Oxford (England) -- History; University of Oxford -- History
[13] "Universitas est plurium corporum collectio inter se distantium
uno nomine specialiter eis deputata" is the well-known definition
of Hugolinus. The term "studium generale" or "studium universale"
came into use, so far as documents are any guide, in the middle of
the thirteenth century (Denifle). Earlier, and more usually however,
the word "studium" was used to describe a place where a collection
of schools had been established. The epithet "generale" was used,
apparently, to distinguish the merely local schools of Charlemagne
from those where foreign students were permitted and even encouraged
to come, as they were, for instance, at Naples by Frederick II.
So that a University or seat of General study was a place whither
students came from every quarter for every kind of knowledge.
[14] This term faculty, which originally signified the capacity
(facultas) to teach a particular subject, came to be applied
technically to the subject itself or to the authorised teachers of
it viewed collectively. A University might include one or all of the
"Faculties" of Theology, Law, Medicine and the Liberal Arts, although
naturally enough each of the chief Universities had its own particular
department of excellence. A complete course of instruction in the
seven liberal arts, enumerated in the old line "Lingua, tropus, ratio,
numerus, tonus, angulus, astra," was intended as a preparation for the
study of theology--the main business of Oxford as of Paris University.
The Arts were divided into two parts, the first including the three
easier or "trivial" subjects--Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic; the second
the remaining four--Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy.
[15] The example of William of Durham as the first Englishman to
bequeath funds to enable the secular clergy to study theology was
soon followed by others. William Hoyland, one of the Bedels of the
University, left his estate to the University, and (1255) Walter Gray,
Archbishop of York, also bequeathed his property to it.
[16] A portrait of Dr Radcliffe, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, hangs over
the doorway. The building was used at first to house works on Natural
History, Physical Science and Medicine, for it was Radcliffe's object
to encourage these studies. The Library was therefore known as the
Physic Library. This has been removed to the University Museum, and
the Camera, or "the Radcliffe" as it is familiarly called, is now
used as a reading-room in connection with the Bodleian. It is open
for the use of students daily from ten to ten. Visitors to Oxford are
recommended to climb to the roof and obtain the magnificent panoramic
view of the city and neighbourhood which it commands.
[17] Worcester Street--Stockwell Street (Stoke-Well, the Well which
afterwards rejoiced in the name of Plato's, as opposed to Aristotle's
Well, half a mile off). East of the Well was the rough land known till
quite recently as Broken Hayes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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