School-children of noble origin in the University of Santiago de Compostela in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

The University of Santiago de Compostela had a great infìuence on social reproduction of the most outstanding sectors in the Ancien Régime Galician society. That is why an important portion of those students that frequented its lecture rooms, did it because of their families, since they hoped that an academic education were good for getting a job, both in the ecclesiastic or civil government. This circumstance was more obvious in one of the Santiago de Compostela University Colleges, the Santiago el Mayor or Fonseca College, early recognized as the main destination in Santiago for scions of noble families. What we try to delimit in the next pages is this privileged sector's sociology in the midst of all students. So we will show that there was a limited presence of noble students among these university students, compensated with an approach to schoolmates coming from social promoted families.