Term
| What effect did the Dark Ages have on European urbanization (what happened then to Roman towns and cities)? |
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Definition
invading germanic tribes brought with them a much lower material culture, this coupled with declining climatic conditions that diminished agricultural productivity and substantial losses in population due to famine and disease which led to the deterioration of urban living as Romans had know it.
some towns disappeared while others became shadows of their former selves. As cities declined, life all over europe was reduced to a more rudimentary level where people lived self-sufficiently on the land with few social, economic, and political relationships. |
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Term
| How large were medieval towns and cities? |
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Definition
| the vast majority remained relatively small, with the very largest population of 50,000 to 100,000. |
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Term
| What was the major function of medieval towns; how were they different and separate from the rest of European society (the countryside); how can the city walls and gates be seen as symbolic of this difference? |
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Definition
the primary function was commerce and trade. urbanized communities f merchants and craftsmen fueled a growing local market that held a degree of autonomy that separated them from the feudal countryside.
walls separated the town politically, economically and socially from the surrounding countryside, which lived under a different set of rules.
the wall was a symbol of a town's individual identity and independence |
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Term
| What do we mean when we refer to the layout of most medieval towns as “organic”; were there exceptions to this organic layout? |
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Definition
| they grew without the constraints of Roman foundations, and developed naturally and chaotically around defensive strong points or religious sites, or from large agricultural villages. Exceptions were the towns built upon the constraints of Roman foundations, as well as carefully planned towns with rectilinear layouts that were "planted" in open country (e.g. aigues-mortes) |
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Term
| What were the major built environment features of European medieval towns (i.e., site, walls, markets, churches, streets, extramural zone, etc.)? |
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Definition
| site: upon a river meander, curtain wall/gates and a citadel, a market square as a public foci, churches and perhaps a cathedra, and extramural zones |
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Term
| What powerful organizations came to control the trade and production activities of medieval towns? |
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Definition
guilds
Italian trading towns and Flemish cloth towns |
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Term
| How important was the church? |
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Definition
| it was the most important institution in the medieval world |
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Term
| Why were ‘towers’ such a distinctive feature of Italian towns? |
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Definition
-because italian town halls were usually built with defensive needs in mind
-nobility settled in italian towns, competed with each other for control of town affairs |
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Term
| What were densities like in medieval towns; how did this differ from later eras, and why? |
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Definition
high density along streets, but contained lots of open space and were generally not very crowded
as growth continued, interior space began to disappear, resulting in congestion and increased exposure to infection and disease. |
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Term
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Definition
| period of urban decline, 4th-9th Century AD |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
competed with one another for control of the trade in hightly valued spices, oriental silks, perfumes, ivory, and other luxuries that could be obtained from Byzantium, the Islamic Near East, and even India and China.
Most important were Venice, Genoa, and Pisa |
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Term
| the hanseatic league (hansa) |
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Definition
confederation of north German trading cities that sought to protect shipments and create favored privileges and monopolies over the northern European trade in goods such as grain, timber, herring, furs, honey, copper, and iron.
at its height in 14th C. there consisted about 100 towns |
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Term
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Definition
| confining elements for towns, all had them |
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Term
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Definition
| key places where towns people and outsiders of all kinds met and where interactions between them were controlled by customs and tolls |
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Term
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Definition
| the focal point of a town |
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Term
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Definition
| lavishly constructed, usually fronted on the market square |
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Term
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Definition
| usually located as close to the marketplace as possible |
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Term
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Definition
areas outside the walls
everything that didn’t go on inside the town → public execution, cattle slaughtering, lepers, convents |
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Term
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Definition
| : Towns on slopes, streets and valleys followed the contours of the land, form of the town was organic, adopting town to topography |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| : exception to the organic town, founded not for commercial reasons but for military reasons, fortified towns located at the edge of political territories |
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Term
| public works (bridges, water and sewage, port facilities, weights and measures |
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Definition
| : civic center responsible for this all: bridges were important because towns were always built on rivers, needed bridge to cross it (often rented out and built upon), weights and measures → rules and punishments, measuring out cloths, counting money; water and sewage → water carriers employed, bucketed water and delivered it to residential districts; warren → quarters and streets, little travel during day because shops filled streets; North European townhouse → social integrated, people smaller, overhang kept floors from sagging; Medieval Mediterranean townhouse → focus on inner courtyard, defensive, uninviting, multiple families |
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Term
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Definition
| houses built tightly up against one another, 4 to 6 stories high |
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