Medieval culture briefly and clearly the most important things. Medieval culture - lectures on the history of the Middle Ages

6. Features of Medieval culture.

Culture of the Middle Ages.

The term "Middle" arose during the Renaissance. Time of decline. Conflicting culture.

Western European medieval culture spans more than a thousand years. The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages was caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire and the great migration of peoples. With the fall of Western Roman history, the beginning of the Western Middle Ages emerged.

Formally, the Middle Ages arose from the collision of Roman history and barbarian history (Germanic beginning). Christianity became the spiritual basis. Medieval culture- the result of a complex contradictory principle of barbarian peoples.

INTRODUCTION

The Middle Ages (Middle Ages) - the era of dominance in Western and Central Europe of the feudal economic and political system and the Christian religious worldview, which came after the collapse of antiquity. Replaced by the Renaissance. Covers the period from the 4th to the 14th centuries. In some regions it persisted even at a much later time. The Middle Ages are conventionally divided into the Early Middle Ages (IV–1st half of the 10th century), the High Middle Ages (2nd half of the 10th–13th centuries) and the Late Middle Ages (XIV–XV centuries).

The beginning of the Middle Ages is most often considered to be the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. However, some historians proposed to consider the beginning of the Middle Ages to be the Edict of Milan in 313, which meant the end of the persecution of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Christianity became the defining cultural movement for the eastern part of the Roman Empire - Byzantium, and after several centuries it began to dominate in the states of the barbarian tribes that formed on the territory of the Western Roman Empire.

There is no consensus among historians regarding the end of the Middle Ages. It was proposed to consider it as such: the fall of Constantinople (1453), the discovery of America (1492), the beginning of the Reformation (1517), the beginning of the English Revolution (1640) or the beginning of the Great French Revolution (1789).

The term “Middle Ages” (lat. medium ?vum) was first introduced by the Italian humanist Flavio Biondo in his work “Decades of History, Beginning with the Decline of the Roman Empire” (1483). Before Biondo, the dominant term for the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance was Petrarch's concept of the "Dark Ages", which in modern historiography refers to a narrower period of time.

In the narrow sense of the word, the term “Middle Ages” applies only to the Western European Middle Ages. In this case, this term implies a number of specific features of religious, economic and political life: the feudal system of land tenure (feudal landowners and semi-dependent peasants), the vassalage system (the relationship between feudal lord and vassal), the unconditional dominance of the Church in religious life, the political power of the Church (the Inquisition, church courts, the existence of feudal bishops), the ideals of monasticism and chivalry (the combination of spiritual practice of ascetic self-improvement and altruistic service to society), the flourishing of medieval architecture - Romanesque and Gothic.

Many modern states arose precisely in the Middle Ages: England, Spain, Poland, Russia, France, etc.

1. CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS - THE BASIS OF THE MEDIEVAL MENTALITY

The most important feature of medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian church. In the conditions of the general decline of culture immediately after the destruction of the Roman Empire, only the church for many centuries remained the only social institution common to all countries, tribes and states of Europe. The church was the dominant political institution, but even more significant was the influence that the church had directly on the consciousness of the population. In conditions of difficult and meager life, against the backdrop of extremely limited and most often unreliable knowledge about the world, Christianity offered people a coherent system of knowledge about the world, about its structure, about the forces and laws operating in it.

This picture of the world, which completely determined the mentality of believing villagers and city dwellers, was based mainly on images and interpretations of the Bible. Researchers note that in the Middle Ages, the starting point for explaining the world was the complete, unconditional opposition of God and nature, Heaven and Earth, soul and body.

The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.

Monasticism played a huge role in the life of society at that time: monks took upon themselves the obligations of “leaving the world,” celibacy, and renunciation of property. However, already in the 6th century, monasteries turned into strong, often very rich centers, owning movable and immovable property. Many monasteries were centers of education and culture.

However, one should not think that the formation of the Christian religion in the countries of Western Europe went smoothly, without difficulties and confrontation in the minds of people with old pagan beliefs.

The population was traditionally committed to pagan cults, and sermons and descriptions of the lives of saints were not enough to convert them to the true faith. People were converted to a new religion with the help of state power. However, long after the official recognition of a single religion, the clergy had to fight persistent remnants of paganism among the peasantry.

The Church destroyed idols, forbade worshiping gods and making sacrifices, and organizing pagan holidays and rituals. Severe punishments were threatened for those who engaged in fortune telling, divination, spells, or simply believed in them.

The formation of the process of Christianization was one of the sources of sharp clashes, since the people often associated the concepts of popular freedom with the old faith, while the connection of the Christian Church with state power and oppression appeared quite clearly.

In the minds of the masses of the rural population, regardless of belief in certain gods, attitudes of behavior remained in which people felt directly included in the cycle of natural phenomena.

The medieval European was, of course, a deeply religious person. In his mind, the world was seen as a kind of arena of confrontation between the forces of heaven and hell, good and evil. At the same time, the consciousness of people was deeply magical, everyone was absolutely confident in the possibility of miracles and perceived everything that the Bible reported literally.

In the most general terms, the world was then seen in accordance with a certain hierarchical ladder, as a symmetrical diagram, reminiscent of two pyramids folded at the base. The top of one of them, the top one, is God. Below are the tiers or levels of sacred characters: first the Apostles, those closest to God, then the figures who gradually move away from God and approach the earthly level - archangels, angels and similar heavenly beings. At some level, people are included in this hierarchy: first the pope and cardinals, then clergy of lower levels, and below them ordinary laymen. Then, even further from God and closer to the earth, animals are placed, then plants, and then the earth itself, already completely inanimate. And then there is a kind of mirror reflection of the upper, earthly and heavenly hierarchy, but again in a different dimension and with a minus sign, in a seemingly underground world, according to the increase in evil and proximity to Satan. He is placed at the top of this second, atonic pyramid, acting as a being symmetrical to God, as if repeating him with the opposite sign (reflecting like a mirror). If God is the personification of Good and Love, then Satan is his opposite, the embodiment of Evil and Hatred.

Medieval Europeans, including the highest strata of society, right up to kings and emperors, were illiterate. The level of literacy and education even of the clergy in the parishes was terribly low. Only towards the end of the 15th century did the church realize the need to have educated personnel and began to open theological seminaries, etc. The level of education of parishioners was generally minimal. The masses of the laity listened to semi-literate priests. At the same time, the Bible itself was forbidden for ordinary lay people; its texts were considered too complex and inaccessible for the direct perception of ordinary parishioners. Only clergy were allowed to interpret it. However, both their education and literacy were, as has been said, very low. Mass medieval culture is a bookless, “Do-Gutenberg” culture. She relied not on the printed word, but on oral sermons and exhortations. It existed through the consciousness of an illiterate person. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths, and magic spells.

2. EARLY MIDDLE AGES

The Early Middle Ages in Europe is the period from the end of the 4th century. until the middle of the 10th century. In general, the early Middle Ages were a time of deep decline in European civilization compared to the ancient era. This decline was expressed in the dominance of subsistence farming, in the decline of handicraft production and, accordingly, urban life, in the destruction of ancient culture under the onslaught of the unliterate pagan world. In Europe during this period, turbulent and very important processes took place, such as the barbarian invasion, which ended with the fall of the Roman Empire. Barbarians settled on the lands of the former empire, assimilated with its population, creating a new community of Western Europe.

At the same time, the new Western Europeans, as a rule, accepted Christianity, which by the end of Rome’s existence became its state religion. Christianity in its various forms replaced pagan beliefs, and this process only accelerated after the fall of the empire. This is the second most important historical process that determined the face of the early Middle Ages in Western Europe.

The third significant process was the formation of new state formations on the territory of the former Roman Empire, created by the same “barbarians”. Tribal leaders proclaimed themselves kings, dukes, counts, constantly fighting with each other and subjugating their weaker neighbors.

A characteristic feature of life in the early Middle Ages were constant wars, robberies and raids, which significantly slowed down economic and cultural development.

During the early Middle Ages, the ideological positions of feudal lords and peasants had not yet taken shape, and the peasantry, just emerging as a special class of society, was dissolved in ideological terms into broader and more uncertain layers. The bulk of the population of Europe at that time were rural residents, whose lifestyle was completely subordinated to routine, and whose horizons were extremely limited. Conservatism is an integral feature of this environment.

In the period from V to X centuries. Against the background of a general lull in construction, architecture and fine arts, two striking phenomena stand out, important for subsequent events. This is the Merovingian period (V -VIII centuries) and the "Carolingian Renaissance" (VIII - IX centuries) on the territory of the Frankish state.

2.1. Merovingian art

Merovingian art is the conventional name for the art of the Merovingian state. It was based on the traditions of late antique, Halo-Roman art, as well as the art of barbarian peoples. The architecture of the Merovingian era, although it reflected the decline of construction technology caused by the collapse of the ancient world, at the same time prepared the ground for the flourishing of pre-Romanesque architecture during the Carolingian Renaissance. In the decorative and applied arts, late antique motifs were combined with elements of the “animal style” (the “animal style” of Eurasian art dates back to the Iron Age and combines various forms of veneration of the sacred beast and stylization of the image of various animals); Particularly widespread were flat-relief stone carvings (sarcophagi), baked clay reliefs for decorating churches, and the manufacture of church utensils and weapons, richly decorated with gold and silver inserts and precious stones. Book miniatures were widespread, in which the main attention was paid to the decoration of initials and frontispieces; at the same time, figurative motifs of an ornamental and decorative nature predominated; Bright, laconic color combinations were used in the coloring.

2.2. "Carolingian Renaissance"

"Carolingian Renaissance" is the conventional name for the era of the rise of early medieval culture in the empire of Charlemagne and the kingdoms of the Carolingian dynasty. The "Carolingian Renaissance" was expressed in the organization of new schools for the training of service and administrative personnel and the clergy, the attraction of educated figures to the royal court, attention to ancient literature and secular knowledge, and the flourishing of fine arts and architecture. In Carolingian art, which adopted both late antique solemnity and Byzantine imposingness, and local barbarian traditions, the foundations of European medieval artistic culture were formed.

From literary sources we know about the intensive construction of monastic complexes, fortifications, churches and residences during this period (among the surviving buildings are the centric chapel of the imperial residence in Aachen, the chapel-rotunda of St. Michael in Fulda, the church in Corvey, 822 - 885, the gatehouse building in Lorsch, around 774). Temples and palaces were decorated with multi-colored mosaics and frescoes.

3. HIGH MIDDLE AGES

During the classical, or high, Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome difficulties and be reborn. Since the 10th century, state structures have been consolidated, which made it possible to assemble larger armies and, to some extent, stop raids and robberies. Missionaries brought Christianity to the countries of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, so that these states also entered the orbit of Western culture.

The relative stability that ensued provided the opportunity for rapid growth of cities and economies. Life began to change for the better; cities began to have their own culture and spiritual life. The church played a big role in this, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.

The economic and social rise after 1000 began with construction. As contemporaries said: “Europe has become covered with a new white dress of churches.” On the base artistic traditions Romanesque and later brilliant Gothic art arose from ancient Rome and the former barbarian tribes, and not only architecture and literature developed, but also other types of art - painting, theater, music, sculpture.

At this time, feudal relations finally took shape, and the process of personality formation was already completed (XII century). The horizons of Europeans expanded significantly due to a number of circumstances (this is the era of the Crusades beyond Western Europe: acquaintance with the life of Muslims, the East, with a higher level of development). These new impressions enriched the Europeans, their horizons expanded as a result of the merchants’ travels (Marco Polo traveled to China and upon his return wrote a book introducing Chinese life and traditions). Expanding your horizons leads to the formation of a new worldview. Thanks to new acquaintances and impressions, people began to understand that earthly life is not aimless, it has great significance, the natural world is rich, interesting, does not create anything bad, it is divine, worthy of study. Therefore, science began to develop.

3.1 Literature

Features of the literature of this time:

1) The relationship between church and secular literature is decisively changing in favor of secular literature. New class trends are being formed and flourishing: knightly and urban literature.

2) The sphere of literary use of vernacular languages has expanded: in urban literature the vernacular language is preferred, even church literature turns to vernacular languages.

3) Literature acquires absolute independence in relation to folklore.

4) Drama emerges and successfully develops.

5) The genre of heroic epic continues to develop. A number of pearls of the heroic epic emerge: “The Song of Roland”, “The Song of My Sid”, “The Song of Nebelunga”.

3.1.1. Heroic epic.

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, that is, songs about deeds and exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, traditions and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight milieu. However, very early on, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the entire society: not only the military class, but also the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants listened to them with equal enthusiasm.

Since these folk tales were originally intended for oral melodic performance by jugglers, the latter subjected them to intensive processing, which consisted of expanding the plots, cyclizing them, introducing inserted episodes, sometimes very large ones, conversational scenes, etc. As a result, short episodic songs became gradually the appearance of plot- and stylistically-organized poems is a gesture. In addition, in the process of complex development, some of these poems were noticeably influenced by church ideology and, without exception, by the influence of knightly ideology. Since chivalry had high prestige for all levels of society, the heroic epic gained wide popularity. Unlike Latin poetry, which was practically intended only for clergy, gestures were created in French and were understandable to everyone. Originating from the early Middle Ages, the heroic epic took a classical form and experienced a period of active existence in the 12th, 13th and partly 14th centuries. Its written recording dates back to the same time.

Gestures are usually divided into three cycles:

1) the cycle of Guillaume d'Orange (otherwise: the cycle of Garin de Monglane - named after Guillaume's great-grandfather);

2) the cycle of “rebel barons” (otherwise: the Doon de Mayans cycle);

3) cycle of Charlemagne, King of France. The theme of the first cycle is the selfless service of loyal vassals from the Guillaume family to the weak, hesitant, often ungrateful king, who is constantly threatened by either internal or external enemies, driven only by love for the homeland.

