Culture of the ancient world and the Middle Ages comparison table. Medieval culture

1 symbolic character;
2 hierarchies;
3 estate,
4 formation of a social institution of education;
5 the emergence of university science and the class of scientists.

Symbolism in the Middle Ages was distinguished by special characteristics that distinguished its essence from the symbolism of archaism and antiquity. IN primitive culture the symbol was identified with the object (object) that it designated (for example, a person and his name). In antiquity, the symbol played the role of a self-sufficient form worthy of contemplation, for example, the beautiful proportions of bodies in abstraction from the personal characteristics of the one to whom this body belongs.

In medieval symbolism, based on the religious principles of Christianity, all visible phenomena and objects were understood as symbols, signs, images of what is on the other side of this appearance. Reality was that which belongs and relates to pure divine existence. The appearance of things was understood only as an image of invisible things. Thus, an icon depicting Christ is not Christ himself, but only a reflection of the prototype, but in it there is a reflection of divine light.

Symbolic thinking in the Middle Ages it became a way to bridge the gap between the material and spiritual world, between the natural and the supernatural. For medieval man, the entire reality surrounding him was symbolic: the sun is a symbol of God himself; stars are symbols of angels and righteous people; the stone is a symbol of Christ and firm faith; sand - weakness and inconstancy; gold means truth; tree - soul, etc.

Symbolism was one of the main characteristics medieval art. Associated with the detailed symbolism was religious cult. Main purpose philosophy also consisted in revealing the symbolic meaning of Holy Scripture. Symbolic actions accompanied by various political and legal events(coronation, oath of allegiance), at home a detailed system of symbols was used (color and cut of clothing of different classes, etc.).

Hierarchism. The complexity of medieval symbolism was based on a strict hierarchy: all things-symbols reflected divine reality to varying degrees. This ideological position was a reflection of the hierarchy of the natural world and social reality. The place of a phenomenon or object in the universal hierarchy was determined by the degree of closeness to God. The whole world is a hierarchy subordinate to God. Society was divided into classes, each of which included many layers, ranks, professions, ranks, which were connected in an eternal and unchanging hierarchy.

Estate. In the culture of the Middle Ages, class was expressed in the coexistence of various social types of culture, the main of which were religious, knightly and folk.

Religious (Christian) culture was the official dominant culture of the Middle Ages. Its value system was concentrated around the absolute center - God. Man served God with every thought and deed. All actions were correlated with the idea of ​​absolute salvation or absolute destruction. You can call on God and rely on him. Christian dogmas formed the basis of medieval ideology. Thus, society, like the Trinity, has been understood since the 9th century. as an indivisible unity of three social strata: clergy, soldiers, workers.

Knightly culture acted as a kind of marginal subculture of the Middle Ages. Chivalry was not an economic class and did not coincide with the feudal aristocracy. It was not an estate whose rights and obligations were legally secured. For a long time, knighthood remained a matter of purely personal choice, although this choice, associated with the acquisition of expensive equipment and a horse, could only be afforded by fairly wealthy people.

The main thing that distinguished the knightly culture of the Middle Ages was its intermediate nature, based on the interaction of individual value foundations of the dominant Christian culture, professional codes of military honor, as well as standards of behavior of the class aristocracy. The first was due to the fact that it was the church in the 9th century. began to develop the idea of ​​a righteous Christian war and the image of a Christian warrior called to save the faith. Secondly, the formation of a special, professional in its content, knightly culture was due to the fact that by the 10th century. a special professional layer of warriors appeared. And thirdly, this layer was recruited from different classes, but, as a rule, from free and fairly wealthy people, whose life was regulated by the rules accepted among class aristocrats.

A single “way of life” distinguished knights from all other layers of medieval society, which makes it possible to talk about the formation in the X-XI centuries. knightly subculture, which was based on the spirit of soldierly brotherhood and camaraderie. Gradually, an ethical code of chivalry was formed, based on the ideal of a selfless, loyal, courageous and beautiful warrior; special knightly symbols were provided for: a special initiation ritual, a special cut of clothing, a solemn custom of presenting weapons, etc.

