university. Not knowing anything of its history we were surprised to
discover that this was a major seat of learning in the 1600s with an
amazing library from the Jesuit scholars who founded the university
(including some Gutenberg Bibles, some of the first books ever printed and
the actual books which were the poisoned ones chained to the wall the in
movie 'The Name of the Rose' - although in reality their ink isn't
poisoned). One disappointing thing was to discover how easy it has become
to defend a thesis these days. Back in the good old days of this
university, the PhD candidate was required to sit in a chair and be
quizzed in Latin (and had to answer in Latin) any question asked by the 20
or so head scholars at the univerity. Doesn't sound so bad until you hear
that this was for 8 hours each day for 3 days. After passing this, your
reward was to ride a donkey through the streets of Cordoba (so, pass or
fail, you got to make an ass of yourself). Matt/
No comments:
Post a Comment