A Ascensão das Universidades

by Charles Homer Haskins, Nilton Ribeiro (Translator), Rafael Falcón (Foreword)

A origem e a natureza das primeiras universidades do Ocidente é o assunto desta famosa série de palestras proferida em 1923 pelo historiador americano Charles Homer Haskins, e traduzida pela primeira vez no Brasil.

Num estilo vibrante e entusiasmado, o autor explica como surgiram as instituições universitárias, além de pintar um retrato vivo do cotidiano dos alunos e professores de cidades como Paris, Oxford e Bolonha.

"A ascensão das universidades" é um livro que ilumina o conhecimento do público brasileiro sobre a Idade Média, época de importantes realizações culturais e intelectuais, mas que permanece inadequadamente associada ao obscurantismo na imaginação popular.

O autor:
Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1930) foi um importante medievalista norte-americano que lecionou por quase 30 anos na Universidade de Harvard.
Haskins foi assessor do presidente Woodrow Wilson, e escreveu, entre outros, o livro "The renaissance of the twelfth century" (1927)

Genres: History, Education, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, Philosophy, Politics

118 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 1923

About the author

Charles Homer Haskins (December 21, 1870 – May 14, 1937) was a history professor at Harvard University. He was an American historian of the Middle Ages, and advisor to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. He is widely recognized as the first academic medieval historian in the United States.

Reviews

[Lois Bujold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent quick overview of a question almost no one, applying to or attending an American university, ever stops to ask themselves: where do these institutions and all their forms and customs come from in the first place? Higher education as we think of it was not an invention of Greece or Rome, but of medieval Europe. Three lectures-now-chapters -- and earlier education was almost entirely lecture-based -- cover "The Earliest Universities", "The Medieval Professor", and "The Medieval Student". Some of what is covered seems alien and wonderfully strange, some startlingly familiar and modern. (Student housing! The issues haven't changed...!) The fact that some of these self-directed assemblages have survived for going on a thousand years through all the turbulence that the late millennium could throw at them says something interesting and well worth contemplating.

Also, The Middle Ages: more than guys bashing each other. (Although they did have to have rules forbidding people to carry weapons into academic debates; only mostly the audience.)

Ta, L. Daughter of a professor, albeit not medieval; again considering a fish vs. water.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief but detailed book, on the original universities. In medieval times.

First covering the institutions themselves, then the professors, then the students.

The universities frequently pick arbitrary times as the founding, because in reality they kinda grew. the books and the subjects taught. The laws students forced on professors, such requiring permission for absence and fining any that didn't draw five students to a lecture as if he had been absent. The first colleges were simply ways to house the students. How students wrote begging letters. And also threatened to decamp in order to negotiate prices. (Since the first universities had no buildings, that would be easy.)

Lots of stuff.

[Alan Rennê · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito boa a exposição do ambiente acadêmico medieval. Chamou a minha atenção a maneira como os professores eram reverenciados. O autor menciona um chamado Pepo, conhecido como "a luz brilhante e resplandecente de Bolonha". Além disso, a descrição de como os alunos exigiam dos seus professores é completamente oposta ao que vemos no ambiente universitário de hoje: "Nos primeiros estatutos (1317), lemos que um professor não podia se ausentar por um único dia se não tivesse autorização, e caso desejasse deixar a cidade, ele tinha que fazer um depósito como garantia de seu retorno. Se não conseguisse uma audiência de cinco alunos para uma preleção regular, ele era multado como se estivesse ausente - certamente seria uma aula muito inferior a que não conseguisse cinco ouvintes! Ele deve iniciar ao toque do sino e parar dentro de um minuto depois do próximo sino. Não era permitido que ele pulasse nenhum capítulo em seu comentário ou atuasse uma dificuldade para o final da hora, ele era obrigado a cobrir sistematicamente o assunto estudado, uma certa quantidade em cada período específico do ano. Ninguém podia passar o ano inteiro tratando da introdução e bibliografia!" (páginas 26-27).

[Felipe Oquendo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livrinho fantástico, esse. Nas minhas listas desde que o vi indicado pelo Otto Maria Carpeaux, no Volume I de sua História da Literatura Ocidental, eu vinha adiando sua leitura até que a Danúbio o publicou no Brasil e eu o recebi como brinde por ter participado de uma de suas campanhas de crowdfunding (não que eu não leia o original inglês, mas sabem como é, quando o livro cai, impresso, no teu colo, as coisas mudam de figura).

