Middle Ages

476 CE -14 century

th
II. Middle Ages 476 CE -14th century

• The millennium between the collapse of the Western Roman

Empire in the 5th century CE and the beginning of the colonial
expansion of western Europe in the late 15th century has been
known traditionally as the Middle Ages, and the first half of
this period consists of the five centuries of the Dark Ages (476-
918 AD).

• Many of the institutions of the later empire survived the

collapse and profoundly influenced the formation of the new
civilization that developed in western Europe. The Christian
church was the outstanding institution of this type.

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A. The Teutonic Tribe
• Teutonic tribes who moved into a large part of western
Europe did not come empty-handed, and in some respects Teutonic tribe
their technology was superior to that of the Romans.

• These tribes appear to have been the first people with

sufficiently strong iron ploughshares to undertake the
systematic settlement of the forested lowlands of northern
and western Europe, the heavy soils of which had frustrated
the agricultural techniques of their predecessors.

Land preparation before planting.

Teutonic way of cultivation using strong iron ploughshares

PERSONAL PROPERTY OF JEFFREY ROMERO-GEC108, 1ST SEM 2020-2021 MSU-GSC
 • The invaders came thus as colonizers. They may have been regarded as
“barbarians” by the Romanized inhabitants of western Europe who naturally
resented their intrusion, and the effect of their invasion was certainly to disrupt
trade, industry, and town life. But the newcomers also provided an element
of innovation and vitality.

• The history of medieval technology is thus largely the story of the preservation,

recovery, and modification of earlier achievements. But by the end of the period
Western civilization had begun to produce some remarkable
technological innovations that were to be of the utmost significance.

Town life Weaving

during the fabrics during
middle ages the middle
ages

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B. The Middle Ages: Art and Architecture

•Relatively few structures survive from the Dark Ages, but the later centuries of the medieval
period were a great age of building. The Romanesque and Gothic Architecture that produced
the outstanding aesthetic contribution of the Middle Ages embodied significant
technological innovations.

Architecture
•Romanesque Architecture Characteristics
• Rounded arches
• Barrel vaults
• Thick walls
• Dark, simple interiors
• Small windows

•Gothic Architecture Characteristics

• Slender pointed arches
• Flying buttress
• Stained glass window
• Narrow columns
• Vertical emphasis
• Sculpture
PERSONAL PROPERTY OF JEFFREY ROMERO-GEC108, 1ST SEM 2020-2021 MSU-GSC
Romanesque cathedrals

Porto Cathedral in Portugal

Speyer Cathedral in present-day Germany

 Gothic Style Cathedrals

Abbey Church of
Saint-Denis in
France

Canterbury Cathedral in England

• Also, before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, even books were
works of art. Craftsmen in monasteries (and later in universities) created illuminated
manuscripts: handmade sacred and secular books with colored illustrations, gold and
silver lettering and other adornments. Convents were one of the few places women
could receive a higher education, and nuns wrote, translated, and illuminated
manuscripts as well.
 C. Population Growth in the Middle Ages
• Europe witnessed massive population growth in the High Middle Ages, from 1000
to 1300. This growth was largely due to the refinement of medieval farming
technology, such as the plow, which improved upon previous models, and resulting
in increased efficiency and output to feed more people than ever before.

• Generally speaking, this was a period of warm, dry

climate through much of Europe, when enormous
amounts of new land were brought under cultivation.
• More and more land was given over to crops that were
rich in iron and protein so that people were simply
eating better. They were healthier; they could do more
work; they were more productive; they lived longer the
population curve marched upward due to these gains.

