birth, something that did not apply as much to the oﬃce of pensionary, as he had to represent the town at higher levels. It seems that students from the town elites felt themselves comfortable at this level. Especially as pensionary they would be close enough to the magistracy one the one hand but have contacts with bureaucracies at higher level where they could make connections and show oﬀ their expertise. For the magistrate’s son Jacob Ruysch this position helped him attain the oﬃce of raad at the Hof van Holland. The last category involved those students who ended up in the most powerful positions in society, where appointment depended on the approval of the prince or his representative. Indeed, in the case of many of the regional governmental oﬃcers they were the prince’s designated representative. What immediately catches the eye is the very small percentage of students whose background was unknown. A second major observation is that over two-thirds of those involved in this career sector came from the most powerful and well-connected sections of society, the nobility and the patriciate. As unsurprising

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317

as this is, this still leaves us with one-third of students in this sector whose access to the corridors of power at diﬀerent levels was by no means self-evident. At town level, the urban nobility and town patriciate (vroedschapsfamilies) generally guarded their natural playground fairly well. Research has shown, however, that access to the magistracy for so-called homines novi outside the immediate range of governing families was never closed oﬀ. The admittance of new families into the magistracy was an almost constant phenomenon.87 In this light the percentage of students from non-elite families who made it to town hall makes sense. For Maarten Jansz Coster, son of the dean of the goldsmiths’ guild and medicine graduate of Bologna, being appointed as burgemeester of Amsterdam was a step forward from his immediate social background. It cannot, however, be interpreted as a giant leap. His father was a wealthy craftsman at the very top of the manual labour ladder and the presiding oﬃcer of an important guild. Family wealth, connections and the combination with a doctor’s degree in medicine that he used for his practice in Amsterdam can explain that there were chances for Maarten to enter the ranks of the vroede vaderen. This was also true for those students who came from higher bourgeois families of wealth waiting in the wings. Although this situation holds true to a certain extent for those students who made it to the regional level, the absence of students from the lower bourgeois and crafts milieus suggests that it was more diﬃcult for students from these layers of society to break into these oﬃces that had traditionally been the natural domain of the elite. Cornelius Arnoldi van der Hoech, law graduate of Siena from a bourgeois family in The Hague—his father had studied law in Orléans—, did become rentmeester of Wassenaar and hoofdingelandt of Delﬂand, but he had already practised as a lawyer at the Hof van Holland and had even been a councillor there before he acquired these positions at regional level. His access to these oﬃces was by no means immediate. Even at the highest levels, though, participation of students from relatively modest bourgeois and crafts backgrounds was not entirely absent, even though they might have been incidental. For a student

87 Cf. Brand, Macht, 241–8; W.P. Blockmans, ‘Mobiliteit in de stadsbesturen 1400–1550’ in: D.E.H. de Boer and J.W. Marsilje (eds.), De Nederlanden in de late middeleeuwen (Utrecht 1987) 236–60.

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318 (N)

Nobility

Patriciate

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

Magistracy Regional Provincial Central

9 10 17 6

20 8 23 5

13 7 10 4

4 0 3 0

2 0 1 1

48 25 54 16

Total Ind.

29

51

28

7

3

118

(%)

Nobility

Patriciate

Magistracy Regional Provincial Central

18.8 40.0 31.5 37.5

41.7 32.0 42.6 31.3

27.1 28.0 18.5 25.0

8.3 0.0 5.6 0.0

4.2 0.0 1.9 6.3

100 100 100 100

Total Ind.

24.6

43.2

23.7

5.9

2.5

100

HBurgerij LB/Ambacht

Unknown Total

Unknown Total

Table 5.2.5. Social categories of students in the population in government and administration at town, regional, provincial and central level in absolute numbers and percentages of the total sample.

from a higher bourgeois milieu to make it to the administration at county level was still unmistakably a case of social mobility. Henricus Jacobi Meyster, a student of—most likely—law in Pisa, was the son of a head schoolmaster in Haarlem. When he managed to become deputy registrar at the Hof van Holland and receiver for the admiralty in 1572, he was well beyond the classroom environment of his father. His membership of the landraad in 1575 was a crown on his career. For the already mentioned Johannes Bogerman the appointment to the Reichskammergericht must have been an even greater step forward. This overview of diﬀerent employment sectors shows that particular sectors were more or less popular with students from diﬀerent social backgrounds. Teaching as a career was predominantly the terrain of the bourgeoisie and oﬀered chances to those from lower bourgeois and crafts backgrounds. The nobility on the other hand avoided the teaching profession. Similarly, private practice, whether this was as a lawyer or medical doctor, was much more popular with nonnobles and in particular the bourgeoisie than the small segment of nobles who were nearly all involved in the legal profession. The civil service sector at town level showed a similar breakdown. With the exception of two noble students who acted as town pensionaries, all of them were non-noble, and patrician and higher bourgeois stu-

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dents seem to have made these oﬃces their prerogative, although students from lower strata did show a strong presence. It is in the governmental sector at large that students from the elite of the Northern Netherlands come into their own. Unsurprisingly, they are comparatively overrepresented at all levels of government. This leaves us with the Church. It would seem that careers of the students in the Church reﬂect the social breakdown of the career sample most closely. Again, this is not this strange as this institution had to cater for the totality of society. It had dignitaries at every level. From priests administering the sacrament to the faithful at parish level in a small village—often instead of the oﬃcial beneﬁciary—right to the very top of the ladder from where the Church was governed. Consequently, it was obvious that it had to recruit from most sections of society to ﬁll the many posts. The career sample of the population clearly reﬂects the manifold character of the Church as an institution. The more modest dignities would be held by students with a more modest background and the more prestigious oﬃces could count on the attention of many a noble second son. Although the careers in this sample thus do reﬂect some of the more rigid social aspects of late-medieval and early modern Low Countries’ society, it is clear that no sector of employment was entirely closed to those layers of society not directly involved in it. Every sector of employment showed that there were possibilities for the lower strata to enter higher levels of employment than those where their fathers had found theirs. At the highest levels there were few, but nevertheless signiﬁcant, cases of students from backgrounds in the lagere burgerij and the ambacht who made it to important oﬃces. Generally, though, these steps on the ladder of society were taken one at the time. In some cases the eﬀect would not be clearly visible until the next generation. Lubertus Esthius of Beusekom in Guelders, whose social origins are hidden from view, was a graduate in medicine of Bologna and eventually set up practice in Strasbourg. His son studied in Strasbourg and Basle and ﬁnally managed to become a professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg and even succeeded in becoming rector of the studium in 1601.88 In general, the social system was fairly closed, but society showed

88

Bronzino, Notitia, 46; Lindeboom, DMB, 553–4.

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cracks at all levels. All levels had to at some stage recruit members from below. The town patriciate constantly renewed itself by admitting wealthy and/or expert new men to the magistracy. The same was true for higher levels of the nobility that had traditionally almost monopolized the oﬃces at regional and county level, supported by the expertise of members of the clergy. The wealthy patriciate, though, did serve as a potential recruitment pool for oﬃces at regional and even higher levels, provided they had something on oﬀer. The granting of a noble title would formally copperfasten this process of upward mobility. The process whereby the position of the nobility as the ﬁrst supplier of members of the governmental bureaucracies was challenged had started in the ﬁfteenth century and continued at a more rapid pace in the sixteenth. One needs to be careful not to interpret this process as a solely involuntary development. For the nobility of Holland Van Nierop has shown that holding certain oﬃces in the bureaucracy of state became less attractive to a prospering nobility, because these oﬃces became increasingly professionalized and therefore time-consuming. This development demanded a diﬀerent type of oﬃce holder, a legal specialist rather than a knight providing the prince with due consilium.89 This oﬀered new opportunities to the non-noble elites who could live up to this role of legal specialist. Though the number of noblemen particularly in the provincial courts diminished in the sixteenth century, they remained present. Something seems to have changed, though. If we look at the councillors of the Hof van Holland after 1530, we notice that almost all noble and non-noble members, with the exception of the high noble stadtholders, are referred to as “meester” which is an indication of university education and legal training seemed to have been part of the exercise. For instance, the three noblemen in the population that were appointed to the Court after 1530—Reinier van der Duyn, Nicolaus van Valckesteyn and Cornelis van de Bouchorst—were all law graduates.90 Similarly, the three noblemen who were assessores in

89

Van Nierop, Ridders, chapter 6, particularly, section 6.3; Janse, Ridderschap, 374. Cf. also Zijlstra, Geleerde Friesland, 152–5, where he deals with the councillors of the Court of Friesland. The decrease of the share of noblemen in the Court starts somewhat later and continued to be quite high compared to the Court of Holland. The diﬀerence in percentages of noble and non-noble councillors with a law degree was marginal (70% against 75%), indicating that legal studies became 90

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the Reichskammergericht—Dominicus Tettema, Johannes van Mepsche and the just mentioned Reinier van der Duyn—all had been awarded doctorates in utroque iure. Ennoblement or more generally the desire to be recognized as a noble was close to the hearts and minds of many in late-medieval and early modern times. The students in the population were no exception to this. The fact that they did have something to oﬀer— their knowledge in the ﬁeld of law, medicine or theology—made them candidates to climb the social ladder, possibly even be granted such a title. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt certainly tried his best to claim nobility for himself and his family. Not only did he register “in specie nobilis” at the University of Louvain, but on his return to the Netherlands after his graduation in Padua, he immediately started proceedings with the Hof van Holland to have the lineage of Van Oldenbarnevelt recognized as noble. Although this does not seem to have been successful at ﬁrst, in which the Troubles in the Netherlands further complicated matters, the knighthood granted to him by James I in 1611, must have come as a well-deserved reward.91 He was not the only one. At least twelve other students in the population in some way managed to receive a noble title during their lifetime. Arnoldus Cornelii van der Mijle was another. Known originally as Aert Cornelisz, his marriage to Cornelia van Alblas brought him the manor De Myl and he adorned himself and his sons with this name. This, however, was insuﬃcient to be regarded as a nobleman. Only the granting of a noble title to him by Philip II in 1570— because of his attempts to prevent disorder in 1566—gave him and his lineage nobility. There is another angle that needs to be taken into consideration and this is the phenomenon of illegitimate birth. Oﬃcially, it prevented young men from entering all sorts of oﬃces and enjoying certain privileges. Students, especially if they wanted to hold oﬃce such as rector universitatis, and clergymen alike had to be of legitimate birth. Oﬃcially, bastards could not enter the clergy and take higher orders. Canon law forbade those blemished by a defectus natalium to

much more important for this position. His sample included four noble students who had visited Italian universities, of which three held a doctorate in utroque. 91 Schillings, Matricule, IV, 710, 50; Haak (ed.), Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, 1; Fölting, Landsadvocaten, 35–42.

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take orders, and only entering a monastery or a chapter of regular canons could wash away this blemish. In practice a system of dispensation had emerged, partly to make sure that there was a suﬃcient number of ﬁt candidates for oﬃces in the Church.92 At universities the student had to take an oath stating that he was of legitimate birth. In practice, things were not as harsh as they seemed. It was by no means impossible for illegitimate sons to make some sort of career. There were at least twelve students in the population born out of wedlock. With one exception they were all sons of clerics. Although one of the students, Erasmus, was put into an Augustinian monastery to lift this birth stain, most others managed to follow in the footsteps of their fathers. Five bastards obtained canonries. Willem van Lockhorst was the natural son of Herman van Lockhorst, dean of the chapter of St Salvator, but this did not prevent him from becoming a canon of St Peter’s in Utrecht, adding another prebend of St Mary’s in Utrecht, and from following Pope Adrian VI to Rome. Gerrit Suggerode was the son of a canon of the same name at the chapter of St Lebuin’s in Deventer. He started his career as a canon of the same chapter, but moved on from there to become canon—later dean—of St Salvator, oﬃcial-principal, inquisitor and vicar-general of Utrecht. Even the sons of clerics outside the powerhouse of Utrecht found few obstructions to ﬁnding their place in society. It is certainly telling that the two outstanding scholars of the population, Erasmus and Rudolf Agricola—son of Hendrik Huusman, abbot of Selwert—were both illegitimate children. The system of dispensation apparently worked fairly well for a number of students in the population. Far from being hampered by their birth, their connections within the Church—reinforced by their university studies— allowed them to seek oﬃces like their fathers and in some cases they even managed to go beyond that. Looking at the totality of the career sample of 337 students and try to make some statements about social mobility, a number of observations can be made. The ﬁrst is that this is not possible for a large section of the sample (29.8%), as there was insuﬃcient material to locate their background. The second observation must be that

92 Cf. also Bijsterveld, Laverend, 128–134; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 228–30.

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it is very diﬃcult to exactly determine if certain career moves constitute upward mobility. Although we have seen a number of examples of deﬁnite social climbers, it is very diﬃcult to put this into any clear ﬁgures. In a sense, each case stands on its own and even with a deﬁnition of social mobility as outlined above, many doubts and complications remain in giving a ﬁnal verdict on whether a student managed to quit his sphere and reach the next step of the pyramid or not. Ultimately, this verdict is subjective. A number of premises has to be taken into account if one wants to evaluate a tentative attempt at categorization. The jump from a small village to a professorial chair in a large university city should be interpreted as mobility. Similarly, for those students whose claim to positions in the magistracy or higher Church hierarchy was weak considering their background such career moves were taken to upwardly mobile. The step from the town patriciate—and in this respect they diﬀer from the urban nobility—to the bureaucracies at provincial level was not an automatic one. For a schepenzoon to become a councillor at one of the provincial courts meant to take a step forward. With these remarks in mind, the following table shows the tentative ﬁgures in terms of social mobility and stability for 234 individuals, where we had information about both their origin and their careers.93 Law

Medicine

Other

Total

Mobility Stability Anomalous

53 112 0

24 16 11

6 12 0

83 140 11

Total

165

51

18

234

Table 5.2.6. Social mobility and stability of students in the population, whose background and careers were traced according to faculty.

93 A percentage of 36.6. For the later period of 1550–1750 the percentage of recovery of both origin and careers for students from Brabant was 20%. Calculations by W.T.M. Frijhoﬀ based on Bots, Mathey and Meyer, Noordbrabantse studenten. In a review article in Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations 36 (1981) 243–6.

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It should be clear that a majority of the students followed if not in their father’s footsteps, then at least followed their trail. Sibrandus Occo, son of Pompeius Occo who held a key position in the magistracy of Amsterdam, also took up the oﬃces of schepen, burgemeester and tresorier in his native city. For Valerius van Cuyck, son of the inﬂuential nobleman Johan van Cuyck, schepen and burgemeester of Utrecht, his canonry in the Dom in Utrecht was a distinct career possibility. Valerius’ elder brother Antonius succeeded his father in the Utrecht magistracy as schepen.94 In most of these cases, students opted or had to settle for careers not unlike their fathers’, or at least in the same sphere c.q. the same level. There was another interesting phenomenon that deserves our attention in this respect. A number of students opted for career paths that at ﬁrst sight do not seem to be obvious choices and they have been labelled as ‘anomalous’ for the purpose of illustrating a sort of mistaken sense of expectation. In these eleven cases we are dealing with students who chose to study medicine and who also opted for a career in medicine. This, despite the fact that such a choice was not immediately obvious. In most cases they originated in a patrician environment or in the higher bourgeoisie that had made the connection with the patriciate. For example, Hadrianus Junius was the son of Pieter de Jonge. Pieter had studied law in Orléans, was appointed pensionaris of the town of Hoorn and managed to secure a place in the magistracy. His son, Adriaan decided to study medicine rather than the law and his career direction was quite diﬀerent from that of his father. After his graduation in Bologna he had a medical practice, was town physician and rector scholarum in Haarlem, then moved to Denmark, where he was appointed professor of medicine and royal physician, and even dealt with William the Silent after his return to the Netherlands. Although this has to be qualiﬁed as a rather spectacular career in itself, it might not be exactly what one would expect from a son of a lawyer who had made the grade, so to speak. We see something similar in the case of the Van Foreest family of Alkmaar. This was an inﬂuential patrician family with certain claims to nobility. Three

94 Similar career paths were continued in the next generation. Antonius’ son Johan became a canon in the cathedral chapter and Tyman a councillor at the Court of Utrecht. NNBW, VIII, 351.

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members of this family chose to study medicine, all of them in Italy. The ﬁrst, Theodorus, was a brother of Jorden van Foreest, the father of Petrus and Jacobus Forestus. Jorden was a very important member of the Alkmaar magistracy and served his town as burgemeester, schepen, tresorier and kerkmeester. In addition to this he was bailiﬀ of the nearby village of Bergen as well. Despite their father’s leading role in Alkmaar’s government, these brothers chose medicine as their subject of study and continued in medicine after graduation. Again, one must say that the careers of Petrus and Jacobus were very respectable, but seem to have been not that evident. Two of their brothers ended up in the magistracy. Pieter, the eldest son, would have been the natural candidate to follow his father’s line of duty. In his own words, he followed the example of his uncle and consciously chose medicine. Petrus Hogerbeets, son of a magistrates’ family in the town of Hoorn did the same. On the one hand these examples seem to suggest that there was not that much distance between the learned medical doctor and the magistracy in the smaller towns of the Northern Netherlands, though there is evidence that this situation changed somewhat in the seventeenth century.95 On the other hand, there is something to be said for the theory that these young men made a speciﬁc choice for learning, for the humanist model. Most of them were indeed scholars of some renown in their day and strong supporters of humanist medicine. Petrus Forestus himself was said to have been inspired by his uncle and deliberately chose to follow in his footsteps rather than in his father’s.96 Overlooking the sample there were 83 cases in which students managed to make a career or attain an oﬃce that was beyond their immediate expectation. This means that for a not insigniﬁcant number of the careers recovered—one in four—the student in question succeeded in getting either a more prestigious or powerful position— and in most cases both—than what he might have expected ab initio. There were a number of patterns discernible. Most of them were speciﬁc to the choice of faculty. Typical for students of medicine was the move from lower bourgeois and artisan backgrounds ( pauperes

95

Cf. Frijhoﬀ, ‘“Non satis dignitatis”’. Henriëtte A. Bosman-Jelgersma, ‘De levensloop van Pieter van Foreest’ in: Ead. (ed.), Pieter van Foreest, 16. 96

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are included in this category) to a professorial chair. Also reaching the position of town and personal physician could mean a move upward in society. Even for someone like Wilhelmus Lemnius—son of the renowned medical doctor Livinus Lemnius who was securely located in the higher echelons of the town of Zierikzee and even took oﬃce in the magistracy—the appointment as royal physician of Sweden cannot but be seen as social advancement. For students from lower and higher bourgeois milieus, access to the governing oﬃces at town level was a step forward. Both students of medicine and law were successful in taking this step. Medical doctors and pensionarissen of bourgeois origins could through a number of oﬃces and missions—such as deputy to the States—become somewhat more important at town level. Other patterns of mobility mainly involve students of law. The move from the town patriciate and even more so from lower milieus to the provincial courts, that could put a family on the provincial map, accounted for more than a quarter of cases of social advancement. The step was even greater for those who managed to become involved in the institutions at central level. Especially in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth century a number of civil servant lineages start to emerge. Generally not noble but coming from the top layers of the towns, the sons from these families continued to look for public service at regional and provincial level, while maintaining their close relations with their towns and the representative institutions, the States. We will shortly meet a number of students who ﬁt this pattern. Although social mobility was a distinct feature for a signiﬁcant part of the population, this does not necessarily imply that the role that university education—much less that of a university education in Italy—played in the careers of these students was the sole or even most important factor contributing to their path in life. The complexity of human society is such that it is very diﬃcult to assess what factors actively contribute to somebody’s place in the social hierarchy and his advancement in society. Nevertheless, several scholars have attempted to put down a number of markers that can be considered important in the present historical context. The historian Reinhard outlined a number of concepts with which it is possible to analyse the functioning of social networks for the early modern period.97

97

W. Reinhard, Freunde und Kreature. “Verﬂechtung” als Konzept zur Erforschung historischer

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These key concepts were family relations, friendship, patronage and Landmannschaft. The last concept has to be interpreted in a wider sense than having common geographical origins. Membership of the same organizations and institutions—including attending the same universities—form an integral part of it. All these diﬀerent factors do not exist in isolation, but they overlap and reinforce each other. To illustrate the complexity of some of the networks and connections, a number of case studies is presented in which these concepts are highlighted and where we will try to see if the experience of having studied (in Italy) played any part at all. There can be little doubt that one’s social background and family relations played a most important part in the formation of somebody’s career. However, the other factors cannot be underestimated. It is worthwhile to explore the network in the ecclesiastical capital of the Northern Netherlands: Utrecht. More speciﬁcally, the connections of a number of important clerics in the population who enjoyed prebends in the city of Utrecht in the second half of the ﬁfteenth century and particularly under the rule of Bishop David of Burgundy (1456–1496). This will show not only the connections of these students, but will also reveal some of mechanisms at work in the governing of the Church at diocesan level. If we brieﬂy look into the geographical and social background of these ﬁfteen students, one can only conclude that this seems a very mixed company. In terms of geography, Utrecht was strongly represented with four clerics. There were other clerics from het Sticht, one from Montfoort, one from Kampen and one from Deventer. Holland was also strongly represented with two students from Haarlem, one from Amsterdam, one from Heusden, one from Leiden and a last one from Schiedam. There was one student from Zeeland and one from Roermond in Guelders. In terms of social background this small group was also mixed. It included three noblemen, two of them bastards, eight students from a patrician background, one student from a higher bourgeois family, one from a lower bourgeois family and another two whose background was somewhat of a mystery to us. Five students had strong direct connections in Utrecht as such.

Führungsgruppen. Römische Oligarchie um 1600 (Munich 1979); more recent the volume edited by W. Reinhard (ed.), Power Elites and State Building, The Origins of the Modern State in Europe (13th–18th Century) (Oxford 1996).

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Stephanus van Rumelaer came from an important Utrecht family. Gerardus de Turri was also from Utrecht, member of a bourgeois family that had more sons in the Utrecht clergy. Alfardus van Montfoort was a noble student whose family members held prebends in the chapter of St Salvator. Johannes van Renesse belonged also to a noble family with—again—a number of sons in the chapters of Utrecht. The last one, Johannes van Diepholt was the son of the Bishop Rudolf van Diepholt. Even after his father’s death his connections in Utrecht did not vanish. The vicar-general of his father, Theodoricus Utenweer of Leiden, continued to be a man of great importance in Utrecht. All the other students did not have this direct link with the powers that be in Utrecht (either secular or ecclesiastical). They were so to speak relative outsiders. How did their links to the prebends in Utrecht emerge? First of all, seven of those outsiders were not wholly without connections in the sense that they came from the governing elite of several towns across the Netherlands. Second, they all had something to bring, a university degree, in most cases a degree in law. Canons with a degree were both useful and honourable for a chapter.98 In some cases these clerics brought more than just their expertise. A number of them had connections elsewhere, either though their family or through their career up to that point. In three cases this involved princes in the neighbouring territories. Johannes Pollaert, from a patrician Roermond family, who accumulated a huge number of church oﬃces in three dioceses, was an attractive candidate for a canonry in the cathedral chapter, not just because he had a law degree, but even more so because he was close to the duke of Guelders, whom he had served as a councillor. Theodoricus Utenweer of Leiden and Jacob Ruysch of Amsterdam held similar positions. Both had served—and in Jacob’s case was still serving—as raad at the Court of Holland, when they received their beneﬁces in Utrecht. Connections with this prestigious institution were highly valued. In a similar way the connections that Ludolphus van Veen had in the city of Kampen proved valuable as he could act as an ambassador for matters in het Oversticht. Theodoricus Borre, canon of St John’s, to look at another angle, was connected to the Curia in Rome.

98

Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 269–72.

