The "Dark Ages" is a historical periodization traditionally referred to in the Middle Ages, which asserts that demographic, cultural, and economic decline took place in Western Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire.
This term uses traditional light-versus-darkness images to distinguish the "darkness" of the era (lack of records) with the previous "light" period and then (overload). The concept of the "Dark Age" dates back to the 1330s with Italian scholar Petrarch, who regarded the post-Roman age as "dark" compared to classical antiquity. The phrase "Dark Age" itself comes from the Latin saeculum obscurum , originally applied by Caesar Baronius in 1602 to a tumultuous period in the 10th and 11th centuries. The concept then characterized the entire Middle Ages as an age of intellectual darkness between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance; this became very popular in the 18th century Enlightenment.
As the achievements of the times became better understood in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, scholars began to limit the title of the "Dark Ages" in the Early Middle Ages (circa 5th to 10th centuries). The majority of modern scholars avoid the term altogether because of its negative connotations, finding it misleading and inaccurate. The original definition remains popular, and popular culture often uses it as a vehicle to describe the Middle Ages as a time of backwardness, extending its degrading use and expanding its scope.
Video Dark Ages (historiography)
History
The term was originally intended to show the mid-period between the Classical Age and the Modern era. In the nineteenth century, scholars began to recognize the achievements of that period, which challenged an exclusively time picture of darkness and decay. Today this term is not used by scholars to refer to the entire medieval period; when used, is generally limited to the Early Middle Ages.
The emergence of archeology in the 20th century has explained that period, offering a more nuanced understanding of its accomplishments. Other terms of periodization have surfaced: Final Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, and Great Migration, depending on which cultural aspects are emphasized. Today, on the rare occasion when the term is used by historians, it is meant to be neutral and express the idea that periods often seem 'dark' from the scarcity of historical records, and the output of art and culture.
Petrarch
The idea of ​​the Dark Age came from the Tuscan scholar Petrarch in the 1330s. Writing about the past, he said: "Among the wrongs are those who are geniuses: no less their eyes, though they are surrounded by darkness and dense gloom." Christian writers, including Petrarch himself, have long used the traditional metaphor of 'light versus darkness' to describe 'goodness versus evil'. Petrarch is the first to give the secular meaning of metaphor by reversing its application. He now sees the Ancient Classics, so long regarded as the 'dark' age because of the lack of Christianity, in the 'light' of cultural achievements, while Petrarch's own time, allegedly lacking in such cultural achievements, is seen as a dark ages.
From his point of view on the Italian peninsula, Petrarch sees the Roman and classical period as an expression of greatness. He spent much of his time exploring Europe, rediscovering and reissuing classical Latin and Greek texts. He wanted to restore Latin to his previous purity. The Renaissance humanist sees 900 years earlier as a period of stagnation, with a history revealed not along the religious lines of Saint Augustine's Six Ages of the World, but in a cultural (or secular) term through the progressive development of classical ideals , literature, and art.
Petrarch writes that history has two periods: the classical period of Greece and Rome, followed by the dark period in which he saw himself alive. In about 1343, at the end of his epic Africa , he wrote: "My fate is life among the varied and confusing storms, but to you maybe, if I hope and hope you will live long after me, at there will be a better age: this sleep of forgetfulness will not last forever.When darkness is scattered, our descendants may come again in pure light. "In the fifteenth century, historians Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo developed a three-story outline of history. They use two Petrarch ages, plus modern, 'better ages', which they believe the world has entered. Then the term 'Middle Ages' - Latin tempestas media (1469) or aevum medium (1604) - is used to describe the period of decline that should be.
Reform
During the Reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Protestants generally shared the view of Renaissance Humanists like Petrarch, but also added an Anti-Catholic perspective. They see the classical age as a golden age, not only because of its Latin literature, but also because it witnessed the beginning of Christianity. They promote the idea that 'the Middle Ages' were a time of darkness also because of corruption within the Roman Catholic Church, such as: The popes who reign as kings, the worship of the saints relic, celibate priesthood, and institutionalize moral hypocrisy.
Baronius
In response to the Protestants, Catholics developed a counter-description to describe the High Middle Ages particularly as periods of social and religious harmony, and not 'dark' at all. The most important Catholic answer to Magdeburg Centuries is Annales Ecclesiastici by Cardinal Caesar Baronius. Baronius is a trained historian who produced a work that the EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica in 1911 described as "far beyond anything before" and that Acton is considered "the greatest history of the Church ever written". The Annales included the first twelve centuries of Christianity to 1198, and was published in twelve volumes between 1588 and 1607. It was in Volume X that Baronius coined the term "dark ages" for the period between the end times. The Carolingian Empire in 888 and the first movement of the Gregorian Reform under Pope Clement II in 1046:
"The new age ( saeculum ) begins, because its hardness and good sterility can be called iron, because of its superficiality and many crimes, and much less because of the lack of dark (iniso scriptorum obscurum ) ".
