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-strategic passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean
-Capital of Constantinople, which rivaled w/Baghdad as greatest eastern city in the 7th centure
-this urban culture is part of Eastern Roman Empire |
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-referring to the Islamic nations and their religion
-rivaled with byzantine empire for rule of the mediteranian trade and territory. -Capital of Baghdad. |
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-Region in Northern Italy
-known for its contribution to European wool (which was needed for Europe's booming textile industry) -Lombardy stretches across the far from Venice in the east, through Milan, to Genoa in the west.
-The region takes its name from the Lombards, the last of the German tribes to invade Italy |
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[image]
-Another Region in Northern Italy that was a huge producer of wool
-This Italian region was a center of urban activity .
It is south of Lombardy
-city of Florence= banking and industrial center
-City of Pisa= merchant city . |
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-the primary center of the European textile industry
-imported the best wool produced in northern France, England, and Spain
-exported woolen goods throughout the rest of Europe. |
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-second capital of the Roman Empire --dominated the passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, through which flowed a significant amount of the grain which fed the Mediterranean World
-in both the ancient and medieval periods. Constantinople was so important
-during the Middle Ages, that people simply called it "the city." |
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-Part of Byzantine empire, Aegean sea, and Mediteranian
-Located to the NE
-According to the traditional story, the black death (plague)was brought back from the Crimea, a peninsula which sticks out into the Black Sea, |
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-Hanseatic League of Baltic cities, was essentially economic in nature.
-This league controlled trade on and around the Baltic Sea. |
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[image]-Baghdad, the political capital of the Islamic world |
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1000 to 1300 A. D. During these three centuries, the west underwent an urban and commercial boom of major proportions.
-Ancient cities, which had shrunk or even disappeared with the fall of Rome, took on a new life.
-rome had slaves
-considerd to be an "urban culture
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way of st james,start at pink dot on left, north region of Galacia, Spain
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-northern Spain, which started as an empty field and became one of the great cities of the Middle Ages.
-became associated with a saint and therefore brought pilgrimage and growth |
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[image]
-another example of pilgramige was Canterbury in England.
-After the murder of arch bishop Thomas a Becket in the mid-twelfth century, the town became a center of pilgrimage and, as a result, grew by leaps and bounds. |
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-France county flea market where they held "Champaign fairs" to trade and sell for merchants
-located close the major cities of northern Europe
-it lay on the best overland route between Northern Italy and Flanders
- At a point where a number of great European rivers, such as the Rhine, the Loire, and the Rhone, came closest together. (Remember, given the state of the roads, the rivers remained the major arteries of medieval trade.) |
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[image]
-Lombard Street in the city of London.
-Medieval Englishmen began to call it Lombard Street because it was the place where the Italian merchants and bankers congregated.
-Their presence made it the financial center of London which it still is today.(like wall street) |
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-Holy Roman Empire wanted control over northern Italy.
-10th century German Founder Otto the Great, had extended his rule into Italy
-For the next couple centuries the HRE tried to control italy
-At the same time, the Italian cities were in the process of becoming wealthier and more powerful due to the urban boom
-by the 12th century the italian merchants DID NOT like the H.R.E. getting in their business |
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-part of Lombardy region
-Venice had continued to carry on commerce even through the midages.
-established control over the Adriatic Sea, an (arm of the Mediterranean) and built up a brisk trade with the Byzantine Empire.
-controlled eastern Mediterranean trade.
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[image]
-western Mediterranean, the cities of Genoa and Pisa were forging a dominant position comparable to that of Venice in the east. They drove the Moslems out of Sardinia and Corsica, and helped the Normans take Sicily and southern Italy.
-much of european trade flowed through these three cities (venice, Genoa, Pisa) |
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[image]
three major regions of urban boom:(Lombardy,Flanders,tuscany)
-Florence, Tuscany -prosperity based largely on the manufacture of woolen goods.
-Of all the northern Italian cities, it was Florence which ultimately became the banking capital.
-bubonic plague which ravage the city of Florence in 1348. |
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-The Hanseatic League (or, as it is also known, the Hansa) established trading settlements stretching from London in the west, all the way eastward to the city of Novgorod in Russia.
- Lombard st, London
-London is a very ancient place.
- it has few remains of earlier centuries.
-London has been particularly plagued by fire. The most disastrous occurred as recently as 1665. |
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[image]-Established around 1160, the Lombard League was an alliance of northern Italian cities led by Milan.
- Lombardy stretches across the far northern part of the Italian peninsula, from Venice in the east, through Milan, to Genoa in the west
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[image]
-Unlike the Lombard League, the other great urban organization, the Hanseatic League of Baltic cities, was essentially economic in nature.
-During the centuries of its existence, it league controlled trade on and around the Baltic Sea.
Its warships stamped out piracy while its merchant fleets sailed in large convoys.
-At one time or another, it included the seventy major cities of the region, led by Lubeck, Danzig, and Cologne. |
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-the area around the mouth of the Rhine River known, in the Middle Ages, as Flanders (and today, as the Low Countries)
- Champagne was also the point where a number of great European rivers, such as the Rhine, the Loire, and the Rhone, came closest together. |
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[image]Mediterranean Sea, which the Romans had called "Mare nostrum" (Our Sea) as the critical unifying factor within the Roman Empire.
