650 plus – History of the University of Vienna

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525 Years Since the Founding of the “Collegium Poetarum”

On October 31, 1501, Emperor Maximilian I signed the charter establishing the “Collegium Poetarum et Mathematicorum.”
The establishment of this college, which operated outside the traditional faculty structures, was initiated by Konrad Celtis to ensure the establishment of humanistic disciplines despite reservations on the part of the university. Graduates of the College of Poets did not receive the usual magister’s or doctor’s degrees, but were instead crowned with the poet’s laurel. This highest humanist honor entitled them, among other things, to teach at the imperial faculties of arts. Four teaching chairs, funded by the sovereign, were established for the members of the college (poetics, rhetoric, mathematics, and astronomy). The institutionalization of humanistic curricula sought by Celtis did not occur until the university reforms of Ferdinand I.