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THE ORGANISATION OF STUDIES IN VIENNA

The structure of the university was in part hierarchical and in part collective, with the Rector at the top and the students, who had almost no voice, at the bottom. The Masters and Doctors made up the four Faculties and every semester elected the academic office-holders from their ranks. The students and all other supposita (members of the university) were divided into four Academic Nations whose elected presidents - mostly graduates - held the right to elect the Rector. The Rector presided over the Consistory Court, which was made up of the Procurators of the Nations and the Deans of Faculties, and also over the University Assembly in which all university teachers, but not the students, were allowed to participate. Students could lodge complaints or appeals against faculty decisions, but only through a representative (Procurator or Master).

The Vienna University of Masters and Scholars, the Community of Teachers and Students, enjoyed by royal decree the full canon of academic liberties and rights to which all European universities were entitled at that time. University autonomy implied, first and foremost, independence of civic and ecclesiastical authorities. Members of the university were exempt from civic taxes and military service, they were requried to pay no duties for the import of foodstuffs into the city, and they were subject to their own jurisdiction, which was exercised by the Rector. Registration in the university's Matriculation Book was evidence of membership of the Respublica Litteraria (Republic of Scolars).

Lit.: Franz Gall, Die Insignien der Universität Wien (= Studien zur Geschichte der Universität Wien im Überblick 4, Graz-Köln 1965); ¾ Paul Uiblein, Mittelalterliches Studium an der Wiener Artistenfakultät. Kommentar zu den Acta Facultatis Artium universitatis Vindobonensis 1385–1416 (=Schriftenreihe des Universitätsarchivs, Universität Wien, Bd. 4, 2. Aufl., Wien 1995).

The oldest Vienna Matriculation Book, 1377 The main matriculation book (first volume dates from the period 1377-1450) was kept by the Rector of the University of Vienna and was intended to contain the names of all members of the university. Those persons whose names appeared in this book were under the jurisdiction of the Rector and the Consistory Court of the University. This special academic legal status was only abolished in 1783. (Original in the Archive of the University of Vienna).

The oldest Seal of the University of Vienna, 1365 The oldest Great Seal of the University of Vienna dates from 1365. Its existence is already mentioned in the Deed of Foundation of the University of Vienna. The mould is said to have been produced on the order of Rudolf IV by the master goldsmith Janko of Prague. The model for the pictorial design of the seal was that of the University of Paris. It depicts a segmented gothic architecture, in the upper part of which a crowned Madonna with Child sits on a balustrade, flanked by angels. In the lower part we see a scene in a lecture hall, with single-arched canopies on either side in which two "wild men" bear the shield of the Austrian Federation and the Viennese Cross. (Original in the Archive of the Univiersity of Vienna)

Great Seal of the Faculty of Arts, 1388 The seal depicts a bearded Master teaching with an open book, opposite eight scholars and another Master. Above the lecture hall scene is the shield of the Austrian Federation under a canopy. (Original mould in the National Museum in Budapest)