Paolo Giovio (1483-1552):
Vigent et duo Gymnasia, alterum apud Oxonium supra Thamesim, alterum Cantabrigiae, non longe ab Elisiensis urbis paludibus. In haec ingenuorum adolescentium ingens numerus ad perdiscendas liberales disciplinas concurrit: professoribus enim stipendia, alimentaque discipulis antiqua regum liberalitate et optimorum antistitum testamentis persolvuntur. Condidere siquidem multis ante saeculis supra viginti septem collegia, constructis e lapide peramplis aedibus, quibus ad sempiternam beneficentiae laudem conditores cognomenta et insignia reliquerunt. Nihil autem ea iuventutis educatione institutioneque modestius religiosius atque frugalius, ut non mirum sit inde provenisse ingenia quae in Dialectica, Philosophiaque et in sacris demum literis Europam omnem subtilitatis admiratione compleverint, et tum maxime quum maiores nostri, repudiatis optimarum scientiarum antiquis authoribus, nihil potius quam difficiles captionum nodos, et convolata disputantium sophismata mirarentur.Paolo Giovio, ‘De imperiis et gentibus cogniti orbis’ in Pauli Iovii dialogi et descriptiones, Opera IX, ed. By Ernesto Travi & Mariagrazia Penco (Rome: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1984), pp.65-128 (p.99). First published in 1548. My translation.
Two universities flourish in England, one at Oxford on the Thames, and the other at Cambridge not far from the fens of the city of Ely. In these schools, a vast number of noble youths sally forth to master the liberal arts: for the wages for professors and the maintenances for students are paid for by the ancient generosity of kings and the legacies of the noblest bishops. They previously, in fact, preserved for many generations more than twenty-seven colleges, since they built out of stone many large buildings, by which the founders bequeathed their names and ranks to eternal praise for their beneficence. Nothing, however, for the education and instruction of youth is more modestly, more piously and more temperately arranged, so that it is not surprising that such geniuses came forth from there, that in dialectics, philosophy and, of course, in theology, they have filled all of Europe with admiration at their finesse, and moreover at a time when our forefathers, having rejected the classical authorities of the highest learning, regarded nothing other than the difficult knots of sophistry and the convoluted syllogisms of disputation.