3. LIFE DURING MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Daily life during the Middle Ages is
sometimes hard to fathom. Pop culture
loves to focus on exciting medieval
moments-heroic knights charging into
battle; romantic liaisons between royalty
and commoner; breakthroughs and
discoveries made. But life for your average
person during the Dark Ages was very
routine, and activities revolved around an
agrarian calendar.
4. LIFE DURING MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Most of the time was spent working the land, and
trying to grow enough food to survive another
year. Church feasts marked sowing and reaping
days, and occasions when peasant and lord could
rest from their labors.
Social activities were important, and every
citizen in a medieval town would be expected to
attend. Fairs with troubadours and acrobats
performing in the streets…merchants selling
goods in the town square…games of chance held
at the local tavern…tournaments featuring
knights from near and abroad…these were just
some of the ways medieval peasants spent their
leisure time. Medieval weddings were cause for
the entire town to celebrate.
5. LIFE DURING MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Medieval superstitions held sway over science,
but traveling merchants and returning crusaders
told of cultures in Asia, the Middle East and
Africa that had advanced learning of the earth
and the human body. Middle Age food found new
flavor courtesy of rare spices that were imported
from the East. Schools and universities were
forming across Western Europe that would help
medieval society evolve from the Dark Ages on its
way to a Renaissance of art and learning.
6. HISTORY
The Dark Ages. That's one of the terms used to
describe nearly 1000 years of history-a history that is
often hard to understand due to a lack of surviving
documents, and often is clouded by myth and legends.
Western Europe was under the rule of hundreds of
feudal lords and kings. Castles dominated the
landscape, and entire cities were built behind
protective walls.
The Roman Empire formally legalized Christianity
during the 4th century, and soon afterward, the zeal
and evangelism of practitioners spread this faith
throughout Western Europe as far west as Ireland.
The Church would be one of the most powerful
medieval institutions, controlling publication of books
and the making of laws. Much of medieval Europe's
art and architecture has a direct connection to the
Christian church.
7. HISTORY
Knights, soldiers, peasants and pilgrims marched
along European roads and trails during the
Crusades and brought back with them stories of
differing cultures, and began to adopt their
architecture, tales of Romance, and advances in
medicine. Trade was both a blessing and curse.
Merchants began importing silks, cottons and
rare spices from all over the known world. But
these ships would also bring the horror that
became known as the Black Death. The disease
ravaged Asia, before wiping out nearly one-third
of Western Europe.
8. HISTORY
Wars took their toll, from William the Conqueror's
invasion of England in 1066, to the Hundred Year's
War that ended in 1453, there were few years that
didn't see battles raging in some part of Europe. This
was an era of siege warfare-catapults, trebuchets,
battering rams, and towers. Men fought hand-to-hand
in the thousands in bloody conflicts using swords,
axes, longbows, crossbows, stones and daggers.
Medieval Europe saw some humanity-changing
developments, such as Gutenberg's moveable types
press in the middle of the 15th century. This would
bring printed material to the masses, and improve
communication between societies. Marco Polo would
popularize the account of his voyage to the Orient,
and intrigue Europeans about this exotic land.
10. LITERATURE
The Middle Ages saw the beginnings of a rebirth in
literature. Early medieval books were painstakingly
hand-copied and illustrated by monks. Paper was a
rarity, with vellum, made from calf's skin, and
parchment, made from lamb's skin, were the media of
choice for writing. Students learning to write used
wooden tablets covered in green or black wax. The
greatest number of books during this era were bound
with plain wooden boards, or with simple tooled
leather for more expensive volumes.
Wandering scholars and poets traveling to the
Crusades learned of new writing styles. Courtly Love
spawned a new interest in romantic prose.
Troubadours sang in medieval courtyards about epic
battles involving Roland, Arthur, and Charlemagne.
Literature exploded from the universities as scholars
began to question convention and write social
commentary, as well as poetic fiction.
11. LITERATURE
Language saw further development during the
Middle Ages. Capital and lowercase letters were
developed with rules for each. Books were
treasures, rarely shown openly in a library, but
rather, kept safely under lock and key. Finding
someone who might loan you a book was a true
friend. Some might rent out their books, while
others, desperate for cash, might turn to the book
as a valuable item to be pawned
12. MONKS AND ILLUMINATED
TEXTS
Medieval monasteries were the refuges for book
copying during the Middle Ages. The burning of the
library at Alexandria in the 5th century had been a
terrible blow to humanity. Countless scrolls
containing scientific, philosophical, artistic and
mathematical knowledge were destroyed out of
ignorance. Surviving documents were rare, and were
often brought to monasteries to be copied for future
generations.
The Bible was certainly the most copied book of the
Middle Ages. Not only was the Church interested in
using these Bibles to spread its gospel throughout the
land, these volumes were to be a veneration of beauty.
Monks would often work in large rooms called a
scriptorium, and only those working on texts would be
allowed in this room.
13. MONKS AND ILLUMINATED
TEXTS
Monks became specialists. The antiquarii were masters of
calligraphy. Rubricatores illuminated the large initials at
the beginning of a page while miniatores illustrated the
margins. Monks called illuminators painted intricate
designs and biblical scenes on pages, to supplement the
text. One of the most famous of these, the Book of Kells,
was written around 800 a.d. and can still be seen in the
library at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Some monks made tremendous strides in changing the
acceptance of non-biblical writing. Thomas Aquinas rattled
the foundations of the Church when, instead of denouncing
early Greek thinkers, he read ancient texts to reconcile
their philosophies with Christianity. The illuminations also
went against the convention of "never paint a picture of
Christ." These illustrated scenes became masterpieces, and
aided in the peasants' understanding of biblical stories.
