From Monastery to University

From Monastery to University.

The archetype of the medieval monastery in the history of the universities in the Middle Ages.

Elena V. Fadeeva Research paper work; Stage 1: 2013/14 Glasgow School of Art

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Contents: I Preface

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II History

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2.1 Monastic and Cathedral schools 2.2 Parental Universities

III Principles and Differences

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3.1 Location and Observances 3.2 Appearance and character of student society 3.3 Asceticism and Cooperativeness 3.4 Discipline and Hierarchy 3.5 Liminal Experience

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IV The University of Glasgow.

Monastic archetypes in forms and contents

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V Conclusion

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VI Reference list

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I Preface: The background to the birth of the modern model of the university was the Split between the Roman and the Byzantine churches, the flowering of the Arab science and philosophy, and the penetration of the Moors into the south of Spain. Ideological confrontation forced the inhabitants of the European West to develop their own strategy for scientific development, and it was then that the monasteries of the Mediterranean started creating the kind of University with which we are familiar today.

Speaking about the further history of universities, it is impossible not to relink it with the experience of the Middle Ages – it was the time, when the model of the university as a higher education institution was born. Helene Wieruszowski in her book The Medieval University. Masters, Students. Learning tells: “The University, like the parliament, is a creation of the Middle Ages.

Antiquity, to which we are indebted for so much that is precious in out cultural heritage, has not given us a model of formalized higher education.” 1 Of course the various elements of the life organization in the evolved and developed for more than 700 years, and have turned into the picture that we know today – becoming a kind of iconic set of necessary buildings, libraries and colleges.

My theory is that the typology of the monastery played an important role in shaping the typology of universities and that the life of a student in the university is regulated by a series of strict rules, which, in most cases overlap with the order of monastic life. Some of the modern commandments, such as eating togeth1 Helene Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, INC, 1966), 5

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er, living together and strictly regimented schedule (lectures, seminars and discussions at a fixed time) resonate with communal monastic meals and fraternal prayers. And as novice monks, students live in an individual cells, sometimes detained there for several days to study pray. Universities, like monasteries, usually present a closed structure, which sets some challenges to test a prospective student. But after the student gets in the university, like the brotherhood completely takes over the care of all his pastimes, accommodation and meals.

In my work I want to briefly examine the history of oldest universities - the Universities of Paris and Bologna, analyzing the origins and background of their appearance, which affected the entire internal structure of these universities, later became iconic for the ‘architecture of knowledge’ 2 in the whole world.

I would also like to consider in detail the University of Glasgow, its structure and try to find traces of the monastery archetype in the modern university.

2 Term from: Nick Haynes, Building Knowledge (Glasgow: Historic Scotland, 2013)

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II. History Monastic and Cathedral schools The etymology of the word ‘university’ is very interesting. General schools and education institutions were called ‘studium’. The concept of Studium is quite broad; in fact it is the highest academic institution where at least one of the faculties - Theology, Medicine or Law was taught. Our word ‘university’ is derived from the Latin ‘universitas’ which meant ‘a number, a plurality, an aggregate of persons’ 1 - a guild or society of students and teachers.

It is quite remarkable, that the word university originally was not used by itself, usually attended such refinement ‘University of Scholars’, ‘University of Masters and Scholars’, etc. However, this title was awarded only to recognized, ‘accredited’ educational institutions, the first of which were universities in Paris and Bologna.

I feel that it is very important to consider the history of these universities because many researchers have recognized them as starting points, as models on which all subsequent universities in the world developed. In the words of H. Rashdall: “Paris and Bologna are the two archetypal - it might almost be said the only original Universities: Paris supplied the model for the Universities of Masters, Bologna for the Universities of Students. Every later University from that day to this is in its developed form a more or less close imitation of one or the other of these two types <...> It is clear therefore that a somewhat minute study of these two typical bodies is essential to a proper understanding of 1 Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2010) Chapter 1, 7

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the University as an institution.” 2 In other words, at the University of Paris power was in the hands of a group of masters, and in Bologna - of a group of students.