-In Pirenne's opinion, without the Mediterranean, the Roman Empire would have been inconceivable. |
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| Authors/Directors and their Books/Movies: |
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The Decameron
-collection of short Stories of travelers fleeing from the outbreak of bubonic plague which ravage the city of Florence in 1348. |
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Canterbury Tales
collection of short stories told for entertainment by merchant travelers
-pilgrims headed to see a blessed martyr |
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-Autobiography
-Cellini was a great Renaissance artist and goldsmith, whose autobiography supplies perhaps the most enduring account of what the life of such a man was like. Cellini was also something of a sociopath whose exploits frequently brought him into conflict with the authorities. |
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Mohammed and Charlemagne
-Pirenne (20th century historian)In his book Mohammed and Charlemagne, he spelled out a position (emphasizing the importance of the mediteranian sea) which has since become known as the Pirenne Thesis. |
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Hunchback of Notre Dame
took place in a district in Paris called the Court of Miracles, run by the city's thieves and cutthroats. The so-called 'red light districts' which are found in many European cities today |
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The Black Death
observed sanitary issues leading up to the period of the black death
-The Black Death had an enormous affect on all aspects of European life - social, economic, political, and cultural. |
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"The Seventh Seal" (movie)
-provides a frightening vision of a society caught in the throes of plague. |
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| crisis arose shortly after 1150 when a strong Italian emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, tried to enforce his full power over the northern Italians. Their resistance to Frederick's manoeuvers soon led them (the Lombard League) into a war with the empire. |
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| The highest ranking victim of plague was Alfonso XI, a Spanish king who died from the Black death along with much of his army while they were besieging the Moslem stronghold of Gibraltar in 1350. |
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mid 14th century writer
from florence |
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| Roman policeman in the performance of his duties - and got away with it due to the influence of his powerful patrons, including the pope. |
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| Medieval Representative Assemblies (their country) |
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(England)
Such assemblies were established both to facilitate taxation and to help rally the population politically. The most famous of these were the English Parliament, founded in 1295
at a very early date, the English Parliament was divided into two chambers: a House of Lords, representing the church and the aristocracy, and a House of Commons, controlled by the third estate. |
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(France)
which first met in 1302
In the French Estates General, there were three chambers - one for the church, one for the aristocracy, and one for the common people. |
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| (Spain)In each of the Spanish kingdoms, there was a separate representative assembly known as a Cortes |
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(Holy Roman Empire)
Holy Roman Empire, there was one such body called the Diet. |
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| In the social hierarchy, the serf stands above the slave, but below the free man. Unlike the slave, the serf has a legal personality. In other words, the law recognizes him as a person, and not just as a piece of property. Since he is a person, he is not supposed to be bought and sold like a slave. What is more, he possesses certain rights. |
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| According to the law, a slave possesses no human personality. He is merely a piece of property, to be disposed of at the will of his owner. He may be bought, sold, moved about, even destroyed as the owner sees fit |
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free peasant
Standing above the serf on the medieval social ladder was the free peasant or villein. Generally speaking, the conditions of employment for a free peasant were considerably better than those of a serf. The free peasant could keep more of what he produced on his own plot of land, and he owed less in the way of labor services to the lord. He was a tenant farmer, who paid a fixed rent for the land he cultivate and was free to move on to greener pastures if the land or the lord did not suit him |
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| For the medieval world was composed primarily of small, self-sufficient estates, known as manors, which practiced subsistence agriculture. |
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| The word "urban" comes from a Latin word for "city." It is simply an adjective which means "of or having to do with the city." |
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| Henri Pirenne provides us with a superb example of what is called a revisionist historian. This is any historian who discards the traditional view (known as the conventional wisdom) and introduces in its place a radically new interpretation |
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| traditional view (known as the conventional wisdom) |
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It characterizes all aspects of human thought, where people rethink and replace their traditional views.
What is more, revisionism it is an ongoing process |
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| The word refers to a fortified place in which feudal lords had their headquarters. In other words, it is more or less a synonym for the more common word "castle." |
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| changing meaning of the Latin word - civitas. In Roman times, civitas had essentially the same meaning as the modern word which grew out of it - "city." In other words, it referred to a large concentration of population within a fairly confined space. On the other hand, in the early Middle Ages, the word took on the more specialized meaning of an episcopal city, in other words, one dominated by a bishop |
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| In addition to the civitas and the burg, there was that other early medieval population center around which towns and cities would eventually form - the monasteries. Here, we have yet another significant contribution which monasteries made to life in the Middle Ages - some became the nuclei of future cities. |
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| Under the Roman Empire, the legions were stationed in military camps known as castra; out of which the word 'castle' evolved |
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| Not all castles were burgs; only the more important ones apparently qualified for that distinction. |
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| fords, which were places where the river was shallow enough for people to cross without the aid of a bridge |
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| As the population expanded, new districts outside the original walls would be added; and in turn, the walls would be extended to protect them as well. These new districts became known as suburbs, from the Latin 'suburbia' which literally means "outside the city." |
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The name attached to this growing segment of the medieval population, reflects its origin. These men became known as the burghers, which literally means the men who lived in the burg. In French, this translates into bourgeoisie, a term still widely used today.
