“MADE EXILES FOR THE LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE”: STUDENTS IN LATE MEDIEVAL ITALY ∗ Julius Kirshner HE passel of privileges and immunities granted to members of university communities in the Middle Ages, especially professors and students, has been described and analyzed repeatedly and minutely. 1 As this literature reveals, precedents for scholarly privileges and immunities are found in Jus- tinian’s Corpus iuris civilis. It also confirms that the DNA for scholarly privi- T ∗ Grateful thanks to James S. Grubb and Gian Maria Varanini for sharing with me their granular knowledge of the history of Vicenza and the Veneto; to Susanne Lepsius for sending me copies of materials unavailable in Chicago; and to Lawrin Armstrong and Osvaldo Cavallar for their generosity and valuable criticisms. I presented a preliminary version of my paper at a conference dedicated to the jurist Bartolomeo Cipolla, held at the University of Verona, in October 2004. All references to the works of Bartolus de Saxoferrato are found in his Opera, 12 vols. in 10 (Venice, 1570–71). 1 The outstanding work remains Pearl Kibre’s Scholarly Privileges in the Middle Ages: The Rights, Privileges, and Immunities of Scholars and Universities at Bologna, Padua, Paris, and Oxford (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). See also Jacques Verger, “Les privilèges personnels des maîtres et des étudiants dans les universités européennes du Moyen Âge et de l’Ancien Ré- gime,” in Das Privileg im europäischen Vergleich, ed. Barbara Dölemeyer and Heinz Mohn- haupt, vol. 2 (Frankfurt am Main, 1999), 171–87; and Sergio Di Noto Marrella, “Lo ‘status’ studentesco in un trattato della seconda metà del ’500,” in “Panta rei”: Studi dedicati a Manlio Bellomo, ed. Orazio Condorelli, 5 vols. (Rome, 2004), 2:111–32. In addition, the foundation of each university, along with its privileges, has been documented and studied. For a general over- view of student life in the Middle Ages, see Rainer Christoph Schwinges, “Student Education, Student Life,” in A History of the University in Europe, ed. Hilde De Ridder-Symoens, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1992), vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, 195–243; Manlio Bellomo, Saggio sull’università nell’età del diritto comune (Rome, 1992); Peter Denley, “Communities within Communities: Student Identity and Student Groups in Late Medieval Italian Universities,” in Studenti, università, città nella storia padovana (Centro per la Storia dell’ Università di Pa- dova, Atti del convegno Padova 6–8 febbraio 1998), ed. Francesco Piovan and Luciana Sitran Rea (Trieste, 2001), 723–44; and Gian Paolo Brizzi, “L’identità dello studente tra medievo ed età moderna,” in Identità collettive tra medioevo ed età moderna, ed. Paolo Prodi and Wolf- gang Reinhard, Università di Bologna, Quaderni di discipline storiche 17 (Bologna, 2002), 313–32. On the University of Bologna, see Antonio Ivan Pini, “Discere turba volens. Studenti e vita studentesca a Bologna dalle origini dello Studio alla metà del Trecento,” in Studenti e università degli studenti dal XII al XIX secolo, ed. Gian Paolo Brizzi and Antonio Ivan Pini, Studi e memorie per la storia dell’Università di Bologna, n.s., 7 (Bologna, 1988), 45–136. Mediaeval Studies 70 (2008): 163–202. © Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.