History
- This section incorporates text translated from the Dutch Wikipedia article
Utrecht University was founded on March 26, 1636. The inaugural speech was given by influential professor of theology Gisbertus Voetius, and Bernardus Schotanus (professor of law and mathematics) was the university's first rector magnificus. Initially, only a few dozen students attended classes at the university. Seven professors worked in four faculties: philosophy, which offered all students an introductory education, and three higher-level faculties (theology, medicine and law).
Utrecht University flourished in the seventeenth century, despite competition with the older universities of Leiden (1575), Franeker (1585) and Groningen (1614) and the schools of Harderwijk (1599; a university since 1648) and Amsterdam (1632). Leiden, in particular, was a strong competitor and made further improvement necessary. A botanical garden was built on the grounds of the present Sonnenborgh Observatory, and three years later the Smeetoren added an astronomical observatory. The university attracted many students from abroad (especially Germany, England and Scotland). They witnessed the intellectual and theological battle the proponents of the new philosophy (René Descartes lived for a few years in Utrecht) fought with the proponents of the strict Reformed theologian Voetius.
In 1806, the French occupants of the Netherlands downgraded Utrecht University to an école secondaire (high school), but after the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1813 it regained its original status. Leiden, Groningen and Utrecht were the three universities (Dutch: hoge scholen) of the new state, and Leiden received the title of eerste hoge school ("first university"). Utrecht played a prominent role in the golden age of Dutch science. Around 1850 the "Utrechtian School" of science was formed with Pieter Harting, Gerardus J. Mulder, Christophorus H. D. Buys Ballot and Franciscus C. Donders among the leading scientists. They introduced the educational laboratory as a practical learning place for their students. The University is represented in the Stichting Academisch Erfgoed, a foundation with the goal of preserving university collections.
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