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[ABOVE—Basel, Old University Building—Ralf Roletschek / [CC-BY-NC-ND] Wikimedia]

University of Bologna

Founded: 1158, but probably existed by 1088 

Located: Italy

Famous for: Oldest continuously operating university; responsible for the Latin word universitas to describe an institution of higher learning that gives degrees; center of canon law

Famous alumni and professors: Dante Alighieri, Nicolaus Copernicus, Erasmus, Charles Borromeo

University of Cologne

Founded: 1388 (closed 1789, refounded 1919)

Located: Germany

Famous for: Having all four faculties (philosophy, medicine, law, theology) from the outset; center of Scholastic thought

Famous alumni and professors: Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, Duns Scotus (at the predecessor Dominican seminary, founded 1216)

University of St Andrews

Founded: 1410

Located: Scotland

Famous for: Third-oldest university in Britain; became a center of Protestant education during the Reformation

Famous alumni and professors: John Knox, John Witherspoon, James Wilson, Robert Reid, Donald Baillie, N. T. Wright

University of Louvain

Founded: 1425 (closed 1797; successor school refounded in 1834 as the Catholic University of Louvain)

Located: Belgium

Famous for: Opposition to Martin Luther; center of the Jansenist movement

Famous alumni and professors: Adrian Boeyens (Pope Adrian VI), Jacobus Latomus, Robert Bellarmine, Cornelius Jansen, Michael Baius

University of Basel

Founded: 1460

Located: Switzerland

Famous for: Center of humanist thought and of book printing, with a magnificent library

Famous alumni: Paracelsus, Erasmus, Johannes Oecolampadius, Karl Barth

University of Tübingen

Founded: 1477

Located: Germany

Famous for: Founded under influence of the Italian Renaissance; produced the “Tübingen School” of higher biblical criticism

Famous alumni: Johannes Kepler, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Hans Küng

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