MEDIEVALLearning, Literature,

and the Arts

1100s - first universities evolved out of cathedral schools

Literature began to be written in the vernacular (everyday language of the people) rather than in Latin only.

Scholasticism was developed by Christian scholars to resolve the conflict between faith and reason.

Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica - brought classical Greek philosophy together with Christian faith

Chanson de geste - long narrative poems that portrayed the ideals of chivalry - such as the Song of Roland and the Poem of the Cid

Christine de Pizan: The City of Ladies - examined the achievements of women and men’s negative views of women

Dante : Divine Comedy - Roman poet Virgil leads Dante on a visit to hell, purgatory, and later heaven

Geoffrey Chaucer : The Canterbury Tales - pilgrims on their way to the tomb of Thomas Becket in Canterbury in southern England

Troubadour poems of love were popular among the nobility.

The theme of all medieval art was religion.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Romanesque Cathedrals: 1000 - 1150

thick walls, rounded arches and domed roofs

narrow slits for windows

simple, solid, dark, gloomy fortress

flat, masculine, and simply adorned

Gothic Cathedrals: 1150 - 1300

tall, light, and airy

flying buttresses large stained

glass windows complex, lacy,

richly embroidered, feminine

Despite the lack of scientific observation and experimentation and the unquestioned authority of the Catholic Church, some scientific progress was made.

1200s - Roger Bacon : founder of experimental science

Medicine was still poor - illness was the work of the devil

herbal folk medicine, prayer, and pilgrimages to holy shrines

Art is flat and lacks proportion and perspective.