Absolute loyalty or the calm before the storm? Some events at the Prague University in the first half of the 19th century
Abstract
In terms of the position of universities in the Habsburg monarchy, historiography usually views the first half of the 19th century as a period of absolute state control, lack of freedom of scientific investigation, and suppression of any expression of free opinion in teaching. Was this situation in reality uncomfortable for the teachers? Did they want the freedom to act, or did they prefer to obey the dictates of Vienna? In the given period, two faculties were significant among four faculties of the Charles-Ferdinand University: the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medicine.
Can we consider the Faculty of Arts merely a preparatory for studies at the other three faculties? Was its staff just an obedient executor of Vienna's decisions and its blind advocate after the departure of Bernard Bolzano? The Faculty of Medicine is considered as one with relatively free development of scientific research in the first half of the 19th century. In what ways were new ideas and knowledge coming from abroad and other parts of the Monarchy appropriated at the Faculty? What negotiations of the teaching staff took place in this respect? To answer these questions, the paper will focus mainly on the debates of professorial staff of the philosophical and medical faculties regarding the various curricular decrees and regulations coming from Vienna.
It will analyze the staff's position as well as the opinions of individual professors, and consider their loyalty versus attempts to introduce independent views and modify (where possible) the regulations. The paper will be based on an analysis of procedural protocols of the professorial staffs of the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Medicine of the Prague University in the 1820s and 1830s of the 19th century.