These two great university established around the same time, in the ‘époque Carlogienne’, which the researchers called ‘the era of the Renaissance’ of the twelfth century . At that time cathedral schools flourished, which served as a fertile ground for the development of a typology of Universities. As Helene Wieruszowski said on this subject in her book The Medieval University.

Masters, Students, Learning: “Charlemagne did not found the University of Paris, but he created a school system out of which it could grow. This consisted of schools connected with monasteries and with cathedrals.” 3 If we talk about the cathedral schools, it is impossible not to mention monastic schools, as first eventually superseded by the second.

Monasteries enjoyed an exceptional position in society, they were “treated by Church and State as treasures, sources of pride, objects of general beneficence.” 4 They were the only available sources of knowledge. The importance of this process in the context of world history is underlined by Marcia L. Colish in her book Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400, when she is calling the aforementioned époque - the intellectual renaissance era: “’Renaissance’ is used to describe an ‘age of educational reform paying closer attention to classical literature, in which the liberal arts were studied as professional disciplines in their own right as well as for their ability to mold character or to inform biblical exegesis, homiletics, and theology.’ This accurately describes what took place during the Europe2 Rashdall, , The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 19 3 Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning, 17 4 Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning, 15

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an Renaissance. One of the greatest changes that contributed to the Renaissance is the development of monastic schools. These monastic schools led into the emergence of cathedral schools.

Cathedral schools then flourished and had a huge impact on education by leading into the development of the first universities.” 5 Reasons, which precipitated Charlemagne to take such steps, were as follows: he wanted to create a separate class of very educated people from the clergy who have helped to maintain the situation in the country in order. Therefore he forced every cathedral, monastery or abbey to open the public school as well as to provide to every person who will show the desire and will have the necessary abilities the opportunity to learn for free.

Education at that time was focused on the “traditional roman education” which was presented by the trivium and quadrivium: “Cathedral schools focused on” traditional roman education “which consisted of the trivium and quadrivium. The trivium is a more basic study of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. Once this was mastered, the student proceeded on to the more advanced study of the quadrivium which consisted of mathematics, astronomy, geometry, and music.”

Each part of this course carried a certain sense: for example logic taught students to prove validity of their opinions, taught the art of rhetoric to publicly express their thoughts and grammar to read and write in Latin. Also this trivium was kind of the preface to quadrivium - set of subjects such as arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.

Despite the fact that after the death of Charlemagne came very 5 Marcia L. Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400 (Yale University Press, 1988), 175

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tough times, multiple monastic and cathedral schools were established at that time.

At the end of the eleventh - beginning of the twelfth centuries the new trend in the development of schools emerged. Prior to that, the monastic schools had a dominant position and in fact were the only educational institutions. But time passed and they were replaced by the Cathedral Schools. Located in the cities, which attracted thousands of pilgrims, cathedral schools favorably differed from the monastery, which were often located in isolation from the cities.

Cathedral schools, which hired teachers, could provide higher quality teaching staff than the monastic schools. Competition for place caused concurrency, which lacked in the monastic schools were selected from the inner community of monks.

Moreover, in the cathedral schools, teachers were also making research in different scientific topics. This model is in some sense is already close to the model of the professor in the modern university.

These and many other differences led to a gradual degradation and disappearance of monastic schools and to the development of cathedral schools that preceded the emergence of the first universities.

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Parental Universities. Bologna and Paris. Contrasts.

There is a lot of debates which university was the first one, but in a prevalent version (and many experts agree with it) that the world â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s oldest university is the University of Bologna.

The University in Bologna, was founded in 1088, in a free municipality - a Lombard town in the Northern Italy. It was a birthplace not just for the first Western university, but also for special type of the university building.

It is usually thought that this type traces its origins to the buildings of the Collegio di Spagna, which was founded in Bologna in 1364 and built over the course of the next three years.

The two-storied square building with an arcade framing an internal courtyard echoes the layout of the monastery. The first level is given over to classrooms and a library. Cloisters of this college became a sort of icon of the university life due to the fact that this is the typology of architectural space is most often associated with the powerful community of students that existed in Bologna at that time.

