Medieval renaissances

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The medieval renaissances were periods of cultural renewal across

medieval Western Europe. These are effectively seen as occurring in three phases - the Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), Ottonian Renaissance (10th century) and the Renaissance of the 12th century
.

The term was first used by

medievalists in the 19th century, by analogy with the historiographical concept of the 15th and 16th century Italian Renaissance. This was notable since it marked a break with the dominant historiography of the time, which saw the Middle Ages as a Dark Age
. The term has always been a subject of debate and criticism, particularly on how widespread such renewal movements were and on the validity of comparing them with the Italian Renaissance.

History of the concept

Jean-Jacques Ampère was the first writer to speak of a medieval renaissance.

The term 'renaissance' was first used as a name for a period in medieval history in the 1830s, with the birth of medieval studies. It was coined by Jean-Jacques Ampère.

Charles H. Haskins
published The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century in 1927


Pre-Carolingian renaissances

As Pierre Riché points out, the expression "Carolingian Renaissance" does not imply that Western Europe was barbaric or obscurantist before the Carolingian era.

Northumbrian Renaissance of the 7th and 8th centuries.[11]

Carolingian renaissance (8th and 9th centuries)

Main article: Carolingian Renaissance
Carolingian minuscule, one of the products of the Carolingian Renaissance.

The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual and cultural revival in the

Admonitio generalis (789) and his Epistola de litteris colendis served as manifestos. The effects of this cultural revival, however, were largely limited to a small group of court literati: "it had a spectacular effect on education and culture in Francia, a debatable effect on artistic endeavors, and an immeasurable effect on what mattered most to the Carolingians, the moral regeneration of society," John Contreni observes.[13] Beyond their efforts to write better Latin, to copy and preserve patristic and classical texts and to develop a more legible, classicizing script—the Carolingian minuscule that Renaissance humanists took to be Roman and employed as humanist minuscule, from which has developed early modern Italic script
—the secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Carolingian Renaissance for the first time in centuries applied rational ideas to social issues, providing a common language and writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe.

One of the primary efforts was the creation of a standardized curriculum for use at the recently created schools. Alcuin led this effort and was responsible for the writing of textbooks, creation of word lists, and establishing the

trivium and quadrivium as the basis for education.[14]

Art historian

Walahfrid Strabo (died 849), in his introduction to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne.[19]

Similar processes occurred in

Bulgarian cultural prosperity during the reign of emperor Simeon I the Great (889—927).[20] The term was coined by Spiridon Palauzov in the mid 19th century. During this period there was an increase of literature, writing, arts, architecture and liturgical reforms
.

Ottonian renaissance (10th and 11th centuries)

Main article: Ottonian Renaissance

The Ottonian Renaissance was a limited renaissance of logic, science, economy and art in central and southern Europe that accompanied the reigns of the first three

Salian dynasts. The term is generally confined to Imperial court culture conducted in Latin in Germany.[21] It is sometimes also known as the Renaissance of the 10th century,[22] so as to include developments outside Germania, or as the Year 1000 Renewal,[23] due to coming right at the end of the 10th century. It was shorter than the preceding Carolingian Renaissance and to a large extent a continuation of it - this has led historians such as Pierre Riché to prefer evoking it as a 'third Carolingian renaissance', covering the 10th century and running over into the 11th century, with the 'first Carolingian renaissance' occurring during Charlemagne's own reign and the 'second Carolingian renaissance' happening under his successors.[24]

The Ottonian Renaissance is recognized especially in the

political ideology. The Imperial court became the center of religious and spiritual life, led by the example of women of the royal family: Matilda the literate mother of Otto I, or his sister Gerberga of Saxony, or his consort Adelaide, or Empress Theophanu
.

12th-century Renaissance

Main articles: Renaissance of the 12th century and Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe
New technological discoveries allowed the development of Gothic architecture

The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes at the outset of the

scientific roots. For some historians these changes paved the way to later achievements such as the literary and artistic movement of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century and the scientific developments of the 17th century
.

Medieval scholars sought to understand the geometric and harmonic principles by which God created the universe.[25]

After the collapse of the

Latin West
.

This scenario changed during the renaissance of the 12th century. The increased contact with the

scientists, especially the works of Aristotle
.