The theme of the second cycle is the rebellion of proud and independent barons against the unjust king, as well as the brutal feuds of the barons among themselves. Finally, in the poems of the third cycle (“Pilgrimage of Charlemagne”, “Board of the Big Legs”, etc.) the sacred struggle of the Franks against the “pagans” - Muslims is glorified and the figure of Charlemagne is glorified, appearing as the focus of virtues and the stronghold of the entire Christian world. The most remarkable poem of the royal cycle and the entire French epic is “The Song of Roland,” the recording of which dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

Features of the heroic epic:

1) The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations.

2) The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs and Christian ideals.

3) With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized and hyperbolized.

4) Bogatyrs are defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a national matter.

5) The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, and sometimes with a chivalric romance.

6) The epic was preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

3.1.2. Chivalric literature

Troubadour poetry, which emerged at the end of the 11th century, appears to have been strongly influenced by Arabic literature. In any case, the form of stanzas in the songs of the “first troubadour”, which is traditionally considered to be William IX of Aquitaine, is very similar to zajal - a new poetic form invented by the poet of Arab Spain Ibn Kuzman.

In addition, the poetry of the troubadours is famous for its sophisticated rhyming, and Arabic poetry was also distinguished by such rhyming. And the themes were in many ways common: especially popular, for example, the troubadours had the theme of “fin” amor” (ideal love), which appeared in Arab poetry back in the 10th century, and in the 11th century was developed in Arab Spain by Ibn Hazm in the famous philosophical treatise “The Necklace of the Dove”, in the chapter “On the Advantages of Chastity”: “The best thing a person can do in his love is to be chaste...”

The poetry of troubadours and the culture inherited from Ancient Rome had a significant influence: the deity Amor is very often found in the songs of South French poets, and Pyramus and Thisbe are mentioned in the song of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras.

And, of course, the poetry of the troubadours is replete with Christian motifs; William of Aquitaine addresses his later poem to God, and many songs even parody debates on religious topics: for example, the famous troubadours de Ussely argue about what is preferable, to be the husband or lover of a Lady. (Such “debates” on a variety of topics took shape in specific poetic forms - partimen and tenson.)

Thus, the poetry of the troubadours absorbed the spiritual and secular heritage of antiquity, Christian and Islamic philosophy and poetry. And the poetry of the troubadours became incredibly diverse. The word itself - troubadour (trobador) means “inventor, finder” (from “trobar” - “invent, find”). And indeed, the poets of Occitania were famous for their love of creating new poetic forms, skillful rhyming, wordplay and alliteration.

3.1.3. Urban literature of the Middle Ages

Urban literature developed simultaneously with knightly literature (from the end of the 11th century). XIII century - flourishing of urban literature. In the 13th century chivalric literature begins to decline. The consequence of this is the beginning of crisis and degradation. And urban literature, unlike knightly literature, begins an intensive search for new ideas, values, new artistic possibilities for expressing these values. Urban literature is created by citizens. And in the cities in the Middle Ages lived, first of all, artisans and traders. People of intellectual work also live and work in the city: teachers, doctors, students. Representatives of the clergy class also live in cities and serve in cathedrals and monasteries. In addition, feudal lords who were left without castles are moving to cities.

In the city, classes meet and begin to interact. Due to the fact that in the city the line between feudal lords and classes is erased, development and cultural communication take place - all this becomes more natural. Therefore, literature absorbs the rich traditions of folklore (from peasants), traditions of church books, scholarship, elements of knightly aristocratic literature, traditions of culture and art of foreign countries, which were brought by trade people and merchants. Urban literature expressed the tastes and interests of the democratic 3rd estate, to which most of the townspeople belonged. Their interests were determined in society - they did not have privileges, but the townspeople had their own independence: economic and political. secular feudal lords wanted to take over the prosperity of the city. This struggle of the townspeople for independence determined the main ideological direction of urban literature - an anti-feudal orientation. The townspeople clearly saw many of the shortcomings of the feudal lords and the inequality between classes. This is expressed in urban literature in the form of satire. The townspeople, unlike the knights, did not try to idealize the surrounding reality. On the contrary, the world as illuminated by the townspeople is presented in a grotesque and satirical form. They deliberately exaggerate the negative: stupidity, super-stupidity, greed, super-greed.

Features of urban literature:

1) Urban literature is distinguished by its attention to everyday human life, to everyday life.

2) The pathos of urban literature is didactic and satirical (in contrast to knightly literature).

3) The style is also the opposite of chivalric literature. The townspeople do not strive for decoration or elegance of works; for them the most important thing is to convey the idea, to give a demonstrative example. Therefore, townspeople use not only poetic speech, but also prose. Style: everyday details, rough details, many words and expressions of craft, folk, slang origin.

4) The townspeople began to make the first prose retellings of chivalric romances. This is where prose literature begins.

5) The type of hero is very general. This is not an individualized ordinary person. This hero is shown in struggle: a clash with priests, feudal lords, where privilege is not on his side. Cunning, resourcefulness, life experience are the traits of a hero.

6) Genre and generic composition.

All 3 types develop in urban literature.

Lyric poetry is developing, non-competitive with knightly poetry; you will not find love experiences here. The creativity of the vagants, whose demands were much higher, due to their education, nevertheless had a synthesis on urban lyrics.

In the epic genre of literature, as opposed to voluminous knightly novels, the townspeople worked in the small genre of everyday, comic stories. The reason is also that the townspeople do not have time to work on voluminous works, and what is the point of talking about the little things in life for a long time, they should be depicted in short anecdotal stories. This is what attracted people's attention

In the urban environment, the dramatic genre of literature begins to develop and flourish. The dramatic family developed along two lines:

1. Church drama.

Goes back to class literature. The formation of dramaturgy as a literary genre. Some similarity with Greek drama: in the Dionysian cult all the elements of drama were created. In the same way, all the elements of drama converged in the Christian church service: poetry, song, dialogue between the priest and parishioners, the choir; priests' disguises, synthesis of various types of art (poetry, music, painting, sculpture, pantomime). All these elements of drama were in the Christian service - the liturgy. A push was needed that would force these elements to develop intensively. This meant that the church service was conducted in an incomprehensible Latin language. Therefore, the idea arises of accompanying a church service with pantomime, scenes related to the content of the church service. Such pantomimes were performed only by priests, then these inserted scenes acquired independence and breadth, they began to be performed before and after the service, then went beyond the walls of the temple, and performances were held in the market square. And outside the temple, a word in an understandable language could sound.

2. Secular farce theater, traveling theater.

Together with secular actors, elements of secular drama, everyday life and comic scenes penetrate into church drama. This is how the first and second dramatic traditions meet.

Drama genres:

A mystery is a dramatization of a certain episode of Holy Scripture, the mysteries are anonymous ("The Game of Adam", "The Mystery of the Passion of the Lord" - depicted the suffering and death of Christ).

Miracle - an image of miracles performed by saints or the Virgin Mary. This genre can be classified as a poetic genre. “The Miracle of Theophilus” is based on the plot of the relationship between man and evil spirits.

A farce is a small poetic comic scene on an everyday theme. In the center is an amazing, absurd incident. The earliest farces date back to the 13th century. Developed until the 17th century. The farce is staged in folk theaters and squares.

Morality. The main purpose is edification, a moral lesson to the audience in the form of an allegorical action. The main characters are allegorical figures (vice, virtue, power).

Urban literature in the Middle Ages turned out to be a very rich and diverse phenomenon. This variety of genres, the development of three types of literature, the versatility of style, the richness of traditions - all this provided this class direction with great opportunities and prospects. In addition to her, history itself was revealed to the townspeople. It was in the city in the Middle Ages that commodity-money relations, new to the feudal world, began to form, which would become the basis of the future capital world. It is in the depths of the third estate that the future bourgeoisie and intelligentsia will begin to form. The townspeople feel that the future is theirs and look confidently into the future. Therefore, in the 13th century, the century of intellectual education, science, broadening of horizons, urban development, the spiritual life of citizens will begin to change significantly.

Introduction

Chapter 1. Early Middle Ages

1.1 "Culture of the Silent Majority"

1.2 The role of the church during the Early Middle Ages.

1.3 Troubadours

Chapter 2. High (classical) Middle Ages.

2.1 The emergence of “urban culture”.

2.2. Middle Ages XIV-XV centuries

Conclusion. Introduction

Culturologists call the Middle Ages a long period in the history of Western Europe between Antiquity and Modern Times. This period spans more than a millennium from the 5th to the 15th centuries.

Within a millennium, it is customary to distinguish at least three periods:

Early Middle Ages, from the beginning of the era to 900 or 1000 (until the X - XI centuries);

High (Classical) Middle Ages - from the X-XI centuries to approximately the XIV century;

Late Middle Ages, XIV-XV centuries.

Some authors, in the context of the Middle Ages, also consider the so-called transition period from the Middle Ages to the New Time (XVI-XVII centuries), however, it seems more reasonable to consider the period of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation as a separate period of history and culture, which had a great influence on the further formation of the cultural consciousness of the masses .

The folk culture of this era is a new and almost unexplored topic in science. The ideologists of feudal society managed not only to push the people away from the means of recording their thoughts and moods, but also to deprive researchers of subsequent times of the opportunity to restore the main features of their spiritual life. “The great dumb”, “the great absentee”, “people without archives and without faces” - this is how modern historians call the people in an era when direct access to the means of written recording of cultural values was closed to them.

The folk culture of the Middle Ages was unlucky in science. Usually, when they talk about it, they mention at most the remains ancient world and epic, remnants

paganism. In those relatively rare cases when a modern specialist turns to the folk religiosity of the Middle Ages, he does not find any other characteristics for it such as “naive”, “primitive”, “uncouth”, “rude”, “superficial”, “paralogical”, “childish”2 ; This is the religion of the “child people”, filled with superstitions and focused on the fabulous and fabulous.

The criteria for such value judgments are taken from the “high” religion of the enlightened and it is from their position that the consciousness and emotional life of the common people are judged, without setting themselves the task of considering it “from the inside”, guided by its own logic.

Thus, for a long time, the view of the Middle Ages as the “dark ages” dominated in historical and cultural literature. The foundations of this position were laid by the Enlightenment. However, the cultural history of Western European society was far from so clear.

1. Early Middle Ages.

1.1 "Culture of the Silent Majority»

The Early Middle Ages was a time when turbulent and very important processes took place in Europe, such as the barbarian invasion, which ended with the fall of the Roman Empire. Barbarians settled on the lands of the former empire, assimilated with its population, creating a new community of Western Europe.

The third significant process was the formation of new state entities on the territory of the former Roman Empire, created by the same “barbarians.” Tribal leaders proclaimed themselves kings, dukes, counts, constantly fighting with each other and subjugating their weaker neighbors. Characteristic feature Life in the early Middle Ages was constant wars, robberies and raids, which significantly slowed down economic and cultural development.

During the early Middle Ages, the ideological positions of feudal lords and peasants had not yet taken shape and the peasantry, which was just being born as a special class of society, was dissolved in ideological terms into broader and more uncertain layers.

The bulk of the population of Europe at that time were rural residents, whose lifestyle was completely subordinated to routine, and whose horizons were extremely limited. Conservatism is an integral feature of this environment.

The peasantry and its life are almost not reflected at all in social picture world, as it was thought at that time, and this fact in itself is very symptomatic. The society, agrarian in nature, built on the exploitation and subjugation of broad sections of the rural population, seemed to allow itself to ideologically ignore its own majority.

Paradox: ordinary people, first of all the peasantry, despised and ignored by the ruling class, at the same time, in a certain sense, dominated the spiritual life of the early Middle Ages. Rural life, with its leisurely pace and periodic change of production seasons, was the main regulator of the social rhythm of society ([1], p. 63)

The Church did not share open hostility towards the peasants. Its task was to smooth out as much as possible social conflicts and antagonisms. Addressing the powers that be, she appealed for mercy towards the oppressed and disadvantaged.

This sympathy arose largely from the social teaching of the church, which exalted poverty as an ideal condition.

True, the condemnation of wealth, so decisive in the works of the church of the 3rd-5th centuries, was somewhat muted in the literature of later times, when the church became the largest owner. The glorification of poverty runs as a leitmotif throughout everything. literary monuments Early Middle Ages.

It is necessary to note an important feature of medieval literature - in a society, the overwhelming majority of which was illiterate, writing was not

served as the defining means of human communications. Medieval society at its core was a nonliterate society. (, page 19)

Over a long historical period, the folk dialects and languages of Western Europe, being means of oral communication between people, could not master the sphere of writing - it remained entirely under the rule of Latin - a language that was inherited from the previous era of European history and was the official and professional language of the only educated and monopolizing the education of a layer of society - the clergy. To be literate meant to know Latin. Accordingly, the division of people into litterati and illiterati, established in late antiquity, was preserved as essential and significant, i.e. on educated people who know Latin, and on “idiots” - illiterate people who are content with the crude folk language given to them from birth. (, page 16)

In the V-IX centuries. all schools in Western Europe were in the hands of the church. The church drew up a curriculum and selected students. The main task was defined as the education of church ministers. In church schools, the so-called “seven” “inherited” from antiquity were taught. liberal arts": grammar, rhetoric, dialectics with elements of logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.

In addition to monastic schools, there was also a small number of so-called “external” schools, where young men were trained who were not intended for a church career. However, these were mainly children from noble families.

Level of teaching in different schools was not the same, and the level of education of people changed accordingly. After a certain rise in the 8th-9th centuries. development of mental life in the 10th and early 11th centuries. noticeably slowed down. The clergy were mostly illiterate, and ignorance was widespread. Scriptoria - workshops that existed at churches in which manuscripts were copied, as well as church and monastery libraries - fell into disrepair. There were few books and they were incredibly expensive, which closed the path to education even for children from relatively wealthy families.

During the early Middle Ages, oral poetry, especially heroic epic, actively developed, which was typical primarily for England and the countries of Scandinavia.

However, it should be emphasized once again that the medieval European, including the upper strata of society, was predominantly illiterate. The level of literacy even for priests in parishes was appallingly low.