University of Bologna was called the University of Students because if the power they had. Now it is difficult to imagine the university in which students could choose their teachers, dictate what and at what time will be lectured. But in the University of Bologna student guild had a great power. Many students came there to study the Law (which was raison dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;etre of that university unlike the University of Paris, which main focus was in the logic and theology) were adult persons, consisting of wealthy people often from the aristocratic spheres.

University of Paris was founded in 1150, it is younger than Bolo11

gna just for 62 years, but it differs so much from it because of the different conditions of development. In the case of the University of Paris - it grew out of three cathedral schools of the Rive Gauche of the Seine river: St. Victor’s, Abbey of Ste Genevieve and Cathedral of Notre Dame.

‘The structure of the faculties formed at that time - each head teacher from the cathedral school had to apply to the city chancellor or abbot for the membership in their institutions, which automatically transformed them in the faculty – representative part of that school. The professors there usually provided the courses of lectures – in which they have read general texts, which students copied, and when the student felt confident he could appear before chancellor to be examined, and if he passed the exams successfully he received the diploma, which allowed

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him to teach in the diocese of Paris.” 6 Initially, the University did not possessed a single building.

Masters that were part of it and their students lived on the Ile de la Cité, which in the early twelfth century was a rapidly growing and evolving area, which teemed with life. Number of masters and students grew rapidly. To ensure their safety and represent the common interests they formed scholastic guilds, based of the examples of traders or artisans guilds. Over time, these guilds created Quartier Latin.

In the book of Nathan Shnachner the University of Paris is described as: “the sprawling University of masters in the capital of France, under the autocratic eye of king and bishop; the home of subtle dialectic, of philosophy and theology, beloved of the Pope, for ever meddling in matters spiritual and political. It was the pattern for all the Universities of Northern Europe.” 7

6 Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400, 178 7 Nathan Shnachner, The Medieval Universities (London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1938), 147

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III. Principles and differences “Not one of the later universities is known to be direct outgrowth of a monastery; but more than one – among them the University of Paris – was rooted in a cathedral and the schools annexed to it” 1

The above-mentioned Universities were different in their origins but both of them greatly influenced the formation of the whole typology of Universities in the rest of the world. I analyzed the literature describing the daily life of the oldest universities and I made an attempt to define the basic qualities and characteristics that might bee seen as references or quotes of the archetype of the monastic life.

Location and Observances.

If we will try to imagine the University today, the first association that will come to mind - green campus, located outside of the city. The Latin word campus meant camp, field. The general principle of privacy and remoteness of the University formations from the city seems to me very similar to the principle of the alienation of the monasteries.

The notion of privacy in monasticism arose in the third century AD, and it is considered that several factors have contributed its appearance. On the one hand, Christians were forced to flee from persecution by the Roman emperors, on the other – the selfless spirit that drove the first Christians, contemporaries of the apostles, gradually weakened, and in the third century the spiritual life of Christians has become more relaxed. Therefore, some of them, the most zealous, made the decision to leave the 1 Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning, 19

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world, secular society and retire to the desert. Monasticism originated from hermitage.

Angel Vaca Lorenzo in his article Le Campus de l’Universite de Salamanque au Moyen Age quoted the order of King Alphonse X about the location of schools - Studium Generale: “The schools of the Studium Generale must be in remote location in town, one near the other, so that students who want to learn the would have the possibility to quickly take two or more lessons if they want, in different hours and they would have the possibility to share each other sour thing or their doubts: however, schools must be away from each other so that teachers are not hearing the genes over others.” 2 Alienation of the monastic schools at some period of time put them at a disadvantage in front of the cathedral schools, which were located in urban areas. However time passed and the Cathedral Schools and the first Universities formed on their basis in their turn felt the shortcomings of such an arrangement.

On the one hand if the University was in the city it was easier for them to live and to support themselves, there was no need to build any special buildings, and most importantly they were always located in the center of political and cultural life. Masters rented ordinary houses for their classes and to store their books and they settled nearby. Their students likewise lodged in the vicinity. The result was the formation of entire districts where there was a preponderance of the kind of infrastructure needed for education and student life.

