Oxford Blues: The Search for the Origins of the Lay Bachelors’ Hood

One particular anomaly of the Oxford system, alluded to several times by Franklyn, is the use of blue silk hoods lined with fur for bachelors’ degrees in Civil Law and in Medicine (BCL and BM). How did two such different degrees come to be given the same hood? Why blue, which features nowhere in the corresponding doctors’ hoods? And why is the blue on the outside, instead of inside where a silk lining belongs? In this short paper, we examine these three questions and propose some hypotheses for further investigation. [Excerpt]