Short answers, pulled from the story.
The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX of Leon as the scholas Salamanticae. The transition from the existing cathedral school to a formal university occurred between August 1218 and the following winter. A royal charter from King Alfonso X, dated the 8th of May 1254, established its organization and first referred to it by name.
The University of Salamanca is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest continuously operating university in the world. Its graduates staffed the councils of state of the Spanish monarchy and the bodies governing the Spanish Empire in the Americas, including the Consejo de Indias and the Casa de Contratacion. The School of Salamanca also debated the ethics of colonization and contributed to the development of international law.
Yes. While Columbus was seeking royal support for a westward voyage, he presented his case to a council of geographers at the University of Salamanca. The geographers were skeptical of his calculations, but the university as an institution had long defended the theory of unknown territories to the west and supported his voyage on those grounds.
Luisa de Medrano, who died in 1527, is identified as probably the first woman to give classes at a university anywhere. Beatriz Galindo, who died in 1534, served as a professor of Latin and rhetoric at Salamanca and was also among the first female students admitted to the university. A secondary school in Salamanca, IES Lucia de Medrano, was named in honor of Medrano.
The University of Salamanca currently enrolls more than 30,000 students from over 50 nationalities. It ranks first among Spanish universities based on the number of students arriving from other regions of Spain. Its Spanish language courses for non-native speakers attract more than two thousand foreign students each year.
The University of Salamanca co-founded the Association of Language Testers in Europe, known as ALTE, in 1989, together with the University of Cambridge. Salamanca is also one of only two Hispanophone universities in the world holding a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations to train language professionals for the organization.