Medieval+culture

= Medieval Culture =

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// Literature, clothing and music //
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A shorter version: In literature, the Middle Ages were a big step forward. Monks copied a lot of books, illustrated in them so that ordinary people could understand, for example, the bible better. The liturary masterpieces during this era were adventures stories. Mostly about kings and warriors but also about other adventures travels. In the Middle Ages developed both printing and language forward. From the 11th century through the 13th century, medieval clothing varied according to the social standing of the people. The clothing worn by nobility and upper classes was clearly different than that of the lower class. This was dictated by the Feudal system just as everything else during these centuries. Music also took a step forward in both composing and instruments.

__ Medieval literature __
During The Middle Ages began a rebirth in literature. The monks played a big part in this by persistently hand-copy and illustrate early medieval books. The language itself also developed further. Big and small letters were developed with rules for each group. Books were rarely found openly in a library during this era. They were treasured. If you lend out your books you would be seen as a true friend, some even rented out books or pawned them for money.

Masterpieces
La chanson the Roland (the song of Roland) is still one of the most studied medieval epic poems. Roland, who the story is about, was nephew to Charlemagne, king of France. The French army heads to Spain to fight and wins the battle. On the way back home they get attacked. Roland had been given a horn to blow in need for help. He blows it too late for the help to arrive in time. It’s not a story based on historical truth but is one great example of early French literature.

One of the greatest works in all of literature comes from Italy. During The Middle Ages Dante Alighieri created his “La Divina Commedia” (The Divine Comedy). It was finished in 1321 and consisted of three volumes. The most known one is the first, Inferno. It describes were all the mean, wicked people goes in the afterlife. In that hell there’s no forgiveness. He writes about nine descending circles in hell were the lowest was for Satan and betrayers. The two remaining volumes are also about the afterlife.

King Arthur and his knights thrilled Medieval England with their adventures. This king and his knights fought against the Angles and Saxons. He called his warriors knights long before the word was commonplace. It was in a work called “La morte d’Arthur” (The Death of Arthur) written in France, that the first stories about him was penned.

=Monks= == In the 5th century, the library at Alexandria burned. This was terrible to humanity. A large amount of scrolls containing s cientific, philosophical, artistic and mathematical knowledge were destroyed. It was very rare with surviving documents; they were often brought to monasteries to be copied for future generations. The most copied book in The Middle Ages was certainly the Bible. When the monks worked at texts they worked in large rooms called a scriptorium. Only those working on the texts were allowed in. Monks became specialists.

Some monks wanted to change the acceptance of non-biblical writing. This guy named Thomas Aquinas rattled the foundations of the church by not denouncing early Greek thinkers. He instead wanted to reconcile the philosophies in ancient texts with Christianity. The illuminations went against “never paint a picture of Christ”. These illustrated scenes became masterpieces and helped peasants to understand biblical stories better. =Printing= John Gutenberg, from Mainz, Germany started experimenting with how to print in the middle of the 15th century. That was going to change the course of human history. His idea was to separate letters into individual letter blocks that could be organized to create a page. Then used again on another page. Eventually he tried to melt a combination of metals to form the characters. Then he tried Italian inks used by Italian painters. Now he was close to success. One more was important for the printing press. Larger development quantities of paper became available. It was a by-product of the crusades. Europeans learned this skill from the Arabs-who learned it from the Chinese.

=__ Medieval clothing __= // Most of what we know about medieval clothing comes from medieval pictures and sculptures. //

Just as everything else during this era, clothing was dictated by the Pyramid of power which was the feudal system. The clothes gave information about the person who wore them, so curtain clothes were for curtain people. The clothing was therefore not only dictated by wealth, but after profession and social status.

Development Clothing did start to get more complicated in the Middle Ages. Before were long tunics, to the ankles for monks, and to the knees for regular men, the outfit. Some men now started to wear pants, under their tunics. The Romans had disapproved the idea, which was a Germanic from the beginning, but now it gradually caught on anyway. Mostly for the horse riders and the men who lived in cold areas. If a man could afford he wore leather shoes on his feet. You could actually see when a painting from the Middle Ages is made by looking at peoples shoes. After about 1300 AD men’s shoes started to get pointy toes just to look a bit extra fancy. Rich nobles also started to wear high hats just to look even fancier.

Peasants The most common clothing material in the Middle Ages was wool. Imported silk and other finer fabrics were too expensive for ordinary people. Only the more wealthy habitants wore those kinds of material. Peasants and peasant’s children were lucky for all the clothing they could get, simple wool tunics. At the Middle Ages you could distinguish rich from pore by looking at their clothes. The peasants wore their woollen tunics with a belt strapped in their waist and undergarments made of linen or wool. Some people only had one tunic and tried to get more layers for the winter in order to keep warm. Peasants clothing were practical, basic and non-decorated. Pore women wore linen headdresses when they dressed up.

Richer people such as Noblemen and Noble women The richer people wore clothes with brighter colors and finer fabrics. They also developed different kinds of hats for noble women, in shapes of hearts or butterflies. Women during The Middle Ages, especially married women, mostly had their hair in a tight cap or up in a net which was bound in a bun. Veils were common too, either loose hanging or braided tightly. The wealthier people had the chance and money to care about fashion, much like we do today. Noble men and women also had much finer materials in all of their clothing. The women used a lot of layers of silk and so on, with a mantel over it. The men had cloaks trimmed with fur and better shoes. Cloaks were this era’s answer to our “jacket”. They were put on over the head and had one hole for the head, no arm holes. The noble men always wore trousers with a long tunic over in strong materials.



Monks and Nuns Monks and Nuns also wore tunics. They had their too their ankles. Those tunics did not have any colors though. Nuns clothing were often black and white. St. Benedict stated that monk’s clothes should be plain but comfortable and they were allowed, in order to keep their heads warm, to wear linen coifs. The poor Clair sisters actually had to petition the pope when they needed woollen socks to keep warm.

Royalties The royalties wore silk in bright colors and had crowns. Royalties wore clothes that only they had the money to afford.


 * __ Medieval music __**

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The medieval repertory can really be said to begin in the 12th century. One of the most famous works, if not the most famous, from the Middle Ages is Mass of Notre Dame. This peace was written by Guillame de Machaut (c. 1300-1377) Even though Machaut had many French c omposers who wrote in similar styles, his reputation easily dwarfs all others.

Here is a piece from him called “Messe de Nostre Dame” @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVZHjWVBcKI

Exept in England, the main music developments of this entire era were in French (and sometimes Italian) secular music. The description of Medieval Musical Instruments gives us valuable facts and information about musical entertainment in the Middle Ages. There were many medieval musical instruments which fell into theese categories:
 * Stringed Musical Instruments - instruments which were played with a bow or plucked
 * Wind Musical Instruments - instruments which were blown like trumpets or bagpipes
 * Percussion Musical Instruments - various forms of drums and bells

Links.
Music [] [|http://www.castles.][|me.uk/medieval-musical-instruments.htm] Clothes [] [] http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/clothing/ [] [] [] Literature []