Having restored the original sequence of the first quire of the computus of 1329–30, and drawing upon the information collected in the biographical register in Part III, we are now in a position to follow the progress of the collectors through the university community and to gain some sense of the relationship between the residential location and the academic and social status of the persons they encountered. The route is easy to trace, but it is not clear to what extent the collection was based on parish units, as was the record of the royal taille, or on some other pattern of assessment and recording. Beyond that, particularly in comparison to the university taxatio domorum and the royal taille, the computus places university members in the context of the larger community in which they lived. Related details, such as the choice and patterns of residence, levels of disposable income, the topography of wealth in Paris, and the relationship between the university community, the aristocracy, and the royal court will be examined in subsequent chapters.

THE PARISH OF ST-BENOÎT

The first section of the university community to be assessed was the section that made up the greater part of the parish of St-Benoît.