However, the word "bourgeoisie" is now used in a rather different way than it was when first created during the Middle Ages. Today, we use it primarily to refer to merchants, professionals, and owners of businesses; in other words, to what Marx would call the capitalist classes. By contrast, in the early days of the medieval city, before the stratification of urban populations, the term bourgeoisie was a cover term for artisans and laborers as well as merchants and owners. In short, it referred to that sector of the third estate which lived in cities (as distinct from the peasants who lived out on the land.)
The triumph of the bourgeoisie (old meaning) over the medieval cities which they occupied was one of the great themes of medieval history. |
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| Another important factor in the urban boom was that series of "holy wars" known as the Crusades. The Crusades had two major goals: first, to reconquer the Holy Land from the Moslems; secondly, to save the Byzantine Empire. |
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| Christian theory which declared the lending of money at interest to be a sin known as usury. |
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| A gild was an association made up of individuals, all of whom were involved in the same trade. Such an association, which was for protection and mutual advantage, controlled all aspects of their trade within the city. |
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| If the city was the residence of a bishop, this would be a cathedral. The cathedral tended to be the dominant architectural structure of the medieval town. |
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| The German invasions ended shortly after 568 when the Lombards overran Italy. |
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| For example, on a local level, a number of smaller towns might join together, and form a self-governing commune, in imitation of the process which occurred within a single larger city. In such an arrangement, each town would play the roll of a suburb in the larger city. Using its collective strength, the new commune might win its own charter of liberties from the local authorities. |
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| great urban leagues formed when a number of major cities joined together. Such leagues came into existence in many parts of Europe; however, we need only consider the two most important: the Lombard League, in northern Italy; and the Hanseatic League, in the Baltic region. |
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| a pandemic, a word referring to a particularly widespread and virulent epidemic |
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| The attempt to please God (in result to the plauges gave rise to some bizarre cults, including a group known as the flagellants. As their means of earning God's forgiveness, the flagellants, who numbered in the thousands, wandered about from city to city whipping themselves and one another. Upon entering a town, their intensity would increase, to the point that the ground where they walked would often be covered with their blood. |
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| Pogroms or massacres of Jews became all too common, despite the attempts of the papacy and many local churchmen to prevent them. |
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| 1. (True or False) The decline of Roman cities came in the west, while in the east, a healthy urban culture survived throughout the Middle Ages. |
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| Answer: True. Both the Byzantine Empire and Islamic world maintained a city culture, centered on Constantinople and Baghdad. |
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| (True or False) In the later Middle Ages, townspeople became the most numerous sector of the third estate. |
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| Answer: False. Although the population of the towns grew rapidly in the later Middle Ages, the peasants continued to make up a vast majority of the medieval third estate. |
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| - What were the three estates and what groups of the population belonged to each? |
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| The bishop spoke of the men who prayed, the men who fought, and the men who worked. These were the three great social classes of the medieval world - or, as people in that period preferred to call them, the three estates. |
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| - What was the "right of pursuit" and how did the growth of cities help offset this power held by the lords? |
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lord had what is known as the right of pursuit - the right to hunt down his runaway serf, drag him back, and punish him harshly
It helped the 3rd estate grow larger and become more self sufficient |
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| - What group made up a numerical majority of the third estate? |
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| most members of the third estate were agricultural laborers, generally referred to as peasants. The fact that peasants constituted the vast majority of the medieval population |
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| - What sector of the population grew rapidly in the later Middle Ages and took over leadership of the third estate? |
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merchants and craftsmen of the medieval world.
Throughout the troubled early centuries of the Middle Ages, when cities largely disappeared from the map of western Europe, this group formed a relatively insignificant sector of the population. However, starting around the year 1000, cities and towns began to reappear on the medieval landscape. Consequently, the urban population began to expand rapidly. Eventually, it outnumbered both the aristocracy and the clergy. What is more, like these two older elites, the townspeople achieved an importance out of all proportion to their numbers. Although they remained vastly outnumbered by the peasants, they took over the leadership of the third estate. |
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| - During what three centuries did the west undergo a major urban boom? |
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| - What great changes characterized this urban boom? |
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(1) the growth of population
(2) the return of social order
(3) the medieval revolution in agricultural technology
(4) the production of new trade goods
(5) the reestablishment of western control over the Mediterranean
(6) the Crusades
(7) the increased trade between the Christian west and the Moslem east
(8) the reestablishment of land transportation in western Europe
(9) the growth of banking and credit facilities
(10) the establishment of medieval fairs
(11) the growth of commercial law |
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| - How do "urban cultures" of the past differ from the urban culture of our own century? |
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Definition
However, the urban culture of today differs profoundly from all urban cultures of the past. To understand this key point, one must consider our own urban culture. In our society, a vast majority of the population lives in cities or towns and makes its living from non-agricultural pursuits.