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In other cases the connections to Utrecht and its chapters were somewhat more diﬃcult to stipulate. Reinier van Ethen, for instance had had a productive career as pensionary of Leiden and Delft. Through his father there were connections to the count of Holland, as Claes Reiniersz had been rentmeester of Heusden. A second cousin of his, Jan Reiniersz, was personal physician of the count of Holland and a canon of the chapter of St Salvator, where Reinier was—not without diﬃculty—admitted to a prebend in 1455. His connection to the then vicar-general of Utrecht, Theodoricus Utenweer of Leiden, who had worked closely together with Reinier’s brother, Bartholomeus van Ethen, as ambassador to the king of England in the period 1442–4, must have been a welcome one. Apart from this, Reinier had connections at the University of Cologne, where his uncle, Willem van der Goude, was a professor of medicine who had also been rector of the studium.99 Teaching at the University of Cologne and his law degree was most likely the only trump Ludolphus Nicolai van Hoorn could play. We know nothing of the background of Johannes Jacobi of Schiedam. At his postponed graduation in Bologna in 1451 he was mentioned as a canon of the cathedral chapter in Utrecht. How he acquired it is not entirely clear. It is clear that he did have connections in Utrecht, as he had studied at Padua with Petrus de Mera, canon of Utrecht, provost of Emmerich and later choir bishop of Utrecht.100 No matter how they entered the ranks of the venerable Utrecht clergy, even though connections within and without could be of assistance, once they were in, their expertise was used to the full. It is not surprising that the emissaries who went to Rome to get conﬁrmation for the election of Gijsbert of Brederode as bishop of Utrecht in 1455 were three of the students mentioned already: Dirk Utenweer, canon of St John’s and vicar-general, Ludolf van Hoorn, canon of St Salvator and oﬃcial and Alfer van Montfoort, canon of St Mary’s. Is it just a coincidence that exactly three students who had studied in Italy were sent? Their mission concerning the conﬁrmation failed and rival David of Burgundy, bastard son of Philip of Burgundy, was appointed to the see. This reversal of fate did not aﬀect their

99 Ibid. 218–9; Keussen, Matrikel, 162, 21; De Blécourt and Mijers (eds.), Memorialen Rosa, XLI. 100 Zonta, Acta, I, 246, nr. 771; 250, nr. 772; nr. 783.

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careers adversely. They could continue to hold high oﬃce in the diocese. Among these ﬁfteen students there were three oﬃcials-principal, four vicars-general, two advocati consistorii, nine members of the Utrecht episcopal council and two members of the short-lived court de Schijve, including its president, Ludolf van Veen. We ﬁnd them in all chapters in Utrecht, many in more than one, often holding the most important dignities of dean and provost. In the sequence of Dirk Uterweer, Ludolf van Veen, Gerardus de Turri, later to be followed by Gerardus Suggerode we have a quartet of right-hand men—all of whom had studied in Italy—to four consecutive bishops over a period of more than seventy-ﬁve years, who managed to exert considerable inﬂuence on the aﬀairs in the diocese of Utrecht, not only in the ecclesiastical sphere, but in governing the worldly territory as well. These men who had proﬁted from their connections in a network at one stage—and continued to do so—could now be the centre of such a network themselves. Domdeken Ludolf van Veen was inﬂuential in the appointment of his nephew, Jan van Uterwijk to the cathedral chapter. Alfer van Montfoort, Dirk Uterweer, Ludolphus Nicolai were all successful in exerting their inﬂuence when it came to members of their family seeking oﬃce in Utrecht. So was Jacob Ruysch. He not only managed to secure his own canonry for his nephew Nicolaus, but was able to take care of the future of his illegitimate oﬀspring. His son Heyman became persona in Amsterdam, the Ruysch home town, and his daughter Maria was married most advantagiously to Vincent Cornelisz van Mierop, treasurer of Charles V. The key position he held in Holland—Utrecht was only one of his side-tracks—and his wealth made good for the technically inferior status of his children.101 Another network that is worth exploring is that centred around one student, but not just any student: Viglius van Aytta. Viglius was a second son from a quite well-oﬀ farmer, close the noble top layer

101 De Moor, ‘Magister Jacob Ruysch’; Damen, ‘Hommes de l’église’; Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 121; Brom, Archivalia, I, 107, nr. 303. The grandson of Jacob Ruysch, Cornelius Vincentii van Mierop would in his turn become a very inﬂuential ﬁgure in both Holland and Utrecht. For the networks around the chapters in Utrecht see the reconstruction of Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 363–78 and in particular the network around Adriaan Boeyens, Pope Adrian VI, 375–78, where we can ﬁnd connections with at least seven students in the population.

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of the Frisian rural community. Although from a rural elite background, he was not predestined to become the civil servant par excellence, rising to the very top of the civil service at central level. This rise to the top was not immediate, but ﬁrst involved a number of oﬃces, and he made sure he used all the relations he had and had built up to step by step climb right to the heart of government in the Netherlands. He was not wholly without connections. His uncle who took care of his early education, Bernard Bucho, was a lawyer who had made the grade. Bernard Bucho was a councillor at the Court of Holland as well as dean of the Court Chapel in The Hague. He had many contacts not only in Holland but also with Brussels, where the Habsburg court was located, partly because he worked fervently for the incorporation of Friesland in the Habsburg lands. Bernard was in particularly close contact with two of his fellow councillors, Gerard Mulert and Nicolaus Everardi.102 Viglius went to school with the sons of Nicolaus. Both Gerard Mulert, who had moved on to the Great Council of Mechelen and Nicolaus’ son, also named Nicolaus, secretary of the Privy Council, were extremely valuable contacts while Viglius’ career was developing outside the Netherlands. Another such contact was Cornelius Vincentii van Mierop, son of the treasurer of Charles V. Cornelis studied in Padua when Viglius was there and would continue to be in contact with him. Cornelis himself was dean of the Court Chapel in The Hague and would soon be appointed as councillor of the Court of Holland as well, exactly the positions Viglius’ uncle, Bernard had held. The many contacts Viglius made on his peregrinatio academica were extremely valuable to him. This network of fellow students and pupils allowed him to make contact with all sorts of inﬂuential people. One such valuable contact was Erasmus, who in many letters of introduction on behalf of Viglius, written to many famous scholars all over Europe praised him in an eloquent voice, even hailing him as the “new Agricola” in a letter to Pietro Bembo. Both his contacts with these famous people and his earlier writings made him a ﬁt candidate for a professorship in law. As a relative outsider it was

102 This is a diﬀerent Nicolaus Everardi from the student in the population. This Nicolaus Everardi was from Middelburg, acted as president of the Court of Holland and moved on to the Council of Mechelen.

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possible for him to take up a chair in the Institutiones in Padua at the end of 1532. Later on in his career—in between civil service jobs—he took up another professorship in law at the University of Ingolstadt from 1537 until 1541. During his entire career oﬀers to teach kept on coming. His numerous contacts with his fellow students also assisted him in his civil service career. Not just the earlier contacts in The Hague, Brussels and Mechelen; there were lines running to other corners of the Empire. One of the students under his tutelage at the University of Dole was Hans Jörg Hermann, a son of Jörg Hermann, partner of the Fugger family. He developed a direct contact with Jörg, who arranged an audience for Viglius with the queen of Austria and her sons Ferdinand and Maximilian. These many lines made it easier for him to directly approach the Habsburg court directly, something which he could do in Bologna at the end of 1532, when Charles V was there for negotiations with Pope Clement VII. He made further contacts there. Through another fellow student, Karel Boisot, councillor of the emperor, he was introduced to Nicolas Perrenot and his son Antoine, the future Cardinal Granvelle. All these many contacts in combination with his indisputable learning and ability, brought him a civil service career that most other students could only dream of. One could say that he was the most head-hunted civil servant of his days. The many posts that he held, assessor of the Reichskammergericht, member of the Secret Council and the Council of State among them, allowed him to continue to build up a network, in which, instead of receiving favours, he was now able to do them to others. Among the many people who could now look to Viglius for support and inﬂuence were a number of students in the population. He had already done his fellow student from Friesland, Hector van Hoxwier, a favour in tutoring three nephews of his. His fellow students and pupils could in many cases look for his support. No surprise that Renichus of Burmania, whom Viglius had met in Bourges and who graduated in law in Ferrara afterwards, was the one to succeed Viglius as provost of Humsterland in 1539. Viglius had also been instrumental in securing Nicolaus Everardi of Amsterdam a professorship in Ingolstadt around the time Viglius left for the Netherlands. Nicolaus was a Bologna law graduate who had served with Viglius at the Reichskammergericht. When Viglius was charged with the reorganization of this institution in 1547, we should not marvel

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at the appointment of Johannes van Mepsche, former pupil and protégé of Viglius, who had just graduated in Bologna. Now was the time when Viglius could write letters of recommendation, which he did for Gisbertus Arentsma, when he wanted to study at Ingolstadt with Nicolaus Everardi.103 His privileged position further enabled him to become a real pater familias to his relatives. One of them, Volkert van Montzima, had studied and graduated at Pavia and Viglius’ inﬂuence did play its part in Volkert being admitted to a prebend in the chapter of St Salvator in 1571.104 Marriage was another factor of some importance in the wider social network. It could be used to establish helpful links to other important families, which in turn could have a positive eﬀect on potential careers of the sons in these families. This example involves three students from three families of some standing in Holland. Let us start at the beginning with the eldest one, Johannes Gasparis van Hoogelande, law graduate of Bologna in 1539. He was the son of Japer Lievensz van Hoogelande, originally from Zeeland, who was councillor at the Hof van Holland. Johannes became an important man in his own right: canon, treasurer and eventually dean of the chapter of St Mary, oﬃcial-principal of Utrecht and councillor of the Court of Utrecht. His sister, Catharina, married Boudewijn van Drenckwaert, from an inﬂuential, patrician Dordrecht family. A son from this marriage, Cornelius Balduini van Drenckwaert, also studied law in Bologna and graduated in 1568, after which he returned to the Netherlands and managed to obtain a prebend in (yes!) the chapter of St Mary, where his uncle was dean and treasurer. Cornelius eventually followed in his uncle’s footsteps once more, when he became treasurer of the chapter in 1589. Cornelius had a sister,

103 Von Pöllnitz, Matrikel, 619. Gisbertus was a nephew of Otto Truchsess, one of the students in Padua who had strongly supported Viglius’ candidacy for a professorial chair there. Postma, Viglius, 40. 104 Two other nephews, Pompeius and Bucho van Montzima, were also canons of Oudmunster. The literature on Viglius is extensive. For his career, network and patronage see in particular Folkert Postma, ‘Viglius Zuichemus ab Aytta’ in: Nationaal Biograﬁsch Woordenboek, VIII, 837–55; Id., Viglius; Id., Viglius van Aytta. De jaren met Granvelle 1549 –1564 (Zutphen 2000); E.H. Waterbolk and Th. S.H. Bos (eds.), Vigliana. Bronnen, brieven en rekeningen betreﬀende Viglius van Aytta (Groningen 1975) 7–8. Viglius was a diligent correspondent and many students in the population apart from those already mentioned are included in his correspondence; e.g. Sibrandus Occo.

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Catharina, for whom an eligible match was found in the person of Cornelius Junius, who happened to have studied and graduated in Bologna in 1568. In other words, he had been a fellow student of his brother-in-law, Cornelius van Drenckwaert.105 Junius, from an important family of civil servants in The Hague, also had a career to look forward to. He succeeded his father as rekenmeester of the Court of Holland. When he left Holland with most of the rest of the Court in 1572 for Utrecht, he was not wholly without connections in the Domstad.106 He even managed to be appointed councillor of the Court of Utrecht. These marriages thus link three families via the cities of Dordrecht, The Hague and Utrecht, but one might perhaps add Bologna to this list. Let us now take another look at the location of one of our students, Nicolaus van Valckesteyn, who graduated in both laws in 1560 in Siena, in his wider social network in Holland and see where this leads us and how his relations can be examined a bit further in direct and indirect ways. Nicolaus came from a privileged family. His father was the noble Gerrit van Valckesteyn, lord of Rijsoord and Strevelshoek, and his mother was Margaretha Nicolausdr Coebel, a sister of Philippus Coebel, also a Siena law graduate (1549) and a member of the Secret Council. In all probability Nicolaus’ choice for the University of Siena did not come out of the blue. His other uncle on mother’s side, Aert Coebel, was receiver for the common land—a position earlier held by his father Nicolaus Coebel—who had been assisted by Nicolaus’ elder brother François van Valckesteyn. François in his turn took up the oﬃce of receiver of the common land in the autumn of 1572. François was married to Maria, daughter of Cornelis Egmond van der Nijenburch, raad at the Hof van Holland. Cornelis’ other daughter, Magdalena was married to Adrianus Arnoldi van der Mijle. François van Valckesteyn was thus a brotherin-law of Adriaan van der Mijle, who had also graduated in both laws in Siena under the same promotor as Nicolaus, Adriano Borghese,

105 Cornelius van Drenckwaert graduated on 23 March 1568 (ASB, AS, inv. nr. 25, f. 225 v; inv. nr. 34, f. 78 v) and Cornelius Junius followed later that year in August (ASB, AS, inv. nr. 25, f. 90 r; inv. nr. 34, f. 233 r/v). Junius seems to have travelled around a bit, as he was also found in Padua that year. 106 Two of his fellow refugees and councillors at the Hof van Holland, Reinerus van der Duyn and Jacobus du Quesnoy, had also studied in Italy. For further connections of the Van Drenckwaert family cf. Koopmans, Staten, 277.

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two years later.107 There will be some more information about Adriaan later on, but suﬃce it to say here that he became raad at the Hof van Holland, like his father-in-law, in 1565, appointed by William of Orange.108 Nicolaus had a career of his own. He was receiver for the domains of Voorne, but on 20 November 1572 he received another appointment. He was one of six new councillors of the Court of Holland, appointed at a diﬃcult moment. Most members of the court had moved to Utrecht because of the unrest in Holland and only one councillor and a number of scribes and secretaries—Nicolaus’ brother, François, secretary since 1564, was one of them—had remained in Holland. François in the meantime had been appointed receiver of the common lands, since the previous receiver, Jacob Bol, who had been appointed by the duke of Alba, had ﬂed the country.109 Appointed as councillor on the very same day was Cornelius Adriani van de Bouchorst, who had graduated in both laws at the University of Siena on the same day as Adrianus van der Mijle under the same promotor as both Adriaan and Nicolaus.110 Nicolaus stayed in function until August 1573 and settled in his position as receiver for the domains of Voorne. When his brother François died in October 1574, Nicolaus temporarily took up the oﬃce of receiver of the common lands to settle his brother’s unﬁnished business until a new receiver was appointed, Jacob Muys, a ﬁrst cousin of Adriaan van der Mijle on his mother’s side. Nicolaus had other interests as well. In 1575 the States of Holland granted him a patent for the construction

107

Minnucci and Morelli (eds.), Lauree, 280–1 and 296–7. H.F.K. van Nierop, ‘Willem van Oranje als hoog edelman: patronage in de Habsburgse Nederlanden?’ in: Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis 99 (1984) 651–676, there, 666. 109 For the relations between the States of Holland and the Hof van Holland in this confusing period, cf. Koopmans, Staten, 134–9. 110 Minnucci and Morelli (eds.), Lauree, 280–1 and 296–7. Another new councillor was Dirk van Egmond van der Nijenburch, a relation of Cornelis van Egmond van der Nijenburch, father-in-law of both Nicolaus’ brother and Adriaan van der Mijle. De Blécourt and Mijers (eds.), Memorialen Rosa, xlviii. Cornelius Adriani van de Bouchorst had studied together with Cornelius Arnoldi van der Hoech in Padua, where they registered on the same day. Van der Hoech later graduated in Siena and moved on to become a councillor at the rival Court of Holland in 1574. He lost this position with the Paciﬁcation of Ghent. Still, he managed to hold on to oﬃce and became rentmeester of Wassenaar and hoofdingeland of Delﬂand. 108

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of new watermills. From January ﬁrst 1594 we ﬁnd him again as raad at the Hof van Holland until his death in 1601. One can see that Nicolaus’ background was by no means unimportant. His noble origins and his close relations to a family (Coebel) that had considerable inﬂuence in the States of Holland, made him eligible for oﬃce. The position his brother held on to at a crucial stage in the Revolt and Nicolaus’ choice to accept the appointment to the Court meant that he would remain eligible for oﬃce in the future. Through his brother he was related to the patrician Van der Mijle family of Dordrecht. Adriaan van der Mijle was another important contact. Also a Siena law graduate, he returned to the Netherlands and took up a position as raad at the Hof van Holland in 1565. In 1568 he asked for permission to travel to Italy for health reasons, although the coming of the duke of Alba probably had more to do with his exile, as the following will show. Adriaan returned to Padua and Venice, where he stayed until 1570. Though concrete evidence is lacking, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that during these years of exile in Padua he became acquainted with a law student from Amersfoort, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, who was studying in Padua at the time. In 1570 Adriaan travelled to Heidelberg, where he was friendly with Frederick III, who advised him to return to Holland in 1573. This he did and he was almost immediately appointed to the council of the stadtholder, William the Silent. He had close relations with both William the Silent and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. A daughter of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Maria, incidentally, married Cornelis Adriani van der Mijle, a son of Adriaan.111 Adriaan acted as a deputy for the States on many occasions until his appointment as president of the Court of Holland in 1583. In this capacity Adriaan worked closely together with Johan van Oldenbarnevelt to make Maurice of Orange commander in chief of the army. Another deputy of Dordrecht, that Adriaan van der Mijle dealt with, and an interesting ﬁgure in this constellation, was the Flemish pensionary of Dordrecht, Joos de Menijn. During Alba’s reign he also stayed in Italy, or so he claimed. His close relationship to Johan van Oldenbarnevelt dated back to at least 1569, since Joos was

111 Another daughter of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt married Reinaldus van Brederode, who also studied at Padua. See Den Tex, ‘Nederlandse studenten’, 97, nr. 215.

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present at Van Oldenbarnevelt’s graduation.112 Joos became a councillor at the Court of Holland in 1576 and stayed in function until 1584. This web of direct and indirect relations, involving immediate family, relations by marriage, friendship, patronage and Landmannschaft, does show the complexity of building careers in diﬃcult times. Apart from the necessary connections, it involved choices. It also shows the close connections that existed between deputies to the States and a number of important civil servants at provincial level, spanning a number of towns and families that had relations at various levels, ultimately ending up at the very heart of the Dutch Revolt. At other levels the situation was much the same and it did not just apply to students of law, like the cases stated before. When Cornelius Theodorici of Dordrecht enrolled in the University of Cologne in 1501 he did not have to pay a matriculation fee, as his father, Theodoricus Adriani, was professor of medicine there. Cornelius graduated as magister artium in 1505 and then travelled to Italy where he studied medicine at the University of Padua. In 1509 he was back in Cologne where he entered the arts faculty and soon afterwards took up teaching in the Bursa Cornelii. His connections in the faculty of medicine—not just his father, but other relations from the Dordrecht-clan at Cologne as well—surely helped him in getting this teaching position.113 So too did their name and relations in town government assist the Van Foreest brothers in being appointed town physicians of Alkmaar, like it did assist Petrus van Hogerbeets in the town of Hoorn, where both his brother and his father were inﬂuential members of the magistracy. If direct relations were absent, a favourable marriage could establish the necessary links with a town in which a student was a relative outsider. The appointment of Jacobus Wilhelmi of The Hague as pensionaris of Leiden in 1494 was not a wholly unexpected appointment. On top of his degree in civil law of the University of Ferrara, he had an impressive service record, which included legal service to Margaret of York at the Court of Holland, the position of advocaat van de ridderschap en de kleine steden and the oﬃce of pensionaris of

112 ASP, Archivio Notarile, Franceso Fabriani, inv. nr. 2335, f. 551r. “presentibus . . . D. Iusto Antonio Flandro Menenio . . .”. Also Haak (ed.), Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, 290–2; Tervoort, ‘“Doctor Ioannes ab Oldenbernevelt.”’ 113 Keussen, Matrikel, I, 122*; II, 674, 66; Bernhardt, ‘Gelehrte Mediziner’, 124–5.

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Middelburg. All this and the fact that he was the son-in-law of Simon Vrederick Willemsz van Valckesteyn, sheriﬀ and veertigraad of Leiden, cannot but have singled him out as the ideal candidate for the job.114 Connections did not always have to be long-standing ones. It could be possible to penetrate a town elite within one or two generations, even when any obvious connections were absent. They could be created. To illustrate this, we only have to look into the background and further life of Caesar Lodovici Porquin. If his name does seem to have a non-Dutch ring to it, this is true. Caesar was the son of Lodovico Poquino who came from an undistinguished family from the town of Cieri in Piedmont to try his luck as a moneylender in the Netherlands. After a number of unsuccessful attempts Lodovico succeeded in setting up shop in the Zeeland town of Zierikzee in 1538. Things went well for him and soon he was able to expand his ﬁnancial business, setting up moneylending branches in other towns. He developed connections within the elite of Zierikzee. His ﬁrst son, Caesar was born in 1543 and present at his baptism were a number of notable people from the town of Zierikzee, the magistrate Wisse Herrensz Peck and one of the godfathers was the famous physician Livinus Lemnius who had also visited Italy.115 His integration in society seems obvious, despite some of the nastier views on people, especially foreign people, involved in moneylending. The business continued to expand with branches in Middelburg and Bergen-op-Zoom. Dealings with the government eventually earned Lodovico a noble title to add to his very considerable wealth. For Caesar, then, his doctor’s degree in utroque after an impressive tour that brought him to Louvain, Padua, Siena to pick up the diploma in Bologna, was not so much an investment made in a career for himself. Rather his prestigious degree was the icing on a cake that

114 Brand, Macht, 145; F.J.W. van Kan, ‘Het nageslacht van Willem Luutgardenzn., schepen van Leiden III. De takken Van Valckesteyn, Corf en Van Tol’ in: De Nederlansche Leeuw CIX (1992) 344–371, there 351–4. 115 Incidentally, the son of Wisse Peck, named Nicolaus Peckius, is a student in the population. He visited Padua. Lieven lemnius also visited Italy. Again, his son, the already mentioned Wilhelmus Lemnius graduated in Italy. Wilhelmus married the daughter of Michiel Cornelisz Ewoutse, bailiﬀ of Zierikzee, who was married to a daughter of another famous physician from Zierikzee, Jason Pratensis. Jason and Livinus had both studied in Montpellier in 1506 respectively 1516 (Gouron, Matricule, 9, nr. 95 and 29, nr. 481). Van Hoorn, Livinus Lemnius, 23, 31, 74; Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’, 377–8.

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his father had prepared. It added to his prestige. A further cherry was put on top of this already impressive cake in the form of Caesar’s marriage to the noble Agatha van Haemstede, daughter of Adolf baljuw and vice-admiral of Zeeland, which eventually brought him the further title lord of Moermont and the manor of Renesse. Wealth, a degree, a noble title and an advantageous marriage that brought in landed wealth. The foreign Porquin family had ﬁrmly established themselves in the Netherlands in the course of one generation and the second generation took this process a step further.116 At the end of this section just a few remarks about whether their careers brought these students any wealth. The enormous diversity of oﬃces and dignities makes it impossible to adequately deal with the monetary aspects of the students’ lives. There are further complications that have to do with money and exchange rates, and the way the income attached to a particular oﬃce was composed, even leaving aside the question of prices, inﬂation, and so on. For many oﬃces the salaries paid—and payment was not always prompt—do not necessarily tell the whole story and other signiﬁcant supplements in either coin or kind could be counted among the privileges attached to a certain oﬃce. Thus, what follows amounts of necessity to not more than some brief sketches. The students in the population generally came from relatively wealthy backgrounds. One gets the impression that a considerable number of alumni of Italian studia continued to prosper ﬁnancially once they made their way back to the Netherlands. To illustrate this, it seems useful to brieﬂy examine the ﬁnancial conditions of some of the professions that were held by students in the population. Salaried oﬃcials would be the most likely candidates in terms of ﬁnding anything about their gainful employment, but even this category can only be dealt with through many ‘ifs’. In many cases salaries paid to certain oﬃcials hardly deserve the term salary, as conditions could vary enormously from year to year, even when one and the same person was in oﬃce. It can only be described as a mess. For instance, the pensionaris of Dordrecht, the most important civil servant of the city did not always receive the same salary. If we look

116 For Lodovico Porquin and some his son’s data, cf. M. Greilshammer, Een pand voor het paradijs. Leven en zelfbeeld van Lowys Porquin, Piëmontees zakenman in de zestiende-eeuwse Nederlanden (Tielt 1989), in particular 27–41, 53–55, 59–60.

