La SorbonneThe historic University of Paris |
The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganized as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution (Collège de Sorbonne) founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon, but the university as such is older and was never completely centered on the Sorbonne. Of the 13 current successor universities, the first four have a presence in Sorbonne, and three include Sorbonne in their names. The 13 universities still stand under a common rectorate with offices in the Sorbonne. The Sorbonne remains one of the most famous and prestigious of universities in the world, having produced Nobel Prize winners from its faculty and student body, as well as a number of the greatest intellectuals, political theorists, scientists, engineers, doctors, theologians, and artists of the Western tradition and canon.
The Collège de Sorbonne was founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon, after whom it is named. It is also the name of its main campus in the Ve arrondissement of Paris, which now houses several universities (heirs to the former University of Paris) as well as the Paris rectorate.
It was originally created for the use of 20 theology students in 1257 as Collège de Sorbonne by Robert de Sorbon (1201-1274), a chaplain and confessor to King Louis IX of France. It quickly built a prodigious reputation as a center for learning, and by the 13th century there were as many as twenty thousand foreign students resident in the city, making Paris the capital of knowledge of the Western world. Today, foreign students still make up a significant part of its campus.
The Sorbonne became the most distinguished theological institution in France and its doctors were frequently called upon to render opinions on important ecclesiastical and theological issues. In 1622-1626, Cardinal Richelieu renovated the Sorbonne (the present buildings date from this time, with restorations dating from 1885). In his honour, the chapel of the Sorbonne was added in 1637. When Richelieu died in 1642 he was placed in a tomb within this chapel.
The faculty's close association with the Church resulted in it being closed down during the French Revolution before it was reopened by Napoleon in 1808 to serve as part of the University of Paris. Between then and 1885 the Sorbonne served as the seat of the university's theology faculties and of the Académie de Paris. At the end of the 19th century, the Sorbonne became an entirely secular institution.
Besides the famous Collège de Sorbonne, there were other collegia, providing housing and meals to students, sometimes for those of the same geographical origin in a more restricted sense than that represented by the nations. There were 8 or 9 collegia for foreign students: The oldest one was the Danish college, the Collegium danicum or dacicum, founded in 1257. Swedish students could during the 13 and 14th centuries live in one of three Swedish colleges, the Collegium Upsaliense, the Collegium Scarense or the Collegium Lincopense, named after diocesal centres in Sweden (Uppsala, Skara and Linköping), the cathedral schools of which the scholars had presumably attended before travelling to Paris. The German College, Collegium alemanicum is mentioned as early as 1345, the Scottish college or Collegium scoticum was founded in 1325. The Lombard college or Collegium lombardicum was founded in the 1330s. The Collegium constantinopolitanum was, according to a tradition, founded in the 13th century to facilitate a remerger of the eastern and western churches. It was later reorganized as a French institution, the Collège de la Marche-Winville.