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Since the Middle
Ages, the Latin Quarter has been the
area of knowledge and studies. It was so named because
Latin was the lingua franca of learning at
the time. The hotel is situated in the very heart of
an impressive network of Colleges which made Paris a
major cultural and intellectual center beginning
in the XIII century.
The axis formed
by the Rue Cujas contains three of the most
ancient and prestigious colleges
of Paris :
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The
College of the Sorbonne was established
in 1254 on the corner of Rue de la Sorbonne and
Rue du Sommerard by the Canon Robert de
Sorbon. It offered theology students
board and lodging. The Petite Sorbonne, situated
where the university is today, was established
in 1271. The Paris University of Theology was
based in the Sorbonne until the French Revolution.
It was in the Sorbonne that the very first
book was printed in France (the Espitolarum
Liber by Gasparin de Bergame, 1470). Cardinal
Richelieu (1585-1642) modernized
and extended the buildings; his tomb, sculpted
by Girardon, is located underneath the chapel
of the Sorbonne. |
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The College
of Cholets was situated on what
is currently 4, Rue Cujas. Established in
1292, it used to welcome students from the
Amiens, Beauvais, and Senlis dioceses. It
was joined to Louis-le-Grand College
(formerly Clermont College) in 1763, which
took over its site in 1822. Louis-le-Grand
was the first school in
France to receive the title of Lycée
in 1802 and can boast Molière, Voltaire,
Crébillon, Robespierre, Delacroix,
Hugo, and Baudelaire among its famous alumni. |
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| Established
in 1261 by the Abbot of Cluny Yves de Vergy,
Cluny College was situated
across from the Sorbonne, on the present-day
site of the Hôtel des 3 Collèges.
The Cluny Order used to send its novices
here to learn philosophy and theology. The
teachers lived a few steps away in the Cluny
Hotel (what is now the National
Museum of the Middle Ages). The
college church was said to be an architectural
marvel worthy of comparison to the Sainte-Chapelle
for its elegance and tactfulness. Closed
during the French Revolution, it was used
as a studio by
where he painted the .
The
is still visible
from the lounge overlooking the groundlevel
courtyard. It measures 22 metres/24 yards
deep.
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Other prestigious colleges were
or still are close by, such as :
- Harcourt College (present-day Lycée
Saint-Louis) where Racine, Diderot, and Talleyrant studied.
- Sainte-Barbe College where Ignace de
Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, was a student.
- Coqueret College where Ronsard, Baïf,
and Du Bellay met and created the renowned Pléiade.
- Collège de France, established
by François I and the humanist Guillaume Budé.
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