Renaissance of the 12th century

The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many

changes at the outset of the High Middle Ages. It included social,
political and economic transformations, and an intellectual
revitalization of Western Europe with strong philosophical and
scientific roots. These changes paved the way for later
achievements such as the literary and artistic movement of the
Italian Renaissance in the 15th century and the scientific
developments of the 17th century.[1]

Contents
Medieval renaissances
Historiography
Translation movement
Trade and commerce
Science New technological discoveries
Technology allowed the development of Gothic
architecture
Latin literature
Roman law
Scholasticism
Arts
See also
References
Citations
Bibliography
External links

Medieval renaissances
The groundwork for the rebirth of learning was laid by the process of political consolidation and
centralization of the monarchies of Europe.[2] This process of centralization began with Charlemagne
(768–814) King of the Franks and later (800–814), Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's inclination
towards education, which led to the creation of many new churches and schools where students were
required to learn Latin and Greek, has been called the Carolingian Renaissance.

A second "renaissance" occurred during the reign of Otto I (The Great) (936–973) King of the
Saxons[3] and from 962 onwards Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Otto was successful in
unifying his kingdom and asserting his right to appoint bishops and archbishops throughout his
kingdom. Otto's assumption of this ecclesiastical power brought him into close contact with the best
educated and ablest class of men in his kingdom.[4] Because of this close contact many new reforms
were introduced in the Saxon Kingdom and in the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, Otto's reign has been
called the Ottonian Renaissance.
Therefore, the Renaissance of the 12th century has been identified as the third and final of the
medieval renaissances. Yet the renaissance of the twelfth century was far more thoroughgoing than
those renaissances that preceded in the Carolingian or in the Ottonian periods.[5] Indeed,
Charlemagne's Carolingian Renaissance was really more particular to Charlemagne himself, and was
really more of a "veneer on a changing society"[6] than a true renaissance springing up from society,
and the same might be said of the Ottonian Renaissance.

Historiography
Charles H. Haskins was the first historian to write extensively about a renaissance that ushered in the
High Middle Ages starting about 1070. In 1927, he wrote that:

[The 12th century in Europe] was in many respects an age of fresh and vigorous life. The
epoch of the Crusades, of the rise of towns, and of the earliest bureaucratic states of the
West, it saw the culmination of Romanesque art and the beginnings of Gothic; the
emergence of the vernacular literatures; the revival of the Latin classics and of Latin
poetry and Roman law; the recovery of Greek science, with its Arabic additions, and of
much of Greek philosophy; and the origin of the first European universities. The 12th
century left its signature on higher education, on the scholastic philosophy, on European
systems of law, on architecture and sculpture, on the liturgical drama, on Latin and
vernacular poetry...[7]

British art historian Kenneth Clark wrote that Western Europe's first "great age of civilisation" was
ready to begin around the year 1000. From 1100, he wrote, monumental abbeys and cathedrals were
constructed and decorated with sculptures, hangings, mosaics and works belonging to one of the
greatest epochs of art and providing stark contrast to the monotonous and cramped conditions of
ordinary living during the period. Abbot Suger of the Abbey of St. Denis is considered an influential
early patron of Gothic architecture and believed that love of beauty brought people closer to God:
"The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material". Clark calls this "the intellectual
background of all the sublime works of art of the next century and in fact has remained the basis of
our belief of the value of art until today".[8]

Translation movement
The translation of texts from other cultures, especially ancient
Greek works, was an important aspect of both this Twelfth-
Century Renaissance and the latter Renaissance (of the 15th
century), the relevant difference being that Latin scholars of this
earlier period focused almost entirely on translating and studying
Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and
mathematics, while the later Renaissance focus was on literary
and historical texts.
Al-Razi's Recueil des traités de
médecine translated by Gerard of
Trade and commerce Cremona, second half of 13th
century.
In Northern Europe, the Hanseatic League was founded in the
12th century, with the foundation of the city of Lübeck in 1158–
1159. Many northern cities of the Holy Roman Empire became Hanseatic cities, including Hamburg,
Stettin, Bremen and Rostock. Hanseatic cities outside the Holy Roman Empire were, for instance,
Bruges, London and the Polish city of Danzig (Gdańsk). In
Bergen and Novgorod the league had factories and middlemen.
In this period the Germans started colonizing Eastern Europe
beyond the Empire, into Prussia and Silesia.

The era of the Crusades brought large groups of Europeans into

contact with the technologies and luxuries of Byzantium for the
first time in many centuries. Crusaders returning to Europe
brought numerous small luxuries and souvenirs with them,
stimulating a new appetite for trade, carried out by both the
Hanseatic League/Rus via the Black Sea routes, as well as rising Main trading routes of the Hanseatic
Italian maritime powers such as Genoa and Venice. League

In the mid 13th century, the "Pax Mongolica" re-invigorated the

land-based trade routes between China and West Asia that had fallen dormant in the 9th and 10th
centuries. Following the Mongol incursion into Europe in 1241, the Pope and some European rulers
sent clerics as emissaries and/or missionaries to the Mongol court; these included William of
Rubruck, Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, Andrew of Longjumeau, Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni de
Marignolli, Giovanni di Monte Corvino, and other travelers such as Niccolò da Conti. While the
accounts of Carpini et al were written in Latin as letters to their sponsors, the account of the later
Italian traveller Marco Polo, who followed his father and uncle as far as China, was written first in
French c.1300 and later in other popular languages, making it relatively accessible to larger groups of
Europeans.

Science
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe had
entered the Middle Ages with great difficulties. Apart from depopulation
and other factors, most classical scientific treatises of classical antiquity,
written in Greek or Latin, had become unavailable or lost entirely.
Philosophical and scientific teaching of the Early Middle Ages was based
upon the few Latin translations and commentaries on ancient Greek
scientific and philosophical texts that remained in the Latin West, the
study of which remained at minimal levels. Only the Christian church
maintained copies of these written works, and they were periodically
replaced and distributed to other churches.

