Portal:Middle Ages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

History: Ancient Egypt · Ancient Germanic Culture · Ancient Greece · Ancient Japan · Ancient Near East · Ancient Rome · Archaeology · Austria-Hungary · British Empire · Bulgarian Empire · Byzantine Empire · History of Canada · Imperial China · Classical Civilisation · Colonialism · Crusades · Disasters · Heraldry · History of Science · Indian independence movement · Khitan · Middle Ages · New France · Russian Empire · Soviet Union · War

edit

The Middle Ages Portal

The Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.

The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the rise of nation-states and birth of representative assemblies, the rise of humanism and birth of universities, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which led to the Columbian Exchange. Scholars of different specialties give somewhat varying boundary dates to these periods. Many place the opening of the period within the years 410–476 AD (the sack of Rome by the Visigoths to the deposing of Romulus Augustus); and ending dates range within 1453–1517 (the Fall of Constantinople to the Protestant reformation begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses). This periodisation is attributed to Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian. For other dating schemes and their justifications, see "periodisation issues", below.

The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained urbanization of northern and western Europe. Modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding during this time; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements in this period.

More about Middle Ages...

Show new selections

edit

Selected article

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery is a functioning monastery in Kiev, Ukraine. The monastery is located on the Western side of the Dnieper River on the edge of a bluff northeast of the St. Sophia Cathedral. The site is located in the historic and administrative Uppertown and overlooks the city's historical commercial and merchant quarter, the Podil neighbourhood.Originally built in the Middle Ages by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, the monastery comprises the Cathedral itself , the refectory of St. John the Divine, built in 1713, the Economic Gates , constructed in 1760 and the monastery's bell tower, which was added circa 1716–1719. The exterior of the structure was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style in the 18th century while the interior remained in its original Byzantine style. The cathedral was demolished by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s, but was recently reconstructed after Ukraine gained its independence.Some scholars believe that Prince Iziaslav I Yaroslavych, whose Christian name was Demetrius, first built the Saint Demetrius's Monastery and Church in the Uppertown of Kiev near Saint Sophia Cathedral in the 1050s. Half a century later, his son, Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, is recorded as commissioning a monastery church (1108–1113) dedicated to his own patron saint, Michael the Archangel. One reason for building the church may have been Svyatopolk's recent victory over the nomadic Polovtsians, as Michael the Archangel was considered a patron of warriors and victories.

...Archive/Nominations

Read more...

edit

Selected biography

Nicolas Flamel (c 1330-1417) was a successful scrivener and manuscript-seller who developed a reputation as an alchemist that has overshadowed his historical reality.

Flamel was the attributed author of an alchemical book, published in Paris in 1612 as Livre des figures hiéroglypiques and in London in 1624 as Exposition of the Hieroglyphicall Figures. It is an exposition of figures purportedly commissioned by Flamel for a tympanum at the Cimetière des Innocents in Paris, long disappeared at the time the work was published. In its publisher's introduction Flamel's search for the Philosopher's Stone was described. According to it, Flamel made it his life's work to understand the text of the mysterious 21-page book he had purchased, and that around 1378, he traveled to Spain for assistance with translation. On the way back, he reported that he met a sage, who identified Flamel's book as being a copy of the original Book of Abraham also known as the Codex. With this knowledge, over the next few years Flamel and his wife allegedly decoded enough of the book to successfully replicate its recipe for the Philosopher's Stone, producing first silver in 1382, and then gold.

According to the introduction to his work and the additional details that have accrued since its publication, Flamel would thus have been the most accomplished of the European alchemists, who would have learned his art from a Jewish converso on the road to Santiago de Compostela. "Others thought Flamel was the creation of seventeenth-century editors and publishers desperate to produce modern printed editions of supposedly ancient alchemical treatises then circulating in manuscript for an avid reading public," Deborah Harkness put it succinctly. The modern assertion that many references to him or his writings appear in alchemical texts of the 1500s, however, has not been linked to any particular source. The essence of his reputation is that he succeeded at the two magical goals of alchemy -- that he made the Philosopher's Stone which turns lead into gold, and that he and his wife Perenelle achieved immortality. (read more ...)

More biographies...

edit

Did you know...

...that a paillasse is a thin mattress filled with hay or sawdust and was commonly used in the middle ages?

...that a barbican is a tower or other fortification defending the drawbridge, usually the gateway?

...that a coif is a type of armored head-covering made out of chain-mail and worn under the helmet for extra protection?

...that a heriot is a payment owed to the lord of the manor by a serf’s family upon the serf’s death; usually the family’s best animal, such as a cow, horse or most commonly ox?

...that before 1066, it was noted in the Domesday Book, if one Welshman killed another, the dead man’s relatives could exact retribution on the killer and his family (even burning their houses) until burial of the victim the next day?

...that buboes are pus-filled egg-sized swellings of the lymph glands of the neck, armpits, and groin; typically found in cases of bubonic plague?

...that laws passed in the late 1300s aimed at maintaining class distinctions by prohibiting lower classes from dressing as if they belonged to higher classes?

...that Pier Gerlofs Donia, a 15th century Frisian freedom fighter of 7 feet tall was alleged to be so strong that he could lift a 1000 pound horse?

...that Edgar the Ætheling was the last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of England, but was only proclaimed, never crowned?

...Archive • Nominations

edit

Selected picture

Credit: Cmmmm

The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries (AD 1300–1500). The Late Middle Ages were preceded by the High Middle Ages, and followed by the Early Modern era (Renaissance).

...Archive/Nominations

Read more...

edit

Related portals


History	War	Byzantine Empire

Ancient Germanic culture	Heraldry and vexillology	Crusades

Bulgarian Empire	Europe

edit

Topics

edit

Things you can do

Here are some tasks you can do:

Cleanup: Ransom of King John II of France needs heavy cleanup work and deorphaning.
Other: There is no article about the german viking Tyrkir (de)

edit

WikiProjects

edit

Associated Wikimedia

Middle Ages on Wikibooks	Middle Ages on Wikimedia Commons	Middle Ages on Wikinews	Middle Ages on Wikiquote	Middle Ages on Wikisource	Middle Ages on Wikiversity	Middle Ages on Wiktionary
Manuals and books	Images and media	News	Quotations	Texts	Learning resources	Definitions