First Instance of the 'Wizard School" Concept

[Necrosnoop110]

When was the first concept of the "wizard school" brought up in the arts (literature)?

Was it A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)? Or was there something before that? Did J. R. R. Tolkien have such a concept in his writings?

Thanks,
Necro

[Libertad]

It's entirely possible that there were Wizard Schools in non-Western, non-English translated works before Earthsea, although I do not know of them.

In Lord of the Rings, Wizards were heavenly beings sent down to Earth, and there were only a few of them.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Astrology and Oracles (let's call it divination school)
date far enough back to perhaps pre-history.
They didn't take everybody in for training.

The Knight's Templars weren't specifically
anything at first.  It's long suggested they
learned some parts of islamic finance, and
formed the West's first bankers guild thingy.
Archivists of Early Monetaria ?

[Samwise]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WizardingSchool

Check the entries under the "Literature" tab.

You might also want to check:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalSociety

[stanprollyright]

TVTropes pointed me to this short story as the original Wizard School.

[veekie]

Does Journey to the West count?
Sun Wukong learned his 72 transformations at a school(then got expelled for monkeying around)

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Masons date back to a 1390 poem.
And if the Anti-Masons are to be believed,
they've got _conspiracy tendrils all over ... shhhhh.
Dude wrote a book from the inside post civil war.
Explains all sorts of stuff, but leaves out the Rituals (!!) .

Perhaps could call this Transmutation, and
consider Newton was into Alchemy too.
Building castles was "magic" back in the day.


India has Vastu Shastra, in the same vein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_shastra
Though maybe for d&d it should be considered
more like temple building, than a wizard school.

[oslecamo]

Ancient Celtic bards were trained in schools, even being graded in copper/silver/gold depending on how good they were. And they were assumed to have magic powers.

[Libertad]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WizardingSchool

Check the entries under the "Literature" tab.

You might also want to check:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalSociety

I realize I should've checked TV Tropes, but...TV Tropes.

[Samwise]

I realize I should've checked TV Tropes, but...TV Tropes.

Yeah, I was wondering if I should have put a warning up with the links.