Medieval

Europe
SLIDESMANIA

Reading for the gist / Reading for specific information / Fact and opinion
 The dark ages?

What do you think of when we say the

word “medieval” ?

What other words come to mind?

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Roman de la Rose, M. 948, 16th century (Morgan Library and

Museum, New York)
 01 Petrarch, an Italian poet
He referred to the period between the fall of the Roman Empire (c.
475) and his own day (c. 1330s) as the Dark Ages.

He believed that this was a period of intellectual darkness due to the

loss of classical learning, which he saw as light. Later, historians
picked up on this idea and ultimately the term Dark Ages was
transformed into Middle Ages. Broadly speaking, the Middle Ages is
the period of time in Europe between the end of antiquity in the fifth
century and the Renaissance, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
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 Practice

What is the gist (the main idea) of the

paragraph you just read?

Is the paragraph written using formal or informal

language?

What makes the difference between the two?

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 02 Not so dark after all
Characterizing the Middle Ages as a period of darkness falling between
two grater, more intellectually significant periods in history is
misleading. The Middle Ages were not a time of ignorance and
backwardness, but rather a period during which Christianity flourished in
Europe. Christianity, and specifically Catholicism in the Latin West,
brought with it new views of life and the world rejected the traditions and
learning of the ancient world.

The Roman Empire was also slowly fragmenting into many smaller
political entities. The geographical boundaries for European countries
today were established during the MIddle Ages.
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 Practice

Which sentence would you keep to summarize

the paragraph?

Make your own summary of the previous slide.

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 About society
This was a period that started the formation and
rise of universities, the establishment of the rule
of law, numerous periods of ecclesiastical reform
and the birth of the tourism industry.

Many works of medieval literature, such as the

Canterbury Tales, the Divine Comedy, and The
Song of Roland, are widely read and studied
today.
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North Transept Rose Window, c. 1235, Chartres

Cathedral, France
 Practice

What are some of the details that you can

notice in the former paragraph?

What information is relevant, and what can you get rid

of when looking at the previous paragraphs?
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 Byzantium
03
“I asked a group of friends about the word “Byzantine”, and they
struggled to give me any answers. Among the ones that were somewhat
good were the song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” sung by They Might
Be Giants (which really sucks), crusades, things that are way too difficult
to explain (like tax code or medical billing), Hagia Sophia, the poet
Yeats, mosaics, monks, and icons. Unlike Western EUrope in the Middle
ages, the Byzantine Empire is shown as something cool in movies and
books.”
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 Byzantium
03
“In the medieval West, the Roman Empire fragmented, but in the
Byzantine East, it remained a strong, centrally-focused political entity.
Byzantine emperors ruled from Constantinople, which they thought of as
the New Rome. Constantinople housed Hagia Sophia, one of the world’s
largest churches, and was a major center of artistic production. “
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 Practice

Which of the two paragraphs is informal and

which is formal?

If you were to write an essay, and you needed to use a

credible source, which one would you pick?

How do we distinguish between credible sources and

opinions?
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 Practice

When looking at the first paragraph,

Can you pinpoint the author’s mistakes?

Can you find facts and opinions in their paragraph?

Give examples of both.
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thank you!
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