The level of education of the laity was generally minimal. The mass of parishioners listened to illiterate priests. At the same time, the Bible itself was forbidden for ordinary lay people; its texts were considered too complex and inaccessible for the direct perception of ordinary parishioners. Only clergy were allowed to interpret it. Mass medieval culture is a bookless, “Do-Gutenberg” culture. She relied not on the printed word, but on oral sermons and exhortations. It existed through the consciousness of an illiterate person. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths and magic spells. (, p.31)

At the same time, the meaning of the word, written and especially sounded, in medieval culture was extremely great. Prayers were perceived functionally as incantations, sermons on biblical stories- as a guide to everyday life, magical formulas - as a way to solve problems. All this also shaped the medieval mentality. People are accustomed to intensely peering into the surrounding reality, perceiving it as a kind of text, a system of symbols containing a certain higher meaning. These words-symbols had to be able to recognize and extract divine meaning from them. This, in particular, explains many of the features of medieval artistic culture, designed to perceive just such a deeply religious and symbolic consciousness. Therefore, for the medieval consciousness, the medieval mentality, culture, first of all, expressed the meaning, the soul of a person, brought a person closer to God, as if transported to another world, to a space different from earthly existence. And this space looked the way it was described in the Bible, in the lives of the saints. Accordingly, the behavior of the medieval European and all his activities were determined.

1.2 The role of the church during the Early Middle Ages.

The most important feature of medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and the Christian church. In the conditions of the general decline of culture immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire, only the church for many centuries remained the only social institution, common to all countries, tribes and states of Western Europe. The church was not only the dominant political institution, but also had a dominant influence directly on the consciousness of the population. In conditions of difficult and meager life, against the backdrop of extremely limited and unreliable knowledge about the world around us, the church offered people a coherent system of knowledge about the world, its structure, and the forces operating in it. This picture of the world entirely determined the mentality of believing villagers and townspeople and was based on images and interpretations of the Bible.

The population was traditionally committed to pagan cults and sermons and descriptions of the lives of saints were not enough to convert them to the true faith. People were converted to a new religion with the help of state power. However, long after the official recognition of a single religion, the clergy had to fight persistent remnants of paganism among the peasantry.

The Church destroyed temples and idols, forbade worshiping gods and making sacrifices, and organizing pagan holidays and rituals. Severe punishments were threatened for those who engaged in fortune telling, divination, spells, or simply believed in them.

Many of the pagan customs that the church fought against were clearly of agrarian origin. Thus, the “List of Superstitions and Pagan Customs,” compiled in France in the 8th century, mentions “furrows around villages” and “an idol carried across the fields.” It was not easy to overcome adherence to this kind of rituals, so the church decided to preserve some pagan rituals, giving these actions the color of official church rituals. Thus, every year on Trinity Sunday processions of the “religious procession” were organized through the fields with prayers for the harvest, instead of the pagan “carrying of an idol.” (, page 65)

The formation of the process of Christianization was one of the sources of acute clashes, because The people often associated the concepts of popular freedom with the old faith, while the connection of the Christian Church with state power and oppression appeared quite clearly.

“The struggle against paganism was thus an integral part of the process of feudal subjugation of the peasantry.” (, page 69)

In the minds of the masses of the rural population, regardless of belief in certain gods, attitudes of behavior remained in which people felt directly included in the cycle of natural phenomena.

This constant influence of nature on man and the belief in man’s influence on the course of natural phenomena with the help of a whole system of supernatural means was a manifestation of the magical consciousness of the medieval community, an important feature of its worldview. In the minds of medieval Europeans, the world was seen as a kind of arena of confrontation between the forces of heaven and hell, good and evil. At the same time, the consciousness of people was deeply magical, everyone was absolutely confident in the possibility of miracles and perceived everything that the Bible reported in the literal sense.

In the most general terms, people saw the world in accordance with a certain hierarchical ladder, or rather, as a symmetrical diagram, reminiscent of two pyramids folded at their bases. The top of one of them is God. Below are the levels of sacred characters - Apostles, archangels, angels, etc. At some level, people are included in this hierarchy: first the pope and cardinals, then lower-level clerics, then the laity, starting with the secular authorities. Then, further from God and closer to the earth, there were animals and plants, then the earth itself, already completely inanimate. And then there was a kind of mirror reflection of the upper, earthly and heavenly hierarchy, but in a different dimension, as if with a “minus” sign, according to the growth of evil and proximity to Satan, who was the embodiment of Evil. (, page 137)

The Church zealously fought against all the remnants of paganism, while at the same time accepting them. Thus, calling all sorts of rituals, conspiracies and spells paganism, the church, nevertheless, waged a real hunt for people who supposedly had the ability to cast these conspiracies and spells. The church considered women involved in the manufacture of all kinds of potions and amulets to be especially dangerous. In the manuals for confessors, much attention was paid to “the ability of some women to fly at night at Sabbaths.” (, page 75)

Thus, the signs of early medieval culture can be considered adherence to tradition, conservatism of all social life, the dominance of stereotypes in artistic creativity, and the stability of magical thinking, which was imposed on the church.

2.2 Troubadours

Medieval people treated artists with mixed feelings of admiration and mistrust. Some suspicion was caused by the fact that the singer, the storyteller, and the street entertainer - they were all “actors,” i.e. represented in the faces of other people; They seemed to replace their characters with themselves, abandoning their own faces and putting on other people's masks. According to medieval ideas, the profession of an artist was akin to the devil - a pretender and a deceiver. Therefore, the church advised believers to stay away from artists and musicians: priests were forbidden to share meals with them, and ordinary Christians were better off watching only those theatrical performances that depicted events from the life of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God or the apostles. The church considered street singers to be people who had lost their way, and promised them eternal torment in the next world.
But the townsman, peasant and knight did not have much entertainment, so the appearance of a magician in the city square, a singer and a poet in a knight’s castle always became a holiday. The life of a medieval man followed a largely monotonous path, paved by his fathers and grandfathers; Each new face was a wonder; it became a window open to the wide world. And if the stranger knew the legends about King Arthur and his knights, about the valiant Roland and the heroes of the Crusades, the city square generously poured silver and copper coins into his cap, and the knight gave shelter at his hearth for several evenings.

Troubadours, poets who performed their poems to musical accompaniment, enjoyed particular fame. Basically, they led a wandering life, moving from the court of one noble lord to another. The heyday of the troubadour art came in Southern France in the 12th-15th centuries. The origin of the word troubadour is not connected at all with the trumpet, as you might think, but with the old French word tromb, which meant “skillful technique” and special grace. indeed, many troubadours were able to compose beautiful songs, elegant, with complex rhymes and rich wordplay. Among the troubadours there were many knights, people of noble birth; One of the best poet-knights was Duke Guillaume of Aquitaine. Poems by troubadours, glorifying the selfless service of a knight to his chosen lady, quickly became fashionable. It is not surprising that women liked them very much; noble ladies began to demand from their admirers the behavior described in the poems. The knight, who could only swing a sword, now became an object of ridicule; Ladies loved gentlemen who knew how to express their feelings in words and secret signs, who were able to understand the secrets of a woman’s heart. The poetry of the troubadours had an exceptionally great influence on the formation of a special knightly culture, which spread widely in Europe one or two centuries later.
The poetic discoveries of the troubadours were widely adopted and used by simpler singers, who performed so-called “hard” poetic stories about heroes of bygone times in city squares). The best time of the troubadours was the last quarter of the 12th and the first quarter of the 2nd century. It was a blessed time. One of the most powerful poets, Bertrand de Ventadorn, sang love as the greatest blessing of life given to people, sang of spring, nature, and the sun. He admitted in one of his canzonas: “Poetry has value for me only when it comes from the depths of the heart, but this is possible only when perfect love reigns in the heart. That is why my songs are higher than all other songs, because love fills my entire being - mouth, eyes, heart and feelings."
Bertrand de Ventadorn came from the lower classes and was raised at the court of Viscount de Ventadorn. First he sang the praises of his lord's wife, then the English Queen Eleanor, at whose court he lived for a time. Another troubadour of this period, Peyre Vidal, is known as a witty, merry fellow, a braggart, an extravagant braggart. “I alone captured a hundred knights, and took the armor from a hundred others; I made a hundred ladies cry, and left a hundred others joy and joy,” Vidal sang. His poems captivate with the ease of language, freshness of images, cheerful mischief and enthusiasm.

2. High (classical) Middle Ages.

The relative stability that ensued provided the opportunity for rapid growth of cities and economies. Life began to change for the better; cities began to have their own culture and spiritual life. A big role in this was played by the same church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.

On the basis of the artistic traditions of Ancient Rome and the former barbarian tribes, the Romanesque, and later the brilliant, arose gothic art, and not only architecture and literature developed, but also other types of art - painting, theater, music, sculpture... It was during this era that literary masterpieces, “The Song of Roland”, “The Romance of the Rose” were created.

The so-called knightly literature emerges and develops. One of the most famous works is the greatest monument of the French folk heroic epic - “The Song of Roland”. In XII, chivalric novels appear. Among the most popular was a poetic novel about the British King Arthur.

An important monument to the German folk literature XII-XIII centuries - “The Song of the Nibelungs”, which tells about the invasion of the Huns on the Kingdom of Burgundy at the beginning of the 5th century. The “Song of the Nibelungs” is based on ancient Germanic legends.

Vagantes and their poetry were a significant phenomenon in the literature of France in the 12th-13th centuries. Vagants (from the Latin vagantes - wandering) were called wandering poets. A feature of their work was the constant criticism of the Catholic Church and the clergy for greed, hypocrisy and ignorance. The Church, in turn, persecuted the vagants.

The most important monument of English Literature XIII c - the famous “Ballads of Robin Hood,” who to this day remains one of the most famous heroes of world literature.

Festive culture of the Middle Ages.

Medieval city festivals, with their colorful shows, entertainment, and masquerades, went back to pagan cults and rituals. Thus, the New Year's Roman pagan holiday of Kalends, to which the church opposed its Christmas cycle, was celebrated in Byzantium until the 13th century.

The New Year's Kalends (January 1-5) were preceded by vrumalia (November 24 to December 17), accompanied by carnival processions of mummers and dances, which initially imitated various actions during harvesting and making wine. The mummers danced wildly and sang songs that ridiculed nobles, clergy and judicial officials. From December 17 to 23, unbridled joyful Saturnalia was celebrated, with circus performances, pig sacrifices.

During the Kalends themselves, the mummers, likening the chariot to a stage, gathered a crowd of onlookers and ridiculed the highest authority. But the ministers of the Christian Church, hostile to the spiritual freedom of the people, mercilessly persecuted the free games of enslaved workers, declaring these games “the creation of the devil.” The clergy managed to prevent free development mass folk-festive creativity, especially its satirical beginning. Not enriched by civic ideas, this creativity was muted.

And still individual species entertainment continued to live, giving rise to a new type of folk spectacle - performances of histrions, who made a great contribution to the formation of the culture of Western civilization; they were called buffoons.

The heyday of histrion activity in Western Europe as a mass and popular art occurs from the 11th to the 13th centuries, i.e., it falls during the emergence of medieval cities. The Histrions were the brightest exponents of the worldly, life-loving spirit in the medieval city. In their cheerful, daring songs, in their parody skits, undertakings and masquerade performances, the spontaneous rebellion of the masses was manifested. This was especially clearly expressed in the activities of the vagrants.

Vagantes (derlei vagantes - Latin - “wandering clerics”) were either half-educated seminarians, or mischievous schoolchildren, or demoted priests. They performed mischievous Latin songs that parodied church hymns. So, instead of addressing “God Almighty,” there was an appeal to “Bacchus the All-Drinking.” Even the “Our Father” prayer was parodied.

The Histrions also organized puppet theater performances, the first mention of which dates back to the end of the 12th century.

During the early Middle Ages, trade, which had just begun to develop, was closely connected with worship. The word “mass” originally meant both mass and fair, since trade was combined with church festivities and processions. Throughout the Middle Ages, these squares housed markets, shopping arcades, stalls and booths. A fair was held here.

Starting from the 9th century, the Catholic Church, struggling with popular festivities and ritual performances, in which the free-thinking and rebelliousness of enslaved peasants were manifested, was forced to look for the most expressive and intelligible means in order to influence its dogmas on believers. Thanks to this, an active process of theatricalization of the mass begins. At the same time, many fragments of the Roman Catholic ritual already contained potential opportunities for the development of dramatic action (illumination of the church, religious procession, a number of “prophetic” texts, etc.).

2.1 The emergence of “urban culture”.

During this period, the so-called “urban literature” rapidly developed, which was characterized by a realistic depiction of the urban everyday life of various segments of the urban population, as well as the appearance of satirical works. Representatives of urban literature in Italy were Cecco Angiolieri and Guido Orlandi (late 13th century).

The development of urban literature testified to a new phenomenon in the cultural life of Western European society - urban culture, which played a very important role in the formation of Western civilization as a whole. The essence of urban culture boiled down to the constant strengthening of secular elements in all spheres of human existence.

Urban culture originated in France in the 11th-12th centuries. During this period, it was represented, in particular, by the work of “jugglers” who performed in city squares as actors, acrobats, animal trainers, musicians and singers. They performed at fairs folk holidays, weddings, christenings, etc. and enjoyed great popularity among the people.

From about the middle of the 12th century, theatrical actions moved from under the church vaults to the square and the actions were no longer performed in Latin, but in French. The actors are no longer clergymen, but townspeople; the plots of the plays become more and more secular until they turn into scenes from everyday city life, often flavored with a good dose of satire. At the same time, theatrical art was developing in England.

New and extremely important phenomenon, indicating the deepening process of development of urban culture, was the creation in cities of non-church schools - these were private schools, financially independent of the church. The teachers of these schools lived off the fees collected from the students, and anyone who could afford to pay the fees could teach their children in them. Since that time, there has been a rapid spread of literacy among the urban population.

3. Late Middle Ages.

The later Middle Ages continued the processes of formation of European culture that began during the classical period. However, their progress was far from smooth. In the XIV-XV centuries, Western Europe repeatedly experienced great famines. Numerous epidemics, especially the plague, caused innumerable human casualties. The Hundred Years' War greatly slowed down the development of culture.

