This article embarks on an enlightening journey through the evolution of higher education in Spain, from its medieval roots to the illustrious Spanish Golden Age. It highlights the pivotal role of universities and their profound impact on society, culture, and beyond. Through the lens of Spain's educational advancements, we explore the development of prestigious institutions that not only offered advanced academic disciplines but also shaped the intellectual landscape of Europe and the New World. Join us as we delve into the rich history of Spanish higher education, tracing its expansion and influence that resonated globally, marking Spain as a beacon of knowledge and discovery in the annals of history.
The Emergence of Spanish Universities
Upon completing his course in Latin grammar, the student with the opportunity and the interest to continue his studies looked to the university. Commonly known as estudios generales before the seventeenth century, later as universidades, these institutions were distinguished from the grammar schools by their teaching chairs in the advanced faculties of law, medicine, and theology and the right to grant licenses or degrees of scholastic attainment-the baccalaureate, master's license, and doctorate. Estudios particulares, or simply estudios, often rivaled the universities in size but lacked either the full complement of faculties or the right to grant academic degrees. These simple estudios included many of Spain's grammar schools which taught theology and the liberal arts in addition to Latin grammar but had no power to grant degrees, only certificates of study. In the same category were various institutions which taught all of the prescribed university subjects but could grant degrees only to certain groups, the members of one religious order, for example. Universities in Spain, as in other European nations, began during the Middle Ages. By 1450 the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon had six estudios generales, four of which were fully operational and rather well-known. The oldest was at Salamanca, a city in the old kingdom of Leon in western Spain, not far from the Portuguese border. It had originated early in the thirteenth century, received the official recognition of King Alfonso X in 1248 and the sanction of the papacy in 1255, which enabled it to be known as studium generale and to grant academic degrees, the right of jus ubique docendi. Salamanca was soon rivaled by another estudio general at the not far distant town of Valladolid, the first in the kingdom of Castile, and then by others at Huesca in the kingdom of Aragon and at Lerida in the principality of Catalonia.
Expansion and Influence of Spanish Higher Education
Beyond a few basic facts, little is known about the early history of these institutions. The work of kings rather than popes, they led an uncertain existence, especially during the wars of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The major subjects were the laws, canon and civil, if only because theology was not an official part of the university curriculum. Salamanca, for example, relying upon classes offered by nearby religious convents, did not acquire a faculty of theology until 1394, more than a century after its official foundation. Pope Martin V (1417-31) expanded the number of Salamanca's theology chairs and sanctioned the theology faculty which had begun in 1411 at Valladolid with the help of King John I; nevertheless, the holy science continued to take second place to studies in law. In this respect Spain's medieval universities bore a close resemblance to their Italian counterparts, notably Bologna, upon whose government and organization they were modeled. The universities of northern Europe, Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris in particular, famous for their studies in arts and theology, were markedly different. Moreover, the latter were the universitas or corporation of masters rather than students, while the collegiate tradition, so strong in the north by the late fourteenth century, came slowly to the universities of Spain, never to assume the importance it would achieve in Paris or in England.
The Role of Universities in the Spanish Golden Age
After the middle of the fifteenth century the fortunes of higher education in Spain improved decisively. At that point Spain's universities, now numbering six, were institutions at the periphery of society, far removed from the mainstream of religious and secular life. Poor in rents, low in reputation, many Spanish youths avoided them, preferring instead to study abroad: physicians at Montpellier, lawyers at Bologna, some of whom were supported by the Spanish college in that city, and theologians at Paris. But in the century following the opening of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel, the universities of Spain grew in number, size, and prestige. Between 1474 and the early seventeenth century, twenty-seven new universities were established, giving Spain a grand total of thirty-three. In addition, Spaniards organized universities in their new American territories at an astonishing rate. The first, under Dominican auspices, arose at Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola in 1538, to be followed by others in Mexico City (1551), Lima (1551), Las Charcas (1552) in what is now modern Bolivia, Bogota (1580), and Quito (1586). Universities in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala came in the seventeenth century. In total, Spaniards of the Golden Age established or reorganized no less than forty universities, including those in Spanish-controlled territories in Europe, a record no other Europeans could match.