As a result, the urban cultures which they produced were very different from our own. In the past, even at the height of urbanization, the majority of people continued to work the land. |
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| - Why is there this difference? |
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| The existence of such a society, where most people live and work in cities, without growing their own food, is dependent upon full scale industrialization. This industrialization, with its emphasis on machine labor, has taken place both within the city and on the farm. |
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| - Geographically speaking, where did ancient Roman culture (including its urban culture) survive the disasters of the 5th century A. D.? |
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Definition
| byzantine empire,east florence |
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| - By contrast, where did Roman culture suffer its most severe decline? |
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| west(areles)transportation shut down...overgrown cities and little populations |
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| - Why was there this unequal decline of Rome's urban culture? |
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the Byzantine Empire retained a sophisticated economy, which supported great cities. However, even in the west, there were urban pockets which survived the general collapse.
west experienced a fairly serious trade imbalance. During the early Middle Ages, it simply did not produce enough to purchase all it wanted or needed from the east. In an attempt to make up the shortfall, western merchants were forced to send to eastward those precious metals, which were already in short supply. In other words, throughout these centuries, there was a severe currency drain on western Europe. |
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| - Why did medieval men call Constantinople "the city"? |
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Definition
| because it was the most important city |
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| - What is the Pirenne Thesis? |
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Definition
| In this case, the traditional view had held that the German invasions were primarily responsible for disrupting the ancient urban culture. Pirenne "revised" this view, arguing that the spread of Islam was primarily responsible. |
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Term
| - Why did the Romans call the Mediterranean "mare nostrum"? |
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Definition
| unifying factor of the roman empire |
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Term
| - What happened to the cities in the western provinces of the Roman Empire following the fall of Rome? |
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Definition
general depopulation of the west, which seems to have begun with the Plague of the Antonines
abandonned and allowed to decay |
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| - Why was the early medieval West like an underdeveloped nation? |
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Definition
| Charlemagne, the medieval west exported agricultural goods, raw materials, and its dwindling supply of precious metals and impored the finished goods produced in the east. In other words, the west had the characteristics of what we today might call an "underdeveloped" or "third world" nation. |
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| - What products did the west trade to the East? |
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| In return, the west had some agricultural products to exchange, such as wine and olive oil. It could also send to the east raw materials, including lumber, tar, hides, furs, fish, stone, and salt. With the coming of the medieval agricultural revolution around the time of Charlemagne (c. 800 A. D.), the west also began to produce a growing surplus of grain, for which there was always a market in eastern cities. |
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| - What institution was the "best customer" for eastern imports? |
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Definition
| Throughout the centuries from the fall of Rome to the year 1000, the best customer for eastern goods was the church. |
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Term
| - What happened to western cities during the early Middle Ages? |
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Definition
| During these centuries, as the cities declined, Europe became progressively more rural and agricultural, with a largely peasant population, living on those self-sufficient units known as manors. |
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| - How does the changing meaning of the word "civitas " illustrate an important change which occurred in early medieval cities? |
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Definition
. civitas had essentially the same meaning as the modern word which grew out of it - "city." In other words, it referred to a large concentration of population within a fairly confined space. On the other hand, in the early Middle Ages, the word took on the more specialized meaning of an episcopal city, in other words, one dominated by a bishop.
This change in meaning is simply another indication that the largest centers of population, which had survived the fall of Rome, were increasingly falling under the control of the church. |
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Term
| - What were the early medieval population centers around which the prosperous cities of the later Middle Ages grew up? |
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Definition
| However, even in the west, there were urban pockets which survived the general collapse. For example, cities like Venice in northeastern Italy, and Marseilles in southern France, continued to carry on some trade and industry, even during the darkest days of the early Middle Age. And when the resurrection of urban life came later in the Middle Ages, it came (at least in part) from these surviving centers. |
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Term
| - What factors could help one of these early medieval population centers make the transition into a full-fledged city? |
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Definition
| Did the place lie at the mouth of a navigable river; or at a point where that river might be easily crossed? Did it control a natural harbor? Did it stand at an important crossroads? Was it in a position to exploit a substantial local or regional market? One or a combination of these factors might account for the successful transformation of an early medieval burg or monastery into a full-fledged city. |
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Term
| - What are several important examples of cities which were pilgrimage centers? |
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Definition
canterburry, London
Santiago de Campostela |
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| - What can you tell from the names of medieval cities? (you will be given several city names to analyze) |
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Definition
Hamburg, Magdeburg, and Merseburg. Here, the suffix "burg" clearly indicates that the city began its life as a burg.
berg means mountain; and so, any place that has this particular suffix is probably situated fairly high up or possibly has a nice mountain view.
English town contains the suffix caster or chester - for example, Lancaster or Dorchester - it is a good bet that it stands on the site of one of these ancient Roman camps. The same is true of a Spanish town containing castro; or a French town with castre.
Other towns grew up at fords, which were places where the river was shallow enough for people to cross without the aid of a bridge. For example, the city in which England's other great medieval university was located - Oxford - took its name from the fact that it was a place where oxen could ford the River Thames (the major English river which farther along passes through the city of London and on to the sea.) An equivalent case from Germany is the city of Frankfurt. In German, the suffix 'furt' does not have the English meaning of a defensive position [fort] but instead, refers to a place to cross a river [ford].
