Nation (university)
Student nations or simply nations (
Examples in medieval universities
University of Paris
In the
The various nations in Paris often quarreled with one another; Jacques de Vitry wrote of the students:
"They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails; the sons of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women. They said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the Normans, vain and boastful; the Poitevins, traitors and always adventurers. The Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. The Bretons were reputed to be fickle and changeable, and were often reproached for the death of Arthur. The Lombards were called avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans, seditious, turbulent and slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel; the inhabitants of Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands and ravishers; the Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter, and slothful. After such insults from words they often came to blows."[5]
University of Oxford
The students who attended the medieval university in Oxford formed themselves into two constantly quarreling nations who were called the australes and the boreales. The australes originated from south of the River Trent and was the more powerful of the two nations. The Welsh were also considered part of the australes, along with scholars from the Romance lands. The boreales came mainly from the north of England and Scotland.[6]
The nations at Oxford were eventually disbanded in 1274 in an effort to maintain peace in the town.[7] Despite this measure, conflicts between the nations continued. One such came on 29 April 1388, when Welsh students, who were according to the chronicler Henry Knighton semper inquieti, fought with their northern counterparts. The following year a chronicler says that the boreales ran amok in the town chanting 'war, war, war, slay, slay, slay the Welsh dogs' killing and looting as they went, before rounding up the remaining Welsh students and forcing them to kiss the town's gateposts 'goodbye'.[8]
University of Prague
A similar division of students had been adopted at the
Due to the Decree of Kutná Hora in 1409, the three foreign nations were merged into one and three other votes were for the Bohemian students. The exodus of students who had belonged to the German nations led to a decline in the university's prestige and the creation of the University of Leipzig.
University of Leipzig
When the
University of Bologna
In medieval Bologna, there existed three separate universities. There were two for the study of law, one for students from Italy (but not Bologna) the universitas citramontanorum and another for students from outside the peninsula the universitas ultramontanorum. The third school was for the study of the arts and medicine universitas artisarum et medicorum.[13] The ultramontane university was divided into fourteen different nations as early as 1265- the Gauls, Picards, Burgundians, Turonenses (those from Tours), Pictavienses (those from Poitiers), Normans, Catalans, Hungarians, Poles, Germans, Provençals, English, and Gascons, whereas the citramontane university was split into three nations: Romans, Tuscans and Lombards.[14]
The most important and powerful nation of the ultramontane University of Bologna was the German nation. One of its most famous members was Nicolaus Copernicus who, in 1496, enrolled into the Natio Germanorum (Natio of the Germans),[15][16][17] a privileged university organization that included German-speaking students from many regions of Europe.[18][19]
University of Padua
Students in the
Finland
This section needs expansion with: examples and additional citations. You can help by adding to it. (November 2010) |
In Finland, student nations (Finnish: osakunnat, Swedish: nationer) exist at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, where they are legally sanctioned and were established in the mid-1600s (in the Royal Academy of Turku) and 1800s (in the to-be Polytechnical School), respectively. Named after regions in Finland, students had to join according to their own geographical roots before membership became voluntary in 1937. Today, students can usually choose to join any nation. Both Finnish and Swedish speaking nations exist. Organizations termed nations exist also at other universities, although these are legally considered normal registered or unregistered associations. In Finland, student nations co-exist with a wide range of other student organizations, such as student unions.
Scotland
Nations exist in some of the
Sweden
When
The nations are named on regional lines: the nations in Lund take their names from provinces and areas in southern Sweden; those in Uppsala take theirs from the ecclesiastical dioceses all over Sweden except for the
Students were traditionally required to be a member of the nation from whose area they came, but this is no longer the case; however,
See also
- Landsmannschaft (Studentenverbindung)
- Zemlyachestvo - similar groups that existed in 19th century Russia
- Fraternities and sororities
References
- ^ "Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, nātĭo". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
- ^ Harper, Douglas (November 2001). "Nation". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
- ^ "Miscellanea Scotica: Memoirs of the ancient alliance between France and ... - Google Books". 1820. Retrieved 2015-02-22 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland, and of the Border Raids, Forays ... - Google Books". 1849. Retrieved 2015-02-22 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Medieval Sourcebook: Jacques de Vitry: Life of the Students at Paris". Retrieved 2015-03-09.
- ISBN 9789004216822. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
- ISBN 9781108018128. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
- better source needed]
- ^ Zancke, Friedrich (1861), Die Statutenbücher der Universität Leipzig aus den ersten 150 Jahren ihres Bestehens, S. Hirzel (Leipzig)
- ISBN 9783447060790
- ^ "Abhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig ... - Google Books". 1857. Retrieved 2015-02-22 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Abhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig ... - Google Books". 1857. Retrieved 2013-10-14 – via Google Books.
- .
- .
- .
- ^ Koestler, Arthur (2006-07-07). "The Sleepwalkers - Arthur Koestler - Google Books". Retrieved 2015-02-22 – via Google Books.
- .
- ISBN 0-486-27095-5. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
Although great importance has frequently been ascribed to this fact, it does not by any means imply that Copernicus ever considered himself to be a German. The 'nationes' of a medieval university had nothing in common with nations in the modern sense of the word. Students who were natives of Prussia and Silesia were automatically described as belonging to the Natio Germanorum. Furthmore, at Bologna, this was the 'privileged' nation
- ISBN 0-19-510071-9. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
It is important to recognize, however, that the medieval Latin concept of natio, or "nation," referred to the community of feudal lords both in Germany and elsewhere, not to "the people" in the nineteenth-century democratic or nationalistic sense of the word.
- ^ "Archivio antico - Archivio Generale di Ateneo - Università degli Studi di Padova". Unipd.it. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
- ^ [1] Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Full text of "Officers of the Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, 1593-1860"". [Aberdeen] Univ. Press. 1897. Retrieved 2013-10-14.