The Iter Italicum and the Northern Netherlands: Dutch Students at Italian Universities and Their Role in the Netherlands' Society (1426-1575) (review)

This detailed, scholarly, and quantitative study of the Iter Italicum complements similar studies of travel to Italy for advanced education that have been undertaken for other north European nations, and also fills a gap in the scholarship of northern Dutch education. During the period under examination — which is bounded by the foundation of a university at Louvain in 1425 and the establishment of the first university in the northern Netherlands at Leiden in 1575 — all students seeking a university education of necessity traveled abroad, primarily to Cologne (founded 1388) and Louvain. A much smaller group, but one of disproportionate cultural significance, sought advanced study at Italian universities. Utilizing sporadic surviving matriculation lists, acts of the German nations, teaching lists, graduation lists, and available published literature, the author has identified 640 students in this select group and compiled bibliographical information on each as a basis for this prosopographical investigation of which students went south, where they came from, the classes they represented, what and where they studied in Italy, their subsequent career paths, and the impact they had on Dutch culture. This information, including source notes, is condensed in the form of a PDF file (CD-ROM) that accompanies the book and produces 231 pages rendered in hardcopy.

Of the 640 students surveyed, most (approximately 80%) started university elsewhere before heading to Italy, attending as many as seven in their careers; this was an unusually mobile group. The long routes to Italy, passing by German and French universities, may have encouraged such a diversity. Those traveling abroad commonly began at Louvain, and many also visited Cologne and Paris. With the exception of Rome, which drew philosophy and theology students, most sought a medical or legal education in Italy, although Orleans gradually siphoned away law students. Theology faculties were usually not a general part of the university, but governed separately by the mendicant orders, and Paris was the preferred destination for theology.

Once in Italy, students typically joined an academic nation, which represented them, mediating quarrels, and cared for them (and even buried them) as needed. The four main Italian schools attended were Padua and Bologna, then Ferrara and Siena, in that order. Ferrara's popularity was driven by its location between Bologna and Padua and by its active recruitment, by offering cheaper degrees, of students. Somewhat tolerant of Protestants, Siena surpassed Bologna and Ferrara after the Council of Trent (1564), but Padua continued to encourage Protestant students, since graduation could be conferred on them by the Count Palatine, who was a representative of the Holy Roman Emperor rather than the Catholic Church. To a much lesser extent, Pavia, Pisa, Rome, and Perugia drew Dutch students; Pisa and Florence were small and poorly organized and attracted few foreign students in general, and Rome attracted few northern students until Ignatius Loyola opened the Collegium Germanicum in 1552. Parma functioned like Ferrara, mainly as a diploma mill for students who had completed most of their studies elsewhere and were looking for inexpensive promotion.

The northern Netherlands was a diverse area, under the influence of Germans from the north and east, controlled by the Burgundian and Hapsburg courts, and suffering political and religious upheavals during this period. Not surprisingly, there was a corresponding regional diversity of academic interests and supports. Holland produced the most medical students, for example, and most Frisians (70%) opted for law. Relatively more students came from towns and cities, and students came from all levels of society, but the numbers of poorer students declined with time as the number of nobles increased. The commonly repeated assessment that nobles found little use for university studies does not seem to apply to the northern Netherlands. More came...