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at what Paulus Rainaldi van Ammersoyen, law graduate of Bologna, earned in the years 1484–5, there was just the slightest diﬀerence between his salary of 1484, 24 l. Hollands, and the next year, 48 l. Hollands. This was, however, not all he received. Apart from a number of privileges, such as the occasional gift of wine, Paulus was entitled to a daily sum of money (30 groten = 0.75 l. Hollands for travels in Holland and 36 groten for trips outside the county) for the days that he represented Dordrecht elsewhere. He was a busy man and travelled often to take up the case of Dordrecht and for those two years he received between 120 and 150 l. Hollands in travel expenses. By comparison, a skilled labourer like a master carpenter would earn in the order of 10 groten per day, which with a full year’s employment would give him maximum earnings of just over 60 l. Hollands.117 The amounts paid for such oﬃces could vary from town to town as well. Reinerus Nicolai van Ethen, law graduate of Pavia, received 100 Rhenish guilders per year (= c. 100 l. Hollands) in salary when he was pensionaris of Leiden from 1447 until 1454.118 Forty years later in Leiden, when Jacobus Wilhelmi, law graduate of Ferrara, was appointed as pensionaris, the eﬀective level of his salary is unclear for a number of years—Leiden was in last ﬁnancially—and only in 1498 did he receive a full salary of 75 l. Hollands, which he could supplement with travel expenses of 30 to 36 groten per day.119 The state of aﬀairs in a town could, thus, have an immediate eﬀect on the remuneration of its civil servants. Cornelius Johannis van Veen, pensionaris of Leiden from 1555 to 1561, could count on 300 l. Hollands per year and some clothing.120 The situation was much the same for town physicians. When Gerardus Johannis Bentheim of Kampen was appointed town physician of his native city in 1434, he received a very high salary of 140 Rhenish guilders, which would be doubled in times of plague.121 117 Based on Kokken, Steden, 172–3, 286; Wages for craftsmen are all based on L. Noordegraaf and J.T. Schoenmakers, Daglonen in Holland 1450–1600 (Amsterdam 1984) 25. A year of full-time employment is estimated at somewhere between 230 and 300. In this case, and the ones cited below, an accepted amount of 245 days constitute a year of full employment. Diﬀerences in summer and winter wages have been eliminated. The maximum of summer wages has been used. 118 Based on J.W. Marsilje, Het ﬁnanciële beleid van Leiden in de laat-Beierse en Bourgondische periode + 1390–1477 (Hilversum 1985) 102–6. 119 Based on Kokken, Steden, 181. 120 Fölting, Landsadvocaten, 31. 121 Lindeboom, DMB, 111.

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He was to treat the town’s poor for free and was only allowed to ask for wine from his other patients. In 1575 Petrus Forestus, then town physician of Delft, was paid 84 l. Hollands per year in salary, on top of which he received another 12 l. Hollands for appropriate clothing and a number of other ﬁnancial privileges, this only after he had threatened to leave unless he received a raise in salary. When he returned to his home town, Alkmaar, a second time to become town physician there in 1595 he got 200 l. Hollands. Again, part of his function was to treat the town’s poor people for free. He was, however, allowed to receive payment from his wealthier patients. The lists of patients and relations based on his Observationes makes clear that he had a number of noble and wealthy patients who were well able to pay for their treatment. This patient list includes a host of students in the population, like Jacobus Coppier, lord of Kalslagen, and both Arnoldus and his son Adrianus van der Mijle.122 Around 200 l. Hollands was the salary that a rector scholarum could expect in some of the larger towns of Holland in the second half of the sixteenth century. In 1555 the town of Haarlem had the rector on the pay roll for 200 and the pensionaris for 120 l. Hollands. Both received a further 9 l. for clothing. By comparison, a master carpenter would earn 113 and an unskilled workman no more than 50 l. Hollands with full employment for a year.123 Members of the magistracy did not receive a salary, as considerable wealth was expected of those involved in town government. There were other emoluments such as the presentiegeld, a small sum for attending the meetings of the vroedschap, gifts in the form of wine and clothing and travel expenses. Someone like Jacobus Jacobi Hobbe of Gouda, medicine graduate of Ferrara, burgemeester and vroedschapslid of his home town, came from a wealthy family of brewers. In the three years between 1486 and 1489 that he was a Gouda deputy to the meetings of the States of Holland he would have received some 35 l. Hollands pocket money for his travels to the meetings.124 Other oﬃces were considerable better paid. In the ﬁfteenth century

122 Hans L. Houtzager, ‘Stadsgeneesheer te Delft’ in: Bosman-Jelgersma (ed.) Pieter van Foreest, 103; Henry W. van Leeuwen, ‘Patiënten en relaties’ in: Ibid. 165–176. 123 Based on GAH, SA, inv. nr. 7–11–1, nr. 6; GAH, SA, inv. nr. kast 19, nr. 135, f. 35r–36v; Noordegraaf and Schoenmakers, Daglonen, 61 and 72. 124 Calculations based on Kokken, Steden, 187 and 295.

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a non-noble councillor at the Court of Holland earned approximately 280 l. Hollands per year in salary until 1463. Later in the century this salary had decreased to 153 plus expenses. In 1528 it had risen again to 252 l. Hollands.125 There were the occasional gifts as well. Most towns appreciated good relations with the members of the court and gifts to its councillors were the rule rather than the exception. On his appointment to the Court of Holland, Jacob Ruysch received a gift of wine worth 32 groten from the town of Leiden.126 The servants of the States could also count on a reasonable reward for services rendered. Bartholdus Gerardi van Assendelft was to receive 216 l. Hollands 127 per year as landsadvocaat. Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, his successor at the end of the sixteenth century, when the oﬃce had increased in importance, received 1200 l. per year, which was later even increased to 1800.128 At central level, high salaries were awarded. The assessores of the Reichskammergericht earned a salary of 500 Rhenish guilders per year in the 1530s.129 These oﬃcials could also look forward to the occasional contribution in coin or kind for support at crucial decisions. In 1557 Viglius of Aytta as president of the Council of State and the Secret Council received the princely sum of 1200 l. Hollands from the States of Holland, approximately 24 times the maximum a digger in Haarlem could earn in a year. Philippus Coebel, member of the Secret Council,—and one might add, brother of the receiver for the common land Aert Coebel—was awarded 400 l. by the States of Holland in 1565 for a trip to Denmark, apparently of vital importance to Holland’s seafaring trade.130 Professors could also expect a decent living. Apart from the fees, graduation gifts and such, that they could look forward to, they received a salary or a church beneﬁce was set aside to support their post. In general, professors would be more than able to live on their

125

Based on ARA, Rek. Rek., inv. nr. 147, f. 79r, cited in Damen, ‘Serviteurs’, 132; De Blécourt and Mijers (eds.), Memorialen, XLIII; Van Nierop, Ridders, 101. 126 GAL, AS, I, inv. nr. 522, f. 74r. Cited in: De Moor, ‘Magister Jacob Ruysch’, 86, who aptly remarks that this gift is the equivalent of four daily wages of a master mason and that this was not the only gift he would have received. 127 Kokken, Steden, 83. 128 Fölting, Landsadvocaten, 38–9. 129 Postma, Viglius, 58. 130 Koopmans, Staten, 50–3.

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income, although there is the deﬁnite impression that many supplemented their income by practising outside the lecture hall. A lawyer’s or physician’s practice could make a bit of a ﬁnancial diﬀerence. In general, law professors made more than their peers in medicine who in turn made more than their colleagues in the arts. Not all stipendia were high, but for an ordinarius a sizeable sum of money could be available. Viglius earned 300 Rhenish guilders as a law professor in Ingolstadt, on top of which he was to receive another 50 guilders per annum for his honorary position as councillor of Duke William of Bavaria.131 Petrus Tiara, who became professor of Greek at the new University of Leiden in 1575, received 400 l. Hollands.132 Members of the clergy could rely on their beneﬁce. Although it is not always easy to establish exactly how much a cleric could get from his beneﬁce, there are a number of sources and studies that give us an indication of what a clergyman could look forward to. The nominal value attached to beneﬁces could vary considerably. The income attached to certain parishes could be high even though the parish itself might have been small. The parish of Avezaet, where Johannes Vos was persona, was small, but the nominal value of the beneﬁce was apparently higher than the beneﬁce for the persona of the much more important church of St Martin’s in Groningen. On top of the actual beneﬁce there was more income coming the way of parish priests. There is the distinct impression that canons were generally very well oﬀ. Particularly those attached to the more prestigious chapters in Utrecht—the cathedral chapter and the chapter of St Salvator were apparently among the wealthiest in the Holy Roman Empire—could look forward to a life of relative luxury. When Nicolaus Ruysch became capitular canon of St Salvator in 1521, he could expect c. 250 l. Hollands from his beneﬁce, nearly four times as much as the maximum earnings of a highly skilled artisan like a master mason, which amount could be almost doubled by the other forms of income that came with his seat in the chapter. Some higher dignities had huge sums attached to them. The provost of Oudmunster for instance could expect 1000 l. for his oﬃce. The domdeken would

131 Postma, Viglius, 66, and also 75, where Viglius’ unheeded request for a salary of 500 Rhenish guilders is mentioned. 132 Lindeboom, DMB, 1973–4.

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receive an extra 200 l. for this oﬃce. An oﬃcial-principal could look for some 250 l. per year in salary.133 Of course these sums attached to oﬃces and beneﬁces are just indications of what a holder of such an oﬃce might expect and do not tell us anything about the actual wealth students inherited, for one, and how much they earned through their own career. In this respect it is also worth keeping in mind that students frequently held more than one oﬃce at the same time. Especially the members of the clergy were successful in securing a number of beneﬁces for themselves. What is clear is that a number of students did really well for themselves. Even from these brief sketches it should be obvious that a large section of the population managed to get a hold of exactly those oﬃces that were among the most proﬁtable both in the civil service and the Church. It is therefore no surprise to ﬁnd a number of students in the population who were really wealthy. In a fair number of cases, as a majority of students came from the wealthier strata of society, the wealth came from their family and their own career only further contributed to it. In other cases, though, the accumulation of oﬃces brought students wealth of their own. Jacobus Ruysch, who at the height of his career enjoyed eight church beneﬁces on top of his oﬃce as councillor at the Hof van Holland, was in all likelihood not strapped for cash. Something similar could be said of his grandson and heir, Cornelius van Mierop, whose father, by the way, was treasurer of Charles V. Not that Cornelis had any trouble making his own money, as he was dean of the chapter of St Salvator, dean of the Court Chapel in The Hague and provost of the cathedral chapter in Utrecht as well. Domdeken Ludolphus van Veen at his death in 1508 left an estate of c. 9,500 l. Hollands, for which a master mason—very top of the labourer’s ladder—would have to work give or take 175 years of continuous employment to accumulate.134 Students like Viglius of Aytta and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt were hugely wealthy. Van Oldenbarnevelt had accumulated some 250,000 l. at the rather sad end of his fruitful career in 1619. The overall impression is that the career path of the students in

133 Based on the material assembled by Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 393–422; 748–54, in particular pp. 409, 750–4. 134 On the basis of Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 406, 409, 417.

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the population guided them to positions and oﬃces through which they were well able to support themselves. In many cases it even allowed them to become extremely rich.

5.3. Summary When speaking about the place students who had visited Italian universities occupied in society, the conclusion must be that they, or at least more than half of them, can be found in a multitude of positions spread over diﬀerent sectors of late-medieval and early modern society. It should also be clear that there was not one single proﬁle for them. The study of medicine would generally lead to a diﬀerent life than the study of law or theology. In some cases, the expensive education students had enjoyed on the peninsula might have played hardly any role at all in their working life—as we have seen in the case of Caesar Porquin—but many more examples of noble and patrician young men who returned to their manors or to their fathers’ breweries could be cited. On the whole, the trip to Italy, in particular when concluded with a degree, seemed to guide the student to a type of career that might be labelled as ‘professional’. This was probably even more true for students of medicine than for their compatriots in law. As the knowledge and insights they had acquired were perceived to be of comparatively little use outside the lecture hall or the physician’s practice, students of medicine after graduation often exchanged the college bench for the professorial chair and/or started practising and had to take up the chamber-pot, whether it belonged to a noble patron, a town, or their private patients. There were more possibilities for law students. Originally the Church had taken in many a law student and several of them had occasion to use their legal skills in the service of the Church or bishop as a worldly ruler. Especially at provincial level, a law degree had enjoyed much appreciation and law graduates in the population had found their way into the various provincial courts and councils from the ﬁrst to the last cohort. This appreciation for legal skills had originated earlier in the Church and the higher institutions of government and administration than at local level. At local level a law degree was most appreciated for those civil servants who had dealings with the increasingly legalized apparatus of state ( pensionarissen and town lawyers) and only gradually

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did a university education, much less a law degree, become a prerequisite for a seat in town government, a process that only really gained momentum in the seventeenth century. Over time, though, in terms of career orientation of law students in the population, there was a shift from the Church to the bureaucracies of State. Broadly speaking, the student population could be considered to be highly successful. Their higher faculty education, the comparatively high degree ratio and their social proﬁle set them apart from the overall Northern Netherlands student population and this is reﬂected in their careers and the relative overrepresentation in oﬃces at high levels. It is quite another matter to decide to what extent the university education contributed to their careers and to their moving upwards in society. A number of oﬃces were so to speak almost socio-speciﬁc. The comparative social advantage the nobility had in seeking oﬃce goes without saying. With only 13.8 per cent of the career sample they could lay claim to a far higher percentage of oﬃces held in a number of sectors—a quarter of those in government at all levels—while they almost discarded oﬃces that were not in accordance with their high social status. The wealthy patriciate was the next recruitment pool for a number of important oﬃces, but even their ascension to the highest levels was by no means immediate. A patrician son with a law degree who moved into the provincial courts might not have exactly quit his sphere, but he certainly did explore a new one. As we climb down the social ladder, the distribution over oﬃces showed that the career perspective was to a large extent linked to one’s social background. It is clear, nevertheless, that social mobility was a deﬁnite possibility for a signiﬁcant section of the population. Although there are few really spectacular cases to report, a quarter of the career sample was able to make moves that brought them a career that took them further than their starting position in life. There were a number of factors of importance involved in creating one’s future. Family and its status played a huge role. Not just immediate family, but also the family one married into could help further one’s career. Friendship and close relations that could date back to a shared university visit could also be of importance. A university education was therefore only one factor among many that inﬂuenced one’s career. It was, however, an important one. For those students who lacked an inﬂuential family and connections, their university degree was often the only trump card they could play on the

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labour market. For a number of positions in universities, at town level—the pensionaris and the town physician—, the Church—canons, oﬃcial-principal—and in the provincial courts—raad, advocaat-ﬁscaal— a university education, preferably concluded with a degree, had become a necessary precondition for success, even for the well-connected. Princes were willing to recruit outside the nobility to ﬁll their courts, but expertise had to be on oﬀer. What better proof of expertise existed than a degree from a prestigious Italian studium?

CHAPTER SIX

EPILOGUE: THE ITER ITALICUM AND ITS PLACE IN THE CULTURE OF THE LATE-MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN NETHERLANDS

It was possible to reconstruct the iter italicum in an educational and socio-professional sense, even though the nature of the journey these students made could diﬀer in both choice of faculty and career outcome. It would, therefore, be unjustiﬁed to speak of a single clearcut proﬁle (or two, three or even four, for that matter) of the student visiting the peninsula. Before summarizing the main conclusions that can be drawn from the previous chapters, I shall assess the place of the iter italicum in its wider context, both in a cultural and political sense. A recent handbook on the period we are dealing with here, say from 1400, when the ﬁrst students in the population were born, until 1600, when those studying in the last cohort were at the advanced stages of their careers, carries the subtitle Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation.1 Particularly those last two key concepts are illustrative of some of the major cultural developments of the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries. Another important process was that of state formation. In the next section I shall evaluate the links between the iter italicum and these three. In short, did the students in the population leave traces of their involvement in these major developments of the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries? Though most of the population have not left an enduring legacy in Renaissance culture, traces of their participation in humanist discourse are to be found. In the next section we look at their involvement in learned networks, teaching, university circles, their publications, collections and their patronage of the arts.

1 Thomas A. Brady jr., Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy (eds.), Handbook of European History 1400–1600. Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, 2 vols. (Leiden 1994–6).

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There is almost general consensus about the important role of Italy as the cradle of Renaissance humanism all over Europe. Various channels through which humanism spread over the rest of Europe have been pointed out in the mass of literature on the subject: mobility to and from Italy, foreign correspondence of humanists, schools and universities and the diﬀusion of books and manuscripts, in which the invention of the printing press was a major agent of change.2 Even two recent surveys on Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe, respectively the European Renaissance devote most attention to the birth of humanism in Italy and its consecutive spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. “Until the late ﬁfteenth century, few northern students came primarily for humanistic studies; but Italian law and medical science had some connection to humanism. When such students returned north, they not only carried both ideas and books with them but also in many cases archieved inﬂuential positions that enabled them to become patrons who promoted humanistic learning. The . . . self-proclaimed cultural superiority of the Italians could not help but impress (and sometimes oﬀend) visitors from less advanced regions to Italy.”3 The same survey states that the most obvious principal mechanism of the spread of humanism north of the Alps consisted of schools and universities.4 And Italian universities, scholars and students—or itinerant humanists as they are called—who visited Italy ﬁgure prominently in this story. If Italy must be considered to be the cradle of humanism and the source of its spread over Europe, then the many thousands of students from all over Europe who visited the several faculties of the diﬀerent Italian universities in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth centuries must have played an important role in this cultural movement. This mobility, travel to and from Italy, has been identiﬁed as the most direct and personal means of diﬀusing humanism.5 Moreover, Paul Oskar Kristeller stated that by far the 2 Paul Oskar Kristeller, Concetti rinascimentali dell’uomo e altri saggi (original title: Renaissance Concepts of Man and Other Essays; Florence 1978) 140–156. 3 Charles G. Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge 1995) 95. 4 Ibid. 100. 5 Peter Burke, ‘The Spread of Italian Humanism’ in: Anthony Goodman and Angus MacKay (eds.), The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe (London 1990) 3.

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most interesting group in the bulk of visitors to Italy consisted of the many thousands of students who visited Italy for several years.6 Evidence for this statement is slowly but steadily building up. The study trips to Italy of the sons of the patricians have led to the ﬂowering of the studia humanitatis in the town of Nuremberg.7 Similarly, an article devoted to the ‘humanist challenge to medieval culture’ states that Germans “who lived and studied in Italy” played a pioneering role in the coming of humanism to Germany.8 Two elaborate surveys on the coming of humanism to the Netherlands9 stipulate that there was a considerable number—although no estimates are given—of students who visited Italy. Yet, they are not awarded with a paragraph of their own, even though one of the authors claims that “. . . by 1500 a stay in Italy had become a ‘must’ for anyone who wished to be taken for a man of learning.”10 The same article states that “There were several other interesting Netherlanders in Italy, apart from the host of students who left no trace in history.”11 This last remark has proved to be highly contestable. They did leave traces in history: both at Italian universities and through their careers. This is not the place for an in-depth analysis of the appropriation of the Italian intellectual and cultural experience, and its further mediation to the Netherlands. The prosopographical analysis of (networks in) the population does, however, allow us to suggest a number of ways through which students who made the iter italicum contributed to the cultural landscape of the Netherlands in the Renaissance period. This, rather than singling out outstanding humanists familiar to all and setting them apart from the selection of students 6

Kristeller, Concetti, 141. C. Santing, Geneeskunde en humanisme. Een intellectuele biograﬁe van Theodoricus Ulsenius (c. 1460 –1508) (Rotterdam 1992) 54; A. Sottili, ‘Nürnberger Studenten an italienischen Renaissance-Universitäten mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Universität Pavia’ in: Id., Università e cultura. Studi sui rapporti italo-tedeschi nell’étà dell’Umanesimo (1993) 319–373. 8 Charles G. Nauert jr., ‘The Humanist Challenge to Medieval German Culture’ in Daphnis 15 (1986) 277–306. 9 J. IJsewijn, ‘The Coming of Humanism to the Low Countries’ in: H.A. Oberman and T.A. Brady (eds.), Itinerarium Italicum. The Proﬁle of the Italian Renaissance in the Mirror of its European Transformations (Leiden 1975) 193–301; Id., ‘Humanism in the Low Countries’ in: Albert Rabil jr. (ed.), Renaissance Humanism. Foundations, Forms and Legacy, 2. Humanism beyond Italy (Philadelphia 1988) 156–215; James K. Cameron, ‘Humanism in the Low Countries’ in: Anthony Goodman and Angus MacKay (eds.), The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe (London 1990) 137–163. 10 IJsewijn, ‘Coming’ in: Oberman and Tracy (eds.), Itinerarium, 199–200. 11 Ibid. 230 [my italics: A.T.]. 7

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to which they belonged, namely the students who undertook the iter italicum, will give us an idea at what different levels this could take place. A considerable part of this group of students was presupposed and able to make a contribution to the cause of humanism at various levels. I shall shed some light on the wider circle of students who came into contact with Italian universities and humanism and therefore on the wider socio-cultural aspects of the spread of humanism to the Northern Netherlands through these students. The term ‘humanism’ is problematic.12 It is not a term invented by the humanists themselves, but was ﬁrst used by German scholars at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The term humanista is a contemporary term that referred to men concerned with the teaching of the studia humanitatis inspired by the classics. And while it is true that the original basis of humanism lay in what we now refer to as the humanities, modern scholars tend to handle a wider deﬁnition.13 It is now widely accepted that humanism—originally, in the narrower sense—had a serious impact on most scholarly disciplines in schools and universities. It is becoming increasingly clear that relations between these two were stronger than was thought in the past. University training (and often teaching) seems to have been a common biographical factor of most of the humanists and the role universities played in the socio-professional context of humanism is presently more appreciated.14 Whereas humanism was not a coherent philosophical system, it developed a certain method where textual criticism played a key role. This philological approach enabled humanists to make a claim on control over questions of authority and the original meaning of texts, which also had serious implications for the notions of historical, scientiﬁc and societal development. In this methodological sense humanism could and would challenge the traditional scholarly disciplines in the higher faculties—medicine, law and theology.15 And while traditional institutions—such as universities—are not very prone to immediate change, at the end of the fourteenth century humanist learning started to make an impact on Italian universities. The

12 Consider the reﬂections of Burke, ‘Spread’, 1–3 and Walter Rüegg, ‘The Rise of Humanism’ in: H. de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), History I, 442–448. 13 Grössing, Humanistische Naturwissenschaft, 12; Santing, Geneeskunde, 15–18. 14 Denley, ‘Recent Studies’, 194–195. 15 Nauert, ‘Humanist Challenge’, 302–303.

