A university charter is a charter issued by an authority to create or recognize a university. The earliest universities – Bologna, Paris and Oxford – arose organically from concentrations of schools in those cities, rather than being created by charters. The first university charters were issued in Europe in the 13th century, with the University of Naples created by a charter of Emperor Frederick II in 1224, widely considered the first deliberately-created university (studium generale). King Alfonso VIII of Castille issued a charter in 1208 to create the University of Palencia but the status of that institution is doubtful. The first papal creation was the University of Toulouse in 1229, via a papal bull of Pope Gregory IX. Through the 13th century, most university foundations continued to develop organically, often by migrations of scholars from other universities, but by the start of the 14th century either a papal bull or an imperial charter was considered necessary.
Papal letters and bulls to create universities fell into four categories: Firstly, the creation of a new university where no school had existed before (e.g. Prague in 1347–48); secondly, the refoundation of a university that had vanished or substantially declined (e.g. Perpignan in 1379); thirdly, the apparent creation of a new university where one already existed (e.g. Montpellier in 1289); and finally, the confirmation of an existing university (e.g. Salamanca in 1255).