1069 



enrollment from 6,000 to 7,000 for Paris and Bologna, 3,000 for Ox- 

 ford, 1,500 for Prague, and 900 for Vienna. All developed withm the- 

 f ramework of a commonly shared intellectual world : a common Latin 

 language and Catholic faith, and a general cultural unity which 

 created a universality that facilitated migration. The universities were 

 truly cosmopolitan; students and scholars crossed political boundaries 

 with no sense that they were compromising national loyalities. During 

 this period preceding the political fragmentation of Europe, loyalties 

 were city or regionally oriented and not directed towards a national 

 state.^^ 



In general, the migration of scholars and students during the Mid- 

 dle Ages was commonplace. At the Universities of Bologna and Paris, 

 for example, foreigners seemed to constitute the majority of the stu- 

 dent body. There were, however, extreme cases of migrations when 

 whole or parts of university faculties with students would move from 

 one city or region to another. The University of Bologna was the cen- 

 ter of many conflicts with city authorities. Faculty and students, some- 

 times at the invitation of competing cities, departed to set up another 

 university elsewhere. The universities of Arezzo (1215) , Padua (1222) , 

 Vercelli (1228), Siena (1246), Pisa (1343), and Florence (1349) were 

 founded as a result of migration or secession of the whole or parts of 

 the faculty of the University of Bologna. All told, Bologna experi- 

 enced 15 such migrations.™ 



Other great European universities such as Cambridge and Leipzig 

 were founded under similar conditions of disaffection by faculty and 

 students from the parent university. 



Authorities in one city often negotiated directly with discontented 

 faculty and students, offering alluring emoluments in order to effect 

 a transfer. In 1321, the dissatisfied faculty at Bologna was the target 

 for the appeals of authorities in all surrounding cities. Florence lost 

 in its bidding to Siena. 



Kingdoms made open invitations to discontented faculties. At the 

 time of the "Great Dispersion" of the University of Paris in 1229, 

 King Henry III of England published a letter inviting masters and 

 scholars of the university "to transfer yourselves to our kingdom of 

 England and to abide there for the sake of study." He pledged to 

 assign them to "whatever boroughs and villages you choose and we 

 will provide for your liberty and tranquillity in every convenient way 

 pleasing to God and satisfactory to you." ^^ 



Authorities took punitive actions to prevent the migration of schol- 

 ars and students. Laws were promulgated and decrees proclaimed bar- 

 ring migration, even in some cases under pain of death. Bologna au- 

 thorities resorted to such drastic measures but none of the statutes 

 proved effective.'^^ 



Causes for talent migration in the Middle Ages are similar in many 

 respects to those causing brain drain today. Probably they can be 

 summed up as follows : Offers of more money, better working condi- 

 tions, greater intellectual freedom, and, in some cases, relief from re- 

 strictions by governing authorities; absence of barriers to mobility; 



•9 Ibid., pp. 19-21. 

 ■"> Ibid., p. 23. 

 •n Ibid., p. 25. 

 " Ibid., p. 23. 