Although census records do not exist for most of medieval

Europe, much information about population size can be
gleaned contextually by studying families and other
records. 
 D. Technology in the Middle
Ages Drives Growth
The medieval period, on the other hand, was one that was fairly rich in technological
innovation. If we were talking about technology, we’d have to flip the polarity of that
old equation and say that the Middle Ages were rather cleverer.
The clearest indicator we have of medieval technology, is in the realm of cereal
production, where medieval farmers vastly expanded it.
They laid down most of the fundamental ways: By getting maximum cereal production
out of the soil, before the advent of modern chemical fertilizers.
Using horses as draft animal in farming has increased cereal production in the middle
ages. It is stronger, thus larger fields can be plowed, or fields can be plowed more
times, and the soil can be turned more carefully.
The horse collar was a key invention that allowed
medieval Europeans to make use of the horse as
a draft animal, rather than the ox. Once again,
using horses to pull it allowed more work to be
completed.

The soils of northern Europe are very good, but

they’re damp and heavy. The heavy, wheeled
plow was able to turn the soil, which aerates it.
The new heavy, wheeled plow, with an iron
plowshare, can cut much more deeply into the
soil.
• Watermills were widely used in the 11th century. In some parts of northern Europe, for
example, in the Low Countries windmills were used, but watermills were fairly common.
• Engineers had to make the water go past the water wheel, whether the water wanted to or
not, to do the milling at the convenience of the miller, and not by the movements of the
river naturally.
• Mills were imperative because there was an increase in grain.
 E. New Methods of Land Use in
the Middle Ages
Farmers began to use the land more efficiently.
For a long time, they tended to practice what we would call two-field agriculture.
About half of your land was plowed, and about half of it was left fallow. On that fallow
land, you would also run your animals, so that animal manure would provide some
enrichment to the soil.

What exactly is the three-field system?

You divide the available land of an estate into
three roughly equal parts. One of these is left
fallow, one of these is planted in winter crops
and one of these is planted in spring crops.
This produces a situation where if a given region
concentrates on particular kinds of crops, then those
regions rely on other places and trade to get the
things that they do not themselves produce. In turn,
they have to be able to move the goods that they do
produce to other places.

This requires improved roads and improved transport

vehicles to move more goods, farther and faster.
Again, the use of horses as draft animals pulling
wagons: They can pull heavier loads and they can pull
those loads farther. The use of large four-wheeled
wagons becomes widespread, instead of two-
wheeled carts, so that more can be moved in one
trip.
F. Mining and Heavy Industry in
the Middle Ages
By this time there were greater efficiencies in surface
mining. In the Middle Ages, deep mining was
impossible because you couldn’t get the water out of
the mine galleries.

Some famous churches were built out of stone in the

12th and 13th centuries. These vast stone buildings
required more efficient mining. As they were often
built long distances from the sources of the stone,
once again, better roads and more efficient vehicles
of transportation played a significant role in the
functioning of medieval society.
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
 The immediate eastern neighbor of the new civilization of medieval
Europe was Byzantium, the surviving bastion of the Roman Empire
based in Constantinople(Istanbul), which endured for 1,000 years
after the collapse of the western half of the empire.
 Apart from the influence on Western architectural style of such
Byzantine masterpieces as the great domed structure of Hagia
Sophia, the technological contribution of Byzantium itself was
probably slight, but it served to mediate between the West and other
civilizations one or more stages removed, such as the Islamic world,
India, and China.
 Byzantine Science and Technology
Warfare

•The hand-trebuchet, a staff sling

mounted on a pole using a lever
mechanism to propel projectiles.
•It was used by Emperor
Nicephorus Phocas’ army in his
campaigns to disrupt enemy lines.
 Byzantine Science and Technology
•The Counterweight trebuchet,
which was far more powerful
than the normal traction
trebuchet.
•It was used by Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos and it is
said that it impressed his
crusader allies during the siege
of Nicaea.
Byzantine Science and Technology

• The famous Greek Fire. Invented

by Kallinikos, it was the flame
thrower of the era. It was liquid fire
used by the Byzantine navy to
inflame the enemy ships. It played
a crucial role in saving
Constantinople from the Arab
onslaught. Cheirosiphōn, an early
version of the flame thrower used
by the ground troops.
 Byzantine Science and Technology

