Medieval university was analyzed in two different angles, but each one connected to the other, thus conveying the idea of totality of the institution. One of the angles considers its origin and emerging within the core of medievo, seen as the creation of a new space for construction and preservation of human knowledge. The role played by citadin (urban elites) movements must be taken into account, once such movements used to provide new traits to the medievo world; the scholastic thoughts, which reached its plenitude in the institution interior, should also be considered. Regarding the other angle, ‘university' is seen as a historical patrimony or inheritance, therefore, as an institution to be preserved and to be in the memory, remembered forever. Herein, memory plays an important role as an imperative subject, responsible for constituting or forming the human being (Aquino). Its meaning is captured under the perspective of both, the history and the memory, thus, showing the meaning of social belonging that it possesses, once it provides a universal characteristic to the knowledge and acting of human beings. History and memory intertwine and the universality emerges as a space of a mediate knowledge and wisdom, through the relationship with the political power.
Medieval university; Tomás de Aquino; memory