Significantly, Baronius calls the age of 'darkness' due to a lack of written records. The "lack of authors" referred to can be illustrated by comparing volume numbers in Migne Patrologia Latina containing the works of Latin writers of the 10th century (the heart of the era he calls 'dark') with numbers containing the works of the authors from previous centuries and beyond. A small portion of these authors are historians.
There was a sharp drop from 34 volumes in the 9th century to only 8 on the 10th. The 11th century, with 13, certain evidence of recovery, and the 12th century, with 40, surpassed 9, something 13th, with only 26, failed to do. There is a 'dark ages', in Baronius's sense of "lack of authors," between the 9th and 7th century Carolingian Renaissance and some of the time in the eleventh century, from what the Renaissance calls in the twelfth century. Furthermore, there was an early period of "lack of authors" during the seventh and eighth centuries. Thus, in Western Europe, two 'dark ages' could be identified, separated by the brilliant yet brief Renaissance Renaissance.
The "dark ages" of Baronius seem to have hit historians, for in the 17th century the term began to multiply in various European languages, with its original Latin Latin name saeculum obscurum is reserved for the period that he has applied. But while some, following Baronius, use the 'dark ages' neutrally to refer to the scarcity of written records, others use them degradingly, falling into a lack of objectivity that has discredited the term for many modern historians.
The first British historian to use the term was most likely Gilbert Burnet, in the form of a 'darker age' that appeared several times in his work during the seventeenth century. The earliest references appear to be in the "Epistle Dedicatory" for Volume I of the Church of England Reform History of 1679, where he writes: "The design of reform is to restore Christianity, to what it was at first, and to cleansing it of the defilements, with which it was dominated in later and darker times. "He used it again in 1682 Volume II, where he rejected the story of" the battle of St George with the dragon "as" a legend that was formed in the dark to support the chivalrous humor ". Burnet is a bishop who notes how England became Protestant, and its use of the term is always humbling.
Enlightenment
During the 17th and 18th centuries of the Enlightenment, many critical thinkers see religion as the antithesis of reason. For those of the Middle Ages, or "Age of Faith", it is the opposite of the Age of Reason. Kant and Vowal Voltaire in attacking the Middle Ages as a period of religiously dominated social decline, while Gibbon in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire proclaimed an insult to the "garbage of the Dark" of the Ages. "Yet like Petrarch, himself at the height of the "new age", criticizing centuries before his own time, as did the writers of the Enlightenment.
As a result, evolution occurs in at least three ways. Petrarch's original metaphor of light versus dark has evolved over time, at least implicitly. Even if later humanists no longer see themselves living in dark age, their time is still not light enough for the 18th-century authors who see themselves living in > real Age of Enlightenment, while the period to be condemned stretches to include what we now call the early modern age. In addition, Petrarch's dark method, which he mainly uses to deplore what he sees as a lack of secular attainment, is sharpened to take on a more explicitly anti-religious and anti-religious meaning.
Nevertheless, the term 'Middle Ages', used by Biondo and other early humanists after Petrarch, was generally used before the 18th century to show the period before the Renaissance. The earliest recorded English "medieval" use was in 1827. The Dark Ages Concept was also used, but in the 18th century it tended to be limited to the early part of this period. The initial notes for the "Dark Ages" in the capital letters in the Oxford English Dictionary are references to the Henry Thomas Buckle History of Civilization in England in 1857. The start and end dates vary: The Dark Ages considered by some to begin in 410, by others in 476 when there was no longer an emperor in Rome, and ending around 800, during the Carolingian Renaissance under Charlemagne, or alternatively to extend to the end of the first millennium.
Romanticism
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Romanticism reversed the negative appraisal of Enlightenment criticism with modes for medievalism. The word "Gothic" has become an opprobrium term similar to "Vandals" to some British "medieval" confident Goths like Horace Walpole embarked on the Gothic Awakening in art. This stimulated interest in the Middle Ages, which for the next generation began to take the ideal image of "Age of Faith". This, reacting to a world dominated by the rationalism of the Enlightenment, expresses a romantic view of the Golden Age of chivalry. The Middle Ages were seen with nostalgia as periods of social and environmental harmony and spiritual inspiration, in contrast to the excesses of the French Revolution and, most importantly, to the environmental and social upheaval and utilitarianism of the emerging Industrial Revolution. The views of Romanticism are still represented in modern fairs and festivals celebrating periods with 'merrie' costumes and events.
Just as Petrarch has twisted the meaning of light versus darkness, Romanticika has twisted the Enlightenment judgment. However, the period they dreamed of most was the Middle Ages High, extending to the Early Modern era. In a way, this negates the religious aspect of Petrarch's judgment, for centuries later was when the power and prestige of the Church were at its peak. For many, the scope of the Dark Ages became separated from this period, which shows especially centuries soon after the fall of Rome.
