ABSTRACT

The degree of discrepancy between statutory intent regarding the distribution of studies and their actual distribution may vary from a minor deflection to a distortion on such a scale as to necessitate quite a major reassessment of academic trends in the history of the English Universities. From the quantitative analysis of the academic concentrations in the secular colleges, it appears that they were rather conservative study areas within Oxford and Cambridge before c. 1500; and that they were not typical of the level of secular involvement in legal disciplines in these Universities at large. Humanist interests are detectable at Oxford earlier in the fifteenth century than at Cambridge. The humanist impact was probably greatest within the arts faculties of Oxford and Cambridge. There was a different emphasis, in the sense that attempts were made to set Aristotelian logic within a more recognizably humanist context. The traditional curriculum was to some degree modified by the onset of humanist learning.