The development of medieval universities allowed them to aid materially in the translation and propagation of these texts and started a new infrastructure which was needed for scientific communities. In fact, the European university put many of these texts at the center of its curriculum,[26] with the result that the "medieval university laid far greater emphasis on science than does its modern counterpart and descendent."[27]

In Northern Europe, the

Il Milione but he was neither the first nor the only traveller on the Silk Road to China
. Several Christian missionaries such as
Niccolò da Conti
also contributed to the knowledge and interest in the far eastern lands. The translation of texts from other cultures, especially ancient Greek works, was an important aspect of both this Twelfth-Century Renaissance and the latter Renaissance (of the 15th century), the relevant difference being that Latin scholars of this earlier period focused almost entirely on translating and studying Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and mathematics, while the latter Renaissance focus was on literary and historical texts.

A new method of learning called scholasticism developed in the late 12th century from the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle; the works of

Victorines. The most famous of the scholastic practitioners was Thomas Aquinas (later declared a Doctor of the Church), who led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and towards the Aristotelian.[28]

During the High Middle Ages in Europe, there was increased innovation in means of production, leading to economic growth. These innovations included the

Hindu-Arabic numerals
.

See also

References

  1. ^ Pierre Riché, Les Carolingiens. Une famille qui fit l'Europe, Paris, Hachette, coll. "Pluriel", 1983 p. 354
  2. ^ Michel Lemoine, article Arts libéraux in Claude Gauvard (dir.), Dictionnaire du Moyen Âge, Paris, PUF, coll. "Quadrige", 2002 p. 94
  3. ISBN 978-0230593640
    .
  4. ISBN 9780520295957
    .
  5. ^ a b Fontaine, Jacques (1959). Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique (in French). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ISBN 9781504034692
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0853235828
    .
  8. ISBN 9783506765178
    .
  9. ^ Riché, Pierre (1995) [1962]. Éducation et culture dans l'Occident barbare (VIe-VIIIe siècles). Points Histoire (4 ed.). Paris: Le Seuil. pp. 256–257, 264, 273–274, 297.
  10. ^ Louis Halphen, Les Barbares, Paris, 1936, p. 236; Étienne Gilson, La Philosophie au Moyen Âge, Paris, 1944, p. 181.
  11. ISBN 9781438127378
    .
  12. ^ G.W. Trompf, "The concept of the Carolingian Renaissance", Journal of the History of Ideas, 1973:3ff.
  13. ^ John G. Contreni, "The Carolingian Renaissance", in Warren T. Treadgold, ed. Renaissances before the Renaissance: cultural revivals of late antiquity and the Middle Ages 1984:59; see also Janet L. Nelson, "On the limits of the Carolingian renaissance" in her Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe, 1986.
  14. ISBN 978-0-06-017033-2
    .
  15. ^ Clark, Kenneth (1969) Chapter One, Civilisation "By the Skin of Our Teeth".
  16. ^ Notably by Lynn Thorndike, as in his "Renaissance or Prenaissance?" in Journal of the History of Ideas, 4 (1943:65ff)
  17. ^ Scott pg 30
  18. ^ Cantor pg 190
  19. ^ Einhard's use of the Roman historian Suetonius as a model for the new genre of biography is itself a marker for the Carolingian Renaissance; see M. Innes, "The classical tradition in the Carolingian Renaissance: Ninth-century encounters with Suetonius", International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 1997.
  20. ISBN 978-9004168312
    .
  21. ^ Kenneth Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin (Cambridge University Press, 1995) takes the end of Otto III's reign as the close of the Ottonian Renaissance.
  22. ^ (in French) P. Riché, Les Carolingiens, p. 390
  23. ^ P. Riché et J. Verger, Des nains sur des épaules de géants. Maîtres et élèves au Moyen Âge, Paris, Tallandier, 2006, p. 68
  24. ^ P. Riché et J. Verger, chapitre IV, "La Troisième Renaissance caroligienne", p. 59 sqq., chapter IV, "La Troisième Renaissance caroligienne", p.59 sqq.
  25. ISBN 0-89526-038-7
  26. ^ Toby Huff, Rise of early modern science 2nd ed. p. 180-181
  27. ^ Edward Grant, "Science in the Medieval University", in James M. Kittleson and Pamela J. Transue, ed., Rebirth, Reform and Resilience: Universities in Transition, 1300-1700, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1984, p. 68
  28. ISBN 978-0-268-01740-8
    .
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