Universidad de Salamanca

Universidad de Salamanca

The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218, and is the oldest University in Spain. The university peaked in 1584, when it had nearly 7,000 students, before declining starting by the end of the 16th century until the early 19th century (Britannica). One of its students was Benito Feijóo, who targeted it and many other Spanish institutions for their lack of effective learning in a 1745 letter titled Cartas eruditas y curiosas (Barker, 17). In the letter, Benito called professors “persistently ignorant” with no regard for new philosophy (Cowans, 212). These teachers clung to the Bible over everything else, perhaps out of self-interest and the fact that the Inquisition encouraged them to not go against Catholicism. This limited understanding of modern ideas at the University of Salamanca was most likely a cause of its decline, as the Inquisition blocked the acquisition of certain books so that new ideas were harder to come by (Cowans, 197). Feijóo also believed this backwardness was in part rooted in Spanish pride, as they believed in their own superiority over philosophers from other European nations. Perhaps Spanish attempts at conquest throughout the New and Old World had generated this, as the citizens sought to refute others in their quest for domination. Thus, Feijóo’s criticism may extend to Spanish policy as well. In summary, the University’s decline parallels Spain’s decline, and how its pride and Inquisition limited the acquisition of new ideas at great cost.

Juan Carlos Cera

Cera, Juan Carlos. Español: Edificio de La Universidad de Salamanca, La Universidad Más Antigua de España. September 2, 2014. Own work. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universidad_de_Salamanca_-_University_of_Salamanca.JPG.

“University of Salamanca | University, Salamanca, Spain.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/University-of-Salamanca.

Joanna M Barker, "Benito Jerónimo Feijoo and the Defence Of Women." In In Defence of Women, 17. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4ncnzd.4.

Benito Feijóo, “Causes of Spain’s Backwardness (1745)” in Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History, ed. Jon Cowans, (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 212

“Laws of the Habsburg Monarchy” in Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History, ed. Jon Cowans, (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 197

2 September 2014, 18:48:33

Teddy Wolfe

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