On 4 April 1660, Basel hosted a modest celebration to mark the university’s bicentennial.

The celebration began at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, 4 April 1660, with a service in the cathedral. After the procession of professors, there was a sermon, a rector’s address in the theologians’ hall, a festive meal at the Prytaneum, and various promotions and academic exercises across the faculties. The sermon and the rector’s address were subsequently published. These elements became key features of future anniversary celebrations for the university. 

The Senate had not considered holding a Solennitas Saecularis until 19 December 1659, “following the practice of other German universities, to the glory of God and the adornment of our academy,” as noted in the records. They decided that the rector would speak about the “origin and development” of the university and that a sermon would be delivered in the cathedral.

The specific arrangements were not finalized until 3 and 28 March 1660, and an invitation list was created. This included professors, city dignitaries such as the mayors and chief guild masters, the university’s governing deputies, the thirteen council members, the council secretary, and other councillors. Among the foreign students at the University of Basel, counts were invited, as well as pastors and deacons from the city, the deans of the Basel region, all Basel graduates, gymnasium teachers, the law student in the consistory, the university notary, the academic printer, and the chief servant. The first anniversary celebration thus focused heavily on the local community.

The relationship between the university and the local community had long been strained. This tension became explicit in 1657 when the City Council declared that the privileges granted in 1460 had been invalidated by the statute renewal in 1532, following the Reformation, thus provoking an open conflict. The council explicitly declared the previous exemption of university members from secular authority – including autonomous jurisdiction and tax and levy exemptions – to be void. When the dispute over privileges was definitively resolved against the university in 1668, the deputies criticized that many academics were under the delusion of owing more allegiance to the university than to the City Council in not considering themselves bound by the authorities’ decisions. Whether these tensions prompted the city dignitaries to refrain from attending the celebratory feast is unknown. In any case, rector’s two-and-a-half-hour anniversary speech expressed unequivocal gratitude to the authorities, with no hints of dissent. By giving a detailed history of the university, he established a tradition that would be continued at future anniversaries celebrations.

On the Sunday after the anniversary celebration, which had been held on a Wednesday, Lukas Gernler, who was both a theology professor, antistes, and rector, preached again on the subject “On Universities and Their Importance.” He attempted to educate the public on the benefits of a university and the university’s concerns about mercantile narrowmindedness. This effort seemingly had little effect, as evidenced by the continued history of the privilege dispute and the growing alienation between the city and the university in the eighteenth century.