Les Échanges entre les universités européennes à la Renaissance: Colloque international organisé par la Société Française d'Etude du XVIe siècle et l'Association Renaissance Humanisme-Réforme. Valence, 15-18 mai 2002 (review)

The theme of this volume is peregrinatio academica, the movement of students and professors from one university to another in search of learning or advancement. Twenty-three papers are in French, one in English; almost all concentrate on the sixteenth century. The majority of the authors come from French universities.

The opening essay of Jacques Verger presents a panoramic view of European universities and their great diversity in 1500. Jean-Marie Le Gall discusses the role of monastic seats of learning, especially of the Cistercians, and their relationship to universities. Nine articles deal with French institutions of learning and French students abroad. Marc Venard reviews the universities in southeastern France and describes the ways in which they were complementary, i.e., Montpellier stressed medicine and Avignon law; some were Catholic, others Protestant. Although some institutions were only humanities colleges or partial universities, it is an interesting story well told. James K. Farge asks, was Paris a regional or an international university during the Renaissance? His preliminary answer, based on extensive research in progress, is international, as 750 students from sixty-three dioceses in the British Isles and Habsburg Empire came to Paris between 1493 and 1530. Jean Balsamo gives an interesting brief history of the University of Reims, more a seminary and college for English Catholic students, than a university. Hilda de Ridder-Symoens offers a progress report on her vast study of students at Douai, especially its Jesuit college, between 1559 and 1795. Marie-Claude Tucker discusses Scottish law students at Bourges, a Protestant university with a high reputation in law, between 1538 and 1625. Patrick Ferté, in a good article with full bibliogaphy, looks at the University of Toulouse, known for its law studies, and the Spanish and Italian professors and students there. Michel Magnien offers another good article on the Protestant academy of Montauban between 1598 and 1659, including a list of the twenty-eight known professors. Not full universities, these academies concentrated on theology and philosophy. Mireille Huchon analyzes what Rabelais had to say about several French universities. Corine Doucet discusses French equestrian academies in an article that has nothing to do with universities, makes vague generalizations, and is poorly documented.

Five papers deal with Italian universities in whole or part. Richard Cooper provides a brief history of the University of Turin, based on printed sources and archival research, which includes information about some of the non-Italian students who obtained degrees there. Simona Negruzzo discusses the members of the regular clergy who taught at the University of Pavia. It is a summary of material covered in detail in her excellent book on the faculty of theology at Pavia. Adelin Charles Fiorato offers a weak historical survey based on old printed sources of the University of Pavia. He attributes the bull In sacrosancta of 1564 to Pope Paul IV, who died in 1559. Nicole Bingen presents a preliminary report from her large study in progress charting students from France, Franche-Comté, and francophone Savoy who attended Italian universities. The largest number went to Padua, followed by Pavia, Ferrara, and Bologna. Ian Maclean writes a thoughtful article on the similarities and differences between the faculties of medicine of Padua, Basel, and Montpellier. Such comparative research is welcome.

Other areas of Europe receive attention. Lucia Felici discusses foreign stu-dents at the University of Basel. Some 20% of matriculants came from beyond Switzerland, and the relative religious tolerance of the city until 1570 made it a place for a free...