A fact from Deposition (university) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 21 January 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that in the depositioninitiation ritual(pictured) of Medieval and Early Modern universities, new students were dressed up with horns which were then removed with grindstones, axes, and pliers?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Higher education, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of higher education, universities, and colleges on Wikipedia. Please visit the project page to join the discussion, and see the project's article guideline for useful advice.Higher educationWikipedia:WikiProject Higher educationTemplate:WikiProject Higher educationHigher education articles
The introductory paragraph suggests that this practice was Europe-wide. However, the article has no evidence of it being performed outside Germany (apart from a suggestion that the practice was imported from the university of Paris). Some clarification of geographical extent of the practice would be useful. Bluap 07:45, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Focus is on Germany because I translated the article with practically no adaptation from the German Wikipedia (I took the images, formatting etc. exactly as it was, as that was the easiest thing to begin with). I suppose the next step would be to check the references and look elsewhere for evidence from other language areas. There is this on a web page from Bologna:
"Student initiation rites are a classic example of these social rules. These rites have evolved over the ages in accordance with cultural changes, but some of them have deeply marked the whole of society.
I am thinking of the depositio, which is currently fashionable in various universities, and which used to consist of a specific "liturgy" as described in a series of printed booklets. The matricola (fresher) and beanus were considered as foul beasts who had to submit to a rite of purification: imaginatively reproduced horns, claws, manes and fangs were filed, cut and blunted. The novices had to gulp down large doses of salt and quaff considerable quantities of wine in order to purify their innards, celebrating their admission to the group. The metaphor of the "beast to be emancipated" highlights the esteem in which students hold their own special status and the group's "otherness" vìs-à-vis the rest of society.
I think that even today all goliardi would recognise this ancient mediaeval ritual which continued up to the sixteenth century, the forerunner of a rite which the modern goliardia practised right up to very recent times."
This text alludes to the deposition ceremony, but doesn't seem like a useful text to use as an actual source. I'm sure there must be something better somewhere.
There were probably regional and local differences, and a more complex development over time than the article currently conveys. The German Wikipedia, where the article originated, also doesn't have as many footnotes (or even parenthetical page references in the Harvard style) as are common in many of the articles here. This article, although well supplied with references, did not have any footnotes or page references to individual sources. This makes it difficult, without checking all references, to tell where individual statements come from. But a straightforward translation was a first step to get the topic covered in English at all. Pharamond 20:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
