The University was first established in Bologna in 1088, as a
way of preparing people for scholarly disciplines (the
University of Bologna specialized in law). Whereas the trivium
(grammar, rhetoric and logic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy) had been taught in church schools
or monastic schools for the most part, the new university was
free from religious or specific governmental or monarchical
ties, and although theology was taught, it was one of many
subjects available. Soon after the founding of the University of
Bologna, other schools began to be formed: the University of
Paris in 1150 A.D., now called the Sorbonne or Paris IV; the
University of Oxford in 1157 A.D.; the University of Palencia in
1208 A.D.; the University of Cambridge in 1209 A.D.; the
University of Salamanca in 1218 A.D.; the University of
Montpellier in 1220 A.D.; the University of Padua in 1222 A.D.;
the University of Naples Federico II in 1224 A.D.; and the
University of Toulouse in 1229 A.D. The Universi