High Middle Ages

It is said that Carnival was originated in southern Europe with the Roman feast of Saturnalia, which is known as a midwinter celebration of birth and renewal, and the inversion of the norm. It developed during the Middle Ages into the Feast of Fools, in which the pretensions of the medieval Catholic Church were scandalously mocked. The Church, unsurprisingly, did its best to suppress the festival, but in long run assimilation proved more effective, and Carnival was incorporated into the Catholic…

There have been many influential historical figures throughout the Renaissance. Nearly all of these figures are credited as a mighty hero or a brilliant human being. While not all of society may acknowledge Christopher Columbus as a spectacular personage, he still has changed the course of the Renaissance significantly. Born in Genoa Italy, 1451, Christopher not only discovered trade winds and how they work, but he also introduced more efficient weapons to the Native Americans. Yet perhaps…

Miracle Cures sheds light on the daily life of citizens in medieval Europe, where the only hope for curing an illness was to travel distances for a possible healing. Chaucer shows the purpose of a pilgrimage as an opportunity to cleanse the body of sins. The Pardoner, one of Chaucer’s characters, sells indulgences, pardons and relics. However, he admits to having sins himself, notably, his avarice for money. Chaucer crafts a contradictory character showing that the Pardoner can be successful at…

A-2 The black plague spread quickly throughout Europe. In Tuscany the death rate ran high from 60 percent. They had no explanation for the plague and some blamed the Jews. Boccaccio’s Decameron is a collection of stories that represented life during and after the plague. The stories are about a boy and a woman who escaped Florence and moved to the countryside. Boccaccio who had lived through the plague wrote 100 stories about it describing in details what the setting in Florence was like when…

artist Michelangelo di Buonarrotto. I choose him because he played such an enormous part in art history in the age of the Renaissance. The Renaissance, (the rebirth), was a time that artists expanded their horizon, studied and invented new ways of painting that brought significant change to the art world. Also, this time period connects the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Modern Age. (Site) In this paper, I'm focusing mainly on the artwork of Michelangelo, but I can't do that…

change a dilemma which is whether increased life expectancy in the United States and other developed nations foreshadowed a scenario of longer life but worsening health as a result of the chronically ill. Many factors contribute to how someone will age such as early poverty, poor environmental conditions, poor education, Lifetime of poverty, race, and gender. Many people do not consult older people for advice because they think that they cannot understand what is going on in today’s times. For…

that was applied to the King Arthur’s knights. Over the course of the authorship of his Arthurian romances, Chretien’s opinion of secular chivalry changed and he began to critique the system more and more blatantly. Chretien wrote during the High Middle Ages, where a newfound focus on commercial value and Christianity was taking a much stronger hold in broader communities. Adoption of secular chivalry denounced these Christian values, or at least just lessened their importance. Chretien de…

The European Renaissance began in the northern city-states of Italy during the early 14th century and gradually spread its’ roots over Western Europe in 15th and 16th century. The origin of il Rinascimento, literally meaning ‘The Renaissance’ can traced back to the well-known and wealthy Italian cities of Genoa, Florence, and Venice. Since much of the inspiration behind the cultural changes during this era was drawn from the legacies of classical European societies such as Ancient Rome, and…

Gothic cathedrals and churches in the Middle Ages? How did the resulting design goals generate new structural technologies to support a Gothic cathedral, and how were they expressed in the building’s interior? Gothic architecture was born out of the increasing faith to the divine in the present life but also in preparing for the afterlife. A feeling that all human action was governed by a higher plan permeated the faith of the Gothic period. The middle ages was a dark time and individuals…

was one of the best technique in Gothic Cathedrals. It has the most beautiful and inspiring stained glass windows that tell biblical stories from The Holy Bible. In the medieval century, Gothic Cathedrals had unique stained glass windows that were high above to allow light to shine through and make the features come to life. By understanding the fundamentals of the…