2 “Les ecoles du Studium generale doivent se trouver dans en lieu eloses ou ils auraient des doutes: les ecoles doivent cependant etre a l’ecart les unes des autres pour que les enseigneants ne soient pas genes en entendant les cours des autres.”

Les universities et la ville au Moyen Age. Cohabotation et tension. Patrick Gilli, Jacques Verger, Daniel le Blevec (Lieden: Brill, 2007), 34-35

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However, on the other hand such an arrangement had its disadvantages, which the first Universities such as Paris and Oxford already have felt. The local population in the Middle Ages was very unstable to the scientific community that because of its closeness often caused suspicion among citizens. University students often were terrorized by the locals and police. These cases as well as their causes are described in the Jacques Verger’s article Les conflicts ‘Town and Gown’ au Moyen Age: “Violence between ‘town and gown’ has always existed, as it seems to me, limited, if not marginalized, and perhaps even in some measure controlled.” 3 Middle Ages have known multiple examples of the situation when the citizens or the city administration could not find a common language with University. In that kind of situation the Universities just moved to another city. Perhaps the most famous example of such a move is described in the book of Helene Wieruszowski The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning : “When no redress or grievances could be obtained from the town authorities for crimes inflicted on innocent students, the masters declared the lectures ‘suspended’ and dispersed. (Some, however, were refractory and were later punished as ‘strike breakers’). The suspendum clericorum, as a boycott of 1209 was styled, proved to be a momentous event no only in the history of Oxford, but also in that of English education in general. One of 3 “La violence entre ‘town and gown’ a toujours ete, me semble’t’il, limitee, sinon marginalisee, et peut-etre meme, dans une certaine measure controlee.”

Les universities et la ville au Moyen Age. Cohabotation et tension, 255

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the places to which the Oxford clerks repaired was Cambridge.” 4 This question – which way is better for the development of the university, which location and surrounding is the most effective and convenient at the same time even today lacks a clear solution - on the one hand some countries are trying to make campuses outside the city limits because the life in modern cities became very intense. And the opinion that for pedagogical purposes it’s better to contain students in their own separate ‘city’ still exists.

Also there is an opportunity to create all the necessary academic buildings in the new location to provide all the conditions for the student life. However, in some countries in Europe, for example, in Germany there is a belief that the student environment influence beneficially on the social environment of the different problematic environments, and this discovery is widely used in urban planning.

The issue of hermitage, alienation of Universities essentially little changed from the Middle Ages. Medieval monastery was a closed fortress. Medieval university tended to be fortress as well, in some manner trying to create a closed community of intellectuals.

It was not so easy to get into this community for random people.

For that issue of selection the whole series of different entrance tests existed and still exist.

Those tests are helping to understand the abilities and skills of prospective student (or monk) - whether it can cope with problems that may arise. Community thus protects itself.

However, this closeness was partly compensated by that attitude 4 Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning, 55

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which received all the students in Medieval Universities. As monasteries they fully took responsibility for ensuring the life of newcomers, their accommodation, security, food and leisure.

The practice of scholarships at universities originates also from the Middle Ages. Despite the fact that the universities in the époque Carlogienne offered free education, as his goal was to create a class of educated people from the clergy, in some universities, however, it was normal practice to pay masters or put deposit money into the coffers of student organizations. This is described in Stephen d’Irsay’s book Histoire des Universites Francaises et Etrangeres. Des origines a nos jours: “Education was free in principle, it was the tradition of cathedrals and monastic schools most universities which were the result. But life had its own requirements. Many professors were maintained by ecclesiastical profits, others belonging to religious orders were by their respective institutions, while others drew their wages and professional resource fees. However, there remained a considerable number of professors without income other than the rights paid by the students.” 5 Appearance and character of student society: Another reference to the monastic way of life can be found in the fact that the students in the first universities were exclusively male. A similar situation prevailed in education (as in many other areas of life) until the nineteenth century. The first university 5 “L’enseignement fut en principe gratuit; c’etait la tradition des ecoles cathedrales et monastiques dont la plupart des universities etaient l’aboutissement. Mais la vie avait ces exigences. Un grand nombre de maîtres furent entretenus par des benefices ecclesiastiques, d’autres, appartenant aux orders religieux, le furent par leurs instituts respectifs; d’autres encore tirerent leurs ressources de salaires et honoraires professionels. Cependant, il restait un nombre considerable de professeurs sans autres revenus que les droits paye par les etudiants.”

