"University of the Two Hams" -- what can it mean? John Bear asks for help.

In the course of researching the history of degree mills for the in-progress new expanded edition of our degree mills book, I have found, in two different 19th century tomes on universities of the Middle Ages, reference to the matter of the University of Cesena, in Italy, selling degrees out the back door, while issuing legitimate degrees out the front door, in the late 1400s. Both books said that, because of this practice, the university was known as the "University of the Two Hams."

That term is not explained, nor can I find any information on it. A Google and a Bing search lead only to the same references.

Any thoughts or guesses?

Incidentally, the University lost its permission to operate in 1800, and much later re-emerged as a part of the University of Bologna.

John Bear, co-author, "Degree Mills: the billion-dollar industry
that has sold more than a million fake degrees," Prometheus
Books, 2005; 2nd edition in January 2012

 

This is from the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins:

I then searched OED for crooked and found it comes from Middle English and is probably based on the Old Norse word krókóttr which has the same meaning as our modern-day usage of crooked: crooked or cunning.

So, maybe the two hams somehow refers to a couple of crooks?

 

Hmmm. I do know that cured hams are VERY popular in Italy, France and Spain. It reminds me of this:

Museo del Jamon, Madrid, Spain - Restaurants - VirtualTourist

A great place for some croissants and ham BTW!!!!!!! As ham is part of the gastronomical history of these Roman/Latin countries, I wonder if it means something like "I can get a good ham, but you can also obtain bad ham".

Just thought I would throw that out there.

Abner

 

GeneralSnus: "...So, maybe the two hams somehow refers to a couple of crooks?"

Thank you, General. Makes sense to me. -John

 

Maybe it means dishonesty...

Hi, Dr. Bear --

Ummm -- maybe it DOES mean the place was dishonest.
Consider this line from Jennifer Hudson's "Pocketbook"

"With two hams in your pants girl, I think you's a crook
.....
Don't make me hit you with my pocketbook
Don't make me hit you with my pocketbook
Don't make me hit you with my pocketbook"

Johann

 

I have tried a number of university databases on the U. of Cesena and U. of Bologna and have not yet been able to find an additional suitable reference for you...sorry. I'll keep trying.

 

Hi again -

More seriously, I tried searching this "two hams" business in Italian -- and my knowledge of this language is very poor. I wasn't able to find any connection with U. of Cesena directly. I gleaned that there may be a possible meaning for this as follows:

The degrees (earned vs. bought) appear as two hams from the same pig -- however different in quality they may be.

Just guessing, really.

Johann

 

Dr. Bear-

You should try calling in to the NPR show A Way with Words to see if they can provide any insight. If nothing else, I'm sure the hosts would be delighted by the mystery.

 

Here's the answer.

A forum reader telephoned a knowledgeable colleague in Italy, and got the answer.

It seems that in the Middle Ages, in Italy, it was expected of successful doctoral students that they lay on an extremely elaborate and expensive feast for their entire college, a matter of considerable expense.

But if a school was small and/or not very wonderful, the doctoral candidate could get by with a puny 'feast' -- as little as two hams -- and so the non-wonderful schools became known as the universities of the two hams.

 

Interesting. I wonder if that is where the tradition of PhD candidates catering food for their defense comes from?

 

Dr. Bear,
Coming late to the party: dogpile search yielded: http://www.cimea.it/files/fileusers/CHAPTER1.pdf. Does the parenthetical citation of "two hams" help?

Kindly,
Steve King

 

It was actually the author of that Italian study that my colleague telephoned in Italy, and he gave the explanation.