273. To Mrs. S. T. Coleridge

[Addressed in another hand] 1 Mr Coleridge | Greata Hall | Keswick To be delivered to Mr Jackson MS. British Museum. Hitherto unpublished. This fragment, which is headed ' Gottingen', is all that remains of what was probably a letter to Mrs. Coleridge. Coleridge here defines the term Professor, as he had promised in Letter 259.

March 1799]

Gottingen

Gottingen had been a considerable town long before George the second made it a university -- so early as 1475 there was calculated to be 800 Master Manufacturers of Cloth & Stuffs. Before the year 1400 it had been admitted into the Hanseatic League, & remained in it till the year 1572. But both town & manufactory received injuries in the famous thirty years war, from which it has never recovered. -- A Sovereign Prince in order to establish a University in his Dominions must receive the imperial Privilege: this privilege George the IId received from the Emperor Charles VIth; Jan. 13th. 1733 -- the University commenced in October 1734 & having been presented with complete rights of Jurisdiction, distinct from the civil power & dependent only on the Government, it was solemnly consecrated 17th Sept. 1737. From the name of it's founder it is called the Georgia Augusta University; & the King of England is always the Rector Magnificentissimus. The Prorector is elected annually from out of the ordinary Professors -- or rather they take it by turns. During his office he is an Imperial Count Palatine, and as such has the right (I quote from the charter) 'to nominate Notaries & laureate Poets, to legitimate Bastards, restore their honour to the Infamous' &c &c. ---- / -- A Professor is one who has received from the Government & University that especial Degree which authorizes him to teach publickly in the particular department or faculty, of which he is Professor. -- The Ordinary Professors (Professores ordinarii) are not only authorized to read lectures -- but are salaried by the Government so to do. -- Since the foundation of this University it has [ha]d a succession of the most eminent men in Germany as it's ordinary Professors -- among which the names of Mosheim, Gesner, Haller, Michaelis, Pütter, Kästner, Heyne, Letz or Less, 2 Blumenbach, Lichtenburg, Plank, Eichhorn, Meiners, and Jacobi are as well known to the Literati throughout Europe, as to their own Countrymen. -- The Professors are divided into
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1 	The address indicates that this manuscript was forwarded to Coleridge at Keswick in 1800, when he was planning to publish his German tour. See Letters 340 and 362.
2 	i.e. Gottfried Less ( 1736-97), biblical scholar.

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four Faculties -- I the theological, consisting of 3 & sometimes 4 members, 2 the Jurists, of 4 members, the Medicinists, of 3 & (4) the Philosophers of 8 -- Sum total 18 or 19. -- These are the Professores ordinarii -- the number of those who can teach but are not appointed to do so, is in each faculty indefinite. -- The Professores ordinarii of the first faculty in all processions &c wear a black robe, of the second a light Scarlet, of the third a deep Red -- & the [Philo]sophers march in Purple -- with drum, fife, & trumpet, tool too! too! [Each of the fa]culties takes it in his turn yearly to be the President of. . .