Editing Medieval university (section)

{{short description|Corporation organized during the Middle Ages for the purposes of higher education}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}{{About|Western European institutions|other early centers of higher learning|Ancient higher-learning institutions|an overview of medieval foundations|List of medieval universities}}
[[File:Archiginnasio ora blu Bologna.jpg|thumb|The [[University of Bologna]], established in [[medieval Italy]] (1088), is the [[List of oldest universities in continuous operation|world's oldest university in continuous operation]].]]

A '''medieval university''' was a [[Corporation#History|corporation]] organized during the [[Middle Ages]] for the purposes of [[higher education]]. The first Western European institutions generally considered to be [[University|universities]] were established in present-day Italy, including the Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]] and [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], and the Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of England|England]], [[Kingdom of France|France]], [[Kingdom of Spain|Spain]], [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] between the 11th and 15th centuries for the study of the [[Liberal arts|arts]] and the higher disciplines of [[theology]], [[law]], and [[medicine]].<ref name="de Ridder-Symoens 1992, 47–55">de Ridder-Symoens (1992), pp. 47–55</ref> These universities evolved from much older [[Christianity|Christian]] [[cathedral school]]s and [[monastic school]]s,<ref name=Riche/><ref>Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: ''A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-521-36105-2}}, pp. XIX–XX</ref><ref>Verger, Jacques. "The Universities and Scholasticism," in ''The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume V: c. 1198–c. 1300''. Cambridge University Press, 2007. p. 257.</ref> and it is difficult to define the exact date when they became true universities, though the lists of [[studium generale|studia generalia]] for higher education in Europe held by the [[Roman Curia|Vatican]] are a useful guide.

The word {{lang|la|universitas}} originally applied only to the [[Scholasticism|scholastic]] [[guild]]s—that is, the corporation of students and masters—within the {{lang|la|studium}}, and it was always modified, as {{lang|la|universitas magistrorum}}, {{lang|la|universitas scholarium}}, or {{lang|la|universitas magistrorum et scholarium}}. Eventually, probably in the late 14th century, the term began to appear by itself to exclusively mean a self-regulating community of teachers and scholars recognized and sanctioned by civil or ecclesiastical authority.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: History of Education. The development of the universities.</ref>

From the [[Early Modern period]] onward, this [[Western world|Western]]-style organizational form gradually spread from the [[Western culture#The birth of the European West during the Middle Ages|medieval Latin West]] across the globe, eventually replacing [[Ancient higher-learning institutions|all other higher-learning institutions]] and becoming the pre-eminent model for higher education everywhere.<ref>Rüegg, Walter (ed.): ''Geschichte der Universität in Europa'', 3 vols., Munich: C.H. Beck, 1993, {{ISBN|3-406-36956-1}}</ref>