During these periods, uncertainty and fear ruled the masses. Economic growth is followed by long periods of recession and stagnation. Among the masses, complexes of fear of death and the afterlife intensified, and fears of evil spirits intensified.

At the end of the Middle Ages, in the minds of the common people, Satan was transformed from, in general, not a terrible and sometimes funny devil into an omnipotent ruler of dark forces, who at the end of earthly history would act as the Antichrist.

Another cause of fear is hunger, as a consequence of low yields and several years of drought.

The sources of fears are best highlighted in the prayer of a peasant of that time: “Deliver us, Lord, from plague, famine and war.” (, page 330)

The dominance of oral culture powerfully contributed to the proliferation of superstitions, fears and collective panics.

However, in the end, the cities were revived, people who survived the pestilence and war were able to organize their lives better than in previous eras. Conditions arose for a new upsurge in spiritual life, science, philosophy, and art. This rise necessarily led to the so-called Renaissance or Renaissance.

Conclusion.

In the Middle Ages, a complex of ideas about the world, beliefs, mental attitudes and systems of behavior, which could conventionally be called “folk culture” or “folk religiosity,” was in one way or another the property of all members of society (, p. 356).

The thinking of the Middle Ages was predominantly theological.

The medieval church, wary and suspicious of the customs, faith and religious practices of the common people, was influenced by them. As an example, we can cite the sanctioning by the church of the cult of saints in its popular interpretation.

The magical approach to nature extended to Christian rituals, and belief in miracles was widespread.

The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.

European medieval society was very religious and the power of the clergy over the minds was extremely great. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences - jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The higher clergy was the only educated class, but the medieval European, including the upper strata of society, was illiterate. The level of literacy even for priests in parishes was appallingly low. Only towards the end of the 15th century the church realized the need to have educated personnel and began to open theological seminaries.

Mass medieval culture is a bookless, “Do-Gutenberg” culture. She relied not on the printed word, but on oral sermons and exhortations. It existed through the consciousness of an illiterate person. It was a culture of prayers, fairy tales, myths and magic spells.

Sermons, which represent a significant layer of medieval culture, became the “translation” of the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite into a language accessible to all people. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instill in them the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking. Special literature was created that popularly presented the fundamentals of Christian teaching, giving the flock models to follow. This literature was mainly intended for priests to use in their daily activities.

During the classical Middle Ages, urban culture emerged as a new cultural phenomenon. folk life, which played a very important role in the formation of Western civilization as a whole. The essence of urban culture boiled down to the constant strengthening of secular elements in all spheres of human existence.

The later Middle Ages continued the processes of formation of European culture that began during the classical period.

Bibliography.

1. Gurevich A.Ya. “The Medieval World: The Culture of the Silent Majority.” M., 1990

2. Gurevich A.Ya. “Problems of medieval folk culture.” M., 1981

4. Ed. Markova A.N. “Culturology”, M., 1995.

5. Ed. Radugina A.A. “Culturology”. M., 1997

6 World history. Encyclopedia volume 1 Moscow “Avanta+”, 1993. 685s.

7 Artamonov S.D. Literature of the Middle Ages: book. for students of Art. class-M, “Enlightenment”, 1992, 240 p.

European culture as such began to take shape precisely at the moment when the cultural tradition of antiquity was stopped (or?) and precisely in the same geographical region. In many ways, medieval culture was determined by the very concept of Christianity, which was a form that met the cultural and ideological needs of society. At the origins of European culture were the church fathers, who laid the foundations of Catholicism, since in the Middle Ages culture was predominantly religious. Moreover, for a long time only the clergy was the most educated layer of Europe. The Church could not go through those elements of secular education that it inherited from antiquity and without which Christianity itself, adopted from antiquity, would simply remain incomprehensible. The Bible and the works of church writers were available to the Western Middle Ages only in Latin. The first attempt to bring together all the elements of ancient knowledge, which the church considered necessary to use for its own purposes, was made back in the 5th century. African writer Marcian Capella. In his book “On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury” he gave summary those subjects that formed the basis of education in the ancient school and were known as the “seven liberal arts”, i.e. grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music. In the VI century. Boethius and Cassiodorus divided these seven arts into 2 parts - the trivium - (the crossroads of the three paths of knowledge) - grammar, rhetoric, dialectic and quadrivium - the rest. The trivium was considered the first stage of education, the quadrivium the highest. In this form, these items were included in all medieval textbooks and were preserved until the 15th century. Rhetoric was viewed by representatives of the Christian Church as a subject that teaches church eloquence, dialectics (or rather, formal logic) as a handmaiden of theology, helping to defeat heretics in disputes; arithmetic - as a subject that facilitates the religious and mystical interpretation of numbers found in the Holy Scriptures; geometry - description of the earth (“And here are the deserted deserts (in Ethiopia), and the inhuman faces of monstrous tribes. Some have no nose, the whole face is smooth and flat... Others have fused mouths, and through a small hole they suck food with an ear of oats... But the Moorish Ethiopians , have four eyes, and this is for the sake of accurate shooting." "In the Ganges there is a worm that has two claws, with which it grabs an elephant and dives with it under the water."); music was needed for church chants; astronomy made it possible to determine the dates of church holidays. According to the teachings of the church, the earth is a disk floating in water, and the sky is a vault supported by four pillars, the center of the earth is Jerusalem. The greatest attention was paid to grammar - the queen of sciences. In the images, the grammarian was shown in the form of a queen with a bunch of rods in her left hand, and with a knife for erasing texts in her right. IN medieval schools Corporal punishment flourished. A French monk wrote a grammar manual called “Watch Your Back.” The expressions “being in training” and “walking under the rod” were synonymous. The works of ancient authors studied during the trivium were cut down as the clergy considered necessary. The same was done with works for the quadrivium. Therefore, many works of ancient authors were irretrievably lost in the early Middle Ages. They could have written on them (palimpsest). In the early Middle Ages, authors appeared whose works were also later used as the basis medieval education. Master of the Office of the Ostrogothic King Severinus Boethius (480-525). His treatises on arithmetic, music, works on logic and theology, translations of Aristotle's logical works became the basis of medieval philology and education. He is sometimes called the father of scholasticism. He was accused and thrown into prison, where he wrote the treatise “Consolation of Philosophy” before his execution. Quaestor and Master of the Offices of the Ostrogothic King Flavius Cassiodorus (490-585) - wanted to create the first university, but failed. His work "Varii". On his estate he founded the monastery Vivarium = cultural center, school, scriptorium, library, which became a model for Benedictine monasteries. Visigothic Spain gave the world an educator - Isidore of Seville (570-636) - the first medieval encyclopedist. “Etymology” - 20 books, collected everything that has been preserved from antiquity. In the second half of the 7th century. the cultural life of Western Europe fell into decline, except for Ireland, where pockets of education glowed in the monasteries, from there this education went around the world - the Venerable Bede “Ecclesiastical History of the Angles”, Alcuin and others. But in the early Middle Ages, chronicles began to appear - “Getica” by Jordan, “The History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals and Sueves” by Isidore of Seville, “The History of the Lombards” by Paul the Deacon, “The History of the Franks” by Gregory of Tours. The rise of Western European culture dates back to the reign of Charlemagne, hence the name Carolingian Renaissance. Under Charlemagne, various copies of the Bible were compared and its single canonical text was established for the entire Carolingian state. The liturgy was reformed and became uniform according to the Roman model. Around 787, the “Capitulary on Sciences” appeared, according to which schools were to be created in all dioceses, at every monastery, where not only clergy, but also children of lay people studied. A reform of writing was also carried out - minuscules and majuscules. Textbooks appeared. The center of education is the court academy in Aachen. Alcuin was discharged from Britain. His most famous student is the encyclopedist Hraban the Maurus. The heyday of education did not last long. And in the 9th century. Ferrières abbot Servat Lupe († 862) wrote, “For anyone in our time to move from grammar to rhetoric, and then in order to other sciences is an unprecedented thing.”

As cities developed, they experienced an ever-increasing need for educated, especially literate, people. This need gave rise to new, non-church schools, which differed in both their program and student composition. These schools were a special phenomenon in the intellectual life of medieval society. A specific feature of the non-church school of the 12th century. was that it was a private school, i.e. a school which was not maintained by the church, and whose masters subsisted on fees collected from the students. Especially many such schools arose in Northern France. The most famous schools in the middle of the 12th century. there were the Parisian schools of Guillaume of Conches and Pierre Abelard. The grammarian and dialectician Guillaume was famous for the thoroughness of his lectures and his love for ancient authors. Being a follower of Democritus and Epicurus, Guillaume tried to explain to his students the teaching of Democritus about atoms and sought to find a natural explanation for all natural phenomena, denying supernatural explanations. Guillaume's treatises attracted the attention of the church and were condemned by it. One of the brightest representatives of urban culture was Abelard (1079-1142), who by birth belonged to the knighthood, but became first a wandering schoolboy and then a master of liberal arts. He founded one non-church school after another. Was extremely popular. But the church is not in honor because of its philosophical views. He entered into a dispute with the head of the cathedral school of Paris, Guillaume of Champeaux, on the issue of the so-called. "universals" or general concepts. The dispute revolved around the question of whether general concepts have real existence, or whether they are just simple names for a number of individual phenomena. Medieval nominalists considered general concepts - universals - words or names (nomina), arising only on the basis of reality (universalia post rem). Medieval realists viewed universals from a purely idealistic point of view, as certain things (res) existing before the real world and independently of the latter (universalia ante rem). Abelard took a position close to nominalism (conceptualist), Guillaume of Champeaux was a realist. Abelard was condemned at the Council of Sens in 1140. He himself burned one of his best treatises. His studies with Eloise led to emasculation and sending both of them to a monastery, where the brethren did not like him and intrigued against him.

In the 12th century. in the West, a higher school - a university - begins to take shape (from the Latin universitas - totality). This was the name given to associations of teachers and students. The first university in Europe was considered to be Bologna, which arose at the end of the 11th century. based on the Bolognese school, where the famous expert on Roman law Irnerius taught. Gradually, the Bologna school turned into a “general” school (stadium generale), and then into a university. The oldest uni in Europe was the uni of Salerno, which arose from the Salerno medical school (811-1811). Typical medieval university was Paris, which received the first royal charter with the legalization of its rights in 1200. The University of Paris united both students and teachers. Those who were involved in its maintenance (booksellers, scribes, messengers, pharmacists and even innkeepers) were also considered members of the university. All university teachers were united in special organizations - faculties (from Latin - facultas - ability, i.e. the ability to teach a particular subject). Subsequently, the faculty began to be understood as that department of the university in which a certain branch of knowledge was taught. The University of Paris had 4 faculties - artistic, where the seven liberal arts (septem artes liberalis) were studied (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) and 3 senior ones - medical, theological, legal, for which students were accepted only after graduating from the artistic faculty. Those. the artistic faculty provided an educational base, after which one could study further. Only those persons who had bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees could be teachers. They chose their head - the dean. Students (from the word studere - to study diligently) united into community corporations, provinces, and nations. In the Parisian uni there were 4 nations - Norman, English, Picardy, Gallic. At the head of each nation was an elected person - the procurator, and all 4 nations elected the head of the uni - the rector. The Uni was subordinate to the Chancellor of Notre Dame Cathedral and the Pope. All students and teachers were clerics, took a vow of celibacy, and wore dark dresses. True, doctors (medical doctors) were allowed to marry. The faculties differed sharply from each other in their numbers. The most numerous was the artistic department, the completion of which gave the student a Bachelor of Arts degree and the right to teach the latter outside the walls of the uni. (A degree obtained at one uni did not immediately begin to be recognized in others. The first deviation from this discrimination was made in Toulouse - the papal bull of 1233 endowed everyone who received a degree there with the right to teach everywhere. The first incidents related to with the awarding of academic degrees. Thus, the Parisian uni, which was on bad terms with the Dominican Order, refused Thomas Aquinas a doctorate for five years.) Therefore, they sought to obtain a license to teach at the uni and become a Master of Liberal Arts. The legal department was in second place in terms of number. Only one third of all those entering uni left with a bachelor's degree, and only 1/16 with a master's degree, all the rest left uni, content with the knowledge they acquired at a lower faculty. To become a bachelor, master, or doctor (the doctorate was first awarded in 1130 in Bologna), one had to give a speech and take part in a debate before worthy people who tested the candidate’s knowledge. Then there was a party to be had. "Aristotle's Feast" We studied for a long time. It was expensive. Therefore, in the letters: “I appeal to your parental soul and beg you not to leave me in a difficult situation. After all, you yourself will be pleased if I successfully complete my studies in order to return to my homeland with glory. Do not refuse to send money, as well as shoes and stockings, with the bearer of this letter.” Training - lecture, debates. During the lectures, the teacher (who came to the scholars) (the teachers’ salaries were paid by both the city and the scholars themselves) read and commented on books that were studied in a particular department. Dispute participants reached great art. Thus, Duns Scott, participating in a dispute organized by the Paris Uni, listened to 200 objections, repeated them from memory and then consistently refuted them. The topic - theses - arguments was brought up for debate. The respondent and the opponent participated. It was necessary to monitor speech and avoid indecent expressions. The entertainment was a debate about anything (disputatio de quodlibet). At the theological faculty, the main debate took place during Lent. Those who survived the Lenten debate received the title of bachelor and the right to wear the red kamilavka. At the Paris Uni, the degree of doctor (a symbol of doctoral dignity - a beret, a book, a ring) was first awarded in 1231. Study sessions were designed for an entire academic year, only from the end of the 15th century. a division into semesters appeared - a large ordinary academic period - (magnus ordinaries) - from October (St. Remy's Day - October 1 (15), or as at the Paris Uni in the three higher faculties from mid-September to Easter, with a short break for Christmas, and a small ordinary educational period (ordinarius parvas) - from Easter to July 25 (St. James). Classes began at about five in the morning and lasted four hours, then there were evening classes. The lectures were ordinary and extraordinary. The differences are based on what books were read, when and how. During ordinary lectures, listeners could not interrupt the lecturer with words or questions, but during extraordinary ones this was allowed. At Paris Uni, dictation was prohibited; it was assumed that the lecturer should present the material fluently and without a cheat sheet. If this was not observed, then a fine followed - they could be suspended from teaching for 1 year, in case of relapse - for 2, 4 years. Repeating the text was also not allowed, except for particularly difficult passages. From the 14th century uni received the epithet alma mater (as the Romans called the mother of the gods Cybele). Textbooks - grammar was studied according to a short course by Donatus, then according to Priscian, rhetoric was taught according to Cicero, dialectics according to Aristotle, Boethius, Augustine, etc., doctors - Galen, Hippocrates, jurists - their own authorities.