Stephen d’Irsay, Histoire des Universites Francaises et Etrangeres. Des origines a nos jours (Paris:Editions Auguste Picard, 1935), 152

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in the UK, which allowed women to get higher education on an equal footing with men, was a University of London, University College in 1832.

The quote from the book of Alan Cobban English University Life In The Middle Ages confirms and illustrates my words : “The masculine character of university life in medieval England was reinforced by different considerations. In common with many continental universities, Oxford and Cambridge had inherited a remnant of the monastic ethos that for centuries had so permeated education. This monastic influence was much diluted in the eleventh and twelfth centuries following the rise of the cathedral and other types of urban schools the were the immediate precursors of the university age.” 6 It was expected that university students will have serious and respectful approach on the matter of their training, they were laid out similar to those, which were assigned to the young men who had ‘a noble desire to make vows as a monk’.

To emphasize their exclusivity, university students were obliged to wear their special type of clothing – robes. Which, even in their modern form are very reminiscent of monk’s robes. There is a quote from the Regulations concerning academic dress from the Book of the Chancellor of Oxford. Munimenta Academica: “For it is decent and reasonable that those whom God has distinguished with inner qualities from laymen also be different from laymen in their appearance.” 7

6 Alan Cobban, English University Life In The Middle Ages (London: Taylor & Francis, 1999), 2 7 Wieruszowski, The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning, 196-197

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All these measures were designed to highlight a university student in the mass of other people and highlight stress his exclusivity. Traces of this tradition can be seen today in the ritual at the graduation ceremony where students still wear traditional robes as a tribute to the past.

Asceticism and Cooperativeness.

The notion of asceticism, if we try to think about it, is inextricably linked to student life and the present day. Universities usually have tried to settle their students in private rooms, cells, in which they will have the opportunity to be perfectly isolated from different distractions, and pay all their attention and time to the process of their studies. These cells could be also linked with the image of the monastic cells.

Student dormitories in their structure were very similar to the monastic housing - built on the principles of cooperativeness but at the same time giving an opportunity to be alone.

Alan Cobban talks on this topic in his book I quoted before: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The monastic legacy found expression in the communal mode of living prescribed for the academic halls of Oxford, the hostels of Cambridge and for the colleges of both universities. Monastic influence is also manifest in the denial of bodily pleasures that is inherent in so many of the university and collegiate statutory prohibitions relating to nonacademic activities. Moreover, the commanding presence at medieval Oxford and Cambridge of communities of monks, regular canons and the four orders of friars served to emphasize to the undergraduate population that university education was a male corporate enterprise that was in state of continuous interaction with the prevailing religious 20

culture.” 8 Talking about the principles of cooperativeness that could be detected in a student’s life at the Universities, it is impossible not to mention the great tradition of cohabitation that is similar to the life of the monks in monasteries.

As said Pier Vittorio Aurelli his lecture on “Less is enough ‘ on September 3, 2013 in Moscow, Strelka Institute : “Of course this kind of condition started gradually as a hermitic life; the word monk came from the Greek word monos which means alone. For us is very common to think about the idea of the individual but you have to understand that at that time in ancient civilization the concept of individual did not existed at all - you were always bound to a clan or a family. And you as an individual had never to feel this opportunity to be individual. So the radical of monasticism was to re-identify the possibility of being alone and also to live alone. In the early monasteries (of course the monastery becomes an institution that gathered people) this idea of being alone required a certain form of solidarity.

It was also a place where for the first time a new kind of spatial condition raised: the single person’s cell, the single person’s room. The monks were the first people who were experiencing this incredible luxury of having their own space.” 9 However, in the dormitories as well as in cloisters were certain rituals that collected them all together. Such rituals as eating together, in addition to co-education and some leisure activities allowed the creation of beneficial social environment in which students could feel comfortable and that encouraged the exchange of experience and knowledge.