This scenario changed during the renaissance of the 12th century. For
several centuries, popes had been sending clerics to the various kings of
Medieval scholars sought to
Europe. Kings of Europe were typically illiterate. Literate clerics would
understand the geometric
be specialists of some subject or other, such as music, medicine or
and harmonic principles by
history etc., otherwise known as Roman cohors amicorum, the root of
which God created the
the Italian word corte 'court'. As such, these clerics would become part
universe.[9]
of a king's retinue or court, educating the king and his children, paid for
by the pope, whilst facilitating the spread of knowledge into the Middle
Ages. The church maintained classic scriptures in scrolls and books in
numerous scriptoria across Europe, thus preserving the classic knowledge and allowing access to this
important information to the European kings. In return, kings were encouraged to build monasteries
that would act as orphanages, hospitals and schools, benefiting societies and eventually smoothing
the transition from the Middle Ages.

The increased contact with the Islamic world in Muslim-dominated Iberia and Southern Italy, the
Crusades, the Reconquista, as well as increased contact with Byzantium, allowed Western Europeans
to seek and translate the works of Hellenic and Islamic philosophers and scientists, especially the
works of Aristotle. Several translations were made of Euclid but
no extensive commentary was written until the middle of the 13th
century.[10]

The development of medieval universities allowed them to aid

materially in the translation and propagation of these texts and
started a new infrastructure which was needed for scientific
communities. In fact, the European university put many of these
texts at the center of its curriculum,[11] with the result that the
"medieval university laid far greater emphasis on science than
does its modern counterpart and descendent."[12]

At the beginning of the 13th century, there were reasonably

accurate Latin translations of the main ancient Greek scientific
works. From then on, these texts were studied and elaborated,
leading to new insights into the phenomena of the universe. The
influence of this revival is evident in the scientific work of Robert
Grosseteste.[13] Miniature copying of a manuscript in
a scriptorium
Technology
During the High Middle Ages in Europe, there was increased innovation
in means of production, leading to economic growth.

Alfred Crosby described some of this technological revolution in The

Measure of Reality : Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600 and
other major historians of technology have also noted it.

The earliest written record of a windmill is from Yorkshire, England,

dated 1185.
Paper manufacture began in Spain around 1100, and from there it
spread to France and Italy during the 12th century. Detail of a portrait of Hugh
The magnetic compass aided navigation, attested in Europe in the de Provence, painted by
late 12th century. Tommaso da Modena in
The astrolabe returned to Europe via Islamic Spain. 1352
The West's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be
found on church carvings dating to around 1180.

Latin literature
The early 12th century saw a revival of the study of Latin classics, prose, and verse before and
independent of the revival of Greek philosophy in Latin translation. The Cathedral schools at
Chartres, Orleans, and Canterbury were centers of Latin literature staffed by notable scholars. John
of Salisbury, secretary at Canterbury, became the bishop of Chartres. He held Cicero in the highest
regard in philosophy, language, and the humanities. Latin humanists possessed and read virtually all
the Latin authors we have today—Ovid, Virgil, Terence, Horace, Seneca, Cicero. The exceptions were
few—Tacitus, Livy, Lucretius. In poetry, Virgil was universally admired, followed by Ovid.[14]

Like the earlier Carolingian revival, the 12th-century Latin revival would not be permanent. While
religious opposition to pagan Roman literature existed, Haskins argues that “it was not religion but
logic” in particular “Aristotle’s New Logic toward the middle of [the 12th] century [that] threw a
heavy weight on the side of dialectic ...” at the expense of the letters, literature, oratory, and poetry of
the Latin authors. The nascent universities would become Aristotelean centers displacing the Latin
humanist heritage[15] until its final revival by Petrarch in the 14th century.

Roman law
The study of the Digest was the first step to the revival of Roman legal jurisprudence and the
establishment of Roman law as the basis of civil law in continental Europe. The Bologna University
was Europe's center of legal scholarship during this period.

Scholasticism
A new method of learning called scholasticism developed in the late 12th century from the
rediscovery of the works of Aristotle; the works of medieval Muslims and Jews influenced by him,
notably Maimonides, Avicenna (see Avicennism) and Averroes (see Averroism). The great scholastic
scholars of the 13th century were Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. Those who
practiced the scholastic method defended Roman Catholic doctrines through secular study and logic.
Other notable scholastics ("schoolmen") included Roscelin and Peter Lombard. One of the main
questions during this time was the problem of the universals. Prominent non-scholastics of the time
included Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Damian, Bernard of Clairvaux, and the Victorines.[16]

Arts
The 12th-century renaissance saw a revival of interest in poetry. Writing mostly in their own native
languages, contemporary poets produced significantly more work than those of the Carolingian
Renaissance. The subject matter varied wildly across epic, lyric, and dramatic. Meter was no longer
confined to the classical forms and began to diverge into newer schemes. Additionally, the division
between religious and secular poetry became smaller.[17] In particular, the Goliards were noted for
profane parodies of religious texts.[18]

These expansions of poetic form contributed to the rise of vernacular literature, which tended to
prefer the newer rhythms and structures.[19]

See also
Continuity thesis
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages

References

Citations
1. (Bauer 2013, p. 1 – preface)
2. (Hoyt 1976, p. 329)
3. (Hoyt 1976, p. 197)
4. (Hoyt 1976, p. 198)
5. (Hoyt 1976, p. 366)
6. (Hoyt 1976, p. 164)
7. (Haskins 1927, p. viii – introduction)