Colleges began to be built to accommodate students. Although the students rented apartments from the townspeople, there was a rule that the townspeople were not to increase the rent arbitrarily. The first person to take care of the students' lives was Robert de Sorbonne, confessor and physician to the French king Louis IX. A specialization appeared at uni Salerno, Montpellier - medicine, Bologna - law, about the Faculty of Theology in Paris - “all the knots can be untangled here.” Therefore, students often continued to listen to a course of lectures on a particular discipline at different universities from the most famous teachers, undergoing a kind of internship. Therefore, vagantes and goliards, wandering students, appeared. Authors of student poetry. The most famous collection of works by 13th-century vagants. "Carmina Burana", composed by an unknown amateur from southern Bavaria, consisting of over 200 works, mainly of Vagant origin. They are arranged in sequence - moral-satirical poems, love poems, wandering songs, drinking songs, religious hymns and liturgical dramas. Those who did complete their studies and received a doctorate were expected to receive honor and recognition at best, a good position at court and in society, and at worst, whatever happens. In the Middle Ages there were doctors who received epithets for their learning - Francis of Assisi (Giovanni Francesco (del Moricone) (1181-1226) - Doctor of Mariinsky (Marianus), i.e., who dedicated his activities to the Virgin Mary; Albert the Great, Cologne (1198 and 1206 -1280 - doctor comprehensive (Universalis); Roger Bacon (1214-1294) - doctor Amazing (Mirabilis); Henry of Ghent (1217-1293) - triumphant (Solemnis); Bonaventura (Giovanni Fidanza) (1221-1274) - seraphic (seraphicus); Aquinas (1225-1274) - angelic (angelicus); Raymond Lull (1235-1315) - enlightened (illuminatus); Aegidius of Rome (1257-1316) - most thorough (fundatissimus); John Duns Scott (1266-1308) - refined (subtilis); William of Ockham (1285-1349) - invincible (invicibilis); John Charles Gerson (1363-1429) - most Christian (christianissimus); Dionysius the Carthusian (1402-1471) - enthusiastic (extaticus) (Shevelenko A.Ya. Doctor Mariinsky and Doctor Comprehensive // VI. 1994. No. 9. P. 170.) Members of the uni corporation had their own privileges - not subject to the jurisdiction of city authorities, exempt from mutual responsibility for debt obligations, and have the right to secession. Although scholars often get into fights with townspeople, they are judged by their superiors.

Medieval university science was called scholasticism or “school science” (from the Latin schola - school). Its characteristic feature was the desire to rely on authorities and a complete disregard for experience. The ability to freely operate with the concepts of formal logic was considered the main thing among the scholastics. The positive thing about the activities of the scholastic logicians was that they introduced compulsory study of a number of ancient authors into all uni programs, tried to pose and solve important problems of knowledge, and introduced Western Europe to the works of Arab scientists. In the 12th century. in Cordoba Ibn Roshd (1126-1198) (Averroes) taught, whose teachings were developed in the teachings of Amaury of Ben († 1204), David of Dinan, Siger of Brabant (killed in prison).

An important part of medieval culture are epic tales, which can be considered as collective memory and the custodian of history. At first, the epic was sung by jugglers and shpilmans. Later they were written down, in addition, the heroic epic became an integral part of knightly culture. Epic works are based on real events, but with a touch of the fantastic. The recording of the Anglo-Saxon epic "Beowulf" dates back to 1000. It is about Beowulf (nephew of the ruler of the Geats), who, together with his 14 comrades, offered his services to the ruler of Denmark Hrothgar, who decided to build a huge banquet hall, but the noise disturbed the monster Grendel, who every evening appeared in the hall and destroyed several of Hrothgar's comrades. Beowulf managed to defeat Grendel in battle, and he crawled away to die in his swamp. But the next evening a new monster appeared - Grendel's mother, who decided to avenge her son. Approaching the swamp, the knights saw snakes, dragons, water nyxes, Beowulf sank into the pool to the bottom and defeated her (Beowulf's sword - Hrunting). Beowulf returned home and became a good king. But soon snakes began to visit Beowulf's possessions. The snake guarded the treasures in the cave for 300 years, and after a certain man stole a cup from him, the snake decided to take revenge on the people. Beowulf (now aged) went to fight the serpent to keep his country safe. The serpent was killed, but Beowulf also died, receiving a mortal wound.

The Scandinavian sagas consist of 12 songs from the Elder Edda, composed in the ancient North Germanic (Scandinavian) dialect. According to the content of the songs, they are divided into tales about gods and tales about heroes. Some songs set out the concepts of the ancient Scandinavians about the universe and all 9 worlds, components universe. One of the songs tells how the god Frey wooed the giant's daughter Gerda. In another, how the god Heimdal came to earth to establish classes and establish mutual relations between people. It tells about episodes of Odin's wanderings through the land, about the Aesir (light gods), the Jotungs (giants), the death of the Aesir and the whole world is predicted, about dwarfs, about Valkyries. Songs about heroes tell about two families - the Welzungs and the Niflungs. In the 13th century “The Younger Edda” by Snorri Sturluson appeared - a manual on how to compose skaldic tales. The ancient Scandinavian tales of the Edda about the Niflungs, their treasure, Sigurd about his fight with Fafnir, about Gudrun and Brünnhilde were not exclusively Scandinavian tales. They belonged to all Germanic tribes, and a little later these legends became the basis for the poem in Middle German “Songs of the Nibelungs”. But unlike the Edda, in the “Nibelungenlied” there is a god and religious ceremonies. Brunnhilde is a girl of wondrous beauty. Sigfried is the son of the Dutch kings. The Abelungs and Nibelungs die in the battle, the treasure was not found (Hagen did not say). The Song of Roland is based on the battle in Roncesvalles with the Basques, while the Song of My Cid is based on episodes of the reconquista. The stories were extremely popular and everyone knew them.

A separate page of medieval culture was knightly culture. It took shape by the 11th-12th centuries. The creator and bearer is the knightly class. It is based on the code of conduct of the ideal knight. Loyalty, courage, nobility, good manners, etc. One of the sources of the Western European knightly (courtly - the term was introduced by Gaston Paris (1839-1903) to denote the form of relations between a man and a woman that develops among gentlemen) novel was the Celtic epic about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. (The story of Tristan and Isolde). In the knightly culture, the cult of the lady arises, constituting a necessary element of courtliness. From the end of the 11th century. the poetry of the troubadours flourishes in Provence, the poetry of the trouvères in the north of France, and the minnesingers in Germany. The most famous authors of chivalric romances were Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Hartmann von Aue (knight) (1170-1210) (“Poor Henry”), Part III crusade. In 1575, Michel Nostradamus's brother Jean published biographies of troubadours, who could also be people of noble origin, for example. Thibault of Champagne, and grandfather of Alienor of Aquitaine.

From the 11th century Cities become centers of cultural life. The genres of urban literature are fabliaux, schwanks, farces, and soti. A satirical epic is also taking shape - “The Romance of the Fox”. The main character, the Fox Renard (a wealthy townsman), defeats the Wolf Isengrin, the Bear Brenn, deceives the Lion Noble, the Donkey Baudouin. By the 13th century. refers to the origins of urban theatrical art. City games - “The Game of Robin and Marion”, etc. Then secular plays appear. Adam de Al (from Arras, nicknamed “The Hunchback” (1238-1286), who lived in Paris in 1262-1263, at the court of Count d'Artois (from 1272) and Charles of Anjou (from 1283) was author of the first secular plays in in native language"Games under the leaves", "Games about Robin and Marion". “The Game of Robin and Marion” was one of the most famous. The characters are Marion (peasanka), Robin (paisan), Knight. Marion says that she is in love with Robin, who bought her a scarlet dress and a belt, and that he is wooing her. Then the Knight returning from the tournament appears and tries to seduce her. Marion doesn't give in, and then Robin appears and they coo sweetly. Pastoral games were popular - scenes between a knight and a shepherdess, a shepherd and a shepherdess. An example is the poem by Thibaut of Champagne “The King of Navarre”: “These days, Thibaut narrates, I met a shepherdess between the grove and the garden who was singing, her song began like this: “When illness attracts me, love.” Hearing this, I went to her and said: “darling, God bless you, have a good day.” To this she answered me with a bow. She was sweet, fresh, rosy, that I wanted to talk to her again. “Darling, I am looking for your love. I will give you a luxurious headdress!” “Knights are great deceivers, I prefer my shepherd Perren than rich scoffers.” “Beauty, don’t say that. Knights are very worthy people. Only knights and people of the highest circle can have a girlfriend according to their desire. And the love of a shepherd costs nothing. Let's go..." “Sir, by the Mother of God, you wasted your words. Knights are greater deceivers than the traitor Ganelon. I would rather return to Perren, who is waiting for me and loves me with all his honest heart. And you, sir, stop chatting.” I realized that the shepherdess wanted to get away from me. I asked her for a long time and in vain, but when I hugged her, the shepherdess screamed: “Perinet, treason.” They responded from the forest, and I left her. Seeing that I was leaving, she mockingly shouted to me: “Oh, brave knight!” (La Barthe. Conversations...P.168-169).

An indispensable attribute of urban culture were processions, which could be arranged for any reason. In England, as well as in other European countries, processions of corporations and the ceremonial entry of the Lord Mayor of London into the City were common.

From the processions in Italian cities, as well as in other European countries, trionfo arose - i.e. a costumed procession, partly on foot, partly on carts, which, being originally church-based, gradually acquired a secular meaning. Processions for the feast of Corpus Christi and carnival processions here stylistically merge, and the ceremonial entries of sovereigns soon join this style.

Carnival- was held in the week preceding Lent, on Maslenitsa - either on Broad Thursday or on Fat Tuesday. First carnesciale (meat eater), carnevale. It got its name either from carrus navalis - ship, cart, carne vale - meat eater, flesh. An exclusively urban phenomenon. It acquired a variety of forms by the 15th century. It included processions, games, acrobatic and sports displays, and masks. Perhaps masks are an attribute exclusively of the Venetian carnival. The first mention of masks is found in a Senate decree of 1268. It was a ban on wearing masks when setting up certain categories games, but the Venetians... In 1339 the decree was repeated. Then workshops for mask manufacturers appeared. Over the years, the carnival has become wild, lush and fun. The opening carnival was accompanied by a church service and speeches from the authorities. So-called entertainment companies appear. Compagnie delle Calze, whose members wore symbolic emblems decorated with pearls and precious stones, ladies wore them on their sleeves, men wore them on their stockings. In the 15th century the carnival becomes diverse - fortune tellers, astrologers, soothsayers, sellers of all-healing ointments, ointments, insect repellents, against female infertility, against bullets, against bladed weapons. Then, as an addition to the carnival, and then as an independent component, the commedia delle arte appeared, i.e. folk comedy. There were over 100 masks. 2 quartets - northern - Pantalone (Venetian with his own dialect, old man - merchant, rich, stingy, sick, frail, sneezes, coughs, considers himself smarter than everyone else, but most often becomes the object of pranks, womanizer, merchant who has grown old), Doctor (Bolognese scientist, spouts, misinterpreting Latin quotes, lawyer, sometimes a doctor (the attribute in this case is clyster), loves to drink, womanizer, the most complex mask - comedy), Brighella (smart servant, complex and responsible mask, since it is he who starts the intrigue), Harlequin = Truffaldino (stupid servant, often gets beat up), (both come from Bergamo, the homeland of Italian fools); southern - Coviello (southern parallel of Brighella), Pulcinella (southern parallel of Harlequin - consistently stupid), Scaramuccia (boastful warrior, coward), Tartaglia (appeared in Naples around 1610 - Tartaglia in Italian. stutterer, the character of the Spanish servants, preventing people from living ), + Captain (a parody of the Spaniards), Lovers (ladies - 1. powerful, proud, 2. soft, gentle, submissive; gentlemen - 1. cheeky, optimistic; 2. timid, modest. speak the correct literary language), Fantesca (Serveta = Colombina - a maid, in Goldoni - Mirandolina), etc. Masks = role.

Since laughter has been banished from official life, that's why they appeared "Feast of Fools", which were held on New Year's Day, the Day of the Innocent Infants, Epiphany, Midsummer's Day. There were few such holidays. What could cause laughter? Buffon tricks = lazzi (lazzi = l "atto, action, i.e. buffon trick. Lazzi with a fly - Zanni makes a gesture with his hand, as if catching a fly in the air, then with facial expressions shows that he tears off its wings, legs and throws it at mouth to yourself. Or lazzi with pasta - a plate of pasta, which is eaten either with the hands or with the mouth. The actors are tied with their backs, one bends over, eats; the second dangles his legs in the air.

