“Sigüenza and the Real Universidad de México: the intellectual in front of the corporation”

Abstract

Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora had a difficult relationship with the Real Universidad de México. Sigüenza lived in a society dominated by the hierarchies and the corporation privileges. Although he was a regular professor, for lack of a doctor's grade he could not participate in the university cloister. Also, the university was an institution that, for the second half of the XVII century, it had consolidated and where the Theology and the Right prevailed. The chair of Astrology and Mathematics was of second order in the hierarchy of the schools. Nevertheless, Sigüenza defended his place at the university and the superiority of the knowledge above the hierarchy. For him it was important the professor's title, because it opened him other doors outside the university. By having the protection of the viceroys later, he could defend himself of his enemies in the university, although at the end of his life he only had resentments for the institution.