The city of Maastricht has a long tradition in the field of education. Latin schools were attached to the two chapters of Our Lady and Saint Servatius certainly from the High Middle Ages, i.e. from about 1000. According to legend St. Lambert was educated here as early as the middle of the seventh century. They took care of secondary education, which in the Middle Ages was always taught in Latin. In Maastricht the Jesuit Fathers provided this education until the order was disbanded in 1773 and the old Latin school was demolished. The old institute Latin School of the Jesuits was first situated at Lenculenstraat and moved in 1575 to two buildings east of the City Theatre and shortly afterwards to the courtyard of the monastery complex at the Heerenstraat, which would later be called Minckelersstraat. All of this was demolished. In 1787 the Roman Latin City School was built on this site of the Jesuit monastery by order of the City Council, which therefore had the city's coat of arms applied to the pediment of the facade. This new Latin school was built by the master builder Jean Francois Deplaye and has been preserved, as have the design drawings, which are in the city archives.
Education in the practice of Latin was of a very high level.
It may be assumed that the Latin school was the breeding ground for the many chronograms that can still be read on the Maastricht Gable stones.
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