In many cities the townspeople were organizing in neighborhoods for public performances. These include the performance of hell on stages and barges standing on the Arno (Florence) (05/1/1304), during which the Alla Caraya bridge collapsed under the audience. One of the specific features of the performances in Italy was the use of machines - they carried out ascent into the air and descent. Florentines already in the 14th century. maligned when the trick did not go smoothly. Participated in organizing the holidays famous artists. For example, Brunelleschi invents for the Feast of the Annunciation in Piazza San Felice an apparatus depicting a celestial globe framed by two garlands of angels, from which Gabriel descended to earth in an almond-shaped machine. Cecca also develops mechanisms for such celebrations. The most solemn holiday was the Feast of Corpus Christi. It was celebrated magnificently in 1480 in Viterbo. The holiday was organized by Pope Pius II. Here is the suffering Christ, surrounded by angelic boys; The Last Supper, where Thomas Aquinas was present, the struggle of the Archangel Michael with demons, a spring gushing with wine, the Holy Sepulcher, the scene of the Resurrection, on the cathedral square - the tomb of Mary, which, after a solemn mass and blessing, was opened, and the Mother of God in a host of angels soared into the paradise, where Christ placed a crown on her and led her to the eternal Father. Rodrigo Borgia (Alexander VI) organized similar holidays, but he was distinguished by his passion for cannon cannonades. S. Infessura wrote about the holiday that Pietro Riario organized in 1473 in Rome on the occasion of the passage of Eleanor of Aragon, the bride of Prince Ercole of Ferrara. There were also mysteries, and pantomimes on mythological themes- Orpheus surrounded by animals, Perseus and Andromeda, Ceres, who was drawn by a dragon, Bacchus, Ariadne with a panther; there was a ballet of loving couples from prehistoric times; flocks of nymphs, all this was interrupted by the invasion of robber centaurs, whom Hercules defeated. During all the festivities, people depicting statues stood in niches and on columns, while they recited and sang. In the halls of Riario there was a boy completely covered in gold, spraying water from a fountain. Vasari in his “Biography of Pontormo” told how such a child died in 1513 at a Florentine festival due to overexertion or gilding. The boy represented the "golden age". In Venice, the arrival of the princess from the house of d'Este (1491) was celebrated with a gala reception with the "Bucentaur", a rowing competition and the pantomime "Meleager" in the Doge's Palace. In Milan, Leonardo da Vinci was in charge of the festivities of the Duke and other nobles. One of his cars represented on a huge scale the celestial system and all its movement, every time one of the planets approached the bride of the young duke, Isabella, the corresponding god appeared from the ball and sang the poems of the court poet Bellincioni (1489).It is known from Vasari what kind of automata he invented Leonardo, to greet the French king, the conqueror entering Milan.

In addition, there were holidays that were celebrated only in one city or another. For example, in Rome they organized running competitions: donkeys, horses, buffaloes, old men, young men, Jews. In Siena they organized a paleo (on horseback). In Venice - regattas, the betrothal of the Doge to the sea. Torchlight processions are popular. Thus, in 1459, after the Congress of Mantua, Pius II was waited in Rome with torches; participants in the torchlight procession formed a ring near his palace.

City entertainment - walks around the city, in the park, “sports” - fist fights, various competitions, in England - curling, etc. Trips to the resort, visits to drinking establishments, in the countries of Northern Europe and the Netherlands - ice skating, visits with occasion (or without?).

Religious holidays. 4 holiday cycles - Yuletide (winter), (Maslenitsa), Easter (spring), Trinity (summer), Theotokos (autumn), or December birth, April crucifixion, June Ascension, August death of the Mother of God and her September birth.

Winter holidays began on November 11 - St. Martina, or Martin's Day - the time of pouring new wine, slaughtering livestock. Expression - Martyn's pig, Martyn's goose. Disease of St. Martina - being drunk. The day of hiring workers, settlement with owners, the day of rent payment. They ate, they drank (Grimmelshausen - St. Martin's Day - then among us, the Germans, we begin to feast and revel until Maslenitsa. Then many, both officers and townspeople, began to invite me to visit Martin's goose), and had fun. In the Netherlands there was a game of cat - a cat was put in a barrel, which was tied to a tree, and they tried to get it out of there with sticks. In Italy, on Martin's day they ate pasta, pork, poultry, sweet pretzels and drank new wine.

November 25 was celebrated as St. Catherine and the Christmas period began. Christmas was preceded by the “dead weeks” of Advent (4 Sundays before Christmas (candles are lit before Christmas, a candle every Sunday).

December 6th - St. Nicholas, in the Netherlands on this day children (good and small) are given gifts and placed in stockings (bad and grown-up children are given coals). Later St. Nicholas turned into Santa Claus (1822). The prototype of Santa Claus was Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who lived in the 4th century, who first gave gifts to three sisters who dreamed of getting married, but did not have a dowry (he tossed a wallet with money to each, the youngest - the wallet ended up in a stocking, which she hung up to dry at the hearth after washing).

December 25th is Christmas. Roman proverb: “Spend Christmas with your own people, and Easter where she finds you.” Then Christmastide came until January 6 (until the day of the Three Kings. The Bean King. (A bean or some inedible object was placed in the pie; whoever got the wrong piece was the Bean King, who fulfilled all wishes). The first 12 days of the new year were determined all year, January 1 - January, 2 - February, etc. “Whoever counts coins on the first day of the year, counts them all year.” On January 1-6, Befana walks around Italy either on a donkey, or she is brought by the stars and gives gifts to children. The custom of putting up a Christmas tree for Christmas came from Germany. It was first erected in the 16th century (after the Reformation) in Strasbourg on the day of remembrance of Adam and Eve on December 24. A fir tree decorated with red apples was placed in the room, personifying the tree of good and evil , or a triangular pyramid, on the shelves of which gifts lay, and the top was decorated Star of Bethlehem. (Champagne began to be drunk in 1668). On New Year's Day - in Italy they throw old furniture out of the window, at midnight - whoever eats the most grapes will be most prosperous all year, food is prepared from lentils (resembles coins), eggs; in Spain - they eat a grape and make a wish; in England - when midnight strikes, they open the back door of the house, letting out the old year, and with the last blow, open the front door, letting in the new year. They drink punch - grape wine, vodka (rum), tea, sugar, lemon juice (2 alcoholic components for 3 non-alcoholic), boil in a silver pan.

January 17th - St. Anthony, blessed domestic animals, lit bonfires - “the fires of St. Anthony" - with cleansing properties, the extinct firebrand was kept as a remedy against lightning.

End of winter - Meeting on February 2. - In Italy it's Candelora's holiday. (candles). It is believed that on Candelora a bear crawls out of its den to see what the weather is like. If it is cloudy, it makes 3 jumps - winter is over; if it is clear, it returns back to the den, saying that it will be cold for another 40 days. The culmination of the holiday is the blessing of candles.

Spring - On March 14, a ceremony was held in Rome called mamuralia - a man dressed in the skin of “old Mars” was driven out of the city with sticks.

March 15 is the holiday of Anna Perena - the goddess of the Moon or water. At this time, a carnival was held. Carts (carrus navalis - (chariot - ship), carne vale - long live the flesh), processions, masks, games. The last Thursday (Tuesday) before the carnival is Fat Thursday, the apogee of the holiday. Lent began with Ash Wednesday, which followed Fat Tuesday.

Palm Sunday, Easter.

April 30 - (Walpurgis Night - Witches' Sabbath) night walk in the forest behind a tree. In all countries of Western Europe there was a custom to celebrate the “day of renewal of nature” - May 1st. Young people went out of town to “bring May.” They returned with flowers, fragrant herbs, and leaves that decorated the doors and windows of houses. In France and Belgium flowering branches Rose hips decorated the homes of lovers. This was called “planting May.” In the Middle Ages, at the courts of the lords, a special “May ride” was organized, with the May count or the May king at the head of the cavalcade. On the May holidays, young people led round dances and sang. They built a maypole, from the top of which gifts (ham, sausages, sweets, poultry, etc.) were hung. The holiday ended with a competition to see which of the guys could climb the tree the fastest. The winner is the King of May + Queen of May.

Summer cycle holidays began with the Feast of Corpus Domini and was celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Introduced by Pope Urban IV on September 8, 1264 in memory of the Bolsena miracle (when, during a service in one of the churches in Bolsena, the blood of Christ appeared on a wafer). The holiday ritual is a procession. The city was always decorated with carpets and flowers; the pavements were decorated with carpets of fresh flowers. Holiday - carpet demonstrations.

June 24 - St. Day John the Baptist. Fires were lit. On the eve of the holiday they told fortunes. At night they put 2 beans under the pillow - black and white, in the morning they took them out at random, if they pulled out the black one, the girl would get married within a year, if the white one - not. They also wondered about the wealth of the future husband. If they pulled out peeled beans, they were poor; if they were unpeeled, they were rich. June 24 is the day of Florence, since St. Giovanni is the patron saint of the city. So, just like every city has its own heavenly patron, in whose honor a holiday was always held.

August 15 - Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In Italy, “buon Ferragosto” means good August holidays. The season ended with great summer holiday. In Rome, Navin Square was flooded with water. They organized a competition - a paleo (palio) competition of riders. Dante wrote about a similar competition near Verona, the winner received green cloth, the last - a rooster. They shot from a crossbow.

From August to October, holidays began throughout the Mediterranean, dedicated to the harvesting of grapes, figs, and the ripening of leaves on mulberry trees (Murcia). The grape harvest season is a time of revelry, fun and extravagance.

Autumn. A wine fair was held in Seville from October 5 to 15. On the third Sunday of October in Germany, fairs began in many lands, where they held the so-called. kirbaum resembled a maypole, + lunch.

(October 30 - Halloween in English-speaking countries), preceded November 1 - All Saints' Day. Introduced in 610, it first fell on May 13, in the 9th century. postponed to November 1st.

November 2 is the day of remembrance of all the dead. November 1 was spent in the church, November 2 - in the cemetery, and then they had a meal. (In Italy, beans are a funeral food).

There were annual holidays for schoolchildren. They were celebrated either on St. Nicholas, or on the day of innocent babies (December 27). On this day, in all major cathedrals, a boy was elected bishop, who led the religious holiday and delivered a sermon. The second holiday for schoolchildren is Penitential Tuesday (during Maslenitsa week) on this day the students brought fighting cocks and had cockfights. On the same day they played ball.

In addition, all regions of Europe had their own local patronal holidays. In German and Dutch countries it was called kermes (kirmes).

The concept of “Middle Ages” arose in the 15th century. among Italian humanists to designate the period that separated their time from antiquity. Ancient scholarship and ancient art were perceived by humanists as an ideal and a role model. From this point of view, the time that separated the Renaissance and the ancient world was seen as a break in the traditions of books, as a decline in the arts.

This evaluative attitude towards the Middle Ages, reflected in the term itself, persisted for several centuries. Negative and even disparaging statements by enlighteners regarding this period are known.

This situation changed only in the 19th century. First, the romantics created their own image of the Middle Ages. Noble knights praising beautiful ladies and performing feats in their honor, mysterious castles and feelings far from everyday life - all this Romanism contrasted with contemporary reality.

WITH mid-19th V. New approaches to the Middle Ages are being formed within the framework of historical science. The emergence of the concepts of “civilization” and “formation” made it possible to consider the Middle Ages systematically. The civilizational approach made it possible to see medieval Europe as a community of people living in a certain territory, bound by the unity of religion, customs, morals, way of life, etc. The formational approach presented the Middle Ages as a certain stage in the development of society, which was based on the feudal mode of production and corresponding production relations.

A look at the Middle Ages as one of the stages in social development made it possible to subsequently transfer the concept of the Middle Ages to non-European cultures. For supporters of this approach, medieval Europe and Rus', the medieval Arab-Muslim world and the medieval Far East are typologically united in their diversity.

The most important typological features of the Middle Ages are the following. From a socio-economic point of view, the Middle Ages are the time of the formation, establishment and flourishing of feudalism, although its specific historical variants differed significantly. The ethnocultural foundations of this historical stage can be represented as a synthesis of the cultures of peoples who had centuries-old traditions of statehood and peoples who were at the stage of decomposition of the tribal system.

An extremely important feature of medieval cultures is the universal role of religion. It was a system of law, a political doctrine, a moral teaching, and a methodology of knowledge. Also, artistic culture was almost entirely determined by religious ideas and cult.

In keeping with the decisive role of religion in many medieval cultures, its institution, the church, was of great importance. As a rule, it was a vast, ramified, powerful organization that practically merged with the state apparatus and controlled almost all aspects of human life and society.

Another characteristic of the Middle Ages is that from that time on it became possible to talk about world religions, something that the ancient world did not know. Buddhism and Christianity, which arose within the framework of ancient cultures, turned into religions on a global scale in the Middle Ages. Islam emerges and spreads during the Middle Ages.

Typologically similar features of medieval cultures were realized in various forms; each of these cultures went through its own path, individual and unique.

Among the cultures of the Middle Ages, the culture of Byzantium should be called the first in terms of formation.

While the culture of the Eastern Roman Empire entered its first period of prosperity, the Western Roman Empire found itself in a period of cultural lull. This period is sometimes called the “Dark Ages” because the early European Middle Ages left quite few events, facts and phenomena that could become the property of cultural history, especially in comparison with the Eastern Christian Middle Ages. The content of the process that took place in Europe during the early Middle Ages should be considered the formation of European culture proper in the collision ancient world with the world of “barbarians”, in combining the achievements of Mediterranean culture, Christian ideas and tribal cultures of the peoples of northern Europe.

The most common periodization of medieval culture reflects its three states. From the 5th to the 10th centuries, the formation of cultural foundations took place; this time is called the early Middle Ages. The 11th-11th centuries - the mature Middle Ages - the period of greatest prosperity, the most vivid manifestation of all the features of this culture. The 14th-16th centuries are considered the late Middle Ages, although in the south of Europe, already in the 14th century, the culture of modern times began to take shape, giving rise to a very bright period in European culture - the Renaissance. The late Middle Ages are characterized by an increase in crisis phenomena in traditional culture and the flourishing of urban culture, which prepared the secular culture of modern times.

Christianity became the basis of medieval culture. Despite the fact that this religion arose within the confines of antiquity, it was significantly different from most religions of the ancient world. The most important features of Christianity were that the new religion placed ethical values in the first place and proclaimed spiritual life as genuine in contrast to “material” life as transitory and sinful. The idea that justice can be achieved only in life after earthly death once again emphasized the imperfection and vanity of earthly life and justified the need to be guided by ideal values that reflect true and eternal life.

