Important Developments in the Humanities During the Early, High and Late Middle Ages
Important Developments in the Humanities During the Early,High and Late Middle Ages
The study of humanities allows us to explore the ways in which the changing concepts of nature and the individual differ in each historical period and helps us to characterize the important developments of each period. Examining specific works of the Middle Ages enables us to describe our views of the changes that occur and helps to explain how and why the concepts evolved the way they did. The Middle Ages provided a unique chapter in the history of the humanistic tradition.
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages occurred between the 5th and 10th centuries and brought with it three traditions that were interwoven to produce the enthusiastic new culture of the medieval West. These traditions were classical, Christian and Germanic. The Germanic tribal people, who followed a migratory existence, blended with those of classical Rome and Western Christianity to forge the basic economic, social, and cultural patterns of medieval life (Fiero, p. 69). The Germanic people were made up of Ostrogoths, Visogoths, Franks, Vandals, Burgundians, Angles and Saxons. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts (Wikipedia, 2005).
The important developments in the humanities that characterized the Early Middle Ages period are the feudal and manorial traditions that established patterns of class and social status, which came to shape the economic and political history of the West (Fiero, p.67). Government authority and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this lay the beginnings of the feudal system. People lived in a feudalistic society meaning that everyone had a place in society serving another master all the
The study of humanities allows us to explore the ways in which the changing concepts of nature and the individual differ in each historical period and helps us to characterize the important developments of each period. Examining specific works of the Middle Ages enables us to describe our views of the changes that occur and helps to explain how and why the concepts evolved the way they did. The Middle Ages provided a unique chapter in the history of the humanistic tradition.
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages occurred between the 5th and 10th centuries and brought with it three traditions that were interwoven to produce the enthusiastic new culture of the medieval West. These traditions were classical, Christian and Germanic. The Germanic tribal people, who followed a migratory existence, blended with those of classical Rome and Western Christianity to forge the basic economic, social, and cultural patterns of medieval life (Fiero, p. 69). The Germanic people were made up of Ostrogoths, Visogoths, Franks, Vandals, Burgundians, Angles and Saxons. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts (Wikipedia, 2005).
The important developments in the humanities that characterized the Early Middle Ages period are the feudal and manorial traditions that established patterns of class and social status, which came to shape the economic and political history of the West (Fiero, p.67). Government authority and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this lay the beginnings of the feudal system. People lived in a feudalistic society meaning that everyone had a place in society serving another master all the
References: Fiero, G. K. (2002). The Humanistic Tradition. (4th. ed. Combo), Book 2. New York: McGraw Hill. Branner, Robert, Gothic Architecture, (New York: Braziller, 1961), pp. 10-20. White, Albert Beebe and Notestein, Wallace. eds., Source Problems in English History (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1915) Wikipedia. (2005). Middle Ages. Retrieved 04 February 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages Wikipedia. (2005). Medieval Warm Period. Retrieved 04 February 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period