•Grenades. They appeared

during the reign of Leo III (717–
741). Byzantine soldiers threw
ceramic jars with Greek fire.
They set the m alight by fire
arrows or ignited them before
throwing them at the enemy.
 Byzantine Science and Technology
• The Beacon System. The Byzantines used
a system of beacons to transmit messages
from the border with the Caliphate across
Asia Minor to Constantinople during the
9th century. The system was devised during
the reign of Emperor Theophilos (829-
842) by Leo the Mathematician. The main
line of beacons stretched over some 450
miles and it functioned through two
identical water clocks placed at the two
terminal stations
 Architecture
•The cross-in-square architectural Panagia
Chalkeion,
form appeared first in the late 8th 11th-century
century. It was used in the Byzantine
church in the
construction of churches. northern Greek
city of
Thessaloniki.

Karamagara
Bridge,
Cappadocia •The pointed arch bridge, which
first appeared in the 5th century.
 Architecture

•The pendentive dome,which placed a

circular dome over a square room. The
first (and most famous) example of a
pendentive dome is Hagia Sophia,
designed by Isidore of Miletus and
Pendentive dome of Hagia Sophia. Anthemius of Tralles.
Istanbul, Turkey
 Mathematics
 One of the earlier and most important work on arithmetic was the papyrus of Akhmin
(seventhcentury), which dealt with fractions and problems in the Egyptian tradition.
 In the seventh and eighth centuries, young people would study arithmetic though no
texts survive from before the eleventh century. It was during the end of the thirteenth
and the first half of the fourteenth century that arithmetic was shown the most interest.
 Both George Pachymeres and Maximos Planoudes (1260-1310) studied the work of
Diophantus of Alexandria, the “father of algebra”. On arithmetical manuals of this
period, theoretical works were often liked to astronomy with many chapters devoted
to sexagesimal calculations, while practical manuals regarding daily problems could
also be found.
 The Stoicheiosis (Elements) of Theodore Metochites is an immense astronomical
work which opens with along arithmetical introduction while the Astronomical
Tribiblos of Theodore Meliteniotes also devoted an important part of the book on
arithmetical procedures.
 Astronomy
 The first Byzantine book on astronomy was the Commentary to the Handy Tables of
Stephanos of Alexandria(c.617). In the eighth century, John of Damascus, in his De
Fide Orthodoxa, gave basic notions of cosmology and astronomy.
 •The eleventh century was the most important for Byzantine astronomy. Aside from
books based on the Ptolemaic tradition, one can find good knowledge of Islamic
astronomy. In 1062, a Byzantine astrolabe was created for a man of Persian origins.
The texts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries reveal a very high scientific level.
 •Nikephoros Gregoras, pupil of Metochites, was able to use Ptolemaic astronomical
tables to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Barlaam of Calabria was also skilled in
astronomy and able to calculate the solar eclipses of 1333 and 1337.
 •During this period, Persian astronomy was introduced in Byzantium. George
Chioniades acquired knowledge of astronomy in Persia and he returned to Trebizond
and Constantinople with Persian works translated into Greek.
 Medicine and Botany
 The ancient sources of Byzantine botanology can be found in the poems of Nicander of
Colophon (second century BC) and the Materia Medica of Dioskorides (first century AD)
 The Byzantines had much interest in the medical use of plants. They had institutionalized
hospitals which favored the growth of medicine and pharmacy. This was especially true for the
era of the Komnenoi Dynasty(eleventh twelfth centuries), when the Hospital of Pantokrator
included a pharmacy. The hospitals in Byzantium were the beginnings of modern hospitals.
Many of them were designed for the poor, funded by the Church and became part of civic life.
 Separation of conjoined twins. The first known example of separating conjoined twins
happened in the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. A pair of conjoined twins lived in
Constantinople for many years when one of them died, so the surgeons in Constantinople
decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful as the surviving
twin lived three days before dying. The fact that the second person survived for few days after
separating him was mentioned a century and half years later again by historians. The next
recorded case of separating conjoined twins was 1689 in Germany.
The Renaissance (14th-16th century)
The Renaissance (14th-16th century)
• The renaissance was a fervent period of european cultural,
artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the middle
ages. Generally described as taking place from the 14th century
to the 16th century, the renaissance promoted the rediscovery of
classical philosophy, literature and art.
• Some of the greatest thinkers, authors, statesmen, scientists and
artists in human history thrived during this era
A. Humanism
Definition - Renaissance Humanism
was an intellectual movement typified by
a revived interest in the classical world
and studies which focussed not on
religion but on what it is to be human.
Humanism
During the 14th century, a cultural movement called
humanism began to gain momentum in Italy.
In 1450, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press
Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, which
promoted the renewal of traditional Greek and Roman
culture and values, were printed and distributed to the
masses.
Francesco Petrarch Poet
(1304–c. 1374)