Another group of town names indicate a port or harbor location. In England, such places might contain "port" or "haven" [a synonym for harbor] in their name, like Portchester or New Haven. In France, there is Le Hauvre; in Germany, Bremerhaven; and, in Holland, the Hague. In some cases, names may tell us several things about a place. For example, "Portsmouth" tells us that it was a harbor near the mouth of a river. In a similar manner, "Portchester" indicates that the place was a port established on site where a Roman legion was once established.
Other names show an ecclesiastical origin: for example, the German town of Bischofshausen which translates literally as "the bishop's house"; or the French town of Pont l'Eveque meaning "Bishop's Bridge". Some names are rather more obscure. In England, the town of Bury St. Edmunds took its name from the fact that it was a burg [bury is an English form of this word] established around the monastery of St. Edmunds. |
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| - How did the term "bourgeoisie" change its meaning over the centuries? |
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Definition
The name attached to this growing segment of the medieval population, reflects its origin. These men became known as the burghers, which literally means the men who lived in the burg. In French, this translates into bourgeoisie, a term still widely used today.
However, the word "bourgeoisie" is now used in a rather different way than it was when first created during the Middle Ages. Today, we use it primarily to refer to merchants, professionals, and owners of businesses; in other words, to what Marx would call the capitalist classes. By contrast, in the early days of the medieval city, before the stratification of urban populations, the term bourgeoisie was a cover term for artisans and laborers as well as merchants and owners. In short, it referred to that sector of the third estate which lived in cities (as distinct from the peasants who lived out on the land.)
The triumph of the bourgeoisie (old meaning) over the medieval cities which they occupied was one of the great themes of medieval history. |
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Term
| - What factors helped bring about an urban boom? |
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Definition
1) the growth of population
(2) the return of social order
(3) the medieval revolution in agricultural technology
(4) the production of new trade goods
(5) the reestablishment of western control over the Mediterranean
(6) the Crusades
(7) the increased trade between the Christian west and the Moslem east
(8) the reestablishment of land transportation in western Europe
(9) the growth of banking and credit facilities
(10) the establishment of medieval fairs
(11) the growth of commercial law |
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Term
| - What was the technological and agricultural revolution of the Early Middle Ages and how did it promote city growth? |
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Definition
| With the coming of the medieval agricultural revolution around the time of Charlemagne (c. 800 A. D.), the west also began to produce a growing surplus of grain, for which there was always a market in eastern cities. |
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Term
| - How did the urban boom dramatically alter the pattern of trade between East and West? |
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Definition
| However, as cities again grew up in the west, and commerce once more got underway, this pattern of trade altered dramatically. Using the products of eastern industry as their models, western craftsmen began to produce more and more of what had formerly been imported. As the Middle Ages wore on, the list of western products grew by leaps and bounds: textiles, tapestries, rugs, furniture, enamels, glassware. In fact, during the medieval urban boom, western products, made by western artisans, came to equal and even surpass the eastern originals. |
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Term
| - What was the basic raw material of the medieval textile industry? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What northern Italian cities helped restore western control of the Mediterranean? |
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Definition
| Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. As a result of their having driven out the Moslems and pirates, much of Europe's trade with the east flowed through these three cities. |
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Term
| - In what way were the Crusades a failure and in what way a success? |
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Definition
| The Crusades had two major goals: first, to reconquer the Holy Land from the Moslems; secondly, to save the Byzantine Empire. Judged solely on the basis of these goals, the Crusades constituted a spectacular failure. However, if we judge them for their promotion of east-west contacts, including commercial contacts, then they were an unqualified success. |
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Term
| - How did Italian cities benefit from the Crusades? |
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Definition
| As already noted, much of this trade passed through the Italian cities, which had moved quickly to take advantage of the Crusades. In an economic sense, they reaped the major profit from these holy wars. They played a key role in helping to transport and supply the crusaders. For example, in 1099, the first crusade reached Jerusalem without the supplies or machinery necessary to besiege the city. Only the arrival of Genoese galleys at the nearby port of Jaffa saved the day. They sold the crusaders the much needed supplies which made it possible to conquer the Holy City. |
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Term
| - In what different ways did the Crusades promote east-west trade? |
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Definition
| In return for such help, Italian merchants demanded and received important trading concessions. A quarter of each conquered city was turned over to one or another of them. In this sector of the city, which they ruled, they could set up docks, markets, and all the facilities necessary to conduct trade. The two cities which got the biggest share of this eastern trade were Venice and Genoa; and their bitter commercial rivalry dates to the period of the Crusades. |
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Term
| - To what extent did overland travel in the west improve? |
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Definition
Rome's superb road system had been allowed to deteriorate, making land travel nearly impossible. However, as the Middle Ages went on, the road system did improve.
This is not to say that medieval roads ever equalled those built by the Romans. In fact, not until the nineteenth century would European roads surpass those which had existed during the Pax Romana |
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Term
| - Who were the original western bankers? |
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Definition
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Term
| - Who replaced them in this role? |
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Definition
northern italy.
