University of Seville - History

History

The University of Seville is steeped in history and is one of the most important cultural centers in Spain, dating to the 15th century when the Catholic Monarchs recovered the area from the Moors, a history reflected in its architecture. It was originally the Colegio de Santa Mari­a de Jesus which had been created by Archdeacon Maese Rodrigo Fernandez de Santaella and was confirmed as a practising university in 1505 by the papal bull of Pope Julius II. Today, the University of Seville is known for research in technology and science.

In the middle of the thirteenth century the Dominicans, in order to prepare missionaries for work among the Moors and Jews, organized schools for the teaching of Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek. To cooperate in this work and to enhance the prestige of Seville, Alfonso the Wise in 1254 established in the city "general schools" (escuelas generales) of Arabic and Latin. Alexander IV, by the Papal Bull of 21 June 1260, recognized this foundation as a generale litterarum studium and granted its members certain dispensations in the matter of residence. Later, the cathedral chapter established ecclesiastical studies in the College of San Miguel. Rodrigo de Santaello, archdeacon of the cathedral and commonly known as Maese Rodrigo, began the construction of a building for a university in 1472; in 1502 the Catholic Monarchs published the royal decree creating the university, and in 1505 Julius II granted the Bull of authorization; in 1509 the college of Maese Rodrigo was finally installed in its own building, under the name of Santa María de Jesús, but its courses were not opened until 1516. The Catholic Monarchs and the pope granted the power to confer degrees in logic, philosophy, theology, and canon and civil law. The colegio mayor de Maese Rodrigo and the university proper, although housed in the same building, never lost their separate identities, as is shown by the fact that, in the eighteenth century, the university was moved to the College of San Hermanegildo, while that of Maese Rodrigo remained independent, although languishing.