The medieval internet of ideas
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Since the Middle Ages, universities and academies have built vast networks of scholars, exchanging ideas that travelled across cities and generations. In a recent study, Rossana Scebba (UCLouvain & KU Leuven), David de la Croix, and Chiara Zanardello explore how academic institutions shaped the diffusion of ideas long before modern science emerged. Using data on thousands of scholars over several centuries, they reconstruct Europe’s academic network and simulate how knowledge travelled, from one scholar to another, from one city to the next. Their findings reveal that universities were early incubators of knowledge, but without academies, many ideas would have faded away. A powerful reminder that knowledge thrives when embedded in strong, interconnected institutions.
