This book contains twenty essays by expert scholars of higher learning in the early modern period. Together they discuss topics that historians of universities have largely ignored: notably the extensive collaboration, and occasional conflicts, between university scholars, instructors, and administrators on the one hand, and students at academies, independent and dependent colleges, gymnasia, and Latin schools on the other. The contributions also cover a wide geographical range, covering universities, schools, academies, and the history of the book, in many European states, and Latin America.
The breadth of the project reflects the collaborative work conducted in a series of workshops supported by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, and we wish to thank all participants for their contributions, especially those whose work does not form part of this book: John Brewer (Caltech and Harvard), Andrea Carlino (Geneva), Matthew Eddy (Durham), Anthony Grafton (Princeton), Howard Hotson (Oxford), Jan Loop (Kent), Hilary Peraton (Cambridge), Richard Serjeantson (Cambridge), and Simone Testa (Florence). A project website and blog for further collaborative research is intended to broaden the questions raised by this book, to discuss a wider range of case studies, to review recent literature on the topic, and to publish translations of relevant primary sources that are often inaccessible.
We wish to thank two anonymous referees for their important feedback, our copy editor Felice Whittum, and our indexer Madelon NanningaâFranssen for their invaluable work in preparing the chapters for publication.