Document PDF - Asociatia Tinerilor Istorici din Moldova

different individuals or institutions throughout the sixteenth century. He collected the information
on this issue for different towns from secondary literature published in the fi rst half of the
twentieth century and comes up with the following average yearly amount of money given to
the students: 49 for Ingolstadt in 1494 – 20 fl orins, for Heidelberg in 1509 - 31 fl orins, for Memmingen
in 1510 – 25 fl orins, for Ingolstadt in 1515 – 18 fl orins, for Pavia in 1519 – 50 fl orins, for
Lindau in 1533 – 30 fl orins, for Groningen in 1555 – 20 fl orins and for Jena in 1557 – 30 florins.
In Nürnberg, according to Ebneth, students received from 25 to 50 fl orins yearly throughout
the entire sixteenth century. The students from the town of Kitzingen in the second half of the
sixteenth century benefi ted from a similar amount of money, from 20 to 45 fl orins annually.
Ebneth considers that the amount of 50 fl orins per year was actually suffi cient to cover all
basic costs of a single student in the second half of the sixteenth century, this amount being
comparable with the yearly income of certain category of employees, as for example of an
unmarried manual worker in Nürnberg who received approximately 35 fl orins per year in 1545
and slightly more than 75 fl orins in 1622. 50 In the fi rst half of the seventeenth century, however,
the prices and, together with this, the fi nancial needs of the students increased. Thus, for the
middle of the seventeenth century, the average amount considered suffi cient for a student’s
accommodation and food at the University of Altdorf, for example, constituted 75 fl orins per
year, the maximum amount being 125 fl orins, according to the archival documents quoted by
Ebneth. 51
As for Košice, there is no direct documentation for the standards the town council applied
in determining the amount and duration of each proffered fi nancial support. The question
about the amount of money granted to the students can be answered with the help of various
notes spread throughout various documents related to educational matters. It appears that
there was no explicit policy concerning the sum of money which was supposed to be given
to the students and this amount varied from case to case. There are a few cases, however,
suggesting that the average amount of fi nancial support given to students for the University
of Wittenberg, for instance, was 50 fl orins per year. This was the case for Jacob Melczer, for
example, who received a total of 200 fl orins for his studies, and he stayed at the University
of Wittenberg for four years, from 1566 to 1570. The same amount – 50 fl orins – was given
to Stephanus Mustricz and Stephanus Tehani, although, from the inscription in the town protocols
it is unclear for what time period they received this amount, or if it was for one person
or for both of them together. Again, the sum of 50 fl orins was requested and later received
by Georgius Buntzler. At the top of a letter written by a certain Martinus Brechtel and sent to
the town council in March 1590 there is an inscription which states: The honourable and wise
council has decided unanimously to give for that purpose […] 50 fl orins for one year, 52 which
confi rms again that the usual practice was to give 50 fl orins for one year of study at the University
of Wittenberg. This is further demonstrated by Christophorus Ledwisch, another student
from Košice, in his fi rst letter sent from Wittenberg in 1616, where he mentioned the 50 fl orins
granted to him as a stipend for one year to study at the university and expressed his hope that
he would receive this same amount in subsequent years as well. 53 This way, it is clear that students
from Košice were fi nanced at the same level as their fellow students coming from other
towns in German speaking territories, based on the data presented above.
Other sums of money appear as well. Some of the students’ letters contain additional
entries on their front page, written by a third person, most probably the town notary, who would
record the decisions of the town council’s meeting where the respective letter was read and
49
EBNETH 1994, 213, with reference to the respective sources.
50
EBNETH 1994, 213-214.
51
EBNETH 1994, 215.
52
E.N.W. Rath hat eintrechtig beschlossen und derwilligen […] strecken 50 fl . auf ein Jarr.
53
AMK H I, no. 5782/8.
– 213 –