14. TROUBADOURS
Troubadour is the generic term for poets and
minstrels who flourished in southern France and in
Northern Italy from the 11th through the 13th
centuries. Called trouveres in northern France and
meistersingers in Germany, these artists elevated
storytelling as an art, and often entertained huge
crowds at fairs, weddings and other medieval
celebrations.
During this time, works from medieval monks had
become tired. The public wasn't as interested in
hymns, chronicles and treatises penned in medieval
Latin. These new stories were sang, while music was
played on strange, new musical instruments, brought
back to Western Europe from the Crusades. Verses
became quite complex in style and ranged in topics
from satire, love, and politics, to debates, laments and
spinning songs.
15. TROUBADOURS
French lords wanted to hear tales of bravery
about their own countrymen, and ladies were
being swept away with epic love poems, as they
practiced the rituals of Courtly Love.
Professional singers who performed work penned
by a troubadour were called jongleurs, and they
might be accompanied by ioculators (jesters) and
ystriones (actors).
Minstrels were found in every social class, with
wealthy or noble troubadours traveling like
royalty from town to town.
16. EARLY WORKS
The most popular medieval works were the fabliaux,
or fables. These humorous short stories, penned by
authors from varying classes, enjoyed an immense
audience. While most of these stories developed from
earlier folk tales, social commentary was woven into
the fable. Most fables were quite humorous and often
bawdy. Recurring characters were visible in everyday
life-merchants, students, lecherous husbands, and
lusty, unfaithful wives.
Romances blossomed in the 12th century from
authors such as Chretien de Troyes and Marie de
France. Some stories, like Galaeran, deal with starcrossed lovers who eventually find happiness
together. Military themes can be found in tales such
as Joufroi, where a knightly hero has both amorous
and martial adventures.
17. EARLY WORKS
A popular religious book was called the "Book of
Hours," which had a bible verse for each hour of
the day, and a calendar showing all the Church's
feast days. Scribes also copied surviving Greek
and Roman texts, though care would have to be
taken to ensure these documents were not found
to be heretical, and land the monk in jail, or be
executed.
Most early medieval works were penned by
authors who remain virtually anonymous.
18. MEDIEVAL MASTERPIECES
La Chanson de Roland (the Song of Roland)
remains one of the most studied medieval epic
poems. This is the story of Roland, nephew to
Charlemagne, King of France. The army is
dispatched to Spain to fight invading Moors in a
quasi-crusade. As the victorious French army
heads home, Roland, bringing up the rear, is
attacked. He had been given a horn to sound in
time of desperation, but he blows this horn too
late for help to arrive. While the poem is far from
historical truth, this tale remains one of the great
examples of early French literature.
19. MEDIEVAL MASTERPIECES
One of the greatest works in all of literature was
penned in Italy during the Middle Ages. Dante
Alighieri finished his La Divina Commedia (the
Divine Comedy) in 1321. The first of the three
volumes, the Inferno, is probably the best known
and describes the afterlife for the wicked, where
hell is comprised of nine descending circles and
there is no forgiveness. The Ninth and lowest
circle was reserved for Satan and betrayers of
benefactors, kin, and country. Purgatorio and
Paradiso, the remaining volumes of La Divina
Commedia, continue Dante's journey through
more of the afterlife.
20. MEDIEVAL MASTERPIECES
Medieval England thrilled to the adventures of
King Arthur and his knights. This king, who
supposedly grew up near Cornwall, led his
armies in battles against the Angles and Saxons.
He called his warriors knights, hundreds of years
before codes of chivalry would make this word
commonplace. The first stories about Arthur
were actually penned in French in a work called
"La Morte d'Arthur" (the Death of Arthur).
21. PRINTING
Scribes were responsible for creating much of the
printed material during the Middle Ages. Some
began experimenting with ways to make books
easier to reproduce, and eliminate human errors
made in the copying process.
Medieval craftsmen, using ideas borrowed from
the Chinese, carved entire scenes and stories into
page-sized wooden blocks. These "block books"
were much cheaper to make than hand-copied
versions, and they became very popular. One of
the best-known block books was the Biblia
Paupernum (Bible of the Poor). The problem was,
the blocks tended to wear out, and another would
have to be carved in its place. These design flaws
limited the pages counts of most books.
22. PRINTING
John Gutenberg, from Mainz, Germany began
another experiment in the middle of the 15th
century that would change the course of human
history. His idea was to create individual letter
blocks that could be organized to form a page,
then re-used on another completely different
page. He ran into problems right away.
Gutenberg's first letter sets were made of wood,
and deteriorated much too quickly. Also, inks
used for quill pens would not work on his
printing press. He tried making the letters out of
lead-the metal was too soft. He tried iron-the
metal was too hard. He finally decided on
creating molds for each, and melted a
combination of metals to form the characters.
23. PRINTING
Gutenberg tried inks used by Italian painters,
made from lampblack and linseed oil, and finally
was close to success. After exhausting his own
fortune, Gutenberg enlisted the aid of partners to
help him continue the project. He continued for
years until 1456, when the first printed Bible
was produced. But there was one other important
development that made the printing press
feasible. Vellum and parchment were fairly
expensive, but larger quantities of paper were
becoming available. This was another by-product
of the Crusades, with Europeans learning this
skill from the Arabs-who had learned it from
Chinese.