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Italian universities were the ﬁrst in Europe where humanist thought ﬁgured in both informal and institutionalized ways. This was a gradual, generational process, but humanist thought already had a ﬁrm position within the faculties of arts and medicine in Italy in the ﬁfteenth century, and the faculties of law were soon to follow.16 So, in Burke’s terms of the most direct and personal means of diﬀusing humanism, the 640 students in the population constituted a vast potential. Was Italian humanism with its self-proclaimed superior learning a factor in attracting students? Furthermore, in what way could these students contribute to the cause of humanism and Renaissance culture? It is very diﬃcult to establish that students from the Northern Netherlands actually attended the lectures of these humanist professors, let alone come into contact with those scholars working outside academia. Occasionally, we have clear information about whom these students wanted to study with. Hector van Hoxwier speciﬁcally wanted to attend the lectures of Andreas Alciatus. In 1536 this famous propagator of the mos gallicus was already teaching at the University of Pavia. He also gave lectures at the University of Ferrara from 1542 until 1546. Pieter van Foreest chose to spend time in Padua to hear Vesalius on anatomy. Most of these examples date from the sixteenth century, when the harvest of egodocuments started to ﬂow. Occasionally, one is able to gather this sort of information for the ﬁfteenth century. We know that Sebastiano dell’Aquila, medical humanist and neo-platonist of some renown, was a lecturer at the University of Ferrara. So was Coradino Gilino. These two humanists were involved in a learned medical disputation about the ‘morbo francese’, syphilis, at the court of Ferrara with that other more famous humanist, Nicolò Leoncino. At least two students from the Northern Netherlands must have been in contact with these scholars, because at the graduation of Georgius Wilhelmi of Noordwijk on 22 December 1495, Sebastiano is mentioned as a promotor, a supervisor. Similarly, Coradino is mentioned as supervisor of another student from Holland, Arnoldus of Dordrecht at his graduation on 19 April 1491.17 Erasmus was deﬁnitely not typical 16

Grendler, Universities, chapters 6, 9 and 13 for an overview. Pardi, Titoli, 98–99. On Sebastiano dell’Aquila and Coradino Gilino, see Jon Arrizabalaga, John Henderson and Roger French, The Great Pox. The French Disease in Renaissance Europe (New Haven 1997) 66–84. 17

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for the students in the population, but the fact that he ﬁgures in it, has to be attributed to his desire to collect books and manuscripts in the heartland of humanism, Italy, like his father before him, when he studied arts at Ferrara. The change of heart of Agricola has been mentioned already. There is a tendency nowadays to view the emergence of especially Northern humanism in terms of generations and in terms of learned circles. Especially since the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century this population of students who visited Italy yields a harvest of several dozens of people who considered themselves humanists. They adopted Latin names and made their contribution to humanism in writing, editing classical texts and in their behaviour. We can locate them in several humanist circles. One of the earliest and probably most inﬂuential circles at this stage was the one at Aduard, centred round the monastery in the province of Groningen. If we look at the participants of this circle, it is clear that there was a direct link to Italy. Wessel Gansfort had certainly visited Italy, if not as a student.18 Another ﬁgure in this circle was Theodoricus Ulsenius. Although there is no evidence that he ever studied in Italy, a study trip to the peninsula has been suspected. Jacobus Canter, however, did study in Italy. So did the future persona of St Martin’s Church, Wilhelmus Frederici. Few people would dispute the enormous inﬂuence Rodolphus Agricola had on the spread of humanism in the crucial last three decades of the ﬁfteenth century. As we have seen, he was not however the only northerner participating in the discussions of the Aduard circle who had visited Italian universities. He is known to have been in direct contact with Wilhelmus Frederici, whose graduation in Ferrara he attended. He had contacts with several other students from the Netherlands, attending their graduations.19 He probably 18 Cf. Jaap van Moolenbroek, ‘Wessel Gansfort as a Teacher at the Cistercian Abbey of Aduard. The Dismissal of Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus miraculorum’ in: Koen Goudriaan, Jaap van Moolenbroek and Ad Tervoort (eds.), Education and Learning in the Netherlands, 1400–1600. Essays in Honour of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens (Leiden 2004) 113–32, for most recent status quaestionis. 19 At the university of Ferrara he attended no less than seven graduations of students from the Netherlands in the period 1475–1478 (Wilhelmus Frederici, Jacobus Walteri van Ameyde, Henricus ex Palude, Theodoricus Persijn, Cornelius Florentii de Goes, Lambertus Vrylinck, Nicolaus Gryp de Hagis), Pardi, Titoli, 64–5 and 68–71. In Pavia Agricola attended the graduation of Johannes Vredewolt together with Dirk Persijn in January 1473, Lauree Pavesi nella seconda metà del ’400. I (1450–1475), ed. A. Sottilli (Bologna 1995) 216–8.

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knew some twenty-ﬁve students from the northern Low Countries during his stay on the peninsula, seven of whom came from Groningen. Though not all of these Groningers took part in the discussions of the Aduard circle, they did share the humanist atmosphere of the University of Ferrara in those years.20 For some, a shared interest in the bonae litterae can be substantiated. A good example is Lambertus Vrijlinck of Groningen, who graduated in medicine 22 December 1478. Lambertus is known to have worked on a new commentary on De consolatione by Boethius, which he later shared with the humanist Johannes Murmellius of Roermond. Agricola had made a number of notes in his manuscript that could well date back to their shared visit to Ferrara. Agricola was not the only student from Groningen present at Lambertus’ graduation. Another was Everardus Hubbeldinck, future magistrate of Groningen. When Lambertus became the ﬁrst permanently residing town physician of Groningen in 1496, this acquaintance must have been a pro, as was the fact that he had attended the graduation of Wilhelmus Frederici, then the powerful persona of St Martin’s Church.21 The humanists in the Aduard circle did have important connections. One of them was the frequently mentioned Domdeken and councillor Ludolphus van Veen, who held several other important functions in the diocese. He was so to speak the eyes and the ears of the bishop for the Oversticht, which included the IJssel towns and Groningen. He also had contacts with people from the Aduard and Vollenhove circles and brought some of them to the attention of Bishop David who had considerable interest in humanists and their works. For an important clergyman like Ludolphus to have connections to certain members of the clergy in the Oversticht was obvious. He did however also know Wessel Gansfort in another capacity, as the latter acted as personal physician to Bishop David in the seventies. He was not the only councillor of Bishop David who was connected to humanists. Johannes van Diepholt, who graduated in Bologna in 1476, was a man of some inﬂuence. He is mentioned—among other 20 Strong relations existed between the humanist court of Ferrara and the university. Cf. Del Nero, La Corte; Grendler, Universities, 99–106. 21 M. Goris and L.W. Nauta, ‘The Study of Boethius Consolatio in the Low Countries around 1500: the Ghent Boethius (1485) and the Commentary by Agricola/ Murmellius (1514)’ in: F. Akkerman, A.J. Vanderjagt and A.H. van der Laan (eds.), Northern Humanism in European Context, 1469–1625. From the ‘Adwerth Academy’ to Ubbo Emmius (Leiden 1999) 109–130, there 122. For the graduations: Pardi, Titoli, 64–71. Murmellius was a pupil of Alexander Hegius at the school of St Lebuin’s.

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church oﬃces—as scholasticus of the St Lebuin’s chapter in Deventer. It would seem that in this capacity he was inﬂuential in the government of St Lebuin’s’ school. When one ﬁnds that “meister Johan van Diepholt” was contacted in 1498 by the Deventer town council to ensure that Johan van Breda, then town physician, would follow in the footsteps of the late “meister Sander”, also known as Alexander Hegius, it stands to reason that Johan had been involved at an earlier stage, namely when Hegius came to be rector of the school around 1483. It is however worth taking into account that Johannes also enjoyed a beneﬁce in Vollenhove.22 This Aduard circle set a standard for the discourse on humanist learning and their members, who also came from the neighbouring German lands, managed to exert considerable inﬂuence on schools and their schoolmasters. The school at Deventer under Alexander Hegius in perhaps the most famous example. Lines from this school run to Groningen and Utrecht, as we have seen. This was the school where a next generation of pupils was educated to a certain extent in a humanist fashion. The young Erasmus visited this school and both he and some of his classmates sought contact with the learned men of the Aduard circle. A generation of schoolboys that visited this school in the eighties and nineties of the ﬁfteenth century thus came into contact with the phenomenon called humanism. It also was this generation that gave this renewed interest in the classics a foothold in most of the northern Low Countries in the ﬁrst three decades of the sixteenth century, when this product was on oﬀer in many schools all over the area.23 It was up to people like Gerardus Listrius, graduate in medicine of Pavia, who visited this school, but later on taught there, as well as in Zwolle and Amersfoort, to carry the torch. Another important step in the spread of humanism was

22 GAD, Stadsrekening 1498 II, f. 5v. “Item op den dach vors[eid] Ernst onse bode gegaen myt onsen scriften na Utrecht an meister Johane van Diepholt omme meister Johane van Breda onser stat medicus totter scolen te helpen in stede zeliger meister meister Sander ende wairt meister Johan van Diepholt onser bode to Apeldorn te gemuete gekomen is.” This passage quoted in J.C. Bedaux, ‘Alexander Hegius als Dichter’ in: Akkerman, Vanderjagt and Van der Laan (eds.), Northern Humanism, 52–62, there 54. Bedaux thinks this a strange passage. I do not think it strange that the scholasticus of the chapter was contacted. He happened to reside in Utrecht because he was a councillor to the bishop among his many oﬃces. 23 Cf. P.N.M. Bot, Humanisme en onderwijs in Nederland (Utrecht 1955); Tervoort, ‘Schoolmeesters’, 77–83.

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the foundation of the Collegium Trilingue at the University of Louvain, where Latin, Greek and Hebrew were the main subjects of study. For this college there was another direct link with Italy, as its founder Jerome Busleyden had visited the University of Padua. It was Erasmus, however, who lent his support to this new foundation and tried to ﬁnd competent professors for the three chairs.24 Schools and universities were said to be the principal means of spreading humanism. From the career proﬁle of the population it became apparent that it did not happen all too often that students took up the position of schoolmaster. Normally, a student with a degree from Italy could aspire to higher positions. There were however several men who had studied medicine in Italy that did serve as rectores of Latin schools in towns. The said Vrijlinck, Canter, Listrius and Hadrianus Junius are examples. The connection between teaching in a Latin school and the study of medicine is an obvious one and so a medicine graduate became a sought-after candidate for the position of rector. Another example of more indirect involvement in the matters of education is the humanist Willem Frederiks, who as persona of St Martin’s Church was in a position to exert considerable inﬂuence on the appointment of schoolmasters at the school in Groningen. Someone like Reinier Snoy, a Bologna graduate in medicine and a magistrate at the municipal council of Gouda, served as a patron to Cornelius Aurelius and he was able to inﬂuence—again— the appointment of schoolmasters at the school in Gouda.25 In a more general sense this is true for many students who were involved in town government. When we turn to the careers of the population, we have seen that the position of professor of law, arts and medicine turned up frequently. It is signiﬁcant that at the faculty of medicine of the university of Cologne no less than seven professors were Dutchmen who graduated in Italy. The ﬁrst oﬃcial professor of Greek was someone who likewise had visited an Italian university. The law faculty of Ingolstadt relied heavily on the expertise of two students in the population, Viglius and Nicolaus Everardi. In this respect it is also 24

See for this college: H. De Vocht, History of the Foundation and the Rise of the Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense, 1517–1550, 4 vols (Louvain 1951–55). 25 Cf. Koen Goudriaan, ‘The Gouda Circle of Humanists’ in: Koen Goudriaan, Jaap van Moolenbroek and Ad Tervoort (eds.), Education and Learning in the Netherlands, 1400–1600. Essays in Honour of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 123 (Leiden 2004) 155–177.

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worthwhile to mention that the ﬁrst four professors of medicine at the university of Leiden—two of them from the Northern Netherlands— had all studied in Padua, at that time the centre of medical humanist learning. They were joined by a professor of Greek in the person of Petrus Tiara. The foundation of the anatomy theatre and the botanical gardens at Leiden were partly inspired by what these professors had seen in the Italian university cities.26 Apart from certain key positions in learned circles and and in certain professions, further traces of humanist learning and interests can be found in writing and publishing, as well as in keeping a learned correspondence. Students who visited Italy have been at the vanguard in propagating these humanist ideas and forms. Erasmus, who graduated at the University of Turin in 1506, is perhaps one of the most well-known humanists. Though he desperately wanted to become part of a learned circle in his younger years, he later became the centre of an immense one himself.27 He corresponded with an incredible amount of important people, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Many of his fellow travellers to Italy were among them. Not all of these men were necessarily famous. Wilhelmus Obrecht of Delft was by no means a famous scholar. He was a praeceptor, however, and maybe something of his friendly relations with the ‘Prince of humanists’ rubbed oﬀ. Viglius of Aytta was another one of Erasmus’ correspondents and followed in the master’s footsteps in the sense that he too became a centre of a learned network.28 Dozens of students wrote and published learned work on numerous topics in many ﬁelds. The ﬁrst piece of what is called northern protohumanistic rhetoric at the University of Louvain was performed by Johannes Snavel, a citizen of Zwolle who studied at the University of Padua before he started to teach law at Louvain in the 1430s. There was a deﬁnite Italian link in the ﬁrst example of a humanist play from the Northern Netherlands, written by Hermannus Knuyt van Slyterhoven of Vianen. Although we can ﬁnd no record of him at the University of Bologna, it seems likely that Hermannus was

26 A.M. Luyendijk-Elshout, ‘Der Einﬂuß der italienischen Universitäten auf die medizinische Fakultät Leiden (1575–1620)’ in: Georg Kauﬀmann (ed.), Die Renaissance im Blick der Nationen Europas (Wiesbaden 1991) 339–353. 27 Peter G. Bietenholz (ed.), Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and the Reformation, 3 vols (Toronto 1985–87). 28 Cf. Postma, Viglius, who has studied Viglius’ correspondence in great detail.

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most certainly close to the studium and its students. During his stay in Bologna in 1494 he wrote a comedy, Scornetta, about student life.29 In terms of the artes, several young men proved their competence in the ﬁeld of philosophy, rhetoric and paedagocial literature. This is hardly the place to deal extensively with the merits of the works of Agricola and Erasmus. The writings of both did have an enormous impact on learned discourse not only in the Netherlands but far beyond and for time to come.30 Another terrain where innovation had a direct link to Italy, through students and recently discovered and newly edited texts, was historiography. Of course there was the biography of Petrarch by Rodolphus Agricola, but it went further than that. Humanist historiography is characterized by a reorientation on the past in terms of subject matter, form and source material. Although it cannot be said that in terms of subject matter northern humanist historiography diﬀered radically from its late-medieval predecessor, there were a number of innovating aspects to it. Historiography for these northern parts in general was characterized by a strong focus on what we might label as ‘national’ identity. This did not just apply to the strong sense of Frisian identity and the often mentioned Frisian love for freedom. In other parts, notably Holland, incorporation in the Burgundian empire gave impetus to a reassertion of Hollands place within a larger political entity.31 The humanists took this tendency a step further and started to claim a continuity with classical antiquity, based on sources of classical antiquity that had become available only in the latter part of the ﬁfteenth century. Furthermore, they had to come from Italy. This continuity with classical antiquity was primarily based on the works of Caesar, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus. Reference was made in their works to Germanic tribes roaming the northern parts of the Netherlands. The great mediator of the works of Tacitus had been Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini of Siena and the works of Tacitus and Pliny had had been published in Italy since 1470. Wilhelmus Frederici, medicine graduate of Ferrara, had used

29

IJsewijn, ‘Humanism in the Low Countries’, 188–9. The literature on these two giants is immense. See a.o.: F. Akkerman and A.J. Vanderjagt (eds.), Rudolphus Agricola Phrisius (1444–1485) (Leiden 1988); James D. Tracy, Erasmus of the Low Countries (Berkeley 1996) and the literature mentioned there. 31 Cf. chapter 3.3. 30

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the works of Tacitus and Pliny for his De origine et laude Frisonum published in 1499.32 In the case of Holland their forebears from classical times were a little less easy to ﬁnd. Erasmus, however, started to identify a Germanic tribe from classical times, the Batavi, with contemporary Holland and its inhabitants. He was the ﬁrst northerner to connect the two in the last of his Adagia, published by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1508, where he takes on Martial’s proverb of the Auris Batava, which signiﬁed a boorish taste.33 Based on the Historiae of Tacitus he stipulated that the isle of the Batavi was identical with Holland and he went on the describe this country and the courageous tribe—the Batavi, but read Hollanders—in the most positive of terms. Erasmus’ historical identiﬁcation of Batavia with Holland and the Hollanders soon became a hot topic for discussion. The case was taken up by two of Erasmus’ friends, Willem Hermansz and Cornelius Aurelius, but other students in the population became involved in this debate: Livinus Lemnius, but more importantly Reinerus Snoy of Gouda, who contributed to the debate with his De rebus Batavicis libri tredecim (1519). Although the exact location of the isle of the Batavi and the identiﬁcation of their heirs would remain a topic of discussion for many decades, the ‘Batavian Myth’ would capture the hearts and minds of the intellectual establishment in Holland. We have seen traces of this in chapter 3, where we signalled that in the second half of the sixteenth century students from Holland started registering themselves as batavus. Hadrianus Junius, who had been appointed oﬃcial historiographer of Holland in 1566, gave the result of his appointment the very clear title Batavia. The ‘Batavian Myth’ took on a further dimension during the Revolt and it was used to legitimize open rebellion against Philip II.34 32 W. Zuidema, Wilhelmus Frederici, persona van Sint-Maarten te Groningen (1489–1515) en de Groninger staatkunde van zijn tijd (Groningen 1888) 67, 139–152; C.P.H.M. Tilmans ‘Cornelius Aurelius en het ontstaan van de Bataafse mythe in de Hollandse geschiedschrijving (tot 1517)’ in: B. Ebels-Hoving, C.G. Santing and C.P.H.M. Tilmans (eds.), Genoechlike ende lustige historiën. Laatmiddeleeuwse geschiedschrijving in Nederland (Hilversum 1987) 191–213, there 198. 33 There was some support for this thesis from Italian scholars. Rafael Maﬀei in his Commentariorum urbanorum octo et triginta libri (Rome 1506) had situated the Batavi in Holland. Cf. C.P.H.M. Tilmans, Aurelius en de Divisiekroniek van 1517. Historiograﬁe en humanisme in Holland in de tijd van Erasmus (Hilversum 1988) 128. 34 For humanist historiography in general the somewhat dated H. Kampinga,

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A minimum of eighteen students in the population published learned treatises on various aspects of medicine. The inﬂuence of a training in Italy is clearly observable in several of them. The likes of Lemnius, Forestus, Junius, Heurnius and Paludanus were considered to be the pinnacle of medical learning in the Netherlands. The connection with the University of Leiden has been mentioned already. What is more, some of them stood the test of time. The Observationes of Petrus Forestus was a collection of medical cases of great importance to medical science of the early modern era.35 Humanists ﬁgure prominently in the student population that went to Italy. Several dozens of them published learned work. Some were well-known proliﬁc writers whose pages passed the printing presses. The lesser gods might not even have seen their thoughts in print or only part of it. There is no denying, though, that even these humanists of second rank functioned as propagators of this particular cultural phenomenon of humanism, since they frequently constituted a local elite. And it would seem that current historiography takes a stronger interest in their life and work than the older historical writing has done.36 But there are also more indirect ways in which ideas may be diﬀused. And for this we have to turn to other factors than immediate contributions to culture. If we look at the social background, the social status and the university curriculum of the population, one would be inclined to think that a substantial part of it was predisposed to attain rank and inﬂuence, especially law graduates—and indeed men like Cobelius, Viglius of Aytta and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt were destined for high places. In their capacity they could act as patrons to to humanists and artists with less inﬂuence and

‘De humanistische geschiedschrijving’ in: P.A.M. Geurts and A.E.M. Janssen (eds.), Geschiedschrijving in Nederland, II, Geschiedbeoefening (the Hague 1981) 20–41. For the history of the ‘Batavian Myth’, see: I. Schöﬀer, ‘The Batavian Myth during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ in: Ibid., 85–109; Tilmans, Aurelius; Ead., ‘Cornelius Aurelius en het ontstaan van de Bataafse mythe’, 191–213; Ead., ‘Ontwikkeling’. Also, Gerardus Geldenhouwer van Nijmegen (1482–1542), Historische werken. Lacubratiuncula de Batavorum insula. Historia Batavica. Germaniae Inferioris historiae. Germanicarum historiarum illustatio, ed. István Bejczy and Saskia Stegeman (Hilversum 1998) 9–26. 35 Cf. Luyendijk-Elshout, ‘Einﬂuß’: Bosman-Jelgersma, Pieter van Foreest; Van Herwaarden, ‘Medici’. 36 For example: Santing, Geneeskunde; Petrus Bloccius, Praecepta formandis puerorum moribus perutilia, ed. A.M. Coebergh-van den Braak (Louvain 1991).

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money. In a wider sense students who went to Italy constituted a literate group of potentially successful and inﬂuential men on whom the culture of Renaissance Italy must have made an impression and who were likely to support or even propagate Renaissance culture, like Van Oldenbarnevelt who set aside a substantial sum for his sons to visit Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna and Padua; or Erasmus whose fame attracted the attention of popes and princes. Looking at students who went to Italy and trying to pinpoint how they may have inﬂuenced discourse on humanism in the Northern Netherlands is one way of looking at the connection with Italy. There is another way of looking at this connection. Once humanism gained foothold in the Northern Netherlands in the ﬁrst half of the sixteenth century—the result of the activities of maybe not so many proliﬁc protagonists and more powerful, but more passive propagators and patrons—Italy was seen as the centre of humanist culture that an educated man or a man who wanted to be educated had to visit. And, indeed, the number of students attending Italian universities— especially Padua and Siena—was clearly on the rise again in the second half of the sixteenth century and continued to be so in the ﬁrst half of the seventeenth.37 The dissemination of humanism with a link to Italy is not only visible in numbers. In the sixteenth century a lot of students proudly start bearing a Latin version of their surname and they designate their origin with a correct Latin adjective, even using the term batavus, indicating that they come from Holland. Rising numbers of students visiting Italian universities are not a Dutch phenomenon: the same can be said for the Southern Netherlands, Germany, England and other parts of Europe.38 It is no wonder that Justus Lipsius, who had been to Italy himself, could so well understand the longing one of his young admirers had to go to Italy, a longing, he says, “which is innate only in the best and noblest minds.”39 For a visit to an Italian university should be part of the educational—not always scholarly—upbringing of a young man of

37

See chapter 2; Frijhoﬀ, Société. H. de Ridder-Symoens, ‘Adel en universiteiten in de zestiende eeuw. Humanistisch ideaal of bittere noodzaak?’ in: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 93 (1980) 424; Péter Sàrközy, ‘Links to Europe: Hungarian Students at Italian Universities in the 13–18th Centuries’ in: Hungarian Studies Review XVII (1990) 47–55. 39 See the introduction; Epistolae, 198, nr. 90. 38

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learning and/or standing (they are not necessarily the same). The trip to Italy became part of the Grand Tour. A visit to Italy was an opportunity to experience an important part of European culture, classic as well as humanist, something the Italian humanists themselves were already well aware of. Overseeing the links with Italy in the coming of humanism to the Low Countries, one can see that the students visiting the peninsula played a role in many diﬀerent ways. If we look at the geography and the chronology of the coming of humanism to the northern Low Countries, the following remarks are signiﬁcant. The earliest and strongest interest in humanism seems to have come from the northeast of the Northern Netherlands, with Groningen as its focal point, in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century. From there the IJssel towns and Utrecht seem to have taken on this renewed attention for the classsics. The west of the Northern Netherlands followed almost a generation later and much of the inspiration seems to have come from the east. In a political and a cultural sense, Holland and Zeeland were more focused on the Burgundian lands, while the eastern parts had closer relations with the neighbouring German lands. Indirectly this was true for the popularity of Italy in the various regions, as we have seen in chapter 3. It was in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century that Groningen in a period of prosperity sent comparatively many students to Italy, to such an extent in fact that one might say that the ecclesiastical top of Groningen, the town secretary, the town physician and several members of the magistracy had studied at Ferrara, Pavia and Bologna. The humanist climate in Groningen thus carried the stamp of the iter italicum. For the next generations ﬁrst contacts with humanism could take place within the Low Countries. The printing presses, a number of schools and certain teachers and colleges in the University of Louvain and Cologne showed an increasing interest in the classics. For a number of students, particularly of medicine, Italy kept the reputation as the heartland of humanism, where one could deepen and widen one’s learning. In the cultural exchange between Italy and the Low Countries, these hundreds of students continued to act as mediators and carry books and ideas regarding all sorts of subjects back home with them. A substantial portion of the students in the population reached positions of power, inﬂuence and wealth. On top of this many were considered to be men of learning on various topics. It was therefore almost expected of them to play a further role in the culture of the

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late-medieval and early modern Netherlands. Here we will take a brief look at some of the more tangible apsects of their interest in Renaissance culture. Of course, many a student, often in his capacity of town magistrate, played a role in the immediate community, as guardians of the parish churches, as members of religious fraternities such as the rather elitist papengilde in Alkmaar. In some cases these students did more than take up their responsibilities and actively contributed to religious culture in the form of the founding of chapels, often done by important clerics like Ludolphus van Veen and Jacobus Ruysch. The canons Nicolaus Ruysch and Cornelis van Mierop certainly were very interested in religious art. In conformity with the Renaissance ideal they demanded a signiﬁcant place for themselves within the art objects. When the church of St John in the town of Gouda was destroyed by ﬁre in 1537, they played an important role in its redecoration. The parish church of Gouda had always had strong connections with the chapter of St Salvator. These two canons were most obliging in oﬀering stained glass windows for the newly built church, in which they had themselves depicted in full splendour.40 Sponsorship went further than the Church. Some students recognized the role education had played in their lives and set aside money for the express purpose of educating others. Dominicus Tettema was mentioned already. Viglius set aside an even greater sum for the foundation of a college in his name at the University of Louvain. It should not surprise us that a number of scholars in the population gathered a considerable amount of books. Books had been an essential part of their education. They continued to be just that for quite a few students in their careers. Johannes van Hooghelande left more than 200 books after his death in 1578. Quite a few legal works were included in his collection. Martinus Johannis Aedituus had a similar collection, though the main focus was on medicine rather than law. It included a number of works he had written himself. A relatively new thing was the collection of curiosities as well as books. Bernardus Paludanus’ cabinet of curiosities was an international attraction. Many scholars from all over Europe came to the town of Enkhuizen to look at the wonders of the world in his collection.41

40 41

See for theses images: Van den Hoven van Genderen, Heren, 292–6. NNBW, IX, 752–4; Lindeboom, DMB, 1497–9.