For one thing, they lived in the major commercial and industrial center of the Middle Ages. Their participation in trade and manufacture meant that they had plenty of capital for banking activities. |
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Term
| - What was usury and how did its altered definition help Christians enter the banking business? |
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Definition
| jews didn't have the same veiws on usury therefore they lent the "sin money" |
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Term
| - What was the Medici Bank? |
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Definition
| Of all the northern Italian cities, it was Florence which ultimately became the banking capital. The most famous Florentine bank was the Medici Bank, which rose to prominence in the fourteenth century, and continued to dominate the financial world for nearly 200 years. The Medici family which founded it became one of the most famous families of the Italian Renaissance, far more important than the Rothschilds or Rockefellers of the modern world. |
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Term
| - What were the Champagne Fairs and what factors promoted their growth? |
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Definition
First of all, Champagne was located close the major cities of northern Europe. Secondly, it lay on the best overland route between Northern Italy and Flanders, the two most important commercial regions of Europe. Champagne was also the point where a number of great European rivers, such as the Rhine, the Loire, and the Rhone, came closest together. (Remember, given the state of the roads, the rivers remained the major arteries of medieval trade.)
Finally, I should mention the Counts of Champagne who played an important role in making the fairs a success. Instead of opposing the growth of commercial activity as so many medieval aristocrats did, the counts promoted the new economic forces. They backed the development of the fairs; and, as a result, they became very rich nobles. |
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Term
| - How were the Counts of Champagne different from most medieval aristocrats? |
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Definition
| Counts of Champagne who played an important role in making the fairs a success. Instead of opposing the growth of commercial activity as so many medieval aristocrats did, the counts promoted the new economic forces. They backed the development of the fairs; and, as a result, they became very rich nobles. |
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Term
| - Why did commercial law grow up and why did it have to be more stream-lined than other forms of medieval law? |
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Definition
| The Middle Ages called this Ius Mercatorum or the Law of the Merchant. It dealt with commercial matters and by comparison with other forms of medieval law, it was highly streamlined. It had to be streamlined to regulate the affairs of merchants, who were often here today and gone tomorrow! The ius mercatorum started as an unwritten code, enforced by the merchants themselves. Eventually, however, it found its way into the written law codes of emerging European nations. |
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Term
| - What was Lombard Street and how did it get its name? |
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Definition
| In other words, people of other countries began referring to all Italians as Lombards. The most famous illustration of this is Lombard Street in the city of London. Medieval Englishmen began to call it Lombard Street because it was the place where the Italian merchants and bankers congregated. Their presence made it the financial center of London which it still is today. |
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Term
| - What made northern Italy one of the principal centers of trade and manufacture? |
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Definition
| urban tradition dating back to Rome. Even when most of the cities of western Europe had collapsed, some of the cities of northern Italy, such as Venice, had held on. This was due largely to their second major advantage - their location. Generally speaking, the Italian cities were better situated than any others in the west to carry on trade with the much more developed eastern Mediterranean world. As a result, throughout the Middle Ages, northern Italy was one of the most progressive regions of western Europe. Many of the ideas as well as the products of the east, reached the west through Italy. |
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Term
| - What made Flanders another principal center of trade and manufacture? |
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Definition
| The other major center of the urban boom was Flanders, a medieval name for the Low Countries, located near the mouth of Europe's greatest river, the Rhine. Flanders, which became the primary center of the European textile industry, imported the best wool produced in northern France, England, and Spain; and then exported woolen goods throughout the rest of Europe. |
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Term
| - What sector of the third estate generated a significant literature? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What was the medieval city like? |
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Definition
| smelly, violent, populated with,merchants and artisans |
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Term
| - Why is it sometimes said that the first thing one noticed about a medieval city was its smell? |
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Definition
sewage issuesHowever, it does make an important point. The In a medieval city, the systems for dealing with sewage and garbage were at best, primitive, and at worst non-existent. Refuse was often thrown out into the streets where it was left for the rain or the many animals which roamed a medieval city - such as pigs and dogs - to clean it up.
However, even the pigs could not eat everything; and animals left a pollution of their own. So added to human refuse was a large amount of animal manure. The problem of animal droppings has remained with us until relatively recent times - even after systems were put in place to handle human sewage and garbage. It is worth noting that at the beginning of the twentieth century, promoters of the automobile saw it as a means of getting rid of pollution, by which they meant the pollution produced by animals, still a serious problem at the turn of the century.
