Ulrich Guering, la Sorbonne et l’enseignement de la Bible à Paris

Abstract

The method employed in medieval universities for teaching the Bible to future theologians was roundly criticized by both humanists and reformers, whether protestant or Catholic. An important change in the approach to teaching Sacred Scripture at the University of Paris came to pass in 1532 as a result of a twenty-year-long litigation about how the Sorbonne College should carry out the terms of the last will and testament of Ulrich Guering, who was the first printer in Paris (d. 1510). We present here for the first time the text of the final court decision in this litigation, with an introduction and a conclusion to help set this document in its historical context.