The phrase "Middle Ages" has its origins in the fifteenth century. Scholars of the time--primarily in Italy--were caught up in an exciting movement of art and philosophy, and they saw themselves embarking on a new age that revived the long-lost culture of "classical" Greece and Rome. The time that intervened between the ancient world and their own was a "middle" age and, sadly, one they disparaged and from which they disassociated themselves.
Eventually the term and its associated adjective, "medieval," caught on.

Yet, if the period of time the term covered was ever explicitly defined, the chosen dates were never unassailable. It may seem reasonable to end the era at the point where scholars began to see themselves in a different light; however, this would assume they were justified in their view. From our vantage point of considerable hindsight, we can see that this was not necessarily the case.

The movement that outwardly characterized this period was in reality limited to the artistic elite (as well as to, for the most part, Italy). The political and material culture of the world around them had not radically changed from that of the centuries preceding their own. And despite the attitude of its participants, the Italian Renaissance did not spontaneously burst forth from nowhere, but was instead a product of the preceding 1,000 years of intellectual and artistic history. From a broad historical perspective, "the Renaissance" cannot be clearly separated from the Middle Ages.

Nevertheless, thanks to the work of historians such as Jacob Burkhardt and Voltaire, the Renaissance was considered a distinct time period for many years.

Yet recent scholarship has blurred the distinction between "the Middle Ages" and "the Renaissance." It has now become much more important to comprehend the Italian Renaissance as an artistic and literary movement, and to see the succeeding movements it influenced in northern Europe and Britain for what they were, instead of lumping them all together in an imprecise and misleading "age."

Although the origin of the term "middle ages" may no longer hold the weight it once did, the idea of the medieval era as existing "in the middle" still has validity. It is now quite common to view the Middle Ages as that period of time between the ancient world and the early modern age. Unfortunately, the dates at which that first era ends and the later era begins are by no means clear. It may be more productive to define the medieval era in terms of its most significant and unique characteristics, and then identify the turning points and their associated dates.

This leaves us with a variety of options.

Next page:Part 3: Empires

 

Defining the Middle Ages

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Stuck in the Middle
Part 3: Empires
Part 4: Christendom
Part 5: Europe
Part 6: An Age of Ages
Part 7: Make Your Choice