Bursae and coderies

Student housing in Vienna until the 16th century

How did a student live in the Middle Ages? Was finding appropriate housing his private matter or did the university have influence on student accommodations? Because the university understood itself as a “community of teachers and students”, its regulations not only encompassed the areas of teaching and learning, but also its members’ lifestyle. This also affected the oversight of student housing. By today’s standards the supervision was rather strict – not surprising, since the average age of the majority of students was equivalent to that of a high school student today.

The goal set by the university was to have all students live under the control of a magister, which never actually was implemented. Still, a large part of the student body lived in student housing controlled by the university, the so-called bursae. Poor students had the option of living in student alms houses called coderies.