8 Alan Cobban, English University Life In The Middle Ages, 2-3 9 Pier Vittorio Aurelli, “Less is enough”. Lecture, “Radical alternatives” lecture series, Moscow, 03.09.2013

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Cooperativeness was a necessary part of the University life, as students in the medieval towns were often faced with many difficulties. As the early Christian monastic communities were formed to withstand various difficulties, the same way medieval student guilds were created for the same purpose. I have already mentioned above about the various conflicts that arose between the university and local urban communities, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;town and gownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conflicts and powerful guilds student at the University of Bologna â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of them are examples of the cooperativeness that was very important in the student community.

Discipline and Hierarchy.

The ideology of monastic asceticism in the first universities had among other things an aim at maintaining discipline in the ranks of students. Indeed rules of life in medieval universities can be compared with the rules of life in military establishments or in monasteries. Lectures and classes were held under strictly regulated schedule, life schedule was also strictly defined - and all this once again brings us to how life works in monasteries.

Such discipline brings order and structure in the lives of students, what was necessary to create the very special atmosphere, which could help students to concentrate on their studies.

Another interesting reference between the monastery and the university lifestyles can be traced in a hierarchical system that existed there. Masters in universities bore the brunt of all the pedagogical and educational life of the students; they were treated the same way as novices in the monasteries. In their turn students, had always had before them the prospect to move up the hierarchical ladder.

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This hierarchy can be traced today in the academic degrees such as Bachelor and Master: “The scholar who received his bachelor degree was equivalent to a journey man “in a non-educational guild. In guilds such as merchant guilds and craft guilds, by which the guild of education was aspired from, the journeyman was someone who had basic training, but was not yet a master.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree, a scholar could then pursue his master’s degree. The master’s degree gave the scholar the ability to teach with the masters, assisting new students.” 10 Liminal experience Education and students’ life in the medieval university can be considered as a sort of liminal experience, certainly in an individual’ lifeline scale. In fact it is a kind of pilgrimage, which has length of five-seven years and in which there are all features of liminal experience described by Victor and Edith Turner in their book Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture.

In a chapter ‘Pilgrimage as a Liminoid Phenomenon’ liminal experience from pilgrimage is described as a series of rites de passage (rites of transition). They are divided in three phases: separation, limen or margin, and aggregation: “The first phase comprises symbolic behavior signifying the detachment of the individual or group, either from the earlier fixed point in the social structure or from a relatively stable set of cultural conditions (a cultural ‘state’); during the intervening liminal phase, the state of the ritual object (the ‘passenger’ or ‘liminar’) becomes ambiguous, he passes through a realm or dimension that has few or none attributes of the past or coming state, he is betwixt and between all familiar lines of classification; in the third phase the passage is consummated, and the subject returns to the classified 10 Thomas Madden, “Cathedral and University”. Lecture. One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic: A History of the Church in the Middlt Ages. Print

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secular or mundane social life.” 11 When the student enters the university, he does not know any single person, he separates from his family, his friends, his usual social group. This can be interpreted as a separation phase. It is followed by the limin or margin phase - in fact it is the whole process of learning path. Over the years of learning students form certain social communication groups - ‘ fellow travelers’, ‘passengers’ with whom they share their sorrow and joy of the ‘path’.

Liminal experience has always been associated with a certain mystical quality, its ability to transfer an object from one state to another. In another words it has initiatory quality. “A pilgrim is an initiated, entering into a new, deeper level of existence that he has known in his accustomed milieu.” 12 To some extent, a graduate student training is also some kind of translation of an object into a deeper level of existence. There is a ritual and the belief that when the student passes his learning path he becomes eligible to move into a new, more advanced state.

The third, final phase of the liminal experience begins for the student after receiving an academic degree. He goes back to his normal life, but in a completely new quality.

11 Victor Turner, Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (Columbia University Press, 2011), 4 12 Victor Turner, Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture (Columbia University Press, 2011), 4

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IV. The University of Glasgow. Monastic archetypes in forms and contents Glasgow University was established in 1451 and was based on the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) or ‘Black Friars’. It was the second oldest university in Scotland after the University of St. Andrews, which was founded in 1412. Its creation was a part of the general policy of the country that tended to establish the own proper educational institutions in Scotland.