Despite the fact that Christianity was the stronghold and core of all medieval culture, it was not homogeneous. Quite clearly, it split into three layers, which were later joined by a fourth. Already in the 11th-12th centuries, European medieval self-consciousness imagined its modern social structure in the form of three groups: “those who pray,” “those who fight” and “those who work,” that is, clergy, warriors and peasants. With the formation of urban culture as a result of the growth and strengthening of cities during the mature and late Middle Ages, another social force appeared - the townspeople, the burghers. Each of these four social groups of the Middle Ages created its own cultural layer, connected with others by a commonality of ideological and practical attitudes, but at the same time realizing this commonality in different forms, reflecting different aspects of the Christian worldview.

The medieval peasantry became the main carrier and exponent of folk culture. This culture took shape gradually on the basis of a complex and contradictory combination of the pre-Christian worldview with Christian ideas. Despite the fact that the Christian Church struggled with manifestations of paganism, folk culture retained many elements of pagan ritual, symbolism and imagery.

The formation of the military class occurred gradually and unevenly in different parts of Europe. As a result of the establishment of a hierarchical system of vassal-seigneurial connections and the securing of a monopoly on military affairs to secular feudal lords, the concepts of a warrior and a noble person merged in the word “knight”.

Chivalry arose as a community of warriors - from the poor to the very top of the government. The heyday of knightly culture occurred in the 11th-12th centuries, and in the 11th-14th centuries, knighthood essentially turned into a closed aristocratic military caste, access to which from the outside was extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. With the strengthening of the role of the city militia and the spread of mercenary warriors in military operations, the role of chivalry begins to decrease. In parallel with this, knightly culture is declining, being replaced by new cultural phenomena.

The culture of chivalry was based on a special ideology. An important concept for the system of knightly values was the idea of courtliness (from the French “courteis” - courteous, knightly) as a special behavior of noble people. The concept of nobility became key to knightly behavior. The Code of Knightly Honor listed among the necessary qualities of a knight generosity, compassion for the weak, loyalty, desire for justice and much more, combining Christian virtues with military virtues in a special way.

The medieval clergy was, on the one hand, very united and organized - the church had a clear hierarchy, on the other hand, it was a rather heterogeneous class, since it included representatives different levels society - both the social “lower classes” and aristocratic families. In accordance with the decisive role of Christianity, the clergy largely regulated culture - both ideologically and practically: at the level of, say, the canonization of artistic creativity. In this sense, we can talk about a certain influence of clerical culture on folk culture and the culture of secular feudal lords. At the same time, it is necessary to note the independent value of the culture of the clergy - a number of its phenomena were of exceptional value both for the medieval culture of Europe and for the destinies of European and world culture as a whole. First of all, we are talking about the activities of monasteries, which preserved and reproduced many cultural values.

Monasticism, which arose in the East in the 3rd-4th centuries as a hermitage and withdrawal from the world, changed its character in medieval Europe. As a result of this, monasteries arose, based on the principle of community life with a common household and common cultural tasks. Medieval European monasteries acquired the character of the most important cultural centers, their role, especially in the early Middle Ages, can hardly be overestimated. A significant part of the ancient heritage was preserved in monastery libraries despite the negative attitude of the Christian Church towards pagan antiquity. As a rule, each monastery had a library and a scriptorium - a workshop for copying books, and in addition to this, also schools. In some periods of the Middle Ages, monastery schools represented practically the only centers of education.

Speaking about the medieval church, one cannot fail to mention the split of Christianity into Western and Eastern directions, or Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The fairly autonomous development of Christianity in Western Europe and in the east - in Byzantium - determined the ritual and dogmatic differences that led to the final demarcation in 1054.

The fourth cultural layer of the Middle Ages, the latest in terms of its formation, should be called urban culture, noting, however, the fact that the townspeople were a heterogeneous mass in the social sense. Nevertheless, urban culture can be considered in a certain integrity as, so to speak, a crucible in which the foundations of the culture of modern times were smelted, combining traditional Christian values and ideas with realism and rationalism, irony and skepticism in relation to established authorities and foundations.

For the formation of medieval culture, the ancient tradition turned out to be very important, giving the initial impetus to the development of various areas of culture. This is also true of philosophical and theological thought, which has mastered the important ideas and principles of ancient philosophy. This also applies to art, which sometimes, obviously, turned to ancient experience, as was the case in Romanesque architecture, in other cases, it was formed in polemics with ancient tradition, in opposition to it: this is how medieval depiction took shape.

For the formation of the education system in medieval Europe, cultural continuity turned out to be essential: the basic principles of the ancient school tradition were adopted and, above all, academic disciplines. The “Seven Liberal Arts,” as they were called, were studied in two stages. The initial level - "trivium" - included grammar, dialectics and rhetoric. Grammar was considered the “mother of all sciences”; it provided the foundations of education. Dialectics introduced people to the principles of formal logic and philosophy, and rhetoric helped them express their thoughts beautifully and convincingly. The second level involved the study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, and music was understood as the study of numerical relationships on which world harmony is based.

The principles borrowed from the ancient school system naturally gave the basis only to the formal side of medieval European education, and its content became Christian teaching. Everything that did not relate to religious issues, in particular mathematical and natural science information, was studied haphazardly and inconsistently. In addition, non-religious knowledge was not only presented in a small volume, but quite often it was very far from reality and represented or was based on delusions.

The first significant period for medieval school education was the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries - the Carolingian Renaissance, the reign of Charlemagne and his closest followers. Charlemagne saw the need to create an education system and ordered the opening of schools in every diocese and in every monastery. Along with the opening of schools, textbooks on various disciplines began to be created, and access to schools was opened for children of the laity. However, after the death of Charlemagne, his cultural endeavors gradually faded away. Schools were closed, secular trends in culture faded, and education for some time became confined to monastic life.

In the 11th century, there was a new upswing in school affairs. In addition to monastic ones, parish and cathedral schools spread - at church parishes and city cathedrals. The growth and strengthening of cities that occurred during the mature Middle Ages led to the fact that non-church education became an important factor in culture. Basically, education in urban schools - guild, municipal and private - continued to be Christian in its ideological foundations, but it was not under the jurisdiction of the church, which means it provided more opportunities. Elements of a new worldview and free-thinking, the beginnings of natural scientific knowledge and observations of the surrounding world - all this became an important component of urban medieval culture, which, in turn, prepared the culture of the Renaissance.

In the 12th-13th centuries, the first universities appeared in Europe - higher educational establishments, which get their name from the Latin word "universitas", which means "totality". The university consisted of a number of faculties: artistic, where the “seven liberal arts” traditional for the Middle Ages were studied, legal, medical and theological. Universities were given administrative, financial and legal independence by special documents.

The significant independence of universities has played a role important role in preparing the ground for those changes that subsequently led to the formation of the culture of modern times. The affirmation of the value of knowledge and education, the development of natural scientific ideas, the ability to think independently and unconventionally, to conduct a discussion and convincingly present one’s ideas - all this undermined the foundations of medieval culture and prepared the foundations of a new culture.

Nevertheless, throughout almost the entire period of the Middle Ages, it was Christianity that determined the specifics of knowledge and the forms of its existence, and determined the goals and methods of knowledge. Medieval knowledge was not systematized. Theology or theology in accordance with the general character of the medieval Christian culture was central and universal knowledge. Essentially, theology included other areas of knowledge that periodically went beyond its scope and returned to it. Thus, quite complex relationships existed between theology and philosophy. On the one hand, the goal and objectives of medieval philosophy were to comprehend the divine and comprehend Christian dogmas, on the other hand, quite often philosophical reasoning led to a rethinking of the traditional view of the world for the Catholic Church. This happened with the ideas of Pierre Abelard, whose famous comparison of faith and reason, decided in the spirit of rationalism - “I understand in order to believe” - caused a sharp rebuff from the official church, and his views were condemned by councils in 1121 and 1140.

The mature Middle Ages are characterized by a rather rapid development of thought for a traditional, authority- and continuity-oriented culture. During this period, scholasticism was formed and developed, so named from the word “school”, which existed in both Greek and Latin. This type of religious philosophy is characterized by a combination of traditional theological tasks and rationalistic, formal-logical methods. Despite the fact that the humanists of the Renaissance later opposed scholasticism, it turned out to be extremely useful and important for the Middle Ages. Collision different points vision, rationality and logic, doubts about seemingly unshakable foundations - all this has become an invaluable intellectual school.

Within the framework of scholasticism, interest in the ancient heritage arises. Little-known or completely unknown works are beginning to be translated into Latin, for example, the works of Aristotle, which played an important role in medieval religious philosophy, the works of Ptolemy, Euclid. In a number of cases, the ideas of ancient authors were adopted and translated from Arabic manuscripts that preserved and revised the ancient heritage. It can be considered that, in a certain sense, the interest of the Middle Ages in ancient authors prepared the movement of humanism, which became the basis of the culture of the Renaissance.

The mature Middle Ages made some contribution to the development of natural science knowledge. It was still extremely imperfect, since natural scientific methods of cognition had not been developed, and besides, the line between the real and the unreal was quite precarious, a vivid example of which is medieval alchemy. However, we can talk about some attempts to develop physical, in particular mechanical, concepts, astronomy and mathematics. Interest in medical knowledge arose, and within the framework of alchemy, the properties of various substances were discovered, some chemical compounds were obtained, and various devices and experimental installations were tested. The heritage of antiquity and the Arab world played a significant role in the formation of natural scientific ideas of the Middle Ages.

An important figure in increasing knowledge about the world around us was Roger Bacon, an English philosopher and natural scientist of the 13th century, a professor at Oxford. He believed that knowledge of nature should be based on mathematical and experimental methods, although he saw one of the ways to acquire knowledge in internal mystical insights. Bacon also expressed a number of ideas that anticipated many later discoveries, in particular, he believed possible creation devices that move independently on land and water, aircraft and underwater structures.

At the end of the mature Middle Ages and in late period Quite a lot of geographical works appeared - descriptions compiled by travelers, updated maps and geographical atlases - the ground was being prepared for the Great Geographical Discoveries.

A significant figure at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was the 15th century thinker Nicholas of Cusa. One of the predecessors of the ideas of Copernicus, the author of mathematical works, the forerunner of experimental natural science, he developed ideas that were not consistent with traditional Catholic ideas about the world around him. Having had a significant influence on the formation of natural philosophy of the Renaissance, in a certain sense it can be considered the completion of the development of medieval thought about the universe.

Historical ideas of the Middle Ages were reflected in various chronicles and biographies. Descriptions of deeds and, of course, in the heroic epic. The medieval epic, which was a phenomenon of verbal creativity, at the same time reflected the most important collective ideas: the perception of time and space, basic values, behavioral principles, aesthetic norms. The European medieval epic was genetically connected with the mythologies of the so-called barbarian peoples and reflected their characteristic way of life and picture of the world.

Questions about the formation of the heroic epic, about the relationship between the mythological and historical principles in it, about the degree of presence of authorship in it have always been debatable and can hardly be resolved unambiguously. What is reliably known is that the earliest records of epic works date back to the 8th-9th centuries. It is obvious that the epic also developed in the era of the mature Middle Ages. The characters gradually changed - the images of heroes, rooted in myths and legends, are brought into line with knightly Christian ideals. The most famous are the Anglo-Saxon epic "The Tale of Beowulf", the German epic "The Song of the Nibelungs", the Spanish - "The Song of My Sid", the French - "The Song of Roland" and the Icelandic sagas.

The poetic creativity of the Middle Ages, having begun to take shape in epic works, was subsequently closely connected with knightly culture. Lyrical and laudatory songs, poetic expositions of certain exploits of a knight served, so to speak, as a poetic school of the Middle Ages. The poetic tradition began to take shape in the early Middle Ages, but most clearly manifested itself in the mature period. Then, in different parts of Europe, a passion for the work of poet-knights arose, who were called troubadours in the south of France, trouvères in the north of France, and minnesingers in Germany.

Within the framework of knightly culture, prose literature also began to form in the 12th century. The knightly novel quickly gained popularity and became an important part of medieval non-religious culture. Many novels were based on the events of the Celtic epic about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The well-known story about tragic love Tristan and Isolde is also based on epic stories.

Romances of chivalry were created in different European languages and had, so to speak, an ornamental structure: the adventures of the heroes were, as it were, “strung” on top of one another; The characters' characters had no development. By the 14th-15th centuries, the genre of the knightly novel had fallen into decline, and parodies of the knightly novel began to appear within urban culture - the picaresque novel ironically set out the exploits traditional for heroic knights.

Urban culture becomes the basis for the formation of a number of new genres of literature. First of all, these are satirical and parody genres. The emergence of irony and parody - this is especially clearly seen in the example of traditional cultures - indicates a rethinking of the most important cultural foundations. Essentially, this suggests that the previous picture of the world needs to be revised, that it no longer corresponds to cultural reality. The rationalism and practicality of the emerging urban culture came into conflict with established values and way of life. In art, this manifested itself in satirical and parody tendencies. Rapidly developed at the end of the mature Middle Ages and in the late period. The poetry of vagants - wandering schoolchildren and students - became a bright page of satirical and parody creativity.

At the boundary between the poetry of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is the work of the 15th century French poet Francois Villon. His work also reflected scenes from the life of the Parisian “bottom” and irony towards hypocrisy and asceticism; the motives of death were replaced by the glorification of the joys of life. The humanism of his poetry and the desire for a complete sense of life allow us to see in Villon’s work a prototype of Renaissance art.

And one more name cannot be ignored when speaking about medieval literature. This is Dante Alighieri, the last poet of the Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times, as he is sometimes called. Poet " The Divine Comedy" Written by Dante belongs to the best achievements of world culture. The passion, emotionality, and drama with which the poet paints generally traditional medieval images and plots take Dante’s work beyond the scope of medieval literature. His figure, which emerged in European culture at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries, can rightfully be considered the beginning of the formation of Renaissance art.

The spatial arts of medieval Europe were represented mainly by architecture and sculpture. Can often be reduced as architecture is called a leading view medieval art. This is not entirely true. Indeed, among the most striking phenomena of medieval culture are buildings of the Romanesque and Gothic styles. But it is important to remember that their construction was not an end in itself. Architecture, especially temple architecture, was supposed to play a service role: it created a closed, symbolically rich environment for holding services. Architecture, in fact, only created the conditions for the main thing - carrying the “word of God”.

