1. Learning, Literature, and the Arts
Medieval
Learning, Literature, and the Arts

2. 1100s - first universities evolved out of cathedral schools

3. 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

4. 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

5. Troubadour poems of love were popular among the nobility.
The theme of all medieval art was religion.

6. Illuminated Manuscripts

7. 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

8. Gothic Cathedrals: 1150 - 1300 tall, light, and airy flying buttresses
large stained glass windows
complex, lacy, richly embroidered, feminine

9. 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

10. Art is flat and lacks proportion and perspective.