Under the circumstances, during a long period of drought, one of these medieval cities could become quite "high-smelling!" |
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Term
| - What were the major buildings in the town? |
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Definition
| cathedral; town hall; gild halls) |
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Term
| - What was the lifestyle of a medieval townsperson? (There will be a number of true-or-false questions concerning this.) |
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Definition
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Term
| - What was the main purpose of the street which ran around the town just inside the walls? |
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Definition
| In addition, one other critical thoroughfare ran around the town just inside the walls. This road was designed to give quick access to any part of the wall in times of attack, and there were regulations blocking it in any way. Regulations keeping this road open for easy passage were among the earliest urban zoning laws. |
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Term
| - What were the earliest urban zoning laws? |
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Definition
| Regulations keeping this road open for easy passage were among the earliest urban zoning laws. |
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Term
| - What were the major problems and dangers of a medieval city? |
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Definition
| no lighting, muddy unfinished pavement |
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Term
| - In what way were the canals of Venice a "good news-bad news" situation? |
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Definition
| The good news had to do with the city's canals, which provided not only throughout the city transportation, but also a superlative sewer system which was flushed periodically by the high tides. The bad news had to do with the city's never-ending battle against flooding, and sinking. For despite the constant efforts of her inhabitants, Venice has threatening for centuries to sink into the Adriatic Sea. |
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Term
| - How was the city of Rome fortunate in regards to its sewage problem? |
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Definition
| A few cities were lucky because their old Roman sewers were still workable. Here, the prime example was Rome with its cloaca maxima, part of which still functions today. |
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Term
| - How does The Decameron by Boccaccio illustrates the typical reaction of the upper classes to the outbreak of disease in the city? |
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Definition
| fleed because they could afford to do so |
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Term
| - What was the "Court of Miracles" and what aspect of urban life does it illustrate? |
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Definition
| district in Paris called the Court of Miracles, run by the city's thieves and cutthroats. The so-called 'red light districts' which are found in many European cities today or the American 'combat zones are descendants of the medieval tendency to centralize and cordon off urban vice. |
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Term
| - What kinds of violence occurred in the medieval city? |
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Definition
| The activities of criminals constituted only one part of the overall urban violence. Within the walls of a medieval city, non-criminal elements often fought with one another. The bourgeoisie ofteh clashed with the churchmen or feudal lords who had once dominated their town. The great families of the town fought each other. The merchants clashed with the artisans. The major gilds fought with the minor gilds. University students fought with just about everybody, but particularly with the apprentices. In short, a medieval city could be a very violent place. |
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Term
| - What was the state of medieval police and fire departments? |
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Definition
| For while police forces of the past were highly inadequate, fire departments were virtually non-existent. |
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Term
| - How does Cellini's Autobiography illustrate the dangers of being a policeman? |
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Definition
| On one such occasion, he murdered a Roman policeman in the performance of his duties - and got away with it due to the influence of his powerful patrons, including the pope. This and other sources clearly demonstrate that during the Middle Ages, "a policeman's lot was not a happy one!" |
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Term
| - In what part of the city was the life of medieval townspeople centered? |
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Definition
| center of town/ plaza...where all the roads led |
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Term
| - Why was fire such a danger? |
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Definition
no technology to stop it
agriculture and famine |
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Term
| - What was the major means of putting it out? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What was the most famous example of a "fire prone" city? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What were the two forms of medieval gilds? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What were the functions of a gild? |
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Definition
part of whose function was to make the transportation of goods a safer undertaking.
it regulated the town market for the benefit of local producers.
limit the number of people engaged in a craft, in order to be certain that there was always enough work to go around.
equalize gild members, by dividing the work between them, and by being certain that no one member achieved a competitive advantage over the others. |
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Term
| - What were the three levels through which a member of the gild passsed (apprentice, journeyman, master) and what characterized each one? |
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Definition
| apprentice, journeyman, and master craftsman |
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Term
| - What is the meaning of the expression "to become one's own master"? |
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Definition
| The master craftsman was the person who owned his own shop; and it was primarily these masters who ran the gild. In the early days, journeymen had a voice; however, as the Middle Ages progressed, their voice in gild affairs almost disappeared. Consequently, it was increasingly the goal of every journeyman to save enough to set up his own shop; or, in the tradition phrase, "to become his own master!" |
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Term
| - What were the "liberties of a city" contained in a town charter? |
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Definition
freedom of movement
freedom from the manorial obligations
freedom to engage in trade and industry
freedom to marry without the interference of a lord
right to be tried by the city's own courts |
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Term
| - What was meant by the expression "town air is free air"? |
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Definition
| This meant that anybody, including a serf, who took residence in a town and managed to remain there for a specified period of time would become a freeman, no longer subject to his former master |
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Term
| - What is meant by the expression "a year and a day"? |
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Definition
| 366 days is The amount of time commonly specified by custom or in a town charter was a year and a day. In other words, if Andrew, serf to Lord Robert, could escape from the manor and hide out in a town for 366 days, he would become free; and Lord Robert would no longer have any right to drag him back to the manor. |
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Term
| - How could competition between cities get out of hand? (Consider the examples of Beauvais and Pisa) |
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Definition
| In general, medieval cities were extremely self-centered in their outlook. They carried on a brisk rivalry in trade, industry, and even in civic improvement. For example, if one city put up a larger cathedral or city hall, its neighbor might try to go it one better. Some medieval cities, inspired by this competetive urge, actually started buildings on such a grand scale, that they were unable to complete them. |
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Term
| - What are some examples of cooperation rather than competition among the cities? |
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Definition
| Nevertheless, despite this prevalent inter-city rivalry, at times, the cities did get together and cooperate. They banded together to win rights, secure protection, or insure profits. |
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Term
| - What types of collective political action did cities undertake during the Middle Ages? |
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Definition
| In addition to the leagues, the cities of Europe had another important focal point for united action. Starting as early as the eleventh century, European monarchs began to establish representative assemblies within the territories they ruled. Such assemblies were established both to facilitate taxation and to help rally the population politically. The most famous of these were the English Parliament, founded in 1295, and the Estates General of France, which first met in 1302. |
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Term
| - What types of collective political action did cities undertake during the Middle Ages? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What were the Lombard and Hanseatic Leagues and why were they founded? |
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Definition
With the help of the church, which also opposed imperial control of Italy, the league continued its fight for over a decade. At last, in 1176, the cities won the decisive battle of Legnano, which broke the hold of the emperors on northern Italy. Although theoretically, this region remained part of the Holy Roman Empire, in fact, the Italian cities were free to go their own way. Their virtual independence of outside control became the key political factor which made possible the Italian Renaissance.
