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The Fourteenth-Century College of Aubert de Guignicourt at Soissons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
The fourteenth century was the great century of college-founding in western Europe. The previous century and a half had witnessed the origins and early growth of the great studia generalia in Italy, France, England and Spain. This previous age had also seen the creation and endowment of the first colleges within the universities, a development which was to make the college system the dominant organizational characteristic of the medieval universities. The College des Dix-Huit was set up at Paris in the last years of the twelfth century; the most celebrated of all colleges, the Sorbonne, was endowed in the thirteenth. Almost at the same time, Merton College came into being at Oxford. But what had been a slow growth in the thirteenth century became a phenomenal expansion and multiplication of colleges in the fourteenth century. These colleges, vastly increased in number, were almost invariably and naturally attached to the old centers. The college founded by Aubert de Guignicourt at Soissons is almost unique simply because it was a provincial college. Because provincial colleges were so rare, this particular foundation deserves examination.
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References
1 Such as Paris, Toulouse and Montpellier in France; Bologna and Padua in Italy; Valencia and Salamanca in Spain; and Oxford and Cambridge in England. Google Scholar
2 Of the colleges which made up the University of Paris, about nineteen were founded before 1300, thirty-seven in the fourteenth century, and eleven in the fifteenth. Roughly, the same ratio holds for Oxford and Cambridge. See Rashdall's The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Rev. edition by Powicke, F. M. and Emden, A. B.) 1.536–539.Google Scholar
3 Archives Départementales de l'Aisne (Laon), Liasse G. 7. Google Scholar
4 This particular fact was gleaned from numerous papal letters addressed to Aubert between these dates, to be found in Jean XXII: Lettres communes (ed. Mollat, G. ) passim. There is some reason to believe that Aubert was a papal proctor residing at Paris as early as 1322. See Chartes de l'Abbaye de Saint-Hubert en Ardenne (in Collection des Chroniques Belges) (ed. Kurth, G.) 1.496f., in which John XXII ordered the official of Reims to protect the interests of the abbey of St. Hubert (19 April 1322). On the dorso of the document is the name ‘Aubertus de Guignicurte.’ Kurth conjectured that Aubert was the person who sought the letter and through whom it would pass on to its destination. This seems correct in view of similar activities of Aubert at Paris after 1326. But Kurth also believed for some unstated reason that Aubert was probably a monk of the priory of Evergnicourt, which is rather close so Guignicourt. While this supposition is possibly true, it is completely unsubstantiated.Google Scholar
5 Gallia Christiana 9 col. 388. As is well known, Gallia Christiana is incomplete in much of its calendar and detail, and contains many lacunae with respect to deans, provosts and even bishops. Nicolas de Saint-Solenge is named as a dean of Soissons who died in 1327. There is a gap between him and Aubert de Guignicourt which can now be filled. Aubert's predecessor as dean of Soissons was master Jean de Roye, clerk of Philip VI. A letter on the execution of his testament, in which he bequeathed 10 l. Par. for his anniversary to the parish church of St. Andrieu of St. Quentin, is to be found in Archives Nationales, L. 739, no. 75 (Carton — Bishopric of Noyon). The letter is dated February, 1335, and mentions Jean de Roye as deceased. Aubert therefore succeeded this royal clerk as dean of Soissons in either 1334 or 1335.Google Scholar
6 The grant of revenue is found in Archives Nationales, JJ. 74, fol. 293 recto. All of the above-mentioned documents were discussed, and the scholarship of 1349 printed, in the author's ‘Aubert de Guignicourt — Fourteenth Century Patron of Learning,’ Medievalia el Humanistica 9 (1955) 71–75.Google Scholar
7 Archives Nationales, L. 743, no. 58 (Carton — Bishopric of Soissons). The charter of statutes is an enormous piece of parchment, measuring approximately 100 × 80 cm. While the parchment itself is in fair condition, the ink has faded badly, and the borders of the document have become worn and frayed, making many of the words absolutely illegible. Google Scholar
8 L. 743, no. 57. Google Scholar
9 JJ. 74, fol. 294r: All of the itemized revenues were granted to Aubert, dean of Soissons or to other persons or places to whom he might assign the revenues for use, ‘tant en un hospital de pouvres escoliers quil a fonde en la cite de Soissons comme en un oratoire ou chapellenie ou le service de Dieu serra fait et pour faire audit ospital et ailleurs selonc la volente et lordenance dudit messire Aubert.’ The ‘quil a fonde’ seems to say clearly that the house of scholars had already been founded. Google Scholar