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More than just documentary traces, then, were found for students in the population. What is typical for the period of the later Middle Ages and the early modern period is that in a number of cases we start to get an idea of what they looked like. The portrait as a genre did make a real impact. Having oneself depicted was no longer the prerogative of popes and princes, and numerous students are known to us both in print, in glass and on canvas. Particularly for the sixteenth century there was an impressive harvest of portraits of students in the population. Not only the super-civil servant Viglius van Aytta, D.U.I., had his face painted for all eternity, even the faces of students with more modest careers could be found. Petrus van Hogerbeets, physician in the town of Hoorn was painted by Saenredam. Perhaps the most famous of these portraits is the one of Erasmus by Quinten Metsys. Invariably they are depicted as men of learning and/or standing, wearing their gowns, often holding books, the source of their learning. They were in a position to act as commissioners and patrons to artists, painters as well as poets, sculptors as well as singers. One of the more well-known artists who was well able to proﬁt from his connections with mighty patrons, several of whom have a direct link to Italy, was Jan van Scorel. He was born as an illegitimate son of the village priest in Schoorl, a little village in the north of Holland. He had acquired some fame as a painter. When he went to Rome at the accession of Adrian VI as pope,—Adriaan Florisz Boeyens, professor of the University of Louvain, pedagogue of Charles V, canon of St Salvator in Utrecht—, he was awarded the position of conservator of the antiques in the Palazzo Belvedere. He also painted a portait of the only Dutch pope. During this time in Rome he became acquainted with Willem van Lockhorst, who had studied at the universities of Bologna and Siena and was a canon at the chapter of St Peter and St Mary’s in Utrecht, now working in the Curia. After the death of Adrian, both returned to Utrecht. There he enjoyed the patronage of Herman van Lockhorst—whose portrait he painted—, dean of the chapter of St Salvator, and father of Willem. Both of them were most helpful in securing him a position as canon of St Mary’s. This ﬁnally happened in 1528. This was certainly not the only support he received. Two of the witnesses at his admission to the canonry were the often mentioned Nicolaus Ruysch and Cornelis van Mierop.42 42

RAU, SM, inv. nr. 40–8, f. 180r, 192r–194v and 196v; Van den Hoven van

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A special sort of patron was Cornelis Johannis van Veen about whose career something was mentioned in chapter 5. The life and times of himself and his family exemplify issues discussed in this section. And pieces of it can be drawn from a family portrait in which he was depicted in 1584, now in the Musée du Louvre. It was painted by his son, Otto van Veen. Otto had visited Italy like his father before him and became an artist of considerable renown, and his works bear the hallmarks of his stay in Italy. Another son was an engraver. Cornelis, law graduate and magistrate who had fallen from grace with the start of the Revolt, seems to have had no quarrel with his sons for the alternative career path they chose. The painting shows a well-oﬀ family that seemed to have been divided on the question of religion. Cornelis, who is depicted in a fur-collared gown, seems to hold the middle between two of his sons, the ﬂamboyant Catholic artist and the more austere looking eldest son, Simon, who was a member of the Calvinist church. The contrast in the painting is superﬁcial. Simon had stayed in Leiden when his father ﬂed with the rest of the family. He had studied law at the University of Leiden and managed to become pensionaris of Leiden, like his father. In the 1590s he moved on to the Hof van Holland, where he became advocaat-ﬁscaal and later councillor. His studies in Leiden and his membership of the Calvinist church cannot conceal that the the austere clothes he wears in the painting are just clothes. His children were brought up as Catholics. Some of his sons even became priests. More importantly he reconverted to Catholicism on his deathbed. The man depicted in this painting is the man that made a career move in in the 1570s by staying.43 This is something he had in common with a number of students in the population, but one in particular. There are many portraits of this student and he is one of only two students in the population— Erasmus the other—whose image has carried through the ages to such an extent that his expression has decorated a postage stamp: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt. Genderen, Heren, 363–4, who fully sketches the complications that Van Scorel had in obtaining all of the privileges of his prebend; M.A. Faries, ‘Jan van Scorel, Additional documents from the church records of Utrecht’ in: Oud Holland 85 (1970) 3–24. 43 Cf. Simon Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes (London 1999) 82–5, who omits Simon’s deeper religious life. Cf. also Hans de Waardt, Toverij en samenleving. Holland 1500–1800 (Den Haag 1991) 158–9.

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Another important cultural and religious phenomenon of the the sixteenth century was the advent of the Reformation. This juggernaut managed to capture the attention of paupers and princes alike for the next centuries. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the religious question would be high on the political agenda as well. For the students in the population the most tangible manifestion of this development was to be the Dutch Revolt where religion was one of the contributing factors to the emergence of civil unrest and then outright rebellion, resulting in the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. Truly, one would have to say that certainly up until the 1520s the students in the population were generally more concerned with preserving religious orthodoxy that with reforming it. The substantial number of important clergymen with law degrees in the population were intent on maintaining the all-important position of the Church and presumably their place in it. We therefore ﬁnd them primariliy as guardians of the faith, sometimes dealing with heresy in the diocese of Utrecht. Whether this was in a position of papal inquisitor, like the Dominican Johannes de Houdaen, who was involved in tracing presumed heretics on several occasions, or whether it were the oﬃcials-principal of the diocese, frequently present at occasions like the execution of the heretic Jan de Bakker, where Stephanus Rumelaer was present. Following the start of the Reformation in 1517, there is evidence that the religious debate did concern a number of students in the population. There was, of course, the towering ﬁgure of Erasmus who involved himself in the discourse on the works of Martin Luther, eventually villifying him in the eyes of Protestants and Catholics alike. The issue of the reformation of the Church was debated elsewhere as well. It was on the agenda in Groningen in the 1520s. Among the most important debaters were a number of students who had visited the peninsula. Most of the these early ‘reformers’ or students who were interested in the concept of Church reformation had strong connections with humanism.44 Interest in the Reformation took another form. A number of students, nearly one in ten, now took routes that included universities

44 F. Akkerman, ‘The Early Reformation in Groningen. On two Latin Disputations’ in: Id. and Vanderjagt and Van der Laan (eds.), Northern Humanism, 1–44.

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that were highly suspect in the eyes of the Church. The universities of Wittenberg, Heidelberg after 1559 and a number of other ones did deﬁnitely deserve the reputation. This shows, if not outright conversion, at the very least an interest in Protestantism or in certain Protestant teachers. For a number of students their heterodox sympathies are clear. Justus Velsius, a scholar of some renown who corresponded with a number of other learned men in the population such as Viglius, developed his own fairly radical theology.45 Allardus Cooltuyn was the brother of one of the important early Calvinist reformers in the Northern Netherlands and at least a degree of sympathy for the cause can be suspected.46 Cornelius Petri Haeck belonged to a Calvinist circle in his home town Zierikzee.47 On the whole, there were relatively few cases in which staunch supporters of either Lutheranism or Calvinism can be detected at an early stage. Funnily enough, the only Protestant minister in the population had visited the Collegium Germanicum. Lucas Ritzardi was sent away from the college and apparently for good reason. Many of his college peers ended up strongly pushing the Counter-Reformation, among whom the Jesuits ﬁgure prominently. Petrus Canisius, who did not visit the Collegium Germanicum, but graduated at Bologna and joined the Jesuit order, was a major ﬁgure in the Catholic Reformation. The attitude on the other side of the Alps vis-à-vis students from ‘Germanic’ lands, which included the Netherlands, from the 1530s onwards reveals a marked suspicion of Protestantism. Students from these parts were often tainted by geographical association. The response students could expect varied from university to university and relied heavily on the wordly ruler in which the studium was located. On the homefront in the Netherlands, this fear of Protestantism spreading through visits to foreign universities eventually led to the edict of Philip II in 1570 forbidding students from the Netherlands to study anywhere else than Louvain Douai, Dole and Rome. Though it was possible to get dispensation through an arduous legal road, it would seem that this edict did have some eﬀect. Certainly, the number of students from the Low Countries at Italian studia declined for a number of years, to such an extent in fact that the College of Doctors 45

Feist-Hirsch, ‘Strange Career’. Vis, Cornelis Cooltuyn. 47 C.M. Rooze-Stouthamer, Hervorming in Zeeland (ca. 1520 –1572) (Goes 1996) 490–1. 46

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of the law University of Bologna protested in 1573, when the eﬀects of this ban became apparent. The college stated that Bologna was indeed a good Catholic university. Even Pope Gregory XIII came to the aid of the Alma Mater urging the duke of Alba not to hinder students from the Netherlands who wanted to study at Bologna.48 And in fairness to the doctors, Bologna, at this stage, could be considered a Catholic stronghold. Although the comune of Bologna had asked for leniency in the application of the bull In sacrosancta and for protection for ultramontani studying at Bologna, there was no way around it. The papacy insisted on its full implementation.49 A severe blow to Bologna’s international student reputation had already been struck in 1562, when the age old German Nation of the law University decided to migrate to Padua. When at least part of the Nation returned in 1573, a new set of statutes for the German Nation was approved by Pope Gregory XIII and Emperor Maximilian in 1574.50 Especially after 1564 the studium in Bologna was carefully monitored by the ecclesiastical authorities. Its location within the boundaries of the papal state made sure that inquisitors even had relatively easy access to the University. This rather stringent policy led to a number of arrests of foreign students and teachers, including one student in the population: Volkert Coyter. The situation was somewhat diﬀerent in other Italian university cities. We have seen that the studium of Padua was relatively well protected by Venice. At the studium pataviense there were even ways out of the oath prescribed by In sacrosancta. The occasional student graduated outside the immediate power of the bishop, under the authority of a comes palatinus. A few students in the population graduated in this fashion. At the very least one has to say that the atmosphere in both Padua and Siena were somewhat more lenient that in Bologna. The increasing popularity of the universities of Padua and Siena, largely at the expense of the Alma Mater Bononiensis, is at least partly connected to the diﬀerent atmospheres of tolerance with regard to the religious question that reigned within the lecture halls. Though scanty, there seem to be some indications that those students who

48 49 50

ASB, AS, inv. nr. 129, f. 286r/v/; Brom, Archivalia, I, 213, nr. 618. Kagan, ‘Universities’, 167. Colliva (ed.), Statuta, 157, 162.

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visited Bologna in the last cohort were more inclined to support religious orthodoxy than their peers who visited the other two studia mentioned. With the clear exception of Volkert Coyter—who was arrested on charges of heresy while teaching at Bologna—most students sided with the Catholic Church and in the speciﬁc context of the Netherlands were opposed to the Revolt. It was probably more than a mere coincidence that the three Bologna graduates in the Hof van Holland in 1572 ﬂed to Utrecht, while the three graduates of Siena who also had studied in Padua only accepted—or ﬁrst abandoned the oﬃce for fear of the duke of Alba to take it up after the coast was clear in the case of Adrianus van der Mijle—their position when the Revolt got under way. Protestantism was not an attraction of Italian studia. The reputation of the (university) landscape, however, continued to attract students, including those whose religious beliefs were suspect in the eyes of the authorities on the peninsula. For the latter a place where one could study in relative piece of mind was desirable and it became a further issue in the choice for this or that university. It seems to have favoured Padua the most. In that sense the Italian universities diﬀered somewhat from, for instance, the University of Orléans, where Calvinism had made considerable impact and where this atmosphere probably succeeded in tempting a number of students who at a later stage became actively involved in both Calvinism and the Revolt.51 Students in the population were divided over the Revolt. This division was often far from clear and could run through religious lines and even through families. The Van der Mijle family was split over the Revolt. Arnoldus and his son Cornelius sided with the king, while Adrianus played a major part in the creation of the Republic. Certain students were involved from very early onwards in suppressing the spread of Calvinism. Theodorus Lindanus was actively involved in persecuting Protestants in his capacity of inquisitor. A number of younger noblemen, like Valerius Aylva, was involved from the very start as members of the Compromise, signing the Smeekschrift, oﬀered to the regent, Margaret of Parma in 1566. Following the

51 Cf. C.M. Ridderikhoﬀ, ‘Orléans and the Dutch Revolt’ in: C.C. Barfoot and R. Todd (eds.), The Great Emporium. The Low Countries as a Cultural Crossroads in the Renaissance and the Eighteenth Century, Studies in Literature 10 (Amsterdam 1992) 59–82.

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change in government in parts of the Netherlands, town governments and other bureaucratic institutions were purged of presumed pro-Spanish elements. This meant leaving the ﬁeld for a number of students in the population who had attained positions of power. At least twenty students were compromised after the Revolt gained a foothold and had to withdraw from oﬃce or in many cases ﬂed to parts as yet not aﬀected by the Revolt, at ﬁrst Utrecht, later on the Southern Netherlands. In some cases the choice was not pro- or anti-Spanish, but directly linked to the religious question. A number of convinced Catholics refused to side with a government that had direct links to the Calvinist church. Some twenty students were actively involved in the Revolt. Among them were such towering ﬁgures as Johannes van Oldenbarnevelt, who were instrumental to the success of the Revolt. Many of them could take the seats in the bureaucracies that had been emptied by the exodus of those loyal to the Spanish and/or Catholicism. In general one could say that a majority of the students played little or no part in either actively supporting or opposing the Revolt. Often they let things pass and responded to circumstances while hanging on to their positions in town governments continuing to represent their towns and cities in the States. One gets the distinct impression that, considering that we are dealing with a comparatively well-oﬀ and successful—maybe even elitist—group of people, the majority was not intent on creating too much upheaval in either religious or socio-political terms. A structural contribution was made by the students in the population to state formation, in the sense that constituted a group of legal specialists, who worked at diﬀerent levels of bureaucracy all over the Netherlands. In a more general sense the dissemination of Roman law into the legal system in the Netherlands at large was inﬂuenced by the generations of students that had visited Italian and other foreign universities.52 In this sense, the iter italicum was both a 52

See for a discussion of the role of professional lawyers in the process of state formation H. de Schepper and J.-M. Cauchies, ‘Legal Tools of Public Power in the Netherlands, 1200–1600’ in: Antonio Padoa-Schioppa (ed.), Legislation and Justice, The Origins of the Modern State in Europe C (London 1997) 229–268, in particular 264 a.f. and the literature cited; also Antonio Padoa-Schioppa, ‘Conclusions: Models, Instruments, Principles’ in: Ibid., 335–69, in particular 347–9; Filippo Ranieri, ‘From Status to Profession: The Professionalisation of Lawyers as a Research Field in Modern European Legal History’ in: Journal of Legal History 10. 2 (1989) 180–190.

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cause and a consequence of the penetration of Roman law in the Netherlands.53 In the period under investigation, this process continued at a rapid pace. Attemps at centralization were accompanied by attempts to harmonize the legal systems in function in the Low Countries. In this process, students in the population were heavily involved. Several students, like Viglius and Philippus Cobelius, were known as outstanding scholars in their ﬁeld, with a focus on the humanist aspects of the corpus of legal texts.54

6.2. Conclusion At the end of our own journey, what have we learned about these young men that travelled across Europe in search for learning and adventure? This book set out to describe the human geography of Italian universities from the point of view of the Northern Netherlands, as well as the socio-professional proﬁles and patterns of the iter italicum. The population studied stood in a tradition that dated back to the twelfth century when a few clergymen travelled to Italy in search of knowledge and learning, at the time unavailable in the diocese of Utrecht. When universities spread across the continent, Italy continued to call. The numbers ﬂuctuated over time and varied from university to university, but for Italy as a travel destination in general there were two major peak periods: the third quarter of the ﬁfteenth and the third quarter of the sixteenth century. This last peak period was only brieﬂy interrupted and continued at increased pace well into the seventeenth century. The increase in the ﬁfteenth century has to be viewed against the more spectacular general increase in university students from the Northern Netherlands, so clearly observable in the ﬁgures for the ‘home’ universities of Cologne and Louvain. Although it was diﬃcult to put this into exact ﬁgures, it seemed that relatively few young responded 53 Cf. Mario Damen, ‘Education or Connections? Learned Officials in the Council of Holland and Zeeland in the Fifteenth Century’ in: Koen Goudriaan, Jaap van Moolenbroek and Ad Tervoort (eds.), Education and Learning in the Netherlands, 1400–1600. Essays in Honour of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 123 (Leiden 2004) 51–67; Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly, Recht voor de Raad. Rechtspraak voor het Hof van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland in het midden van de vijftiende eeuw, Hollandse Studiën 38 (Hilversum 2001). 54 See Postma, Viglius, for Viglius’ importance in the field of legal humanism.

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to this call from far away. The section of the overall student population that made it to Italy was comparatively small and would have rarely exceeded the 5 per cent mark. Closer inspection of the university curriculum of these students did however paint a very diﬀerent picture. The importance of the iter italicum for learned culture in the Northern Netherlands far outweighs the relatively small size of the population. There were a number of signiﬁcant features that set them apart from the student population from the northern Low Countries at large. The distance, the high costs and the presence of viable, comparatively closer and cheaper alternatives such as Cologne and Louvain may all have been discouraging factors and were responsible for the relatively small number of students from these parts that actually made the iter italicum. The ‘home’ universities, however, represented the overwhelming arts population, so typical for most northern studia. Very few students came to Italy to study arts. If they did, it was solely as a preparation for the degree in medicine or a conscious choice for the humanist curriculum. In general the studying of the arts took place in the studia closer to the Netherlands of which Louvain, Cologne and Paris were undoubtedly the most important. The overwhelming majority of young men in our population came through one of these universities, with in many cases a fully completed arts curriculum behind them. The italiëganger was a more mature student, in his early twenties, intent on following a specialized curriculum in one of the higher faculties, either law or medicine. The legal nature of academic pilgrimage to Italy has enjoyed considerable attention in historiography, but perhaps not enough. We may estimate that approximately 10–15 per cent of all law students from the Northern Netherlands had come through an Italian university of which Bologna and from the second half of the sixteenth century Padua were clearly most important. When pinned down on choice of faculty, the numerical importance of the population travelling to Italy greatly increased. It is likely that Bologna was the most important ‘foreign’ university for the study of law after Orléans, a postion that Padua took over convincingly after 1550. The visit to the peninsula was in most cases the last stage of the peregrinatio and after a stay of some three years approximately half of the law students retrurned home with a licentiate or much more often with the doctor’s hat. A conservative estimate suggests that the Italian studia would account for a minimum of a quarter to maybe as much as

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40 per cent of all degrees of licentiatus and higher taken by law students from the Northern Netherlands. So, in terms of law graduates Italy as a university pole was of the greatest importance. The careers of these graduates, discussed in chapter 5, attest to their contribution to the society in the Netherlands. The role of the professional lawyer has been identiﬁed as the main instrument in the process of European state formation and the rationalization of government and administration. This held true for the Netherlands as well, both at provincial and at central level. In their attempts at centralization and rationalization of government in the Netherlands, the Burgundian and Habsburg princes were greatly assisted by these professional lawyers. From the career proﬁle of the law students in the population it would seem that the pack of law graduates played a key role in this process, particularly those who managed to attain oﬃce at central and provincial level. Even at the lower levels of the town and the city, though, one ﬁnds that relations with higher authorities became increasingly legalized and paths of protest were formulated along legal lines for which authorities at local level were dependent on professional lawyers as well. At all these levels students in the population have been active. Even the particularist reaction against the centralization process that followed with the Revolt did not seriously diminish the importance of law and legal relations between the new authorities, the States.55 One aspect of the iter italicum that has been relatively underexposed is the medical character of the journey to Italy. There has been considereable attention for the role of particularly Padua in the sixteenth century,56 and several students of medicine from that century we know very well because of their publications and the inﬂuential positions they held in the world of academia and health care. The evidence gathered from the population, however, suggests that Italy as the centre for the study of medicine had predated the foundation of the universities of Cologne and Louvain and even after their foundation the Italian faculties of medicine continued to be far more important both in terms of attendance and particularly in the number of doctores medicinae they delivered. This was especially clear for most of the ﬁfteenth century. Events and processes that shattered

55 56

See n. 52. Cf. Poelhekke, ‘Leden’; Frijhoﬀ, Société.

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attendance at the faculties of arts and medicine at the universities of Padua and Ferrara, following 1480 and continuing well into the sixteenth century, did not bring the search for medical knowledge on the peninsula to an end, as Bologna and Pisa continued to absorb a number of students. The rising number of medical students in the last cohort did however not reach the levels of the the cohorts up to 1475. That would only happen after 1575. Nevertheless, it is very clear that the comparative numerical importance—already mentioned for lawyers—of students of medicine that visited the likes of Padua, Ferrara and Bologna was even greater than for their peers in the faculty of law. We may estimate that at the very least one in three students of medicine from the Northern Netherlands travelled through Italy during their studies. The graduate of medicine and in particular the doctor medicinae was still somewhat of a rarity in the ﬁfteenth and sixteenth century Netherlands. Chances were that at least half of them had graduated on the peninsula. Even after the foundation of the University of Leiden, that would take over the torch as one of the leading medical universities in Europe, the Italian universities led by Padua accounted for close to a third of all degrees in medicine taken by students from the northern Low Countries.57 This raises the question to what extent the development of an organized system of health care in the Northern Netherlands was inﬂuenced by the dozens of doctors coming from Italy in the ﬁfteenth century and presumably even before that. This question may never be fully answered as it would seem that adequate sources are lacking. It might prove possible that meticulous archival research at local level could support the hypothesis that students who had witnessed the medical care in the large Italian cities, strictly organized by the colleges of doctors, were of importance in communicating a model where the graduated doctor of medicine appointed by the town government took on the role of supreme authority on health matters. A medical degree was the ticket to gain access to positions in academia, but also increasingly for these positions in health care. Although the graduation ratio for medicine students was highly inﬂated because of the nature of the source material, a graduation ratio of two out of three seems a plausible estimate.

57 On the basis of Frijhoﬀ, Société, 383 and 389; De Ridder-Symoens, ‘Italian and Dutch Universities,’ 54–57; own ﬁgures for Padua.

