PAMANA NG PANAHONG MEDYEBAL (MEDIEVAL)

The Middle Ages, the medieval period of European history between the fall of
the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance, are sometimes referred to
as the "Dark Ages."1

People use the phrase “Middle Ages” to describe Europe between the fall
of Rome in 476 CE and the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century.
Many scholars call the era the “medieval period” instead; “Middle Ages,” they
say, incorrectly implies that the period is an insignificant blip sandwiched
between two much more important epochs. 2

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

To show devotion to the Church, people build grand cathedrals and other
ecclesiastical structures such as monasteries. Cathedrals were the largest
buildings in medieval Europe, and they could be found at the center of towns
and cities across the continent.

Between the 10th and 13th centuries, most European cathedrals were built
in the Romanesque style. Romanesque cathedrals are solid and substantial: They
have rounded masonry arches and barrel vaults supporting the roof, thick stone

1
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages
2
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/middle-ages
walls and few windows. (Examples of Romanesque architecture include the
Porto Cathedral in Portugal and the Speyer Cathedral in present -day Germany.)

Around 1200, church builders began to embrace a new architectural style,

known as the Gothic. Gothic structures, such as the Abbey Church of Saint -Denis
in France and the rebuilt Canterbury Cathedral in England, have huge stained -
glass windows, pointed vaults and arches (a technology developed in the Islamic
world), and spires and flying buttresses. In contrast to heavy Romanesque
buildings, Gothic architecture seems to be almost weightless. Medieval religious
art took other forms as well. Frescoes and mosaics decorated church interiors,
and artists painted devotional images of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and the saints.

Also, before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, even
books were works of art. Craftsmen in monasteries (and later in universities)
created illuminated manuscripts: handmade sacred and secular books with
colored illustrations, gold and silver lettering and other adornments. Convents
were one of the few places women could receive a higher education, and nuns
wrote, translated, and illuminated manuscripts as well. In the 12th century,
urban booksellers began to market smaller illuminated manuscripts, like books
of hours, psalters and other prayer books, to wealthy individuals. 3

LITERATURE

3
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/middle-ages
The individual literary masterpieces and traditions of writing that continue to define
Western literature emerged during the Middle Ages. Medieval literature is dominated
by two concerns: the demands of religious faith and the appropriate use of physical
force.

Medieval literature for the most part expresses the values of the most powerful
members of society, the aristocracy, who achieved their power through military might.
From the time of Beowulf to that of Malory’s Arthurian tales, the European nobility
and the writers they supported celebrated military values: valor, loyalty, personal
honor, and chivalry.

The most significant literary works incorporated elements and values drawn from
different and often conflicting traditions. The literature of the period makes it clear
that religious values were not universally recognized as primary and no one form of
Christianity was accepted by all.

BIRTH OF AN IDEA

The phrase “Middle Ages” tells us more about the Renaissance that
followed it than it does about the era itself. Starting around the 14th century,
European thinkers, writers and artists began to look back and celebrate the art
and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. Accordingly, they dismissed the period
after the fall of Rome as a “Middle” or even “Dark” age in which no scientific
accomplishments had been made, no great art produced, no great leaders born.
The people of the Middle Ages had squandered the advancements of their
predecessors, this argument went, and mired themselves instead in what 18th-
century English historian Edward Gibbon called “barbarism and religion.”

CLOTHING

Most people in the Middle Ages wore woollen clothing, with undergarments (if
any) made of linen.
Among the peasantry, wool was generally shorn from the sheep and spun into
the thread for the cloth by the women of the family. Dyes were common, so even the
lower class peasants frequently wore colourful clothing. Using plants, roots, lichen,
tree bark, nuts, crushed insects, molluscs and iron oxide, virtually every colour could
be achieved. Dyes came from different sources, some of them more expensive than
others. Even the humble peasant could have colourful clothing. Dyed fabric would fade
if it was not mixed with a mordant. Bolder shades required either longer dyeing times
or more expensive dyes. Fabrics of the brightest and richest colours cost more and
were therefore most often found on nobility and the very rich. Brighter colours, better
materials, and a longer jacket length were usually signs of greater wealth.
Men wore stockings (hose) and tunics. Noblemen wore tunics or jackets with
hose, leggings and breeches. The wealthy also wore furs and jewellery.
 Women wore long gowns with sleeveless tunics and wimples to cover their hair.
Sheepskin cloaks and woollen hats and mittens were worn in winter for protection
from the cold and rain. Women wore flowing gowns and elaborate headwear, ranging
from headdresses shaped like hearts or butterflies to tall steeple caps and Italian
turbans.
Throughout much of the Middle Ages and in most societies, undergarments
worn by both men and women didn't substantially change. They consisted of a shirt or
undertunic, stockings or hose, and, for men at least, underpants.
Illuminations, woodcuts, and other period artwork illustrate medieval people in bed
in different attire; some are unclothed, but just as many are wearing simple gowns or
shirts, some with sleeves. We have virtually no documentation regarding what people
wore to bed, but from these images it is clear that that those who wore night dress
would have been clad in an under-tunic, possibly the same one they had worn during
the day.
Leather boots were covered with wooden patens to keep the feet dry. Outer
clothes were almost never laundered, but the linen underwear was regularly washed.
The smell of wood smoke that permeated the clothing seemed to act as a deodorant.
Clothing of the aristocracy and wealthy merchants tended to be elaborate and
changed according to the dictates of fashion.
Fur was often used to line the garments of the wealthy. Jewellery was lavish,
much of it imported. Gem cutting had not been invented until the fifteenth century, so
most stones were not lustrous. Ring brooches were the most popular item from the
twelfth century on. Diamonds became popular in Europe in the fourteenth century. By
the mid-fourteenth century there were laws to control who wore what jewellery.
Knights were not permitted to wear rings.
Sometimes clothes were garnished with silver, but only the wealthy could wear
such items.