It was very important for the country to have its own universities, England was too often an alien or an enemy and France and Italy despite the fact that were friendly were too far away, and travelling at long distances as well as residence abroad was quite expensive.

Order of Black Friars was widely known for the history of its intellectual tradition, especially in terms of the study of theology and philosophy. The school originally had no special educational buildings for lessons and lectures and they were held in an Auld Pedagogy building.

Nick Haynes in his book Building Knowledge describes it: “In the manner of a monastic institution, the University provided accommodation for study, living and dining together.

The origins of the building and its internal arrangement are not known. As the College was unendow at this stage, it seems likely that the building was a rented pre-existing tenement.” 1 Auld Pedagogy ruins survived until the nineteenth century, and it appeared in the two lithographs printed in Robert Stuart’s Views and notices of Glasgow, in Former Times in 1848.

1 Nick Haynes, Building Knowledge, 15

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pic 3: Auld Pedagogy, Allan and Ferguson lithography published in Views and Notices of Glasgow in Former Times 1847

It is known that already in Medieval times, the order of life at the university was very strict, similar to the monastery orders, as is evidenced in the following quote: “By later medieval period classes and ‘disputations’, or formalized debates, were held from Monday to Saturday, and students attended church together twice on Sundays.

Students were also required to take meals together at a ‘common table’. Teaching was carried out by up to four regents, distinguished graduates of the University, who held office for four to five years. Students were summoned by the bell and each class began with a prayer and a calling of a register. General arts courses lasted four years and each regent taught all the subjects in a tutorial system. Until the middle of the 18th century all lectures and most of the tutorials were given in academic Latin.” 2 2 Nick Haynes, Building Knowledge, 16

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Already in the sixteenth century, the University has experienced some repairs and enlargements. The accurate drawings of the appearance of the university did not preserved since the building was destroyed in the mid-seventeenth century. However, the reconstruction plan made by James Durkan and James Kirk exists in their book, The University of Glasgow: 1451- 1577 .

Here is how Nick Haynes describes that plan: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like monastic and other contemporary educational establishments, an enclosed, quadrangular plan emerged with inner and outer close, or courtyard.â&#x20AC;? 3 The university at that time could provide accommodation for the Principal, Chaplain, masters and students. It is worth noting that the masters and students could choose rooms according to their means.

The university included various outbuildings such as kitchen and brew house, chapel, classrooms and three large halls.

Number of students in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries did not exceeded one hundred people, which was typical for many of the universities of that time.

If we will return to the topic of the similarity of typologies of the medieval monastery and university, it can be very interesting to compare the reconstruction plan made by John Durkan and James Kirk with the plan of Abbey of Saint Gall. It is one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe, which plans have survived till the present days.

It was founded in the eighth century by the Irish hermit monk called Gallus, and the contemporary building was erected by Saint Othmar on the site of the original hermitage. Library of the Abbey is one of the largest and richest medieval libraries in the world and it holds all the drawings of the abbey. This plan 3 Nick Haynes, Building Knowledge, 17

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is a unique medieval architectural drawing of a monastic compound, which is dated from the early ninth century.

pic 4,5: Diagram. Comparison of Glasgow University reconstruction plan and plan of the Abbey St. Gall

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Cloister, which can be distinguished on the plan of the old University of Glasgow, is one of those forms, which have been preserved unchanged through the centuries.

This element can be found in the oldest universities such as Universities of Oxford and of Bologna and it can be seen as well in terms of the University of Glasgow.

It is interesting how the internal structure of the University of Glasgow is similar to the spatial structure of one the oldest colleges in the world - Collegio di Spagna. Ground floor is reserved for classrooms and a library, church overlooks the courtyard, and there are arcade classrooms on the upper floors. And of course we can trace the features of the cloister as the structural element taking its roots in the typology of the medieval monasteries and which became an incredibly viable architectural element.