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The considerable number of degrees obtained in Italy testify to the fact that at the very least a degree from an Italian studium, whether this was in law or medicine, was perceived to be of considerable importance. This notion that the doctorate from a prestigious university counted is found in many instances in which much of the curriculum was followed at faculties at more nearby locations, but that the act of graduation took place in Italy. There were a number of cases in which students had to or decided to wait for a considerable amount of time before they put the money together for a degree of doctor, hanging on to their degree of licentiatus in the meantime. This suggests that the notions of nobility through learning connected with a doctorate made some sort of impact, but it is equally plausible to suggest that in the eyes of the candidate it may have represented a useful tool in the competition for prestigious positions back home. Another signiﬁcant conclusion is that the iter italicum from the Northern Netherlands amounts to little more than a broad geographical limitation ex post facto. Apart from the diﬀerence in proﬁle where the subject of study was concernced, there were diﬀerences in terms of geographical participation. We have seen that participation from the various constitutive parts of the Northern Netherlands diﬀered according to time scale and subject matter, as well as social background. In many cases aﬀairs particular to a region in the Netherlands were visible in the participation in the trip to Italian studia, whether this was war and economic crisis in Holland in the last quarter of the ﬁfteenth century or the emergence of a centralized bureaucracy in Friesland in the ﬁrst quarter of the sixteenth century. These diﬀerences in participation rate at various stages in the period under investigation did not come completely out of the blue and both the situation on the peninsula and in the home regions had to be taken into consideration to obtain a clearer view of the mobility to Italy. Mobility to Italy could be region speciﬁc, even speciﬁc to a particular city. We saw that particularism was not entirely absent from the minds of the students themselves. The process of centralization commenced under the Burgundians in Holland and Zeeland at the beginning of the period and continued under the Habsburgs until it incorporated all of the Northern Netherlands was only partly successful. True, students from the northern Low Countries, with both lord and language in common, stuck together in far away places like Italian uni-

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versity cities. Even the iter italicum as a whole in the cohort 1551–75 seems to have taken on a general character similar for nearly all regions in the Low Countries. The appearance of the adjectives ﬂander and belga indicate that for some students there was a sence of belonging to a greater political, maybe even cultural entity: the Netherlands as a whole. In general, though, students felt they belonged to a smaller entity and identiﬁed primarily with their town, county, duchy or in the case of students from Friesland and Groningen with a ‘nation’, even in such distant lands. The attempts at increased centralization and uniﬁcation suﬀered as a consequence of the Revolt and future generations of students visiting the peninsula continued to identify themselves as batavus, frisius and geldrus rather than belga. There was considerable development over time in some aspects of the iter italicum. This change seems to have least aﬀected those who came primarily in search for the study of medicine. In general these medical students came from backgrounds that were somewhat more modest than their peers in the faculty of law. Their career perpective did not really change signiﬁcantly. A number of professorial chairs and positions in the growing health care market were waiting for them. For law students matters were diﬀerent. There was a gradual shift from the Church as the main employer to the various bureaucracies of state. Simpliﬁed one might say that in the ﬁfteenth century, the typical law graduate from an Italian studium, especially Bologna, aimed at the ‘fat’ prebends in the chapters of Utrecht and the high church oﬃces of the diocese. In the next century the various provincial courts would be the centre of attention from graduates that came increasingly from universities like Padua and Siena. In general, the career perspective was a promising one. University education was just one factor among others that decided a career outcome. Nevertheless, the career sample was not found wanting in terms of (family) relations and connections, that could date back to sitting on the college bench together. A number of intricate networks existed in which the students in the population found their way to various positions of power. A shared trip to the peninsula could play an important role in these constellations. The high density of graduates of Italian studia in Groningen, the chapters and episcopal council in Utrecht, the Courts of Holland and Friesland are excellent examples of how an ‘old boys’ network could develop. Another development over time was observed in the social

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background of the population. The iter italicum was also relatively exclusive in its social character. Comparatively few pauperes made it to the other side of the Alps. Most of them studied medicine rather than law. Their share in the population decreased over time and hardly any poor students were found in the later sixteenth century. The reverse was true for noble students. They were relatively wellrepresented from the start, but their share increased considerably towards the sixteenth century. This increasing ‘aristocratization’ of the university landscape was a more general feature of the sixteenth century, but even more marked for the already exclusive trip to Italy. Changing attitudes towards poverty and the poor can be observed in the dealings of Italian studia with their suppositi. On the other hand the increased interest in university studies from the nobility has to viewed against a background in which positions in government that had traditionally been very much the domain of the nobility became more specialized and time-consuming. If they wished to continue to be a part of government, they had to compete with graduates from bourgeois milieus who were able and willing to replace them. There was at least some pressure on noble students to not fall behind. In a more general sense the elitist humanist model did make an impact and a trip to the great cities in southern Europe suited the educational purposes of the elite. Despite the rather elevated social proﬁle of the population, there was evidence that for those not belonging to the elites of the northern Low Countries a degree from an Italian university could open up career possibilities. Their education, among other important aspects of social life, could indeed be an asset if one wanted to get further in life. Unsurprisingly, many of the students studied here had to be qualiﬁed as deﬁnite social climbers. The importance of the iter italicum did not just lie in the considerable number of students and graduates of law and medicine, their key positions in government, administration, academia and health care. More than just the graduation certiﬁcate was taken home. Their role as mediators of concepts and ideas of Renaissance humanism cannot be underestimated, both in active and passive roles. Hitherto unknown classical texts (sometimes in Greek), new editions of known ones, and an interest in the classics, of which the ideas and merits were keenly debated in learned circles in the Netherlands, were all part of the bagage of these academic pilgrims. Italian universities, but maybe even more Italy as a Renaissance society continued

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to be an inspiration and attraction right into the seventeenth century. One gets the impression that from the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, the lecture halls of the famous studia were deﬁnitely not the only places to visit. The palazzi in Florence and Venice, the ruins of Rome were high on the list of artists and students alike. The study of the history of universities in general and in a more speciﬁc sense the history of those visiting and teaching in them is of the utmost importance for our knowledge of various aspects of culture in the late-medieval and early modern Netherlands. With the notable exception of Friesland and Groningen much remains to be done to draw the map of the role the many thousands of students played in the various parts of the Netherlands prior to the foundation of the University of Leiden in 1575. The role that the ‘home’ universities of Louvain and Cologne played, among several other important studia, cannot be underestimated in this respect. This book set out to ﬁll at least part of this gap in trying to assess student mobility to Italy, those young men who covered quite a distance in both time and space. Although the majority of the students studied in this book started out like most others by studying at either Louvain or Cologne, which again testiﬁes to the importance of these institutions, one must conclude that the peregrinatio academica to Italy occupies a special place in the history of student mobility from the northern Low Countries. For many students in the population the iter italicum was the beginning of a success story, in which status and rank, specialization and graduation were key words. This should not take anything away from the fact that even within this comparatively successful group many young men remain unknown to us. Though our knowledge of students in the population will continue to increase with time, we should not close our eyes to the possibility that Gossowinus de Holandia, student of medicine at Padua in 1431, will probably forever remain anonymous. The limitations of historical research often do not allow us to do justice to those who have gone before us. Although many of them of necessity go unmentioned in these pages, the iter italicum was only ever a real cultural phenomenon in its dramatis personae. A next—diﬃcult, maybe even impossible—assignment would be to capture their minds as well as their movements, their gaity and grief as well as their graduations, their failures as well as their fame. The peregrinatio academica to Italy certainly was alive with expectations, some of which did deﬁnitely

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come true. Perhaps our last thoughts should go to those who were not able to see their expectations fulﬁlled. This could take us to a corner beside the main entrance of St Nicolas’ Church in the city of Bologna, where the law student IJsbrand van der Werve of Leiden— already magister artium and proctor of the German Nation, a man of promise—was buried in 1466 after he died of an epidemic disease. Only half the sum he had paid upon matriculation with the German Nation of the Alma Mater Bononiensis was laid down by the Nation for his funeral service.58

58 (“Isbrandus Werf Leidensis epidemie morbo infectus mortem obivit sepultus in ecclesia S. Nicholai, que contigua est vie publice ac monasterio S. Felicis, iuxta fores maiores supradicte pariochialis ecclesie in angulo, que vie publice proximior est.”); Acta, 205, 37; 210, 29; 211, 7; 211, 27.

APPENDIX

ADDITIONAL TABLES AND GRAPHS

Chapter 2: Dutch Students and Italian Universities (1426–1575): Their Curriculum Studiosorum

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Law

%

Med.

%

Arts

%

Theo.

%

Unkn.

%

Tot. = 100%

12 23 50 31 11 17

63.2 65.7 83.3 75.6 30.6 56.7

5 9 9 10 24 13

26.3 25.7 15.0 24.4 66.7 43.3

0 1 0 0 0 0

0.0 2.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

1 0 0 0 1 0

5.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.8 0.0

1 2 1 0 0 0

5.3 5.7 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.0

19 35 60 41 36 30

144

65.2

70

31.7

1

0.5

2

0.9

4

1.8

221

Table A2.3.1. Choice of faculty at the University of Bologna (1426–1575) in 25-year periods (% in italics).

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Law

%

Med.

%

Arts

%

Theo.

%

Unkn.

%

Tot. = 100%

20 18 6 2 9 62

30.8 30.0 50.0 50.0 60.0 70.5

34 23 4 1 3 25

52.3 38.3 33.3 25.0 20.0 28.4

1 1 0 1 0 0

1.5 1.7 0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0

1 1 0 0 1 0

1.5 1.7 0.0 0.0 6.7 0.0

9 18 2 0 2 2

13.8 30.0 16.7 0.0 13.3 2.3

65 60 12 4 15 88

117

48.1

90

37.0

3

1.2

3

1.2

33

13.6

243

Table A2.3.2. Choice of faculty at the University of Padua (1426–1575) in 25-year periods (% in italics).

appendix

382 Law

%

Med.

%

Arts

%

Theo.

%

Unkn.

%

Tot. = 100%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

4 22.2 18 25.4 8 25.8 3 100.0 7 50.0 12 80.0

13 34 15 0 5 3

72.2 47.9 48.4 0.0 35.7 20.0

0 2 0 0 0 0

0.0 2.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

0 1 0 0 0 0

0.0 1.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

1 16 8 0 2 0

5.6 22.5 25.8 0.0 14.3 0.0

18 71 31 3 14 15

Total

52

70

46.1

2

1.3

1

0.7

27

17.8

152

34.2

Table A2.3.3. Choice of faculty at the University of Ferrara (1426–1575) in 25-year periods (% in italics).

DUI LUI DICan LICan DICiv LICiv DM DT Total Total Total Per Deg Pop 1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

1 4 5 3 5 11

0 0 0 1 0 0

2 7 6 1 0 1

2 1 0 1 0 0

0 1 7 3 0 0

0 1 2 0 0 1

4 0 5 7 21 12

1 0 0 0 1 0

10 14 25 16 27 25

13 20 31 28 30 29

19 35 60 41 36 30

Total Cat

29

1

17

4

11

4

49

2

117

151

221

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

%

5.3 11.4 8.3 7.3 13.9 36.7

0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 0.0 0.0

10.5 20.0 10.0 2.4 0.0 3.3

10.5 2.9 0.0 2.4 0.0 0.0

0.0 2.9 11.7 7.3 0.0 0.0

0.0 2.9 3.3 0.0 0.0 3.3

21.1 0.0 8.3 17.1 58.3 40.0

5.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.8 0.0

52.6 40.0 41.7 39.0 75.0 83.3

68.4 57.1 51.7 68.3 83.3 96.7

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total Cat 13.1

0.5

7.7

1.8

5.0

1.8

22.2 0.9

52.9

68.3

100

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Table A2.4.1. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Bologna in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages (in italics).1

1 Tot1 gives the graduations at the University of Bologna; Tot2 gives the number of students who attended Bologna and eventually obtained a degree, not necessarily at Bologna; Tot3 gives the total numbers of students from the Northern Netherlands attending the University of Bologna.

2.9

Total Cat

0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

3.3

7.7 5.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

8

5 3 0 0 0 0

1.2

3.1 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

3

2 1 0 0 0 0

0.4

1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

1

1 0 0 0 0 0

DI Can LI Can DI Civ

0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

0

0 0 0 0 0 0

LI Civ

14.0

23.1 15.0 16.7 0.0 7.1 8.0

%

34

15 9 2 0 1 7

DM

0.8

0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 1.1

%

2

0 0 0 1 0 1

M/LA

0.4

0.0 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

1

0 1 0 0 0 0

DT

23.5

36.9 23.3 16.7 25.0 21.4 14.8

%

57

24 14 2 1 3 13

Tot1

51.4

56.9 41.7 58.3 75.0 85.7 46.6

%

125

37 25 7 3 12 41

Tot2

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

%

243

65 60 12 4 14 88

Tot3

Table A2.4.2. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Padua in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages (in italics).

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 14.3 5.7

%

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

0

7

Total Cat

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 5

LUI

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

DUI

additional tables and graphs 383

13.2

Total Cat

0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

5.9

0.0 5.9 15.6 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

9

0 4 5 0 0 0

DICan

0.7

0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

1

0 1 0 0 0 0

LICan

5.3

0.0 4.4 9.4 66.7 0.0 0.0

%

8

0 3 3 2 0 0

DICiv

0.7

0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

1

0 1 0 0 0 0

LICiv

34.9

44.4 33.8 50.0 0.0 21.4 17.6

%

53

8 23 16 0 3 3

DM

2.0

11.1 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

3

2 1 0 0 0 0

M/LA

0.7

0.0 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

%

1

0 1 0 0 0 0

DT

63.2

55.6 50.0 78.1 66.7 57.1 100.0

%

96

10 34 25 2 8 17

Tot1

69.7

61.1 57.4 78.1 66.7 85.7 100.0

%

106

11 39 25 2 12 17

Tot2

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

%

152

18 68 32 3 14 17

Tot3

Table A2.4.3. Graduations of students from the Northern Netherlands at the University of Ferrara in 25-year periods in absolute numbers and percentages (in italics).

0.0 0.0 3.1 0.0 35.7 82.4

%

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

0

20

Total Cat

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 5 14

LUI

1426–50 1451–75 1476–00 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

DUI

384 appendix

additional tables and graphs

385

Chapter Three: Geographical Origin

Law

Medicine

Oth/Unkn.

T. Reg.

Deg.Law

Deg.Med.

Deg.Tot.

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unknown

127 26 34 21 28 45 40 6

127 28 12 14 7 10 10 6

35 8 12 15 8 9 4 8

289 62 58 50 43 64 54 20

67 16 22 13 16 26 28 4

104 20 10 12 4 9 8 5

172 36 35 27 21 34 36 11

Total Cat

327

214

99

640

192

172

373

Cum%TL Cum%TM

Cum%TO Cum%TR Cum%DL

Cum%DM Cum%DT

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unknown

38.8 8.0 10.4 6.4 8.6 13.8 12.2 1.8

59.3 13.1 5.6 6.5 3.3 4.7 4.7 2.8

35.4 8.1 12.1 15.2 8.1 9.1 4.0 8.1

45.2 9.7 9.1 7.8 6.7 10.0 8.4 3.1

34.9 8.3 11.5 6.8 8.3 13.5 14.6 2.1

60.5 11.6 5.8 7.0 2.3 5.2 4.7 2.9

46.1 9.7 9.4 7.2 5.6 9.4 9.7 2.9

Total Cat

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

L%Reg

M%Reg

O/U%Reg

Holland Zeeland Utrecht Guelders Overijssel Friesland Groningen Unknown

43.9 41.9 58.6 42.0 65.1 70.3 74.1 30.0

43.9 45.2 20.7 28.0 16.3 15.6 18.5 30.0

12.1 12.9 20.7 30.0 18.6 14.1 7.4 40.0

100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

39.0 44.4 62.9 48.1 76.2 74.3 77.8 36.4

60.5 55.6 28.6 44.4 19.0 25.7 22.2 45.5

100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Total Cat

51.1

33.4

15.5

100

51.3

46.2

100

Tot.Reg. DL%TDR DM%TDR

TDReg.

Table A3.1.1. Survey table of choice of faculty and degrees in higher faculties obtained according to region in absolute numbers; in cumulative percentages; in percentages of the regional total.

appendix

386 Holland Law

Medicine

11 30 17 11 15 43

30 36 18 9 16 18

5 18 6 2 2 0

46 85 42 22 33 61

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

127

127

35

289

327

214

Percent.

%

%

%

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

23.9 35.3 40.5 50.0 45.5 70.5

65.2 42.4 42.9 40.9 48.5 29.5

10.9 21.2 14.3 9.1 6.1 0.0

100 100 100 100 100 100

33.3 58.8 28.3 25.0 42.9 41.3

63.8 67.9 69.2 56.3 51.6 43.9

Total

43.9

43.9

12.1

100

38.8

59.3

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

TotalMed

Hol%TLaw H%TMed

Table A3.1.2. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages.

Amsterdam Leiden Haarlem Dordrecht The Hague Delft Gouda Alkmaar Brill Hoorn Rotterdam Beverwijk Naarden Medemblik Schiedam Heusden Bergen Edam Nieuwland

34 33 23 22 21 18 16 10 10 10 9 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2

Alphen Blokker Bommel De Lier Egmond Everdingen Geertruidenberg Geervliet Gorinchem Heemskerk Heukelum Huisduinen Jisp Kalslagen Kenenburg Laren Meerkerk Monnikendam Muiden

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

additional tables and graphs Noordwijk Weesp Wieringen Zevenbergen

2 2 2 2

387

Oudeniedorp Portegaal Purmerend Ridderkerk Rijnsburg Rijswijk Sassenheim Schellinkhout Schoonhoven Steenbergen Valkenburg Vianen Woerden Zevender

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.3. Towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

Zeeland Law

Medicine

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

1 7 4 0 3 11

6 12 4 2 1 3

0 7 1 0 0 0

7 26 9 2 4 14

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

26

28

8

62

327

214

%

Z%TLaw

Z%TMed

%

TotalMed

%

%

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

14.3 26.9 44.4 0.0 75.0 78.6

85.7 46.2 44.4 100.0 25.0 21.4

0.0 26.9 11.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

100 100 100 100 100 100

3.0 13.7 6.7 0.0 8.6 10.6

12.8 22.6 15.4 12.5 3.2 7.3

Total

41.9

45.2

12.9

100

8.0

13.1

Table A3.1.4. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and in percentages.

appendix

388 Zierikzee Middelburg Goes Borssele Reimerswaal Veere Kapelle Baersdorp Dreischor

13 12 6 4 3 3 2 1 1

Emelisse Goedereede2 Hulst Kortgene Nisse Poortvliet Renesse Sluis3 Tholen Yerseke

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.5. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

Utrecht Law

Medicine

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

TotalMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

3 2 12 2 2 13

1 1 1 2 3 4

1 2 5 1 0 3

5 5 18 5 5 20

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

34

12

12

58

327

214

%

%

%

%

U%TLaw U%TMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

60.0 40.0 66.7 40.0 40.0 65.0

20.0 20.0 5.6 40.0 60.0 20.0

20.0 40.0 27.8 20.0 0.0 15.0

100 100 100 100 100 100

9.1 3.9 20.0 4.5 5.7 12.5

2.1 1.9 3.8 12.5 9.7 9.8

Total

58.6

20.7

20.7

100

10.4

5.6

Table A3.1.6. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and as percentages.

2

Goedereede could also be counted among the county Holland. In the ﬁfteenth century, Sluis was still part of the county Flanders. Not until the 1520s was it considered to be a part of Zeeland. 3

additional tables and graphs Utrecht Amersfoort Rhenen Montfoort

389

48 7 2 1

Table A3.1.7. Cities towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

Guelders Law 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Medicine

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

TotalMed

4 2 2 3 2 8

4 1 1 0 4 4

2 1 0 0 1 11

10 4 3 3 7 23

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

21

14

15

50

327

214

%

%

%

%

G%TLaw

G%TMed

40.0 50.0 66.7 100.0 28.6 34.8

40.0 25.0 33.3 0.0 57.1 17.4

20.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 14.3 47.8

100 100 100 100 100 100

12.1 3.9 3.3 6.8 5.7 7.7

8.5 1.9 3.8 0.0 12.9 9.8

42.0

28.0

30.0

100

6.4

6.5

Table A3.1.8. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages.

appendix

390 Nijmegen Arnhem Tiel Doesburg Hattum Sittard ’s Heerenberg Beusichem Brakel Delden Driel Duiven

12 8 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1

Echteld Elst Grave Horst Oldenzaal Ommeren Rijswijk Roermond St. Hubert Venlo Zevenaar Zutphen

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.9. Cities, towns and villages mentioned and their number of students.

Overijssel Law

Medicine

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

7 5 10 3 0 3

4 1 0 0 0 2

3 1 0 0 1 3

14 7 10 3 1 8

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

28

7

8

43

327

214

%

%

%

%

O%TLaw

O%TMed

50.0 71.4 100.0 100.0 0.0 37.5

28.6 14.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.0

21.4 14.3 0.0 0.0 100.0 37.5

100 100 100 100 100 100

21.2 9.8 16.7 6.8 0.0 2.9

8.5 1.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.9

65.1

16.3

18.6

100

8.6

3.3

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

Table A3.1.10. Choice of faculty in absolute number and percentages.

TotalMed

additional tables and graphs Kampen Deventer Zwolle Steenwijk Vollenhove

16 14 4 2 2

391

Almelo Hasselt Ittersum Meer

1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.11. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

Friesland Law

Medicine

Oth/Unkn. Tot. period TotalLaw

TotalMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

3 2 0 16 7 17

1 1 0 2 2 4

0 1 1 0 1 6

4 4 1 18 10 27

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

45

10

9

64

327

214

%

%

%

%

F%TLaw

F%TMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

75.0 50.0 0.0 88.9 70.0 63.0

25.0 25.0 0.0 11.1 20.0 14.8

0.0 25.0 100.0 0.0 10.0 22.2

100 100 100 100 100 100

9.1 3.9 0.0 36.4 20.0 16.3

2.1 1.9 0.0 12.5 6.5 9.8

Total

70.3

15.6

14.1

100

13.8

4.7

Table A3.1.12. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages.

Leeuwarden Sneek Bolsward Dokkum Franeker Dornum Workum Augustinusga Barrahuis

13 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 1

Elahuizen Ferwerd Hindeloopen Kollum Lemmer Mantgum Mirdum Staveren Wonseradeel

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.13. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

appendix

392 Groningen Law

Medicine Oth/Unkn.

Tot. period TotalLaw

TotalMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

4 2 12 8 5 9

0 1 2 1 1 5

1 2 1 0 0 0

5 5 15 9 6 14

33 51 60 44 35 104

47 53 26 16 31 41

Total

40

10

4

54

327

214

%

%

%

%

Gr%TLaw Gr%TMed

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

80.0 40.0 80.0 88.9 83.3 64.3

0.0 20.0 13.3 11.1 16.7 35.7

20.0 40.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0

100 100 100 100 100 100

12.1 3.9 20.0 18.2 14.3 8.7

0.0 1.9 7.7 6.3 3.2 12.2

Total

74.1

18.5

7.4

100

12.2

4.7

Table A3.1.14. Choice of faculty in absolute numbers and percentages.

Groningen Emden Aduard Baflo Coevorden(Dr) Eelderwolde Grimersum Leermens Mensingeweer

43 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Table A3.1.15. Cities, towns and villages mentioned with their number of students.

39.1

Total Reg

7.7

10.9

16.7 8.8 18.3 4.9 5.6 9.7

% Utrecht

24

3 3 11 2 2 3

Utrecht

8.2

11.1 8.8 5.0 7.3 13.9 6.5

% Guelders

18

2 3 3 3 5 2

Guelders

9.1

22.2 5.9 16.7 4.9 0.0 6.5

% Overijssel

20

4 2 10 2 0 2

Overijssel

10.0

5.6 0.0 0.0 39.0 8.3 6.5

% Friesland

22

1 0 0 16 3 2

Friesland

10.9

5.6 0.0 18.3 12.2 8.3 12.9

% Groningen

24

1 0 11 5 3 4

Groningen

Table A3.1.16. Attendance at the University of Bologna according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages.