Maps Dark Ages (historiography)
Modern academic usage
This term is widely used by historians of the 19th century. In 1860, in the Renaissance Civilizations of Italy, Jacob Burckhardt illustrated the contrast between the 'medieval dark ages' and the more enlightened Renaissance, which has revived ancient cultural and intellectual achievements. However, the early 20th century saw a radical reevaluation of the Middle Ages, which questioned the terminology of darkness, or at least a more degrading use. Historian Denys Hay speaks ironically of "the centuries of life we ​​call dark". More strongly, a book on the history of German literature published in 2007 describes the "dark ages" as "a popular way of speaking if you do not know."
Most modern historians do not use the term "dark ages", preferring terms like the Early Middle Ages. But when used by some historians today, the term "Dark Ages" is meant to illustrate the economic, political, and cultural problems of the era. For others, the Dark Ages term is meant to be neutral, expressing the idea that events of that time seemed 'dark' to us because of the lack of historical records. This term is used in this sense (often in singular form) to refer to the collapse of the Bronze Age and the Dark Ages of Greece, the Cambodian dark ages (ca. 1450-1863), and also the hypothetical Dark Digital Era that would have occurred if electronic documents were produced in the current period this becomes unreadable at some point in the future. Some Byzantinis have used the term "The Age of Darkness Byzantium" to refer to the period from the early Muslim conquest to about 800, since no historical text still exists in Greek from this period, and thus the history of the Byzantine Empire and its territory conquered by Muslims not well understood and should be reconstructed from other contemporary sources, such as religious texts. The term "dark ages" is not limited to historical disciplines. Because archaeological evidence for some periods is abundant and for others less, there are also archaeological dark ages.
Since the late Middle Ages significantly overlapped with the Renaissance, the term 'Dark Ages' has become confined to different times and places in medieval Europe. So the fifth and sixth centuries in England, at the apex of the Saxon invasion, has been called the "darkest of the Dark Ages", given the society's collapse during that period and the lack of historical records. Further south and east, the same is true in the former Roman province of Dacia, where history after Roman withdrawal was not recorded for centuries as Slavs, Avar, Bulgar, and others fought for supremacy in the Danube basin, and the events still debated. However, at this time the Arab Empire is often considered to have experienced its Golden Age rather than the Dark Ages; consequently, the use of the term must also define geography. While Petrarch's concept of the Dark Ages relates to the Christian period largely after pre-Christian Rome, today this term particularly applies to cultures and periods in the most un-Christianized Europe, and thus most rarely covered by chronicles and other contemporary sources, in time is mostly written by Catholic priests.
However, from the 20th century onwards, other historians became critical even from the use of this non-judgmental term, for two main reasons. First, it is questionable whether it is possible to use the term in a neutral way: scholars may mean this, but ordinary readers may not understand it. Secondly, twentieth-century scholarship has increased the understanding of history and culture in that period, in such a way that it is no longer really 'dark' to us. To avoid the value assessment implied by expression, many historians now avoid it altogether.
Modern popular usage
The science historian David C. Lindberg criticized the public use of the 'dark ages' to describe the entire Middle Ages as "a time of ignorance, barbarism and superstition" whose "error is most often placed at the foot of the Christian church, which allegedly has placed religious authority over personal experience and activity rational ". The science historian Edward Grant writes that "If revolutionary rational thoughts are expressed in the Age of Reason, they are possible because of the medieval tradition that determines the use of reason as one of the most important human activities." Furthermore, Lindberg says that, contrary to common belief, "late medieval scholars rarely experience the coercive power of the church and will consider themselves free (especially in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they lead." Because of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire due to the Migration Period many classical Greek texts were lost there, but some of these texts survived and they were widely studied in the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate. Around the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the Middle Ages Higher more powerful monarchs emerged; The border was restored after the Viking and Magyar invasions; technological developments and agricultural innovations are being made that increase the food supply and population. And the rejuvenation of science and scholarship in the West is largely due to the new availability of Latin translation of Aristotle.
Another view of this period is reflected by a more specific idea like the nineteenth-century claim that everyone in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat. In fact, lecturers in medieval universities generally put forward the idea that the Earth is a sphere. Lindberg and Ronald Numbers wrote: "There is hardly a medieval Christian scholar who does not recognize [Earth's] unity and even knows his circumference". Other misconceptions such as: "The Church forbade autopsy and surgery during the Middle Ages", "the revival of Christianity kills ancient science", and "medieval Christian churches that suppress the growth of natural philosophy", quoted by Numbers as an example of a myth still validated as historical truth , although it is not supported by current research.
See also
- the Barbarian kingdom
- Conflict thesis and Continuity thesis
Note
External links
- "Dark Ages" in EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica Online.
- "Reject and fall the Roman myth" by Terry Jones.
- "Why the Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages".
- "Learning about the Kegel Century by Interactive Crew".
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments