Medieval universities and empirical research

Abstract

Universities emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth century as an entirely new type of educational institution, different from practices known in antiquity and in the Islamic world. The sharp rise of the cities and the commercial links between mainly Italian harbors and the Near East led to a transfer of knowledge that was instrumental in the creation of medical schools in Salerno and private law schools in Bologna. Fusion into universities was stimulated by papal protection derived from the notion of monastic immunity. Creative thinking and empirical research, especially in surgery, were disseminated throughout Europe thanks to the general use of Latin. Elementary training in grammar, rhetoric and logic was functional for the management of increasingly complex societies. Similarly, specialized knowledge in medicine and law offered responses to societal needs, although the theoretical or scholastic approach of learning limited its practical value. From the later fourteenth century, however, clerical authorities repressed critical voices, empirical and anatomical studies. The ecclesiastical structure of governance clearly hampered further development from the Reformation forward. Fundamental innovations such as cartography, accountancy and the scientific revolution therefore came from institutional settings other than the universities.