• Father of Humanism

• Father of the Renaissance

B. Renaissance Geniuses
 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a
painter, architect, inventor, and student of
all things scientific. His natural genius
crossed so many disciplines that he
epitomized the term “Renaissance man.”
 Today he remains best known for his art,
including two paintings that remain among
the world’s most famous and admired, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
1519)
Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
Leonardo da
Vinci's 16th
Century painting
of the Mona Lisa
Last Supper, wall painting by Leonardo da
Vinci, c. 1495–98
Michelangelo (1475–1564)
 Michelangelo (1475–1564) was a sculptor,
painter and architect widely considered to be
one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance
— and arguably of all time. His work
demonstrated a blend of psychological
insight, physical realism and intensity never
before seen.
The Creation of Adam (1508-12) at Sistine Statue of David (1501-04)
Chapel

Pietà 1498-99
• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–
1536) Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536) of
Rotterdam was one of Europe's most famous and
influential scholars. A man of great intellect who
rose from meager beginnings to become one of
Europe's greatest thinkers, he defined the
humanist movement in Northern Europe. His
translation to Greek of the New Testament
brought on a theological revolution, and his
views on the Reformation tempered its more
radical elements.
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–c. 1321)
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–c. 1321) was an
Italian poet and moral philosopher best known
for the epic poem The Divine Comedy, which
comprises sections representing the three tiers
of the Christian afterlife: purgatory, heaven
and hell. This poem, a great work of medieval
literature and considered the greatest work of
literature composed in Italian, is a
philosophical Christian vision of mankind’s
eternal fate.
René Descartes (1596–1650)
• was a French scientist, mathematician,
and philosopher. Emphasized human
reasoning as the best road to
understanding.

• Regarded as the father of modern

philosophy for defining a starting point
for existence, “I think; therefore I am.”
Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337):
• Italian painter and architect whose
more realistic depictions of human
emotions influenced generations of
artists.

• Best known for his frescoes in the

Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)
• Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who studied in
Italy. In 1543 Copernicus published On the
Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.

• In his book, Copernicus made two conclusions:

1. The universe is heliocentric, or sun-centered.

2. The Earth is merely one of several planets
revolving around the sun.
Copernicus’ model of the solar system:
1. Sun
2. Moon
3. Mercury
4. Venus
5. Earth
6. Mars
7. Jupiter
8. Saturn
Notice, the sun is first, not
the Earth, as Ptolemy
believed.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Considered the father of
modern science and
made major
contributions to the
fields of physics,
astronomy, cosmology,
mathematics and
philosophy
Galileo was summoned before
the Roman Inquisition in 1633
 The Church came against Galileo because it claimed that the Earth was fixed and
unmoving. Challenged by the church because it supported the heliocentric theory
& it went against church teaching. When threatened with death before the
Inquisition in 1633, Galileo recanted his beliefs, even though he knew the Earth
moved. Galileo was put under house arrest, and was not allowed to publish his
ideas.
 Galileo was right all along. In 1992, the Roman Catholic Church finally repealed
the ruling of the inquisition against Galileo. The church gave a pardon to Galileo
and admitted that heliocentric theory was correct. This pardon came 350 years
after Galileo’s death.
C. Renaissance Exploration
 While many artists and thinkers used their talents to express new ideas, some
Europeans took to the seas to learn more about the world around them. In a
period known as the Age of Discovery, several important explorations were
made. Voyagers launched expeditions to travel the entire globe. They
discovered new shipping routes to the Americas, India and the Far East, and
explorers trekked across areas that weren’t fully mapped. Famous journeys
were taken by Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci
(after whom America is named), Marco Polo, Ponce de Leon, Vasco Núñez de
Balboa, Hernando De Soto and other explorers.
Famous Journey and
Expedition that Changed the
World
Marco Polo (1254-1324)

