Insignia Doctoralia

Summary

Theinsignia doctoralia formerly used at the creation of University Doctors consisted of a Cap and a Kiss, a Book and a Ring, and a Chair. These are described and their significance explained in an elegant oration delivered by Dr Bentley in his speech (prefixed to his edition of Terence) upon the creation of Dr Mawson and six others at the Commencement in 1725. This is reprinted by Dean Peacock in his Observations (Appendix A, p. xl, etc.) and by Sir John Sandys, in his article on Ancient University Ceremonies in the volume issued in honour of Mr J. W. Clark, in 1909. Sir Arthur Shipley has described it in Country Life (6 December 1919), where he humorously remarks that “the kiss was mercifully done away with long before my time, and, perhaps, in view of the increasing demand of ladies for degrees, it is just as well. Still it is but just to state that Bentley records it was ‘no kiss of dalliance (suavium) but a kiss of holy love (osculum).’”

Sir John Sandys records a personal incident of much interest. He says:

1858. More than fifty years ago, being then a boy of fourteen, during a visit to an elder brother at Corpus, I was admitted to the galleries of the Senate-House, and there had the satisfaction of seeing the ‘gold ring’ actually used at the conferring of a doctor's degree. […]