Unlike the Lombard League, the other great urban organization, the Hanseatic League of Baltic cities, was essentially economic in nature. During the several centuries of its existence, it league controlled trade on and around the Baltic Sea. Its warships stamped out piracy while its merchant fleets sailed in large convoys. At one time or another, it included the seventy major cities of the region, led by Lubeck, Danzig, and Cologne. The Hanseatic League (or, as it is also known, the Hansa) established trading settlements stretching from London in the west, all the way eastward to the city of Novgorod in Russia. At the height of its power, the organization was strong enough to stand up against the nations of the period. On one occasion, it fought a successful war against Denmark; on another, it forced England to back down. |
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Term
| - What were the medieval representative assemblies and what role did the cities play in them? |
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Definition
ish representative assemblies within the territories they ruled. Such assemblies were established both to facilitate taxation and to help rally the population politically. The most famous of these were the English Parliament, founded in 1295, and the Estates General of France, which first met in 1302. In each of the Spanish kingdoms, there was a separate representative assembly known as a Cortes while in the Holy Roman Empire, there was one such body called the Diet.
Each of the medieval representative assmeblies was controlled by the traditional elites - the clergy and the aristocracy. Nevertheless, in all of them, some some provision was made for representation by the third estate. |
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Term
| - What were the reasons for the decline of the urban boom? |
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Definition
| Despite the presence of over-population, climate change, famine, and war, by far and away the most spectacular factor in halting Europe's urban boom was one of the greatest natural disasters in all of history: the Black Death. |
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Term
| - When did this decline occur? |
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Definition
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Term
| - What was the "little ice age"? |
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Definition
| l "the Little Ice-Age." Starting around 1300, temperatures began to fall. The drop was not enough to cause a full-fledged ice age of the sort which ended some 11,000 years ago. On the other hand, it was severe enough to start Europe's glaciers moving forward once again. As part of this little ice age, the growing season shortened and crop failures became increasingly common. An expanding population coupled with a fall in agricultural production led to famine. |
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Term
| - What was the Black Death? |
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Definition
The Black Death is the name given the great outbreak of plague, which, starting around the mid-fourteenth century, devastated the populations of Asia, North Africa, and Europe.
Its portrayal as an exclusively European phenomenon is simply the result of culturally biased history. Actually, the epidemic began in the Orient, and only reached Europe more than a decade later. On its way westward, it attacked India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt and southern Russia. Only afterwards did it reach Western Europe. As a result, the plague killed millions before it took its first European victim.
In fact, the very extent of this mid-fourteenth century outbreak of plague entitles it to be called by a special name - a pandemic, a word referring to a particularly widespread and virulent epidemic. Since the fourteenth century was not a period when good records were kept, there is no way that we shall ever know just how many people the plague killed. Most historians estimate that during the four years from 1347 to 1350, when the plague was at its height, it wiped out between a quarter and a third of the entire European population; and some historians set the figure as high as one half. This, of course, does not include the millions who died before the plague ever reached Europe.
The staggering virulence of plague in Europe was almost certainly promoted by the over-population and famine which preceded its coming.
In nature, plague is caused by a bacillus known as Pasteurella pestis, which makes its home either in the bloodstream of a warm-blooded animal or in the stomach of a flea. During the Middle Ages, the major carrier of the bacterium was a tough, migratory rodent, known as rattus rattus, or the black rat. |
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Term
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Definition
| In nature, plague is caused by a bacillus known as Pasteurella pestis, which makes its home either in the bloodstream of a warm-blooded animal or in the stomach of a flea. During the Middle Ages, the major carrier of the bacterium was a tough, migratory rodent, known as rattus rattus, or the black rat. The vagabond habits of this animal, and in particular its presence aboard ships, helped make possible the spread of plague over wide areas. |
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Term
| - What are the two forms of plague? |
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Definition
Actually, there are several varieties of the disease, the most common of which is called bubonic plague. In this form, the disease is transmitted from one infected animal to a healthy animal or to a human, courtesy of the flea. The fleas bites the infected animal, then jumps onto the uninfected one, whom he subsequently infects with a bite.
An even more dangerous form of plague, known as pneumonic, occurs when levels of the disease reach a certain level and the bacillus partially mutates. As a result of this mutation, pneumonic plague can be transmitted directly from person to person, by breath or sputum. The Black Death of the fourteenth century combined both forms. |
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Term
| - Why is the plague usually considered to be history's greatest natural disaster? |
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Definition
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Term
| - How did medieval people explain the Black Death? |
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Definition
| gods way of punishing them. cults roxe |
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Term
| - How might one describe the fourteenth century? |
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Definition
| depression and devestation |
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