the Sorbonne

the Sorbonne, term that may refer to the theological college founded by Robert de Sorbon, the University of Paris as a whole, or Sorbonne University (French: Sorbonne Université), established in 2018 by the merger of Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) and Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC; Paris VI).

History

The Sorbonne began as part of the University of Paris, which emerged in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The university was divided into four faculties: theology, law, medicine, and liberal arts. Theologian Robert de Sorbon began teaching at the university in 1253 and obtained property a few years later that he transformed into the Maison de Sorbonne. The Sorbonne, which functioned as a theological college for poor students, received official endorsement from Pope Alexander IV in 1259 and became so influential that “the Sorbonne” became a metonym for the University of Paris.

In the early 17th century Armand-Jean du Plessis (the future Cardinal Richelieu) was named principal of the Sorbonne. He focused on modernizing the institution, commissioning architect Jacques Lemercier to make significant changes to the buildings of the college. After French revolutionaries closed the University of Paris in 1793, it was reopened by Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century and broken into five faculties, one of which was theology. The Sorbonne was renovated by architect Henri-Paul Nénot at the end of the 19th century, undoing many of the changes made by Lemercier.

The early 20th century saw the appointment of the Sorbonne’s first female professor, physicist Marie Curie. Following the death of her husband, physical chemist Pierre Curie, by horse-drawn wagon in 1906, she took over teaching his course. The Curies are among many Nobel Prize winners connected with the Sorbonne; others include Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, for her codiscovery of  HIV; Jean-Baptiste Perrin, for his work on sedimentation equilibrium; and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, for his work on atoms.

Attendance went down during both World Wars, but in each case, student numbers increased after the end of the war. By the mid-1960s the University of Paris had more than 60,000 students. Student protests broke out in the late 1960s, and the Sorbonne became the site of a violent confrontation between student radicals and the police. The ongoing unrest and demonstrations by students and workers led to legislative reforms that broke up the University of Paris into multiple autonomous entities. Thirteen universities were eventually created, two of which were Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) and Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC; Paris VI). In 2018 those two institutions merged to form the new Sorbonne University.

The contemporary university

Today Sorbonne University is attended by more than 50,000 students. It is composed of three faculties: arts and humanities, medicine, and science and engineering. Furthermore, it is affiliated with Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, which was created in 2006. It maintains international research partnerships with many other universities, including Indiana University, the University of Sydney, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Sorbonne University houses several scientific collections. The Dupuytren Pathological Anatomy Collections, formed in 1835, include more than 10,000 bone pieces, anatomical fluid parts, histology slides, anatomical waxes, and scientific instruments. The Zoology Collection includes historical animal specimens, such as an elephant skull from the cabinet of French zoologist Georges Cuvier. The Institute of Papyrology, founded in 1920, includes mostly Greek-language papyri dating from the 3rd century bce to the 8th century ce.

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