27.8 55.9 31.7 26.8 52.8 41.9

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

11.1 17.6 6.7 2.4 0.0 12.9

% Zeeland

% Holland

Region

17

86

Total Reg

2 6 4 1 0 4

Zeeland

5 19 19 11 19 13

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Bologna

4.1

0.0 2.9 3.3 2.4 11.1 3.2

% Unknown

9

0 1 2 1 4 1

Unknown

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

% TotalPer

220

18 34 60 41 36 31

TotalPer

additional tables and graphs 393

56.4

Total Reg

11.5

6.2 15.0 25.0 0.0 14.3 11.4 6.2

3.1 3.3 8.3 0.0 0.0 11.4

% Utrecht

15

2 2 1 0 0 10

Utrecht

6.6

12.3 1.7 0.0 0.0 7.1 6.8

% Guelders

16

8 1 0 0 1 6

Guelders

5.8

16.9 0.0 0.0 25.0 0.0 2.3

% Overijssel

14

11 0 0 1 0 2

Overijssel

7.8

3.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 21.4 15.9

% Friesland

19

2 0 0 0 3 14

Friesland

4.9

4.6 3.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 8.0

% Groningen

12

3 2 0 0 0 7

Groningen

Table A3.1.17. Attendance at the University of Padua according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages.

53.8 73.3 66.7 75.0 57.1 44.3

% Zeeland

% Holland

Region

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

28

137

Total Reg

4 9 3 0 2 10

Zeeland

35 44 8 3 8 39

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Padua

0.8

0.0 3.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

% Unknown

2

0 2 0 0 0 0

Unknown

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

% TotalPer

243

65 60 12 4 14 88

TotalPer

394 appendix

52.6

Total Reg

13.2

5.3

0.0 1.4 3.1 0.0 14.3 26.7

% Utrecht

8

0 1 1 0 2 4

Utrecht

1.3

0.0 1.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.7

% Guelders

2

0 1 0 0 0 1

Guelders

6.6

20.0 7.2 0.0 0.0 7.1 0.0

% Overijssel

10

4 5 0 0 1 0

Overijssel

6.6

0.0 4.3 3.1 50.0 21.4 13.3

% Friesland

10

0 3 1 1 3 2

Friesland

11.2

5.0 5.8 18.8 50.0 14.3 20.0

% Groningen

17

1 4 6 1 2 3

Groningen

Table A3.1.18. Attendance at the University of Ferrara according to region; in absolute numbers and percentages.

65.0 58.0 59.4 0.0 35.7 20.0

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

5.0 15.9 15.6 0.0 7.1 13.3

% Zeeland

% Holland

Region

20

80

Total Reg

1 11 5 0 1 2

Zeeland

13 40 19 0 5 3

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Ferrara

3.3

5.0 5.8 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

% Unknown

5

1 4 0 0 0 0

Unknown

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

% TotalPer

152

20 69 32 2 14 15

TotalPer

additional tables and graphs 395

Zeeland

Holland

5.5 15.5 9.6 9.7

Zeeland

Holland

35.6 58.6 45.0 45.2

6.5 14.5 79.0

9.0 11.8 79.2

11.0 1.7 9.6 9.1

Utrecht

13.8 1.7 84.5

Utrecht

1.3 0.2 7.7 9.1 3.4

58

8 1 49

Utrecht

9.6 5.2 7.9 7.8

Gelre

14.0 6.0 80.0

Gelre

1.1 0.5 6.3 7.8 19.4

50

7 3 40

Gelre

6.8 3.4 7.1 6.7

Overijs.

11.6 4.7 83.7

Overijs.

0.8 0.3 5.6 6.7 7.7

43

5 2 36

Overijssel

20.5 1.7 9.4 10.0

Friesl.

23.4 1.6 75.0

Friesl.

2.3 0.2 7.5 10.0 10.9

64

15 1 48

Friesland

9.6 13.8 7.7 8.4

Groning.

13.0 14.8 72.2

Groning.

1.1 1.3 6.1 8.4 7.2

54

7 8 39

Groningen

Table A4.1.1. Survey table: Nobiles, Divites and Pauperes in absolute numbers and percentages per region.

NR%NTot. PR%PTot. DR%DTot. R%Tot.

n%Rpop p%Rpop d%Rpop

0.6 1.4 7.7 9.7 12.4

4.1 5.3 35.8 45.2 39.1

n%pop. p%pop. d%pop. R%pop R%popNN

62

289

Total

4 9 49

26 34 229

Zeeland

nobilis pauper dives

Holland

Chapter Four: Social Background

1.4 0.0 3.7 3.1

Unkn.

5.0 0.0 95.0

Unkn.

0.2 0.0 3.0 3.1 0.0

20

1 0 19

Unknown

100 100 100 100

Total

11.4 9.1 79.5

Total

11.4 9.1 79.5 100.0

640

73 58 509

Total

396 appendix

0.0 2.1 3.9 0.0 4.2 9.6

4.1

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Total Reg

Holland

26

Total Reg

N.%TP

0 3 4 0 3 16

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Nobiles

0.6

0.0 0.7 0.0 1.6 0.0 1.2

Zeeland

4

0 1 0 1 0 2

Zeeland

1.3

1.1 1.4 2.0 0.0 1.4 1.2

Utrecht

8

1 2 2 0 1 2

Utrecht

1.1

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 3.6

Gelre

7

0 0 0 0 1 6

Gelre

0.8

3.2 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.6

Overijssel

5

3 0 1 0 0 1

Overijssel

2.3

0.0 0.0 0.0 4.8 5.6 4.8

Friesland

15

0 0 0 3 4 8

Friesland

1.1

0.0 0.0 2.0 0.0 5.6 0.6

Groningen

7

0 0 2 0 4 1

Groningen

0.2

0.0 0.0 0.0 1.6 0.0 0.0

Unknown

1

0 0 0 1 0 0

Unknown

11.4

4.3 4.2 8.8 7.9 18.1 21.6

T.%Nob.

73

4 6 9 5 13 36

Total Nob.

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total

640

93 143 102 63 72 167

Total

additional tables and graphs 397

9.0

Total Reg

6.5

0.0 3.8 0.0 50.0 0.0 14.3

Zeeland

13.8

20.0 40.0 11.1 0.0 20.0 10.0

Utrecht

14.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.5 27.3

Gelre

11.6

21.4 0.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 12.5

Overijssel

23.4

0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 40.0 29.6

Friesland

13.0

0.0 0.0 13.3 0.0 66.7 7.1

Groningen

5.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 0.0 0.0

Unknown

11.4

4.3 4.2 8.8 7.9 18.1 21.6

Total per.

Table A4.1.2. Nobiles per region in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population and the regional population in 25-year cohorts.

0.0 3.5 9.5 0.0 9.1 26.2

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

N.%PR

Table A4.1.2. (cont.)

398 appendix

additional tables and graphs Nobiles

Law

Law% Med.

Med%

399

Other/Unkn. Other/Unkn.%

Total N.

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

3 5 8 4 12 32

75.0 83.3 88.9 80.0 92.3 88.9

0 0 0 1 1 1

0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 7.7 2.8

1 1 1 0 0 3

25.0 16.7 11.1 0.0 0.0 8.3

4 6 9 5 13 36

Total Fac.

64

87.7

3

4.1

6

8.2

73

Table A4.1.3. Choice of faculty in Italy of noble students in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts.

Nobiles

NLaw

Law

N%TLaw

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

3 5 8 4 12 32

33 51 60 44 35 104

9.1 9.8 13.3 9.1 34.3 30.8

Total Fac.

64

327

19.6

Table A4.1.4. Noble students as part of the law faculty compared to their total share in the population in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts.

12.9 10.5 4.9 0.0 1.4 0.6

5.3

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Total Reg

Holland

34

Total Reg

%Tpop

12 15 5 0 1 1

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

Pauperes

1.4

2.2 4.2 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Zeeland

9

2 6 1 0 0 0

Zeeland

0.2

0.0 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Utrecht

1

0 1 0 0 0 0

Utrecht

0.5

1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 0.6

Gelre

3

1 0 0 0 1 1

Gelre

0.3

0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.6

Overijssel

2

0 0 1 0 0 1

Overijssel

0.2

0.0 0.0 0.0 1.6 0.0 0.0

Friesland

1

0 0 0 1 0 0

Friesland

1.3

0.0 2.1 2.0 3.2 0.0 0.6

Groningen

8

0 3 2 2 0 1

Groningen

0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Unknown

0

0 0 0 0 0 0

Unknown

9.1

16.1 17.5 8.8 4.8 2.8 2.4

T % Paup.

58

15 25 9 3 2 4

T Paup.

100

100 100 100 100 100 100

Total

640

93 143 102 63 72 167

Total

400 appendix

11.8

Total Reg

14.5

28.6 23.1 11.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

Zeeland

1.7

0.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Utrecht

6.0

10.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 12.5 4.5

Gelre

4.7

0.0 0.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 12.5

Overijssel

1.6

0.0 0.0 0.0 5.6 0.0 0.0

Friesland

14.8

0.0 60.0 13.3 22.2 0.0 7.1

Groningen

0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Unknown

9.1

16.1 17.5 8.8 4.8 2.8 2.4

Total per.

Table A4.1.5. Pauperes per region in absolute numbers and percentages of the total population and the regional population in 25-year cohorts.

26.1 17.6 11.9 0.0 3.0 1.6

Holland

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

P%Rpop

additional tables and graphs 401

appendix

402 Pauperes 1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75 Total fac.

Law

Law%

4 26.7 7 28.0 4 44.4 3 100.0 0 0.0 2 50.0 20

34.5

Med.

Med.% Other/Unkn. Other/Unkn.%

Total P.

11 12 2 0 2 1

73.3 48.0 22.2 0.0 100.0 25.0

0 6 3 0 0 1

0.0 24.0 33.3 0.0 0.0 25.0

15 25 9 3 2 4

28

48.3

10

17.2

58

Table A4.1.6. Choice of faculty in Italy of “poor” students in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts.

Pauperes

PLaw

Law

P%Tlaw

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

4 7 4 3 0 2

33 51 60 44 35 104

12.1 13.7 6.7 6.8 0.0 1.9

Total Fac.

20

327

6.1

Table A4.1.7. “Poor” students as part of the law faculty compared to their total share in the population in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts.

Divites

Law

Med.

Oth./Unkn. T. Div.

1426–50 1451–75 1476–1500 1501–25 1526–50 1551–75

26 39 48 37 23 71

36 41 24 15 28 39

12 32 12 3 6 17

Total Fac.

244

183

82

Law%

Med%

Oth./Unkn.%

74 112 84 55 57 127

35.1 34.8 57.1 67.3 40.4 55.9

48.6 36.6 28.6 27.3 49.1 30.7

16.2 28.6 14.3 5.5 10.5 13.4

509

47.9

36.0

16.1

Table A4.1.8. Choice of faculty in Italy of divites in absolute numbers and percentages in 25-year cohorts.

additional tables and graphs

403

Chapter 5: The Student in Society: Careers, Networks and Social Mobility

Nr

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

14 25 6 4 0 5 0 0 0

21 22 6 17 0 6 9 0 6

12 25 3 12 1 7 3 4 0

13 23 6 12 3 10 3 3 6

19 7 13 11 5 7 2 5 2

9 16 19 23 16 27 15 7 16

88 118 53 79 25 62 32 19 30

Total Ind.

41

54

49

49

42

102

337

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

(%TPop) Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

15.1 26.9 6.5 4.3 0.0 5.4 0.0 0.0 0.0

14.7 15.4 4.2 11.9 0.0 4.2 6.3 0.0 4.2

11.8 24.5 2.9 11.8 1.0 6.9 2.9 3.9 0.0

20.6 36.5 9.5 19.0 4.8 15.9 4.8 4.8 9.5

26.4 9.7 18.1 15.3 6.9 9.7 2.8 6.9 2.8

5.4 9.6 11.4 13.8 9.6 16.2 9.0 4.2 9.6

13.8 18.4 8.3 12.3 3.9 9.7 5.0 3.0 4.7

Total Ind.

44.1

60.8

48.0

77.8

58.3

61.1

52.7

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

(%TCar)

1426–50

1451–75

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

34.1 61.0 14.6 9.8 0.0 12.2 0.0 0.0 0.0

38.9 40.7 11.1 31.5 0.0 11.1 16.7 0.0 11.1

24.5 51.0 6.1 24.5 2.0 14.3 6.1 8.2 0.0

26.5 46.9 12.2 24.5 6.1 20.4 6.1 6.1 12.2

45.2 16.7 31.0 26.2 11.9 16.7 4.8 11.9 4.8

8.8 15.7 18.6 22.5 15.7 26.5 14.7 6.9 15.7

26.1 35.0 15.7 23.4 7.4 18.4 9.5 5.6 8.9

Total Ind.

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Table A5.1.1. Career sectors of the population (N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered.

appendix

404 (NLaw)

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

8 15 0 2 0 4 0 0 0

9 12 0 12 0 6 6 0 2

6 20 0 10 1 7 3 4 0

5 18 0 7 2 9 2 3 4

5 6 1 5 5 7 3 5 1

1 9 0 21 16 25 14 7 14

34 80 1 57 24 58 28 19 21

Total Ind.

20

26

37

34

22

70

209

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

(%TPop)

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

24.2 45.5 0.0 6.1 0.0 12.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

17.6 23.5 0.0 23.5 0.0 11.8 11.8 0.0 3.9

10.0 33.3 0.0 16.7 1.7 11.7 5.0 6.7 0.0

11.4 40.9 0.0 15.9 4.5 20.5 4.5 6.8 9.1

14.3 17.1 2.9 14.3 14.3 20.0 8.6 14.3 2.9

1.0 8.7 0.0 20.2 15.4 24.0 13.5 6.7 13.5

10.4 24.5 0.3 17.4 7.3 17.7 8.6 5.8 6.4

Total Ind.

60.6

51.0

61.7

77.3

62.9

67.3

63.9

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

(%TCar)

1426–50

1451–75

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

40.0 75.0 0.0 10.0 0.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

34.6 46.2 0.0 46.2 0.0 23.1 23.1 0.0 7.7

16.2 54.1 0.0 27.0 2.7 18.9 8.1 10.8 0.0

14.7 52.9 0.0 20.6 5.9 26.5 5.9 8.8 11.8

22.7 27.3 4.5 22.7 22.7 31.8 13.6 22.7 4.5

1.4 12.9 0.0 30.0 22.9 35.7 20.0 10.0 20.0

16.3 38.3 0.5 27.3 11.5 27.8 13.4 9.1 10.0

Total Ind.

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Table A5.1.2. Career sectors of law students (N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered.

(NMed) Academia Church Health City Region Province

1426–50 6 5 6 2 0 1

1451–75 7 4 5 4 0 0

1476–1500 4 2 3 2 0 0

1501–25 6 4 7 5 0 1

1526–50

1551–75

12 0 13 6 0 0

10 1 19 2 0 0

Total Cat. 45 16 53 21 0 2

additional tables and graphs

405

Table A5.1.3. (cont.) (NMed) States Central Other Total Ind. (%TPop)

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

0 0 0

3 0 1

0 0 0

1 0 1

0 0 0

0 1 1

4 1 3

15

16

8

13

16

23

91

1426–50

1451–75

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

12.8 10.6 12.8 4.3 0.0 2.1 0.0 0.0 0.0

13.2 7.5 9.4 7.5 0.0 0.0 5.7 0.0 1.9

15.4 7.7 11.5 7.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

37.5 25.0 43.8 31.3 0.0 6.3 6.3 0.0 6.3

38.7 0.0 41.9 19.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

24.4 2.4 46.3 4.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.4 2.4

21.0 7.5 24.8 9.8 0.0 0.9 1.9 0.5 1.4

Total Ind.

31.9

30.2

30.8

81.3

51.6

56.1

42.5

1476–1500

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

(%TCar)

1426–50

1451–75

Academia Church Health City Region Province States Central Other

40.0 33.3 40.0 13.3 0.0 6.7 0.0 0.0 0.0

43.8 25.0 31.3 25.0 0.0 0.0 18.8 0.0 6.3

50.0 25.0 37.5 25.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

46.2 30.8 53.8 38.5 0.0 7.7 7.7 0.0 7.7

75.0 0.0 81.3 37.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

43.5 4.3 82.6 8.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.3 4.3

49.5 17.6 58.2 23.1 0.0 2.2 4.4 1.1 3.3

Total Ind.

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Table A5.1.3. Career sectors of students of medicine(N), and as percentages of the total population, and of careers recovered.

% lect. artes prof. artes lect. prof. med. lect. prof. law prof. theol. Total T.

1426–50 13.3 20.0 6.7 6.7 26.7 26.7 0.0 100

1451–75 33.3 8.3 4.2 16.7 25.0 8.3 4.2 100

1476–00 33.3 33.3 0.0 8.3 25.0 0.0 0.0 100

1501–25

1526–50

1551–75

Total Cat.

50.0 6.3 0.0 0.0 25.0 12.5 6.3

33.3 9.5 0.0 19.0 14.3 19.0 4.8

9.1 18.2 18.2 36.4 9.1 0.0 9.1

30.3 14.1 4.0 14.1 21.2 12.1 4.0

100

100

100

100

Table A5.1.4. Various teaching positions in Academia as percentage of the total number of teaching positions (N = 99).

33

Total

28

10 8 5 2 0 0 1 1 1

1451–75

37

14 8 3 5 0 2 3 1 1

1476–00

26

13 6 3 2 0 1 1 0 0

1501–25

Table A5.1.5. Positions in the Church held by students of law in the population.

11 10 3 3 1 4 0 0 1

1426–50

parish canon preapos./(archci)diacon. oﬃcial/vicaris-generalis bishop curia pap. order abbot/rector court chaplain

Church careers Law

16

2 4 3 2 0 1 1 2 1

1526–50

18

3 5 0 3 1 3 1 2 0

1551–75

158

53 41 17 17 2 11 7 6 4

Total Cat.

406 appendix

additional tables and graphs Canonries

Can.

407 Dean

Cathedral Utrecht St Salvator St Mary St John St Peter St Lebuin’s Deventer OurLady Breda Court of Holland St Pancras Leiden St Gudile Brussels St Donaas Bruges St Stephen Nijmegen St Bavo Gent St Andrew Keulen St Gereon Keulen St Apostol. Keulen St Mary Luik St Mary Aachen St Servaas Maastr. St Adrian Naaldwijk St Salvator Susteren Emmerich St Antony Tournai Roermond St Marie Courtrai St Mary Kapelle St Cunibert Keulen St Amersfoort St Martin Surburg Court Chapel Brussels St Plechelmus Oldenzaal Bratislava Regular

17 9 6 6 3 5 3 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2

1 5 1 1 2 1 1 2

Total

84

22

Table A5.1.6. Canonries held by students in the population.

2

1

1 1 1 1 1

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INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES

With the exception of modern authors, persons have been indexed by their Christian names. For students, standardized, Latin Christian names have been used. Cross-references are used for their surnames (excluding patronymics). Aafje de Vroede 287 Abelius Sivius 264 Accursius 111 Adolf van Haemstede 339 Adolphus of Frisia 175 Adrian VI, pope 261, 322, 330, n. 101, 365 Adriano Borghese 334 Adrianus Boeyens, see Adrian VI Adrianus Junius 47, 93, 264, 266, 268, 292, 324, 357, 360–1 Adrianus of Leiden 229 Adrianus Lottini of Leiden 296 Adrianus van der Mijle 46, 194, 247–8, 275, 282–3, 334–6, 341, 370 Adrianus van Teylingen 237 Adrianus Theodorici of Leiden 273 Adrianus Walteri of Gouda 85 Aedituus, see Martinus Aelius Donatus 34 Aemson, see Judocus Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini 359 Aerschot, see Nicolaus Aert Coebel 334, 342 Agatha van Haemstede 339 Agricola, see Johannes; Rodolphus Alba, duke of, see Ferdinant Alvarez de Toledo Albert, duke of Saxony 275 Alberto d’Este, marquis of Ferrara 68 Albertus Adriani of Delft 28–9 Albertus Johannis of Friesland 133 Alblas, van, see Cornelia Alciatus, see Andreas Aldus Manutius 360 Alexander Hegius 355, n. 21, 356 Alexander de Villa Dei 34 Alfardus van Montfoort 47, 56, 102–3, 234, n. 78, 247, 312, 328–30 Allardus Cooltuyn 216, 291, 314, 368 Ameronghen, van, see Jacobus Ameyde, van, see Jacobus

Ammersoyen, van, see Paulus Ancharano, de, see Petrus Andreas Alciatus 72, 77–8, 97, 185, 353 Andreas, V. 104 Andreas Vesalius 353 Angelo Cato 185 Antoine Perrenot, cardinal Granvelle 298, 332 Antonius Buser 136 Antonius van Cuyck 236, 324 Aquila, dell’, see Sebastiano Arentsma, see Gisbertus Aristotle 44 Arnhem, van, see Carolus Arnoldus Bernardi of Amsterdam 116, 137 Arnoldus Boot 134 Arnoldus of Dordrecht 353 Arnoldus (Cornelii) van der Mijle 238, 321, 341, 370 Assendelft, van, see Bartholdus Augustinus van Teylingen 26, 237 Aurelius, see Cornelius Aylva, see Valerius Aytta, see Viglius ab Baden, see Frederick of Baersdorp, see Cornelius Bakker, de, see Jan Balduinus van Drenckwaert 333 Bartholdus van Assendelft 278, 342 Bartholomeus van Ethen 77, 236, 248, 266, 273, 275, 286, 290, 329 Bartholomeus van Wassenaar 31 Bartolus of Saxoferrato 111 Batenborch, van, see Machteld Beek, van, see Suger Behaim, see Friederich Bembo, see Pietro Bentheim, van, see Johannes Bermar, see Theodoricus Bernard Bucho 37, 331

432

index of personal names

Bernardus ten Broecke (Paludanus) 195, 361, 364 Bernardus de Spenio 93 Bernardus Wigboldus of Groningen 283 Bieselinge, van, see Joachimus Biso Mulaert 45 Bladeghen, see Gerardus; Henricus; Tielman Blotius, see Hugo Bodaeus, see Egbertus Boethius 355 Bogerman, see Johannes Boisot, see Carolus Bol, see Jacob Boot, see Arnoldus Borghese, see Adriano Borgo d’Este, marquis of Ferrara 63, 69 Borre, see Theodoricus Borsselen, van, see Maximilianus Bouchorst, van der, see Cornelius Brederode-family, see Gisbertus; Reinout III; Reinout; Robertus Broecke, ten, see Bernardus Bronchorst, van, see Petrus Bruyn, see Johannes Bucho van Montzima 333, n. 104 Burckhardt, J. 13 Burgundy, dukes of 150, 171, 193, 272, 277, 374, 376; also see Charles the Bold; Philip the Good Burke, P. 13, 353 Burmania, family 215; see Kempo; Renichus Buser, see Antonius Busleyden, see Jerome Caesar Porquin 338–9, 345 Callixt III, pope 103 Canisius, see Petrus Canter, family 215; see Jacobus; Johannes Capitibus Listae, de, see Franciscus Capo di Lista, see Capitibus Listae Carolus van Arnhem 275 Carolus Boisot 332 Caspar Stephani of Arnhem 290 Catharina van Drenckwaert 334 Catharina van Hoogelande 333 Cato, see Angelo Charles IV, emperor 66, n. 95, 73 Charles V, emperor 37, 61, 111,

