- Here is an electronic version of a for assignment #5.
In your text, on page 315, you have a piece of text called "Student
Life at the University
of Paris" which was written by Jacques
de Vitry(1)
in the thirteenth century. According to the authors of your textbook, de
Vitry's text suggests that "...not all students at the University
of Paris in the thirteenth century were there to gain knowledge."
They go on to provide you a few questions to consider based upon this little
piece of text: "Why were students from different lands so prejudiced
against one another? Does the rivalry among faculty members appear to have
been as intense as that among students? What are the student criticisms
of the faculty? Do they sound credible"? The very same text appears
in your sourcebook ("Roots of Western Civilization") on pp. 117-118,
along with some poetry from the students' themselves:
We in our wandering,
- Blithesome and squandering....
- Eat to satiety, Drink to propriety....
- Rags on our hides we fit,
- Laugh till our sides we split;
- Tara, tantara, teino! [Camp, p. 118]
Reading this material prompts me to add a broader question
to the ones provided by Kagan and the other textbook authors: In what ways
was life in medieval
universities (like Paris) similar to the experience of modern students?
In what ways was it different? These assignments and the questions related
to them should provide you with more than enough material to write a sixty
line response essay and have it posted on or before the 20th of October.
Since you are all students yourselves, I am hopeful that you might have
some interest in the lives of those who sat in classrooms so many centuries
ago.
1. Jacques was a student of Peter the Chanter in Paris.
In 1211-16 he came a canon regular at Oignies. He preached the Albigensian
Crusade in 1213 and was named Bishop of Acre in 1216. Jacques returned
to Europe in 1225 and was named Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum in 1228. He
died in 1240.
Works:
Vita Mariae Oigniacensis: Edited Acta sanctorum, June 5 (1867):
547-72.
Historia Hierosolimitana: Originally intended as a tripartite work,
Jacques only finished the first two book, 1) the Historia orientalis
and 2) the Historia occidentalis. The Historia occidentalis
has been edited by John F. Hinnebusch, The Historia occidentalis of
Jacques de Vitry: A Critical Edition. Spicilegium Friburgense, 17.
University of Fribourg: Fribourg, 1972.
The prologue and Historia orientalis were printed in the 17th and
18th centuries. For details and the manuscript tradition, see Hinnebusch,
pp. ix - x, 32-67.
Sermones: Some 450 sermons attributed to Jacques exist. Several have
been printed in collections, but not critically edited. For details, see
Hinnebusch, pp. ix -x, 7-10.
Epistolae: Edited by R. Huygens, Lettres de jacques de Vitry (1160/70
- 1240), évêque de Saint-Jean-d'Acre. Edition critique.
Leiden, 1960.
Bibliography:
- P. Bourgain, "Jakob von Vitry, LMA 5 (1991): 294-5
Michael Hanst, "Jakob von Vitry," BBK 2 (1990): 1493-5
S. C. Ferruolo "Jacques de Vitry," DMA 7 (1986): 39-40
John F. Hinnebusch, The Historia occidentalis of Jacques de Vitry: A
Critical Edition. Spicilegium Friburgense, 17. University of Fribourg:
Fribourg, 1972.
Schneyer, 3 (1971): 179-221
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