Muito do que está aqui eu já sabia, seja pelo próprio Carpeaux, seja pelas aulas do Prof. Olavo de Carvalho ou palestras da Yale que assisti online, mas há muita coisa nova, ou novas e interessantes perspectivas, além de uma interessante bibliografia comentada, ao final, para aprofundamento dos leitores. Por exemplo, eu não sabia que a Universidade de Bolonha - a mais antiga do mundo - nasceu com um grupo de estudantes que saíam de uma cidade para outra e não tiveram um prédio fixo por um longo tempo. Ou que os colégios das "Nações" eram locais onde as aulas continuavam em cursos mais curtos, sobre temas específicos.

Não se trata de uma história, nem de uma introdução ao tema: são palestras transformadas em livros, é algo entre um ensaio histórico e uma preleção entusiasmada.

Destaco aqui o prefácio do Rafael Falcón, que captou muito bem o espírito da obra e que nos dá algumas sugestões bem profícuas sobre seu lugar no mundo. Despeço-me com um trecho do referido prefácio:

"O contexto faz do livro, então, um diálogo entre membros de um clã, sobre a origem do mesmo clã; Haskins não ignora esse dado por um só momento, e de fato parece ter planejado suas palestras neste sentido. A história da universidade medieval é, pois, também uma narrativa sobre a origem do palestrante e dos próprios ouvintes, de sua hierarquia, de seus ritos; trata-se como que de um mito fundador, e o Prof. Haskins é o pajé, o guardião das crônicas, o mestre de mitos que desvela os segredos da fundação e a história dos antepassados".

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty entertaining for some 100 year-old essays. Makes me wonder how the scholarship and thinking on the rise of universities has changed since then.

I love how students first organized to deal with high rents in university cities. The more things change.....

[Sarah Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a class on perspectives on U.S. higher education for my master's degree program. This book was developed from three lectures given by Haskins in the 1920s on the origins of universities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One chapter focuses on the universities themselves, one on early professors, and one on students. The text does read more like an oral presentation than a comprehensive text, and thus is short on in-depth details and citations. While not incredibly comprehensive, it does provide an excellent overview of early institutions, allowing the reader to understand why and how modern day institutions are organized and operate they way they do.

Despite knowing a good deal about the history of higher education in America, prior to reading this text, I was unaware "that the university of the twentieth century is the lineal descendant of mediaeval Paris and Bologna" (5). It was interesting learning that early universities did not have physical presences or buildings of their own, and could thus protest rent or other expenses by picking up and moving to other locations.

Many concepts that we associate with modern day universities, such as academic freedom, originated with these early institutions. As now, the growth of universities was guided by the need for "education of professionals who could pursue religious, governmental, administrative, or legal careers, [...] which was guided by the belief that those with the most knowledge were prepared to be the most effective leaders" (xii - xiii).

I found this early history interesting, although Haskins largely just sparked my desire to learn more details about these early educational institutions. In particular, the final section on students was generic, focusing on students constantly need money or procrastinating on their work in favor of social pursuits - ironically, things we associate with college students to this day. However, overall, this text is an excellent starting point for those new to the very early history of universities.

[Marcos Junior · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um livro curto, mas extremamente interessante que nos mostra a origem das universidades, de como os paradigmas atuais já estavam presentes desde o século XII (mestres e alunos, exames, formatura, comunidade universitária, currículo), e de como a essência humana é a mesma, desde sempre. Os alunos no século XII mandavam cartas para seus pais pedindo dinheiro, gastavam de forma irresponsável, tentavam conciliar estudo com diversão, davam a si mesmo um ar de grandeza simplesmente por estarem na universidade. A universidade é um produto medieval e já tinha, desde então, as principais características da universidade atual.

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this for a quarter this morning. The premise was rather promising. Apparently the text was culled from a rasher of lectures delivered in the 1920s. There is a depressing dearth of example or citation. I would've pitched it were it not for the links to Waddell's Wandering Scholars.

[mahirzade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notlarımı toparladığımda yazacağım.

[Afiqah Zulkifli · Rating 5 out of 5]

"..the moral quality of a university depended on the intensity and seriousness of its intellectual life"

[Serkan Yilmaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oldukça zayıf bir çevirisi var, ancak bu kitaptan kalan önemli bir tortu üzerine okumaya ve araştırmaya değer “12.yüzyıl rönesansı” diye bir olgunun varlığı oldu…

[Caroline Gurgel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente leitura!

[نهى خالد · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a few new stuff from this book! The idea of the modern university is interesting for me, as I always thought Muslims had the first university, but with his description, I understand how different the modern university than the old, and personally I prefer the old definition of learning more and I hope we will be back to this one day or to have a newer definition.