10 L. 743, no. 57. The document is a charter of Jean, provost of Soissons. He states that Aubert wishes to obtain this building ‘cum ipse propositum haberet ut dicebat dictam domum reedifican et meliorari faciendi, et ibidem scolares instituendi et fundandi …’ The chapter transferred the building to Aubert in return for an annual rent of 4 l. Par. Google Scholar
11 Ibid . This reference to the condition of the building is found again, ten years later, in the statutory charter (L. 743, no. 58).Google Scholar
12 Although eighteen scholars were assigned to the house, Aubert mentioned provisions for only twelve beds. Ibid.: ‘… ac duodecem lecti ad usum ipsorum scolarium …’ I cannot account for this discrepancy. The twelve beds are mentioned a second time in the statutes. Google Scholar
13 Ibid .: ‘… illi qui vulgaliter quatuor homines de Guignicurte nuncupantur iurabunt de persona vel personis sufficiente vel sufficientibus …’ It is fairly impossible to determine the exact nature or authority of the four men. If Guignicourt was a rural commune, they were probably the civil officials who acted as chief magistrates. They could also have been laymen invested with guardianship of the Guignicourt parish.Google Scholar
14 Ibid. : ‘… qui sint doctibilis (sic) ydonei ad grammaticam audiendam …’Google Scholar
15 Ibid. : ‘… qui etiam tales sint quod iam Donatum et librum Cathonis audiverint et latinum faciant et etiam tonsuram clericalem habeant antequam apponantur ibidem ac etiam tresdecem annos etatis sue saltem habeant …’ One of the most recent works on Cato's Distichs is Richard Hazelton, ‘The Christianization of Cato: The Disticha Catonis in the Light of Late Mediaeval Commentaries,’ Mediaeval Studies, 19 (1957) 157–173, with a plentiful bibliography. The study of the Disticha Catonis seems to have ordinarily followed the study of Donatus, and is usually related to what may be called the secondary curriculum.Google Scholar
16 Ibid. : ‘… patres et matres eorum tenebuntur iurare solemniter quod bona possessiones iura proventus hereditates et exitus dicte terre de Mediavilla et de Novocastro cum pertinenciis suis custodient et si viderent vel scicrent aliquem vel aliquos dampnum sive dampna facientes in predictis bonis possessionibus…… ipsum vel ipsos retraherent et ubi non possent gubernatores dicte terre significarent …’Google Scholar
17 Ibid .: ‘Quo termino quinque annorum elapso amoveri tenebuntur et debebunt et alii substituentur loco illorum simili modo alio quinquennio elapso amoturi.’Google Scholar
18 Ibid. : ‘Item, statui et statuo, ordinavi et ordino quod dicti clerici … loquuntur latinum tamen in scolis quam in domo. Et quod ad scolas simul vadant et revertantur …’Google Scholar
19 Ibid. : ‘… quod idem magister sit sufficienter litteratus bonus scolaris et conversacione maturus. Ita quod in scientia gramatice possit ipsos scolares sufficienter imbuere erudire et docere …’Google Scholar
20 Archives Départementales de l'Aisne, G. 253 (Chartulary, Cathedral Chapter of Soissons), fol. 105v-106v. The letter comes from the royal provost of Pierrefonds and states that ‘… messire Jehan de Nuefville chevalier et madame Gile sa femme … ont vendu … a honorables hommes et discres messire Aubert de Guignicourt, doyen del'eglise Saint Gervais de Soissons, et maistre Robert de Valsoigne, maistre escole en ladicte eglise, un fief que les dis vendeurs avoient sicomme il disoient assis en la ville et terrouir d'Acy devant Soissons …’ The sale was made for 120 l. Par. Acy is an isolated village about six miles southeast of Soissons. Robert de Vassogne undoubtedly derived from the village of Vassogne, situated between Laon and the Aisne. Google Scholar
21 L. 743, no. 58: ‘… Presentibus … magistris Roberto de Vassongnia …’ The cathedral church of Soissons had a scolasticus throughout the early years of the fourteenth century. Reference to this person for the years from 1318 to 1331 may be found in Mollat (Note 4 supra) nos. 7844, 14699, 18969, 55886. The substance of the letters, however, give no helpful information on the persons holding the office, or on their duties. But they do support the view that Robert de Vassogne was the scolasticus of the cathedral, and had apparently no close connection with Aubert's house of scholars. Google Scholar
22 See notes 3 and 6 supra. Google Scholar
23 See note 5 supra. Google Scholar
24 These classifications by the archivist are on the backs of the documents in L. 743 nos. 57 and 58. Google Scholar
25 One final item on Aubert is L. 743, no. 42, which is the account of a dispute between the dean of Soissons and the cathedral chapter in 1343, on a matter of jurisdiction and rights. Perhaps Aubert was a strong personality, and insisted on either the strict maintenance or extension of his jurisdictional rights. But such disputes between deans, bishops and cathedral chapters were quite common in the fourteenth century. Google Scholar