A Venetian merchant
and adventurer,
Marco Polo travelled
along the Silk Road
from Europe to Asia
between 1271 and
1295.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

Often called the

“discoverer” of the New
World Christopher
Columbus embarked on
4 voyages across the
Atlantic Ocean
between 1492 and 1504.
Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524)

In 1497, the Portuguese

explorer set sail from
Lisbon towards India.
His voyage made him
the first European to
reach India by sea,
and opened up the first
sea route
connecting Europe to
Asia.
John Cabot (c. 1450-1498)

The Venetian explorer became

known for his 1497 voyage to
North America under the
commission of Henry VII of
England. Upon landing in what
he called “New-found-land” in
present-day Canada –which he
mistook for being Asia – Cabot
claimed land for England.
Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467-1520)

Regarded as the
“discoverer” of Brazil,
the Portuguese
navigator was the
first European to
reach the Brazilian
coast, in 1500.
 Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)

Around 1501-1502, the Florentine navigator

Amerigo Vespucci embarked on a follow-up
expedition to Cabral’s exploring the
Brazilian coast. As result of this voyage,
Vespucci demonstrated
that Brazil and the West Indies were not the
eastern outskirts of Asia – as Columbus had
thought – but a separate
continent, which became described as
the “New World”.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521)

The Portuguese
explorer was the first
European to
cross the Pacific
Ocean, and organised
the
Spanish expedition to
the East Indies from
1519 to 1522.
 Hernán Cortés (1485-1547)

A Spanish conquistador (soldier and

explorer), Hernán Cortés was best
known for leading an expedition that
caused the fall of the Aztec Empire
in 1521 and for winning Mexico for the
Spanish crown.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)

A key figure of the

Elizabethan era, Sir
Walter Raleigh
carried out several
expeditions to the
Americas between
1578 and 1618.
James Cook (1728-1779)

A British Royal Navy

captain, James Cook
embarked on ground-
breaking expeditions
that
helped map the
Pacific, New Zealand
and
Australia.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)

A key figure of the

Elizabethan era, Sir
Walter Raleigh
carried out several
expeditions to the
Americas between
1578 and 1618.
The Reformation
• Humanism encouraged Europeans to question the role of the
Roman Catholic church during the Renaissance.
• As more people learned how to read, write and
interpret ideas, they beganto closely examine and
critique religion as they knew it.

• In the 16th century, Martin Luther, a German monk, led

the Protestant Reformation – a revolutionary movement
that caused a split in the Catholic
church. Luther questioned many of the practices of the
church and whether they aligned with the teachings of the
Bible.
Martin Luther (1483–1546)

was a German monk

who forever changed
Christianity when he
nailed his '95 Theses'
to a church door in
1517, sparking the
Protestant
Reformation.
End of the Renaissance
• By the end of the 15th century, numerous wars had
plagued the Italian peninsula. Spanish, French and
German invaders battling for Italian territories
caused disruption and instability in the region.

Also, changing trade routes led to a period of

economic decline and limited the amount of money
that wealthy contributors could spend on the arts.
•Later, in a movement known as the Counter-
Reformation, the Catholic church censored artists and
writers in response to the Protestant
Reformation. Many Renaissance thinkers feared being too
bold, which stifledcreativity.

• Furthermore, in 1545, the Council of Trent established

the Roman Inquisition, which made humanism and any
views that challenged the Catholic church an act of heresy
punishable by death.

• By the early 17th century, the Renaissance movement

had died out, giving
way to the Age of Enlightenment.