Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani 1919–1945 - Univerza v ...

The French Higher Education
in Ljubljana and the Study of
Medicine 1809-1813
I
The French nobility living on the eastern coast of the Adriatic
Sea during the reign of the charismatic French leader Napoleon
Bonaparte (1799-1814) [from 1804 Emperor Napoléon I le Grand
(Napoleon I, the Great)] represent an especially significant era
for the history of education even though it lasted only for a brief
period of time� Revolutionary France first defended itself from
outside attacks and inside revolts and then began its campaigns
across Europe, including Slovenian territory� On its path, they
more or less propagated the acquisitions of the French bourgeois
revolution�
Formally speaking, universities and faculties in France retained
the form of medieval corporations until the revolution with
the state not essentially intervening� In terms of content, they
remained fortresses of scholastic mentality the same as throughout
Europe� The revolution thus did not reform universities but in
its radicalism abolished them or at least in theory proclaimed a
general compulsory education, created a new secondary school,
the école centrale (1795-1802) and after Napoleon’s rise to power
in 1804 abolished this type of school and on primary level set
up the college (a type of lower grammar school) and the lycée
(a type of higher grammar school)� The entire system was fully
formed in Napoleon’s Université Imperial (Imperial University)
or Université de France or Université Napoléonienne, which was
established in 1806 and obtained its final organisational form in
1808� Université de France was not a university in the modern
sense of the word but a corporation which united all French
public schools from primary to higher education and which was
governed by the “grand master”, the minister of education, who
was helped by the “University Council”� In terms of organisation
of the school system, France was territorially divided into
about twenty “academies”, which were governed by the academy
rector and the Academy Council� All schools in the academy’s
territory and not just the higher education were subordinate to
the rector as an appointed government official� Individual higher
education institutions again began being labelled as faculties and
old functions and academic levels were being restored� However,
these schools remained predominantly unconnected� This French
school system was completely bureaucratic, higher education
teachers were government officials and the care for primary
schools and colleges was left to the municipalities� Compared to
pre-revolution times, visible progress is also seen in the subject
matter taught and in the existence of numerous secondary and
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Jože Ciperle
higher schools for individual fields� The French revolutionary
secondary and higher education system was predominantly aimed
at educating officials, officers and other professionals and not at
nurturing science� In the history of European universities, revolutionary
France thus did not follow those European countries
which used bourgeois revolutions and the new constitutional
organisation to reshape medieval university corporations, giving
them a new university anatomy in accordance with the principle
of freedom of scholarship and science� All subsequent reforms
of the French higher education were however directed towards
connecting faculties and strengthening their autonomy�
II
The French troops first came to our territory in 1797 and later
in 1805� On 14 October 1809, the Peace Treaty of Schönbrunn
meant that Austria lost Carniola, the Villach district, the upper
valley of the Drava River, Trieste, the Gorizia Region, the Austrian
part of Istria and a part of Croatia and the Military Frontier south
of the Sava River� Napoleon joined these territories with Dalmatia
and the Venetian part of Istria into the Illyrian Provinces� Illyrian
Provinces however, were not established by a decree of the senate
(senatus-consultum) but by Napoleon’s decree, which gave special
character to their relation with France� Only some of the French
laws applied and their education system was thus also not a part of
Napoleon’s Imperial University� The Illyrian Provinces had their
own school administration, which was led from April 1810 by
the general inspector of public schooling and the main author of
all school reforms Rafaell Zelli, the former Director of the Zadar
Lycée� However, Rafaell Zelli sent his reports to the “Grand
Master” of the Université de France in Paris� From spring 1809,
when the French came to Carniola, until autumn of the same year,
schools were closed� In the 1809-1810 academic year, classes in
primary and secondary education began in November but still
followed old Austrian rules� It is known that there was an Austrian
higher education lycée in Ljubljana that offered a two-year study
of philosophy and a four-year study of theology� It was not until
Marmont’ Decree (arête) was published on 4 July 1810 that the
new school network was established� The decree foresaw primary
schools (écoles primaries), 25 lower (gymnases) and 9 higher
secondary schools (lycées) and the lycées in Ljubljana and Zadar
were to be organised as central schools (écoles centrales)� With
the 1810-1811 academic year, central schools began operating in