Home > Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music > Vaganti

(from Lat. vagari, wander). Medieval university students who roamed freely from school to school, hence the name, which is derived from the Latin for "wander."

Even though the vaganti lived outside the framework of established society, they were divided into superior and inferior strata, the highest of them belonging to the category of clericus, an educated class, and the lowest to the nondescript goliard group. The distinctive characteristic of the vaganti was their dedication to poetry and music. Not being constrained by the strictures of the church, they indulged their fancy in songs glorifying the delight of the senses, drink, and secular games. The famous student song, still heard in European universities, Gaudeamus igitur, expresses this joy of living. It includes the verse, typical of the spirit of the vaganti, "Meum est propositum in taberna mori" (it is fated that I should die in a tavern). The most remarkable collection of songs by the vaganti is the Carmina Burana, discovered in 1803 in the Benediktbeuren (Bura Sancti Benedicti) monastery in Bavaria.