Great summary! The book I'm reading, God's Philosophers, focuses on science. That, paired with the artistic achievements you mention here, demolishes the traditional understanding of the Middle Ages as a barbaric and backward era. I thought about the issue of a lack of published books, and I think that had less to do with intelligence, a lack of knowledge and/or barbarity and more to do with the fact that making a single tome (let alone copies) was not a cheap and time-effective endeavor. This, of course, was before Gutenberg. Pages made from animal skin did not grow on trees, even if they grew on animals.
But in the book I'm reading, almost all the major thinkers mentioned didn't fail to get one or more books out there. In any case, what needed to be written down was written down by the scholars at least. If books were made the same way today, I'd be willing to bet money we wouldn't have an oversaturation problem in literature as we currently see.
I think the problem from the 500s to the 900s / 1000s was that there was almost no understanding of what the Greeks and Romans had understood. And you needed Greco-Roman thought and art to merge with the Judeo-Christian tradition to produce the Catholic Golden Age from the 1100s to the 1700s. That's the best I've been able to surmise.
In particular, there was an extreme lack of Ancient Greek knowledge. It was one reason why some of the knowledge had to be regained, circuitously, from the Arabs. But unlike the propaganda narrative we hear today, the Muslims had no intention of just benevolently letting Christians access their knowledge. The Caliphate and Christendom were at war. This was where the liberation of Spain was influential, especially the liberating of Toledo which had a huge library left intact after the battle.
Interesting take. I do think the 1000s and 1100s were way above the centuries that preceded them in the Catholic West, and I'm not sure I'd call the period from the 500s to the 900s a real civilization in the Catholic West. But you have a society whether or not you have a civilization.
Thanks Mike for this comprehensive and detailed survey of the Middle Ages and the analysis of the major role the Catholic Church played in driving the culture of the time. I truly enjoyed reading it. Francisco
Great summary! The book I'm reading, God's Philosophers, focuses on science. That, paired with the artistic achievements you mention here, demolishes the traditional understanding of the Middle Ages as a barbaric and backward era. I thought about the issue of a lack of published books, and I think that had less to do with intelligence, a lack of knowledge and/or barbarity and more to do with the fact that making a single tome (let alone copies) was not a cheap and time-effective endeavor. This, of course, was before Gutenberg. Pages made from animal skin did not grow on trees, even if they grew on animals.
But in the book I'm reading, almost all the major thinkers mentioned didn't fail to get one or more books out there. In any case, what needed to be written down was written down by the scholars at least. If books were made the same way today, I'd be willing to bet money we wouldn't have an oversaturation problem in literature as we currently see.
I think the problem from the 500s to the 900s / 1000s was that there was almost no understanding of what the Greeks and Romans had understood. And you needed Greco-Roman thought and art to merge with the Judeo-Christian tradition to produce the Catholic Golden Age from the 1100s to the 1700s. That's the best I've been able to surmise.
In particular, there was an extreme lack of Ancient Greek knowledge. It was one reason why some of the knowledge had to be regained, circuitously, from the Arabs. But unlike the propaganda narrative we hear today, the Muslims had no intention of just benevolently letting Christians access their knowledge. The Caliphate and Christendom were at war. This was where the liberation of Spain was influential, especially the liberating of Toledo which had a huge library left intact after the battle.
Very much agree.
Interesting take. I do think the 1000s and 1100s were way above the centuries that preceded them in the Catholic West, and I'm not sure I'd call the period from the 500s to the 900s a real civilization in the Catholic West. But you have a society whether or not you have a civilization.
Thanks Mike for this comprehensive and detailed survey of the Middle Ages and the analysis of the major role the Catholic Church played in driving the culture of the time. I truly enjoyed reading it. Francisco