Alaina Stewart Chapter 9, Section. 4 Learning, Literature, and Arts Expert

Introducing the chapter  By the 100s, Europe started to experience dynamic changes.  People weren’t any longer distracted with daily struggles to survive.  Agricultural improvements created a steadier food supply.  From trade and the growth of towns restored were signs of increased prosperity.  Few people gained wealth in medieval Europe.  Towns contributed an important spark that ignited the cultural flowering of the High Middle Ages.

Medieval Universities  The church wanted better-educated clergy.  Royal rulers needed literate men.  ACADEMIC GUILDS:  By the 11oos, schools had sprung up around the great cathedral schools to train the clergy.  Cathedral schools were organized like guilds with charters to protect the rights of members and set standards for training.  Salerno and Bologna in Italy boasted the first universities.  Soon Paris and Oxford had theirs.  STUDENT LIFE:  A bell woke students up at 5:00am for prayers, the students attended classes until 10:00am when they had their first meal of the day, Afternoon classes lasted until 5:00pm then the students usually ate a light supper and then studied up until bedtime.  Medieval Universities didn’t have permanent buildings.  So classes were held in rented rooms or in the choir loft of a church.  Students had to also memorize what they heard.  A student program covered the seven liberal arts: Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music, Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic.  WOMEN and EDUCATION:  Women were not allowed to attend the universities.  Without a university education, they couldn’t become Doctors, Lawyers, Administrators, Church Officials, or Professors.  This seriously affected their lives. They were also taken away from Mental Stimulation, that was an important part of university life.  Christine de Pizan was an exception. She was an Italian-born woman who came to live in the French Court.

“New” Learning  HOW LEARNING SPREAD:  Learning stared to spread when Muslim scholars translated the works of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers.  Jewish scholars translated these works into Latin, language of Christian European scholars.  By the 1100s, these translations swept into Western Europe which set off the revolution in the world of learning.  HOW CHRISTIANS INTERPRET ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS:(scholasticism)  Christians interpreted Aristotle’s philosophical ideas(scholasticism) as he taught that people should use reason to discover basic truths.  Christians had accepted many ideas on faith. They believed that the church was the final authority on all questions.  So they thought of how they could use the logic of Aristotle without destroying their Christian faith.  Christian scholars known as scholastics, tried to resolve the conflict between faith and reason, their plan was known as scholasticism. This was to use reason to support Christian beliefs.

Science and Math  HOW CHRISTIANS VIEWED SCIENCE:  Christians viewed science by studying Hippo crates on medicine and Euclid on geometry, along with works by Arab scientist.  They saw how Aristotle had used observation and experimentation to study the physical world.  Scientist made little progress in Middle Ages because most scholars still believed that all true knowledge must fit with church teachings.  Europeans adopted Hindu- Arabic numerals, this system was much easier to use than the cumbersome system of Roman numeral’s that had been traditional throughout Europe for centuries.

Medieval Literature  VERNACULAR:  Latin was the language of scholars and churchmen but their new writings began to appear in the vernacular, or the everyday languages of ordinary people, such as French, German, and Italian.  HEROIC EPICS:(famous works)  Heroic epics(famous works) were started when people began writing down oral traditions in the vernacular.  Chansons de geste, “ a song of heroic deed. The most popular was the song of Rowland, which praises the courage of one of Charlemagne’s knights who died while on a military campaign in Muslim Spain, Spain’s great epic, Poem of the cid, the battle against Muslim forces. The Cid was Rodrigo Diaz, a bold and fiery Christian lord who battled Muslims in Spain.

Architecture and Art  THE FLYING BUTTRESSES:  The flying buttresses was a stone support on the outside of a building that allowed builders to construct higher walls and leave space for large stained- glass windows.  ILLUMINATION:  Illumination was an artistic decoration in books.