The Great Dispersion of the University of Paris and the Rise of European Universities (1229-1231) =

Abstract

After a violent “town and gown” conflict, the masters and students of Paris left the capetian capital during two years, between 1229 and 1231. Prosopographical data enable us to know that they had been dispersed to the Loire Valley, Picardy, Champagne, England, Italy and Spain. In these places, most of them continued to teach or to study, and their arrival fostered the development of scholarly centers such as Orléans or Palencia. The recent universities such as Oxford or Toulouse saw their populations increase suddenly with the arrival of Parisian clerks. Manuscripts and institutional models travelled with masters and students through Europe so that we can say that the Great dispersión of the University of Paris had important consequences on the rise of European universities.