ABSTRACT
In spite of the essentially similar curriculum in European universities, during the Late Medieval period, numerous Polish students chose to travel to Italy to study. They took up law in Bologna or Padua instead of Prague or Kraków (since 1400), which was not only a question of prestige, but also provided the possibility of establishing contacts in order to enhance their career. This student network was shaped by other extracurricular factors such as noble origin, assets and ecclesiastical dignities. Inequalities, official and informal contacts, and mechanisms of getting involved in the network and continuing networking all played a role. Former companions from university and professors could help obtain positions and in dealings with the Papal Curia. Italian university contacts were used when legal expertise in the conflict between Poland and the Teutonic Order was needed. The research is based on primary sources such as university records from Italy, Prague, Kraków and the Papal Curia (the Bullarium Poloniae). “Polish students” originating from the Polish Kingdom and Masovia appear in the sources as “de Polonia”, and they belonged to the Polish nation at the Italian universities – Padua, Bologna, Rome and less frequently Ferrara, Siena and Perugia. This chapter covers the period between the late 70s of the fourteenth century and the 70s of the fifteenth century.
