The history of universities has long been an object of scholarly research. Nonetheless, the proposed questions and themes have too often been handled in isolation. The present collection, divided into three thematic sections, attempts to connect subjects which are bound together in the context of the idea of the university and the course of its historical realization. The first section concentrates on the rational process which characterized the development of the university. Section two is devoted to the relationship between the organizational forms of the university and the literary forms of university texts. Section three concerns itself with the differentiation and institutionalization of schools of thought in the later Middle Ages. The volume contains fourteen studies resulting from new and original research and concludes with an extensive bibliography.