Quite often attention is paid to the synthesis of architecture and sculpture as one of the important characteristics of medieval European culture. But perhaps it would be more accurate to talk about the synthesis of a number of arts in the Christian church. In the European Middle Ages, architecture and sculpture came to the fore within this synthetic whole.

The Romanesque architectural style appeared in Europe in the 10th century and was distinguished by its severity, simplicity and severity. An essential characteristic of the Romanesque style was its versatility - this style characterizes both secular and religious buildings. Churches, castles, and monastery complexes were located on hills, dominating the surrounding landscape. Thick walls and narrow windows that let in a little light emphasized that a Romanesque building, regardless of its purpose, was first and foremost a fortress. Indeed, often during military operations the walls of a church or monastery served as reliable protection.

A completely different image of the relationship between the earthly and the divine arose when looking at Gothic buildings. The Gothic style, which emerged in the 12th century and spread throughout Europe, embodied architectural lightness, airiness, grace, and upward aspiration. Gothic buildings seemed to break through earthly space, embodying the aspiration to values of a different order. The frame arch system and numerous windows decorated with stained glass made it possible to create special interiors, filled with light and air. Most often, city cathedrals were built in the Gothic style, but there were also secular buildings - town halls, shopping arcades and even residential buildings.

Along with the significant development of sculpture, fine art itself hardly developed in European medieval culture. Painting was represented mainly by altar paintings and book miniatures. Only at the end of the Middle Ages did the easel portrait appear and secular monumental painting was born.

It is impossible not to say a few words about the theatrical performances of medieval Europe, refuting the widespread opinion that theatrical art ceased to exist during the Middle Ages. Chronologically, the first to appear were theatrical performances accompanying church services - liturgical and semi-liturgical drama, which explained and illustrated the events of Holy Scripture. In parallel with this, in the work of traveling performers, the beginnings of secular theatrical art were formed, which subsequently, in the late Middle Ages, was realized in the genre of public farce.

Religious and secular lines were united in a special way in three theatrical forms of the Middle Ages: morality, miracle and mystery. Allegorical figures in morality tales and miraculous stories of the miracle had a pronounced didactic character, and although these genres were not directly related to Christian subjects, they reflected the basic Christian ideas about good and evil, virtue and vice, and divine providence that decides the fate of man. The pinnacle of theatrical experiences of the Middle Ages should be considered the mysteries - grandiose performances that took place on the days of festivities, in the preparation and creation of which almost the entire city participated.

Medieval art, like all medieval culture, was based on loyalty to tradition and the inviolability of authority. Anonymity of artistic creativity, adherence to canons, existence within the framework of given themes, plots and images are important typological characteristics of medieval artistic culture.

Despite the fact that medieval culture was represented by several cultural layers and different periods of its existence, nevertheless, the Christian worldview turned out to be a very significant ideological framework that ensured the unity of Christian medieval culture. In essence, it was the last holistic type of culture in the history of culture.

The Middle Ages became extremely important period in the history of European culture - the time when all its foundations were formed. In the collision of different pictures of the world, in the interaction of peoples who are not similar to each other, a cultural community, a cultural synthesis, was formed. And despite the fact that European culture subsequently attacked the Middle Ages with criticism, this is the era of its birth, and only for this reason can the Middle Ages be valuable. But in addition, medieval European culture has its own cultural significance. This is a fairly long period of cultural history, which has its own logic, its own ups and downs. This is a unique fusion of the ideal and the real, the spiritual and the material, the divine and the earthly. Gothic architecture and epic poetry, crowded mysteries and the severity of monastic life, knightly deeds and scholastic wisdom - these are the unique faces of this culture.

The Arab-Muslim medieval world was the result of the spread of Islam, Muslim conquests and the creation of the Arab caliphate. Caliphate in the 9th-10th centuries. broke up into a number of states united by close trade ties, language and culture. Nevertheless, within this community, each culture acquired its own characteristics and found its own path.

The culture of the Arab-Muslim world was based on earlier, pre-Islamic cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. But it acquired its essence and most important features thanks to the emergence and spread of Islam, which determined all aspects of culture and human life.

The socio-economic basis of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages, in comparison with other medieval societies, had a number of features. The most important thing for culture was the fact that the hierarchy typical of feudal society was combined in the Islamic world with very high social mobility. The service could raise a person from the “bottom” to significant social heights. The middle urban strata were very influential. Not only the clan nobility, but also the military and officials were in power.

Compared to medieval Europe, cities were of great importance in the Muslim Middle Ages. The countryside played a service role. The Muslim medieval world did not know such economic and cultural centers as monasteries and knightly castles in Europe. The status of the townspeople was very high, and their position was stable. Trade was a particularly revered activity.

The most important feature of the medieval Islamic world can be considered that it did not have the institution of the church as a mediator between the earthly and divine worlds. The clergy in Islam was part of a single state apparatus, an element of the political and administrative system.

The material culture of the medieval Middle East was represented by a variety of tools, irrigation structures and various devices in the water supply system, as well as buildings for various purposes. A number of buildings, as well as most of the handicraft products, such as carpets, fabrics, dishes, weapons, can be considered borderline phenomena, equally belonging to material and artistic culture.

Many facts of culture are located on another “border” - between spiritual and artistic culture. Religion widely and variedly used artistic forms of verbal creativity, in art forms knowledge was also invested.

Despite the fact that spiritual culture, like culture as a whole, was determined by Islam, one can find phenomena that go back to ancient traditions. In particular, in the philosophy of the medieval East one can see the development of some ideas and principles of ancient philosophy. This same ancient tradition obviously determines the close relationship between philosophy and natural science knowledge - medical, physical and chemical, mathematical and astronomical.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that in the field of science and philosophy, the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages far surpassed other medieval cultures. In particular, Europe has repeatedly turned to the Middle Eastern heritage as a source of wisdom and learning, using in it the processed antiquity and the eastern itself.

Since the spread of Islam, i.e. from the 7th century until the 12th century. we can talk about the flowering of the artistic culture of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages. It clearly demonstrated all the most essential characteristics of medieval artistic culture. These are tradition and canon as the main guidelines of artistic creativity, imitation of models and predecessors as the most important creative methods, didacticism of art and much more.

Nevertheless, special features also appeared in Muslim medieval artistic culture. First of all, this is the great role of the personal and authorial principles in creativity. The inseparability of the spiritual and the secular, the earthly and the divine, characteristic of Islam, led to the fact that medieval Muslim art, to a greater extent than Christian art, paid attention to the “earthly” problems of man and touched upon everyday and everyday themes and subjects.

All this, together with greater freedom in the use of ancient heritage compared to Europe, allows a number of researchers to talk about the “renaissance” of medieval Arab-Muslim culture.

The perception of the Koran as a model of perfection led to the fact that the style of this holy book had a special impact on the entire artistic culture. As is known, the most important stylistic feature The Koran is in the vicinity of elements that are difficult to connect or cannot be combined at all: reasoning about the divine is combined with everyday comparisons and commercial concepts, speculative ideas - with completely realistic images. The same features characterize the language of literature of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages.

As most important feature Muslim art should be called a gravitation towards the independence of individual parts and elements of a work of art. Prose texts often present cleverly combined but independent plots. Poetic works consist of separate parts that have meaning and are structurally complete. Within a large poetic work, they are quite autonomous and can change their places without essentially changing the structure of the text as a whole.

Works of architecture face the outside world with blank walls, while decorative and functional elements are located inside. Thus, the architectural work seems to be closed in on itself and completely completed.

The ornament consists of individual repeating completed forms. At the same time, the next most important characteristic of Arab-Muslim medieval culture can be found in ornamentation. It can be formulated as a desire for extension, repetition, a desire to flow from one form to another, from one state to another. A musical work is built on one melody in its different variations; in literary works, individual completed parts are, as it were, strung on top of each other.

The ban on the depiction of living beings led to the fact that the visual arts did not receive significant development in Arab-Muslim artistic culture. Fine art turned out to be within the framework of artistic craft and in a service role.

But we can observe a different form of representation in Arab-Muslim artistic culture. She is in admiring a fragment, an element, a detail - a sound, a phrase, a word, an element of ornament.

This property, along with the special veneration of the word in medieval Muslim culture, led to the special position of calligraphy. Letters became not just signs for expressing any content, but also acquired artistic meaning. The inscriptions on various objects and buildings were essentially meaningless - the information that could be extracted from them was trivial. Their meaning was different - they visibly embodied the artistic power of the word and its divine nature. They served as a reminder of the word of God - the Koran.

The art of the book is associated with reverence for the divinity of the word and attention to its form. Quite traditional for any medieval culture, the art of handwritten books of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages contributed its page to world culture.

A feature of the artistic culture of the medieval Middle East can be considered the fact that creativity there was almost always a professional activity, although it was also possible to combine different occupations.

The most revered among artistic pursuits was literary. This led to the fact that poets were very influential in society, in addition, the income that their creativity brought them was so high that they often provided writers with a comfortable existence.

Performers literary works They were considered respected people, but still their talent and skills were valued lower than the talent of a writer.

From the formal side, the work of singers, musicians and dancers, or rather dancers, was not considered worthy of respect. And yet, their performances were watched and listened to with pleasure everywhere - both in bazaars and in palaces.

The work of a craftsman was quite honorable. Moreover, arts and crafts, just like architecture, was not anonymous - quite often you can find the names of the authors of certain works of art.

It so happened that art crafts formed an essential part of the artistic culture of the medieval Arab-Muslim world. The acquaintance of other peoples with the culture of the Muslim Middle Ages was also most often associated with the works applied arts- with weapons decorated with calligraphy and ornaments, carpets, clothes, dishes. Now we can say that the Koranic tales, poetic works, philosophical ideas, and architectural structures and much more - the invaluable and unique contribution of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages to world culture.

1. Medieval culture - what is it?

2. Periods of medieval culture.

3) Until the twentieth century, medieval culture was perceived as something dark, cruel, barbaric (Husing, “Autumn of the Middle Ages”).

5th-11th centuries early Middle Ages

11-14 centuries the Middle Ages proper

14th-17th centuries later Middle Ages

Periodization allows us to see differences in the development of medieval culture. In general, medieval culture is the development of languages and the formation of states. For medieval Europe, the development of languages was characterized by the development of bilingualism. Christianity originates in the ancient empire. A Roman should help, but not humiliate himself, and Christianity is philanthropy, equality of people. Christ comes from a woman. A woman - a mother - becomes a value. In the Middle Ages, life was divided into external and internal aspects.

Le Goff "Imagination", Schweitzer: "The death and resurrection of Christ is the victory of the spiritual over the physical."

The greatness of European culture lies in the fact that a person surpasses himself with his thoughts, changes himself.

Le Goff "Medieval Civilization".

1. Spiritual guidelines of the culture of the Middle Ages.

2. Picture of the world.

3. Cultural types in the Middle Ages.

1) Spiritual guidelines are determined by Christianity. It was a religion and an ideology. Everything was done in accordance with what was said in the Bible, according to the canon. The basis of medieval culture was recipe knowledge. Period V-X V. it was a period of struggle between the barbarian and the Christian.

2) Picture of the world. Space was perceived differently than in antiquity. The space was perceived as the space of an estate. Outside the estate there is an unprotected space. All this limited a person’s worldview. In the Middle Ages, man could not declare his creative ability. Human development is always connected with the development of society. Perception of space in relation to the Bible. Lack of perspective in medieval consciousness. This is represented in the icon (reverse perspective). The reverse perspective in an icon is also conceptualized in the following way: I do not look at the icon, but the icon looks at me.

Rauschenbach:

The picture of the world is a model of the world, that grid of coordinates through which people perceive reality and build an image of the world.

In the Middle Ages, the picture of the world was religious, and space and time were perceived in accordance with this. Hierarchical structure in religion.

Antiquity was patriarchal, but in the Middle Ages a woman - a mother - was revered and the general attitude towards women changed. Knightly love - to a woman one must worship, perform deeds in honor of her, but not demand anything in return. The physical and spiritual are differentiated. The image of a knight arises from the right of ownership, because was a majorate. If the inheritance remained to the eldest son, then the younger ones became knights.

"My vassal's vassal is my vassal"

There is a distinction between the external and the internal in every sense. Christianity reveals loneliness. The twentieth century faced the problem of lonely consciousness. The way to approach a person is love. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Christianity gives confession. A person makes an internal vow not to do this again.

The Middle Ages accumulated material for the development of self-awareness.

3) Labor was valued: the work of a monk, a peasant. A nobleman had to take care of his subjects.

Crusades were necessary for the church to maintain its influence, but on the other hand, they were needed for those who wanted to get rich. A knight must be noble, handsome (if not in appearance, then in clothing), strong, seek glory and gain it, faithful to his word, generous, must be in love. The development of chivalry represents universal requirements. Knights studied at universities.

From the 15th century, cities developed and merchants appeared. Time counts. The peasant did not follow the passage of time. The discovery of steering on ships made it possible to go beyond the Atlantic Ocean.

4) Scientific culture begins in monasteries. Monasteries were created in the 6th century. They collect everything that is ancient culture. Each monastery has a library and scriptorium. All monasteries collected books of two types: religious and heretical.

The kings were illiterate. A university is like a church department. The entire population was illiterate. Folk culture developed on the basis of the spoken word. Therefore, preachers were valued. Sagas and ballads are a characteristic form of text transmission. They spoke Latin.

Mentality is a natural, taken-for-granted, often even impulsive, behavior or reaction. An involuntary way of thinking, little influenced by consciousness. Mentality is the logic of consciousness.

The Middle Ages existed on the basis of the spoken word. The temple was a place where a person could learn all the biblical truths from a picture.

The space near the floor represented the earth. The altar is heaven. Trinity, silent conversation is possible in the Middle Ages, because... there was a culture of gesture. The appearance of a saint is more significant than the appearance of a book.

All layers of culture are preserved. Especially in language.

For the peasant, icons depicting saints were associated with his problems. The poetry of the icon merged with tradition. Innovations and changes were rare.