ŒCONOMIA STUDII. Funding, management and resources of the Portuguese university: a comparative analysis (13th-16th centuries)
11.11.2016
Project status
ongoing
Execution period
2016-2019
REF
PTDC/EPHHIS/3154/2014
Main research unit
Centre for History of the University of Lisbon
Additional research units
Center for the History of Society and Culture of the University of Coimbra, Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Culture and Societies of the University of Évora
Principal Investigator
Hermenegildo Fernandes (ULisboa)
Research team
André Madruga Coelho (UÉvora), André de Oliveira Leitão (ULisboa), António Castro Henriques (UPorto), Armando Norte (ULisboa), Fernando Taveira da Fonseca (UCoimbra), Hermenegildo Fernandes (ULisboa), Hermínia Vasconcelos Vilar (UÉvora), Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho (UCoimbra), Margarida Sobral Neto (UCoimbra), Mário Farelo (UNLisboa), Susana Guijarro (UCantrabria)
Project consultants
Andrea Romano (UMessina); Armando Luís de Carvalho Homem (UPorto); Jacques Verger (Paris IV-Sorbonne); Rainer Christoph Schwinges (UBern)
Project fellows
Ana Pereira Ferreira (CH-ULisboa), Rui Miguel Rocha (CH-ULisboa)
The project Œconomia Studii aims to study the funding, management, and resources of the Portuguese University in the medieval and early modern times, which is a very actual topic given the present Portuguese economic and scientific conjuncture. Therefore, the research will use several financial indicators, among which we can count on prices, rents, real estate and property, emoluments, fines, salaries, loans, donations, endowments, wills, et cetera. Thus, it aims to explore how these factors were intertwined in the social tissue at the level of the relationships between the authorities, dependence and clientele networks, occupations, nature of the salaries of masters and officers, student financial support, student and lodging practices. The project aims to answer to a set of concrete questions: 1) how were the universities funded?; 2) were they self-supported or dependent on sponsors?; 3) what the nature of this financial support was?; 4) what the revenue and expenses structures were?; 5) who the agents were responsible for financial collection?; 6) did sponsorship materialised into benefits?; 7) did they pass bids of law benefitting the university and its social structure?; 8) what the provenance of their estates was?; 9) were there economic changes during the transition between the middle ages and the early modern period?; 10) lastly, was there a general model of funding regarding the universities, or the Portuguese case was original? The economic approach that is proposed, based on a comparative analysis, will allow fulfilling part of the existing gaps through an innovative perspective. Hence, the possibility to reach conclusions that go beyond the pure economic dimension, and branch out into social, political, institutional and cultural problems.
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