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HONORARY ENROLMENTS

From the 15th Century onwards there were honorary enrolments of distinguished people from religious and secular backgrounds whose connection with the Rudolphinian Alma Mater could be expressed in this way. In this custom we may find the origins of the subsequent "honorary citizenship" of the University. Beginning in the 17th Century, members of the Imperial family signed the Matriculation Book, usually on a decorated page with the addition of their coats of arms and motto. The first matriculation of this kind was undertaken in 1648 by the future King Ferdinand IV (1633-1654) in the Matriculation Book of the Austrian Academic Nation. This continued until the time of the future Emperor Franz Josef (1830-1916) who, in 1846, as Archduke Franz, was the last Austrian monarch to sign his name. The University Organisational Law of 1955 built on this tradition and created the legal framework for future honours, whereby "persons who have rendered service to the development or equipment of a university" (§ 65 para. 2) may be granted the title 'honorary citizen' by the Academic Senate.

Lit.: Franz Gall, Die Matrikel der Universität Wien und ihr bildlicher Schmuck. In: Akademischer Almanach (1962/63) 31-35.

Honorary Enrolment of Joseph I, 1691

At the time of his matriculation the young Habsburg was King of Hungary (1687) and King of Rome (1690). In 1705 he became King of Bohemia and Emperor, after the death of Leopold I. His motto Amore et Timore is entered next to his signature on shield of the Austrian coat of arms (Bindenschild). Above this the Imperial Crown is held aloft by two putti. The content of the picture relates to the motto and is explained below in a cartouche. (Original in the Archive of the University of Vienna, Cod. NA 2, fol. 8a)