Its language is not that easy though for a non-native English speaker.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MVJT6XP

[Jerusalem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haskins, Ortaçağ tarihçiliğinin Amerika'daki kurucu babası. Döneme geniş vukufiyeti ve tarihçilik refleksinin dönemine nazaran oldukça yüksek olması bu kısa kitabı oldukça başarılı bir çalışmaya dönüştürmüş. Özellikle kitabın üçüncü bölümü, yani Ortaçağ öğrencisinin günlük yaşamına ışık tutmaya çalışan kısımlar hayli keyifli bir okuma sunuyor.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although written almost a century ago (1923), this is an enjoyable (not dry) overview of the early universities and their founding. Although Pederson is perhaps more comprehensive, Haskins' work is an excellent introduction to the topic.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three lectures constitute this explanation of how American universities can find their roots in Medieval European universities. It was written in the 1920s and is still considered a seminal work on the topic. It contained some interesting information about how universities evolved.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a series of lectures converted into a book. Reader be forewarned. The continuity is of the spoken word, not of the written one. Also the author presupposes certain knowledge. It was an interesting look into the rise of the modern collegiate system.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

[Adam Marischuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, if dated introduction to Universities from a sympathetic and important scholar

Charles Homer Haskins The Rise of Universities is a foundational book in the study of Universities, though short and in many places dated. He relies heavily on Rashdalls' The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages: Volume 1, Salerno, Bologna, Paris but advances the thesis that one of the great contributions of the Middle Ages was the University, which remains surprisingly similar even today. The concerns of students and professors remains unchanged, and their behaviour is a reflection of human nature and the quint-essential European "religion of learning" which is awkwardly balanced with the vocational nature of universities, medieval or modern.

The book is divided into three sections, the first dealing with the institution itself, the second the professors and the third the students. Haskins shows the institutional continuity with modern universities, but his tracing of the rise of universities in the Cathedral schools is light, lacking in specifics and dated (as he admits, this is an area needing further study). His comparison to "modern" (1920s) American universities is dated, but the etymologies and distinctions between university and college are important reflections for American, British and continental students who all have a slightly different understanding of the relationship between university and college, "The colleges had buildings and endowments, if the university had not." (p. 27) "[the British colleges], arrogating to itself practically all teaching as well as direction of social life, until the university became merely an examining and degree-conferring body" (p. 28)

The treatment of the professors reflects his own position as a professor and a certain sympathy for the professors and a certain nostalgia for a professorial life with significantly less bureaucratic preoccupation. Despite "It [being] a bookish age, with great reverence for standard authorities and its instruction following closely the written word" (p. 38-38) he also attempts to dispel the myths of medieval professors being robotic didacts or arms of the Church/Inquisition. "There was a large scope for the personality of the instructor" (p. 54) "we must infer that there was a large amount of actual freedom...a false impression of the uniformity and sameness of mediaeval thought." (p.76-77)

Perhaps the most "fun" and modern chapter is that on students and student life. Haskins recounts the formulaic letters of students requesting funds, https://images.app.goo.gl/PCJL52S6MNa... (for those who enjoy memes)

Haskins also spends a great deal of time quoting the Goliardic poetry and drawing comparisons with "modern" students (again, from the 1920s, but if there has been any changes over the past hundred years, I am inclined to think that the similarities between the Goliards and the "modern" students have only grown). He warns that "Poetry of this sort is so contrary to conventional conceptions of the Middle Ages that some writers have denied its mediaeval character. 'It is,' says one, 'mediaeval only in the chronological sense,' while others find in it close affinities with the spirit of the Renaissance or of the Reformation. It would be more consonant with the spirit of history to enlarge our ideas of the Middle Ages so as to correspond to the facts of mediaeval life." (p. 119) Overall, Haskins emphasizes the similarities between mediaeval and modern students and convincingly ascribes it to human nature.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obra hilariante que mostra como mudamos pouco. Vale também a introdução do excelente prof. Rafael Falcón (encontra-se no site dele igualmente). Com a tese da existência do 3o Renascimento medieval, o tal Renascimento do século XII, o prof. Haskins já prevê elementos intelectuais do humanismo no próprio período de formação das universidades como corpos institucionais que organizam aquela comunhão de homens em que constitia anteriormente a ideia de universidade: como o autor bem cita Etienne Pasquier, o Collège de France (e todas as universidades até então) foi ''batî en hommes''. Desses elementos humanistas, o que mais me parecia longe de ser ''coisa medieval'' é a antiga Ars Dictaminis, do que se tira que é muito engraçado o conteúdo e a forma prescrita de cartas feitas por estudantes para pedir dinheiro aos pais ou outros preceptores (nada mais incrível do que ler num excerto ''Pois tu bem deves saber que na ausência de Ceres e Baco, Apolo arrefece.''; igualmente engraçadas e iluminadoras são as descrições da violência estudantil da época, a diferença entre hábitos entre estudantes ricos e pobres, a despreocupação e a vagabundagem etc, passando por Bolonha, Paris, Oxford e Heidelberg. Por fim, há alguns poemas goliárdicos interessantes mostrando até mesmo lá naquela época (como se já não bastasse a costumaz atitude irreverente dos estudantes) uma atitude hedonista e até quase que anticlerical. O autor conclui, não obstante o exposto, que ainda faz falta um elemento que permitiria dizer propriamente que falamos dos modernos: a individualidade, tema abordado no famoso livro de Burckhardt.