Many years later, in 1840, architect Henry Ives Cobb designing the University of Chicago underlined that spatial element which emphasized the educational and disciplinary character in that layout: “In introducing a degree of order into the chaos of the modern world, the monastic layout subconsciously endows students with orderliness in the same way as does the wearing of uniform in case of the military.”4

4 Maria Fadeeva, “Campus”, Пi Project Russia, October 2001

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V. Conclusion In this work I set myself a challenge to try to prove my theory, which tells about the links and similarities between the university and the monastery typologies in the Middle Ages.

After the big analysis the history of the emergence and development of the universities, I found a great number of references and borrowings from the ancient history of the monasteries, which is not so surprising if we will consider that the first universities appeared on the basis of the Medieval cathedral and monastic schools.

As an architect, I found the following fact very exiting: the organic vernacular forms that shaped space typology of the monastery easily took roots in the typology of universities. This is especially evident in the example of the cloister â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as an element, which remained unchanged in different university buildings all across the world until the nineteenth century.

This led me to the thought that is the two such a similar spatial structures could exist, and if one space could be transformed for a different function so easily, there is a possibility to identify commonality and similarity in the actions themselves. Indeed monastery and university life have some very similar ideas.

Different aspects of medieval (as well as contemporary) students life such as the principles of asceticism, solitude, cooperativeness could be considered as quotes from everyday life tissue of the medieval monk, hermit. Strict discipline of spiritual and physical life and appearance of students may also be imposed as kind of similarity between them and medieval monks. Also, for me it was very interesting to identify that the whole educational experience of the student life could be considered as a long pilgrim31

age in five -seven years. As a kind of liminal experience which is described in the book of Victor and Edith Turner ‘Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture’.

The students’ life, students experience can be divided in three main phases of liminal experience such as separation, limen or margin, and aggregation In my work I briefly referred to the history and to the graphical and analytic materials concerning the oldest buildings of the Glasgow University / College Green on High Street. And it seemed to me that I could find there as well the traces of the very structure of the medieval monastery, which served as an archetype for the first universities. The orders, the social environment in the University of Glasgow which was described in books of Nick Hayes “Building Knowledge” and Elisabeth Williamson “Glasgow” also carry these very traits which I was trying to identify.

In my research I came to the conclusion that the social and the spatial environment in a medieval monastery played a huge role and imposed a huge imprint on the formation of the whole typology of universities.

These two ways of life and of spatial organization have lots of references, even till nowadays.

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VI Reference list Aurelli, Pier Vittorio. 03.09.2013 .“Less is enough”. Lecture, “Radical alternatives” lecture series. Moscow.

Bender, Thomas. 1988. The University and the City:The mediaeval origins to the present. Oxford University press.

Cobban, Alan. 1999. English University Life In The Middle Ages.

London: Taylor and Francis.

Colish, Marcia L. 1988. Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400-1400. Yale University Press.

Coulson, Jonathan. Ed. 2010. University Planning and Architecture: the search for perfection. London: Taylor and Francis.

De Ridder-Symoens, Hilde. Ed. 1992. A History of the University in Europe. Volume 1, Universities in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press.

D’Irsay, Stephen. 1935. Histoire des Universites Francaises et Etrangeres. Des origines a nos jours. Paris: Editions Auguste Picard.

Fadeeva, Maria. 2001, October. “Campus”, Пi Project Russia.

Gilli, Patrick. Ed. 2007. Les universities et la ville au Moyen Age. Cohabotation et tension. Lieden: Brill.

Haynes, Nick. 2013. Building Knowledge. Glasgow: Historic Scotland.

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Laurie, Simon Somerville. 1901. Rise and early constitution of Universities with a Survey of Medieval Education. New York: Appleton and Company.

Madden, Thomas. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cathedral and Universityâ&#x20AC;?. Lecture. One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic: A History of the Church in the Middlt Ages. Print.

Rashdall, Hastings. 2010. The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press.

Shnachner, Nathan. 1938. The Medieval Universities. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD. Turner Victor, Turner Edith. 2011. Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture. Columbia University Press.

Wieruszowski, Helene. 1966. The Medieval University. Masters, Students, Learning. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, INC. Williamson, Elisabeth. 1990. Glasgow. Yale University Press.

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