150, 167, 169, 171, 178–9, 191–2, 266, 273, 275, 282–3, 330–2, 344, 365 Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy 150, 154, 168, 171, 174, n. 56, 275, 280 Christian III, king of Denmark 283 Christophorus Gaergoet 270 Clement VII, anti-pope 59 Clement VII, pope 332 Cobelius, see Coebel Coebel-family, see Aert; Margaretha; Philippus Conradus of Haarlem 86, n. 143 Cooltuyn, see Allardus Coradino Gilino 353 Cordus, see Valerius Cornelia van Alblas 321 Cornelius Andree of Sittard 47 Cornelius Aurelius 357, 360 Cornelius Baersdorp 266 Cornelius van der Bouchorst 320, 335 Cornelius van Drenckwaert 236, 333–4 Cornelius Egmond van der Nijenburch 334 Cornelius Florentii of Goes 192, 233, n. 75, 354, n. 19 Cornelius Haeck 368 Cornelius van der Hoech 317, 335, n. 110 Cornelius Jacobi of Reimerswaal 281 Cornelius Junius 215, 334 Cornelius (Cornelii) Junius 215 Cornelius van Mierop 36–7, 111, 225–6, 305, 330, n. 101, 331, 344, 364–5 Cornelius (Adriani) van der Mijle 336 Cornelius (Arnoldi) van der Mijle 46, 194, 370 Cornelius Petri of Leiden 155 Cornelius of Reimerswaal 231 Cornelius Theodorici of Dordrecht 337 Cornelius van Veen 289, 340, 366 Cornelius van der Veer 281 Cosimo de Medici, duke of Florence, grand duke of Tuscany 75, 79 Coster, see Martinus Aedituus Coyter, see Volcardus

index of personal names Cuyck, van, see Antonius; Johannes; Valerius Cyprian, Venetian landlord 49 Damant, see Pierre David of Burgundy, bishop of Utrecht 168, 275–6, 285, 287, 305, 311, 327, 329, 355 Diepholt, van, see Johannes; Rodolphus Dirk, see also under Theodoricus Dirk Egmond van der Nijenburch 335, n. 110 Dominicus Tettema 105–6, 283, 321, 364 Dornum, van, see Henricus Drenckwaert, van, see Balduinus; Catharina; Cornelius Duyn, van der, see Reinerus; Wilhelmus Eelts, see Johannes Egbertus Bodaeus 116 Egidius van Wissekerke 275 Egmond van der Nijenburch, see Cornelius; Dirk; Magdalena; Maria Erasmus 36, 47, 70, 81, 86, 216, 220, 232, 284, 322, 331, 353–54, 356–60, 362, 365–6, 368 Ercole d’Este, duke of Ferrara 71, 233 Eric XIV, king of Sweden 266 Este family, marquises and dukes of Ferrara 71; see Alberto; Borgo, Ercole Esthius, see Lubertus Ethen, family van, see Bartholomeus; Nicolaus; Reinerus Everardus Hubbeldinck 355 Ewijck, van, see Gisbertus Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino 261 Ferdinand I, emperor 266, 283, 332 Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, duke of Alba 158, 335–6, 369–70 Folquinus Horst 135 Foreest, van, family 36, 237, 324–5, 337; also see Jacobus; Jorden; Petrus; Theodorus Forestus, see Foreest Francesco I, grand duke of Tuscany 76

433

Franciscus de Capitibus Listae 231 Franciscus Zabarella 111 François van Valckesteyn 334–5 Frederick II, king of Denmark 292 Frederick III, count palatine of the Rhine 336 Frederick of Baden, bishop of Utrecht 276 Friederich Behaim 49 Frijhoff, W.Th.M. 2–3, 4 Froben, see Johannes Galeazzo II Visconti, ruler of Milan 77 Gansfort, see Wessel Geertruyt van Neck 289 Gelmers, family 237; see Theodoricus Georgius Nicolai Everardi 252 Georgius Stephani de Everdingen 94–5 Georgius van Theemseke 281, 282 Georgius Wagner 108, 118 Georgius Wilhelmi of Noordwijk 314, 353 Gerardus (van) Bentheim 174, 340 Gerardus van Bladeghen 216 Gerardus Heyle 70, 92, 216, 220 Gerardus van Langerack 288 Gerardus Listrius 283, 356–7 Gerardus Mulert 331 Gerardus van der Mye 281 Gerardus Nodianus 233 Gerardus Suggerode 259, 305, 322, 330 Gerardus de Turri 328, 330 Gerardus Weghe 231 Gerardus Wouman 268, 286, n. 46 Gerrit van Valckesteyn 334 Gilino, see Coradino Gisbertus Arentsma 234, 333 Gisbertus of Brederode, bishop-elect of Utrecht 47, 103, 167, 285, 329 Gisbertus van Ewijck 132 Gisbertus Horstius 47 Gisbertus Longolius 251, 268, 288 Godefridus Pannekoeck 35, 191 Godefridus Steegh 266, 283 Gossowinus de Hollandia 38 Goude, van der, see Wilhelmus Granvelle, see Antoine Perrenot Gregory XIII, pope 80, 369 Grundmann, H. 7, 197–8

434

index of personal names

Gryp, see Nicolaus Guarino Guarini of Verona

70

Habsburg-family 114, 150, 171, 272, 374, 376; also see Charles V; Ferdinant I; Maximilian I; Maximilian II; Philip the Fair; Philip II; Rudolph II Hadrianus Junius, see Adrianus Haeck, see Cornelius Haemstede, van, see Adolf; Agatha Hargen, van, see Splinter Hans Jörg Hermann 332 Hector van Hoxwier 78, 272, 275, 332, 353 Hegherdoer, de, see Martinus Hegius, see Alexander Hekeren, van, see Theodoricus Henricus van Bladeghen 75, 216 Henricus Brouwer 216 Henricus of Deventer 172 Henricus van Dornum 276 Henricus of Echteld 189 Henricus Huusman 322 Henricus of Kampen 233 Henricus Meyster 318 Henricus ex Palude 354, n. 19 Henricus Phippen 232 Hermann, see Hans Jörg; Jörg Hermannus of Frisia 230 Hermannus Jacobi of Eelderwolde 79 Hermannus Knuyt van Slyterhoven 358–9 Hermannus van Lockhorst 220, 322, 365 Heurnius, see Johannes Heyle, see Gerardus Heyman Ruysch 287, 330 Hieronymus Lauwerijnz 232 Hoech, van der, see Cornelius Hogerbeets, (van), see Petrus Hoogelande, van, see Catharina; Jasper; Johannes Horst, see Folquinus Horstius, see Gisbertus Houdaen, van, see Johannes Hoxwier, van, see Hector Hubbeldinck, see Everardus Hubertus Luetanus 121 Hubertus van Rossum 220, 276 Hugo Adriani of Dordrecht 216 Hugo Petri of Goedereede 231 Hugo Blotius 35, 48, 232, 283

Hütten, von, see Ludwig Huusman, see Henricus; Rodolphus Agricola Huygh, see Jacobus Huynge, family 237; also see Theso Ignatius of Loyola 80 IJsbrandus van der Werve 380

127,

Jacob Bol 335 Jacob Muys 335 Jacob Volkertz 37 Jacobus van Ameronghen 262 Jacobus van Ameyde 354, n. 19 Jacobus Canter 354, 357 Jacobus Coppier 341 Jacobus van Foreest 325 Jacobus Hobbe 341 Jacobus Hugonis of Haarlem 63 Jacobus Huygh 228 Jacobus Piin 236 Jacobus du Quesnoy 334, n. 106 Jacobus Ruysch 287 Jacobus ( Jacobi) Ruysch 46, 151, 225, 275, 287, 297–8, 316, 328, 330, 342, 344, 364 Jacobus Schellinkhout 146 Jacobus Theodorici of Medemblik 235 Jacobus Wilhelmi of The Hague 278, 337, 340 Jacqueline of Bavaria 150 James I, king of England 321 Jan de Bakker 367 Jan van Scorel 365 Jarges, family, 237 Jason Pratensis 338, n. 115 Jasper van Hoogelande 134, 333 Jean of Montfoort 295 Jerome Busleyden 357 Joachimus van Bieselinge 266 Johannes Agricola 217, 221 Johannes Alberti of Delft 281 Johannes Bentheim 265 Johannes Bogerman 221, 232, 309, 318 Johannes van Breda 356 Johannes Bruyn 83 Johannes Canter 185 Johannes Coster 216 Johannes van Cuyck 324 Johannes David 168, 204, 260 Johannes of Deventer 172

index of personal names Johannes van Diepholt 204, 220, 230, 260, 298, 328, 355–6 Johannes Dodonis of Rotterdam 73 Johannes Eelts 234 Johannes Florentii of Alkmaar 309 Johannes Froben 283 Johannes van Groesbeek 170, n. 47 Johannes Heurnius 266, 361 Johannes van Hoogelande 134, 138, 236, 333, 364 Johannes van Houdaen 226, 261, 367 Johannes Jacobi of Schiedam 329 Johannes of Leiden 232 Johannes Maii 90 Johannes (van) Mepsche 237, 276, 321, 333 Johannes Montanus 120–1 Johannes Murmellius 36, 355 Johannes van Nieuwland 276 Johannes van Nuwenstein 170, n. 47 Johannes van Oldenbarnevelt 48, 87, 123, 136, 238, 272, 278, 295–6, 321, 336–7, 342, 344, 361–2, 366, 371 Johannes Petri of Reimerswaal 135 Johannes Pollaert 275, 298, 328 Johannes Redanus 93 Johannes Reineri 329 Johannes van Renesse 328 Johannes Sixtinus 223 Johannes Snavel 102, 358 Johannes van Speulde 275, 282 Johannes van Uterwijk 330 Johannes van Veen 289 Johannes Vighe 188 Johannes Vos 257, 343 Johannes Vredewolt 77, 90, 288 Johannes ( Johannis) Vredewolt 77, 90, 236, 287–8, 354, n. 19 Johannes van Wachtendorp 232 John III, king of Sweden 266 John III, duke of Brabant 289 Jonge, de, see Junius Joos de Menijn 336–7 Jorden van Foreest 325 Jörg Hermann 332 Judocus Aemson 276, 295 Julius Caesar 359 Julius II, pope 80 Junius, see Adrianus; Cornelius; Cornelius (Cornelii); Petrus Justus Lipsius 1–2, 362 Justus Velsius 93, 251, 368

435

Kempo van Burmania 126–7 Knuyt van Slyterhoven, see Hermannus Kristeller, P.O. 350 Kuhn, W. 299 Laen, van der, see Nicolaus Lambertus Vrijlinck 354, n. 19, 355, 357 Langerack, see Gisbertus Longolius; Gerardus Lannoy, Philip 1, n. 1 Lemnius, see Livinus; Wilhelmus Leoncino, see Nicolò Lindanus, see Theodorus Lipsius, Justus 1–2 Listrius, see Gerardus Livinus Lemnius 37, 216, 326, 338, 360–1 Lockhorst, van, see Hermannus; Wilhelmus Lodovico Porquin 220, 338–9 Longolius, see Gibertus Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence 78–9 Loyola, see Ignatius of Lubertus Esthius 319 Lucas Ritzardi 121, 368 Ludolphus Nicolai of Hoorn 47, 102–3, 285, 311, 329–30 Ludolphus van Veen 275, 276, 278, 328, 330, 344, 355, 364 Ludwig von Hütten 35, 48 Luetanus, see Hubertus Luschin von Ebengreuth, A. 11 Luther, see Martin Maarten van Rossum 220 Machteld van Batenborch 288 Magdalena Egmond van der Nijenburch 334 Mainardus of Leeuwarden 137 Mainardus Theodorici of Huisduinen 137 Manutius, see Aldus Margaret of Parma 370 Margaret of York 337 Margaretha Coebel 334 Maria Egmond van der Nijenburch 334 Maria van Oldenbarnevelt 336 Maria Ruysch 225, 287, 330 Martin Luther 367 Martinus Aedituus 93, 216, 265, 317, 364

436

index of personal names

Martinus de Hegherdoer 103, 187, 251 Martinus of Zierikzee 82 Mary of Burgundy 154 Mary of Hungary, regent of the Netherlands 282 Maurice of Nassau 283, 336 Maximilian I of Habsburg, emperor 154 Maximilian II of Habsburg, emperor 283, 332, 369 Maximilianus van Borsselen 276 Medici-family 79; see Cosimo; Francesco; Lorenzo Menijn, de, see Joos Mepsche, (van), see Johannes Mera, see Petrus Meyster, see Henricus Metsys, see Quinten Michael van Brede 170, n. 47 Michael Gerardi of Deventer 132, 228 Michiel Cornelisz Ewoutse 338, n. 115 Mierop, van, see Cornelius, Vincent Mijle, van der, family 215, 237, 336, 371; also see Adrianus; Arnoldus (Cornelii); Arnoldus (Adriani); Cornelius (Adriani); Cornelius (Arnoldi); Johannes Moelen, van der, see Petrus Molendino, see Moelen Montanus, see Johannes; Wilhelmus Montfoort, van, see Alfardus; Jean Montzima, van, see Bucho; Pompeius; Volcardus Mulaert, see Biso Mulert, see Gerardus Murmellius, see Johannes Muys, see Jacob Mye, van der, see Gerardus Nannius, see Petrus Neck, van, see Geertruyt Nicolas Perrenot 332 Nicolaus Aerschot 46, 151 Nicolaus Coebel 334 Nicolaus van Ethen 286, 329 Nicolaus Everardi of Amsterdam 252, 281, 332 Nicolaus Everardi of Middelburg 331 Nicolaus Gryp 354, n. 19 Nicolaus of Heemskerk 86, n. 143 Nicolaus van der Laen 282, 315–6

Nicolaus Nicolai Everardi (of Amsterdam) 252, 357 Nicolaus Nicolai Everardi (of Middelburg) 331 Nicolaus ( Johannis) Offhuys 233 Nicolaus (Tilmanni) Offhuys 233 Nicolaus Peckius 338, n. 115 Nicolaus Raet 46, 151 Nicolaus Ruysch 36, 225–6, 276, 287, 297, 305, 330, 343, 364–5 Nicolaus (van) Valckesteyn 236, 320, 334–6 Nicolò Leoncino 70, 91, 97, 353 Nierop, H. van 320 Nieuwland, van, see Johannes Nodianus, see Gerardus Nuwenstein,van, see Johannes Obrecht, see Wilhelmus Occo, see Pompeius; Sibrandus Offhuys, see Nicolaus ( Johannis); Nicolaus (Tilmanni) Oldenbarnevelt, van, see Johannes; Maria; Wilhelmus Orange, house of, see Maurice of Nassau; William the Silent Otto Truchsess 234, 333, n. 103 Otto van Veen 366 Paludanus, see Bernardus ten Broecke Palude, ex, see Henricus Pannekoeck, see Godefridus Paulus Adriani of Middelburg 36, 261, 266 Paulus van Ammersoyen 278, 295, n. 56, 340 Peck(ius), see Nicolaus; Wisse Perrenot, see Antoine; Nicolas Persijn, see Theodoricus Petrarch 359 Petrus de Ancharano 228 Petrus van Bronchorst 272 Petrus Canisius 86, 253, 283, 368 Petrus Forestus 47, 114, 266, 291, 341, 353, 361 Petrus Hispanus 34 Petrus van Hogerbeets 325, 337, 365 Petrus Ivonis of Alkmaar 256 Petrus Junius 324 Petrus de Mera 224, 260–1, 329 Petrus van der Moelen 170, n. 47, 275 Petrus Nannius 36

index of personal names Petrus Tiara 343, 358 Petrus van Zijl 214 Philip II, king of Spain 4, 67, 150, 156, 158, 278, 283, 321, 360, 368 Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy 150, 154, 168, 174, n. 56, 274, 277, 286, 329 Philip the Fair, heir to the dukes of Burgundy 156, 232 Philippus Bartholomei of Leiden 90, n. 147 Philippus Coebel 236, 282–3, 308, n. 78, 334, 342, 361, 372 Philippus Schoen 188 Phippen, see Henricus Piccolomini, see Aeneas Pierre Damant 298 Pietro Bembo 331 Piin, see Jacobus; Wilhelmus Pius IV, pope 62, 64, 75 Pliny 359–60 Pollaert, see Johannes Pompeius Occo 324 Pompeius van Montzima 333, n. 104 Porquin, see Caesar; Lodovico Pratensis, see Jason Quinten Metsys

365

Raet, see Nicolaus Rashdall, H. 14 Redanus, see Johannes Reinerus van der Duyn 281, 320–1, 334, n. 106 Reinerus van Ethen 77, 236, 286, 329, 340 Reinerus Snoy 264, 357, 360 Reinhard, W. 326 Reinout III of Brederode 194 Reinout van Bredrode 238, 336, n. 111 Rembrandus Johannis of Wieringen 159 Renesse, van, see Johannes Renichus van Burmania 78, 332 Robertus of Brederode 194, 204, 211, 260 Rodolphus Agricola 71, 77, 92, 137–8, 185, 233, 252, 288, 297, 322, 354–5, 359 Rodolphus van Diepholt 220, 328 Rossum, van, see Hubertus; Maarten Rudolph II, emperor 266, 283

437

Rumelaer, see Stephanus Ruysch 215; see Heyman; Jacobus, Jacobus ( Jacobi); Maria; Nicolaus Saenredam, J. 365 Sager, family 215 Schoen, see Philippus Schwinges, R.C. 35 Scorel, van, see Jan Sebastiano dell’Aquila 353 Sibrandus Occo 324, 333, n. 104 Siffridus Balduini of Wieringen 159 Sigismund, emperor 66, n. 95 Silvius, see Abelius Simon van Valckesteyn 338 Simon van Veen 289, 366 Sixtinus, see Johannes Snavel, see Johannes Snoy, see Reinerus Sottili, A. 77 Spenio, see Bernardus de Speulde, van, see Johannes Splinter van Hargen 272 Steegh, see Godefridus Stelling-Michaud, S. 7, 12 Stephanus (van) Rumelaer 135, 234, 262, 328, 367 Stoep, see Wilhelmus Stone, L. 16 Suger (Theodorici) van Beek 235 Sulenius, see Wilhelmus Tacitus 359–60 Tettema, see Dominicus Tex, J. den 66 Teylingen, family van 36, 215 Teylingen, van see Adrianus; Augustinus Theemseke, van, see Georgius Theodoricus Adriani of Dordrecht 337 Theodoricus Bermar 63 Theodoricus Borre 328 Theodoricus Gelmers 174 Theodoricus van Hekeren 134 Theodoricus Johannis of Rotterdam 119 Theodoricus Persijn 138, 261, 288, 354, n. 19 Theodoricus Petri of Haarlem 118 Theodoricus Ulsenius 354 Theodoricus Utenweer 47, 102–3, 225, 275, 286, 305, 328–30 Theodorus van Foreest 325

438

index of personal names

Theodorus Lindanus 80, 207, 209, 257, 260, 309, 370 Theso Huynge 237 Tiara, see Petrus Tielman van Bladeghen 216 Tietema, see Dominicus Truchsess, see Otto Turri, de, see Gerardus Ulsenius, see Theodoricus Urban VI, pope 59 Utenweer, see Theodoricus Uterwijk, van, see Johannes Valckesteyn (van), see François; Gerrit; Nicolaus; Simon Valerius Aylva 370 Valerius Cordus 47 Valerius van Cuyck 236, 324 Veen, van, see Cornelius; Johannes; Ludolphus; Otto; Simon Veer, van der, see Cornelius Velsius, see Justus Verius, see Wilhelmus Vesalius, see Andreas Vighe, see Johannes Viglius van Aytta 36–7, 281, 282, 298, 330–33, 342–4, 357–8, 361, 364–5, 368, 372 Vincent van Mierop 37, 111, 225–6, 330 Visconti, family, see Galeazzo Volcardus Coyter 40, 81, 234, 369–70 Volcardus van Montzima 333 Vredewolt, see Johannes; Johannes ( Johannis) Vrijlinck, see Lambertus Vroede, de, see Aafje Wachtendorp, van, see Johannes Wagner, see Georgius

Wassenaar, van see Bartholomeus Weigle, F. 80 Werff, see Werve, van der Werve, van der, see IJsbrandus Wessel Gansfort 354–5 Wilhelmus Balduini of Delft 68 Wilhelmus van der Duyn 233 Wilhelmus Frederici of Groningen 256, 354–5, 357, 359 Wilhelmus van der Goude 329 Wilhelmus Lemnius 37, 216, 266, 326, 338, n. 115 Wilhelmus van Lockhorst 261, 322, 365 Wilhelmus Montanus 121 Wilhelmus van Noordwijk 220 Wilhelmus van Oldenbarnevelt 238 Wilhelmus Obrecht 232, 283, 358 Wilhelmus Piin 134, 236 Wilhelmus Stoep 232 Wilhelmus Sulenius 283 Wilhelmus Thomae of Steenbergen 223 Wilhelmus Verius 37 Wilhelmus van Zijl 214 Willem Hermansz 360 William the Silent, prince of Orange 266, 283, 292, 324, 335–6 William, duke of Bavaria 343 Winandus of Arnhem 74 Wisse Peck 338 Wissekerke, van, see Egidius Wouman, see Gerardus Zabarella, see Franciscus Zijl, van, family 214, 235; also see Petrus; Wilhelmus Zijlstra, S. 31, 177, 179 Ziso Mulaert 45

EDUCATION & SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE AGES & RENAISSANCE ISSN 0926-6070

1. M.M. Hildebrandt. The External School in Carolingian Society. 1992. ISBN 90 04 09449 0 2. B. Lawn. The Rise and Decline of the Scholastic ‘Quæstio Disputata’. With Special Emphasis on its Use in the Teachings of Medicine and Science. 1993. ISBN 90 04 09740 6 3. A. Maierù. University Training in Medieval Europe. Translated and Edited by D.N. Pryds. 1994. ISBN 90 04 09823 2 4. T. Sullivan, o.s.b. Benedictine Monks at the University of Paris., A.D. 12291500. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10099 7 5. C. Fuchs. Dives, Pauper, Nobilis, Magister, Frater, Clericus. Sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen über Heidelberger Universitätsbesucher des Spätmittelalters (1386-1450). 1995. ISBN 90 04 10147 0 6. M.J.F.M. Hoenen, J.H.J. Schneider & G. Wieland (eds.). Philosophy and Learning. Universities in the Middle Ages. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10212 4 7. J. Verger. Les universités françaises au Moyen Age. 1995. ISBN 90 04 10312 0 8. J. Davies. Florence and its University during the Early Renaissance. 1998. ISBN 90 04 11003 8 9. C. O’Boyle. The Art of Medicine. Medical Teaching at the University of Paris, 1250-1400. 1998. ISBN 90 04 11124 7 10. W. J. Courtenay & J. Miethke (eds.). Universities and Schooling in Medieval Society. With the Assistance of D.B. Priest. 2000. ISBN 90 04 11351 7 11. B. Roest. A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517). 2000. ISBN 90 04 11739 3 12. N.G. Siraisi. Medicine and the Italian Universities, 1250-1600. 2001. ISBN 90 04 11942 6 13. D.A. Lines. Aristotle’s Ethics in the Italian Renaissance (ca. 1300-1650). The Universities and the Problem of Moral Education. 2002. ISBN 90 04 12085 8 14. W.J. Courtenay. Rotuli Parisienses. Supplications to the Pope from the University of Paris. Volume I: 1316-1349. 2002. ISBN 90 04 12563 9 15. W.J. Courtenay & E.D. Goddard (eds.). Rotuli Parisienses. Supplications to the Pope from the University of Paris. Volume II: 1352-1378. 2004. ISBN 90 04 13189 2 16. D.A. Bullough. Alcuin. Achievement and Reputation. 2004. ISBN 90 04 12865 4 17. R. Gramsch. Erfurter Juristen im Spätmittelalter. Die Karrieremuster und Tätigkeitsfelder einer gelehrten Elite des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts. 2003. ISBN 90 04 13178 7 18. T. Sullivan. Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373–1500. A Biographical Register. Vol. I. The Religious Orders. 2004. ISBN 90 04 13586 3

19. J. Miethke. Studieren an Mittelalterlichen Universitäten. Chancen und Risiken. Gesammelte Aufsätze. 2004. ISBN 90 04 13833 1 20. F.P. Knapp, J. Miethke & M. Niesner (eds.). Schriften im Umkreis mitteleuropäischer Universitäten um 1400. Lateinische und volkssprachige Texte aus Prag, Wien und Heidelberg: Unterschiede, Gemeinsamkeiten, Wechselbeziehungen. 2004. ISBN 90 04 14053 0 21. A. Tervoort. The iter italicum and the Northern Netherlands. Dutch Students at Italian Universities and Their Role in the Netherlands’ Society (1426-1575). 2005. ISBN 90 04 14134 0 22. Th. Kouamé. Le collège de Dormans-Beauvais à la fin du Moyen Âge. Stratégies politiques et parcours individuels à l’Université de Paris (13701458). 2005. ISBN 90 04 14135 9

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Crossing Boundaries at Medieval Universities (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance)

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Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance)

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