[Eugene Kernes · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy and quick read on how universities came to be. Most of the book describes the early 12th and 13th century Western university, teacher and student. The earliest universities were founded in Paris and Bologna. The university arose out of students need to prevent the individual student from the townspeople’s expropriating prices. Before universities, if someone studied under a scholar, they would not be able to show proof of the studies. The rise of universities was the diploma received as proof of the studies and the general concentration of study.

Over time, and due to the demands of the students, the teachers become professionalized and needed a sort of license to teach. Also over time, universities became guilds for scholars and students became more a necessary cost. Teachers taught mostly practical issues such as law, medicine, grammar, and logic. Teachers can teach anything as long as it was what acceptable from the perspective of the authoritarian doctrine.

The medieval students resemble students of contemporary time, with more time spending in leisure than study. Students used to write letters to their patrons for more money for studies, of which the money was often not spent on studies. Some of the money went to bribing the teachers for good grades.

The author explains that part of the rise of universities was the knowledge bought from the Arabic world, while does not specify whether they had universities. The book also misses what seem to be universities, at least by definition, in China at earlier times.

[Cemresu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Üniversitenin tarihini araştırmak isteyenler için hoş bir giriş kitabı bence. Kitap üç bölümden oluşuyor. İlk bölümde üniversitenin nasıl ortaya çıktığını farklı coğrafyalardaki yaklaşımlar temelinde kısaca inceliyor. İtalya'da Bolonya ve Padua örnekleri üzerinde dururken Fransa'da Paris, İngiltere'de Oxford'a değiniyor. Sonraki iki bölümün ilkinde üniversitedeki hocaların üniversite içindeki yerini, ikincisinde de öğrencilerin yerini ele alıyor. Kitap çok kısa, anlattıkları derinlemesine incelemeler yerine 'böyle de bir durum varmış' gibi kısa anlatılar şeklinde ilerliyor. Dolayısıyla alanda okuma yapmak isteyenler için giriş kitabı niteliğinin ötesine geçebilecrğini sanmıyorum. En azından bir son bölüm yazılabilirmiş toparlamak adına. Yine de farklı coğrafyalarda üniversite kurumunun doğuşunda nasıl farklılıkların bulunduğunu güzel bir şekilde serimlediğini, bu yönüyle de literatüre katkısı bulunduğunu düşündüğüm bir kitap.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Universities and their colleges occupy cultural space within various realms - from popular culture to legal analysis, but this book, in a collection of essays dating from a series of 1923 lectures explore how universities originated in the the “Middle Ages.” Exploring the medieval universities and divided broadly into chapters on “The Earliest Universities,” “The Medieval Professor,” and “The Medieval Student,” the book informs on some ways that our current institutions were informed and empowered by these historical predecessors.

Worth one’s consideration as a historical study if one has any inclination to better understand how our educational systems evolved from this early time period.

[Bailey L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun 1920s take on the "universities" of the Middle Ages. The quote at the very end of the book summarizes the book well -- more or less, students are students are students. They have the same tendencies they always have. It's the professors and the administrations that have fundamentally shifted (from middles ages to 1920s, and 1920s to today). Really quick read if interested in university history (a rather niche topic indeed!).

[Dalan Mendonca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book, a collection of 3 lectures on the origin of the university. Engaging read though it's a 100 year old book with some Old English, French and Latin popping up.

Lots of "this STILL happens" and "X in medieval times was like that!" moments.

[PERMADREAM. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read into the history of the rise of universities.

Pretty short book, was really hoping to read more on this topic. But all in all, great introductory piece for those unfamiliar with the university system's origins historically.

[Leandro Texeira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livrinho muito bom desde o prefácio. A história do surgimento da universidade, suas instituições, professores e os próprios estudantes. Vale dizer que há uma linha contígua entre as universidades de Bologna e Paris com as universidades atuais - o que nem sempre é uma coisa boa, como se vê.

[Brono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Para os que têm interesse em entender um pouco mais de história de uma época não tão distante “a ascensão das universidades” vai ser mais um ótimo agregado.
Leitura leve, super informativa com uma ótima cronologia.

[Cyrus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tbh I didn’t really get it. My takeaway was “universities as we know them started in the Middle Ages Italy and France. The students were regular people who asked their parents for money and got drunk a lot and studied too.”

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times interesting. At times I'd catch myself having read a few pages but not remembering a thing I read because I had zoned out.