Folk culture with its funny, carnival character, it is also one of the main components of medieval culture, fulfilling the role of countercultural education. The carnival was in a special way existence and thinking, different from the serious official church and secular culture. The carnival carried with it the idea of ​​special freedom, the opportunity to escape from the usual order of things into a special space where any transformations are possible, where one can live social roles, inaccessible in ordinary life.

The ruling clerical classes were forced to take into account the folk culture, the values ​​of which to a certain extent opposed the official Christian culture. Even church festivals were accompanied by fairs and public entertainment (performances by jesters, giants, and tamed animals). Jesters were an indispensable part of social life, which they filled with parodies of the serious actions of official culture.

Formation of a social institution of education. In the Middle Ages, there were few literate people, and books were rare. At the same time, in the Middle Ages the art of singing, including folk singing, was very widespread. Against this background, a literate person - a copyist of books - is located higher in the social hierarchy than a singer (in Antiquity - vice versa). The Holy Scripture as God's word made all the attributes of bookishness honorable, and the scribe of books became involved in the divine.

Literacy training was carried out in medieval schools. They had the character of an organized church form of education. These were monastic, episcopal (at cathedrals, mainly for initial training in reading, writing, general ideas about the Bible and liturgy) and court (also of a religious orientation).

The origin of university science and the class of scientists.

Medieval universities (XI-XII centuries) were a product of the Middle Ages proper. This kind of free corporations of students and teachers with their privileges, established programs, diplomas, and titles did not exist either in Antiquity or in the East. And although universities served the needs of the state and church, they were characterized by a large degree of autonomy from local (including city) authorities and a special spirit of free fraternity. The activities of universities had very important cultural consequences, the main of which was the birth professional class of scientists(priests and laity) to whom the church gave the right to teach the truths of Revelation. Medieval University was divided into the Faculty of Liberal Arts and the Faculty of Theology (the highest level of education). At the Faculty of Arts they studied grammar, logic, mathematics, physics, and ethics. These sciences relied only on reason. It was here that the rediscovered works of ancient (Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Hippocrates, etc.) and Byzantine (Church Fathers) scientists and philosophers, as well as Arab-Muslim authors (Avicenna, Averroes, Al-Khorezmi, Al -Farabi, etc.). New ideas were born here.

In the Faculty of Theology, the main thing was the accurate study of the Bible through the interpretation of the text. However, students of the Faculty of Theology first had to graduate from the Faculty of Arts and become familiar with all the critically discussed ideas and problems of existence. Therefore, a rational principle was introduced into the interpretation of Scripture. Universities also gave birth to new forms of teaching: lectures and seminars, where discussions were constantly taking place, any topic was proposed in the form of a question. Although these methods did not exclude speculation, quotation, and reliance on authorities.

Over time, universities developed their own specialization - legal, medical, etc. The process of formation and systematic study of the humanities and natural sciences began, although for a long time they were subordinated to theology.

In the Middle Ages, technology was also considered only an auxiliary tool for a worker performing certain labor functions. However, in the XII-XIII centuries. gradually there is a turn towards awareness of the significance of technical inventions in human life and society (“the wheel, water and windmills are invented”, mechanical watches and etc). In the depths of feudal society, the process of the emergence of industrial production was underway.

The history of the Middle Ages in Europe covers the period from the 5th to the mid-17th centuries. Within the period, the following stages can be distinguished: a) early Middle Ages: V - XI centuries; b) developed Middle Ages: XI - XV centuries; c) late Middle Ages: XVI - mid-XVII centuries. The term “Middle Ages” (lat. medium aevum - hence the name of the science that studies the Middle Ages, medieval studies) arose in Italy during the Renaissance among humanists who believed that this time was a period of cultural decline, as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in the modern time.
The Middle Ages were a time of feudalism, when humanity made significant progress in the development of material and spiritual culture, and the area of ​​civilization expanded.
Feudal society is characterized by: 1) the dominance of large land ownership; 2) a combination of large land ownership with small individual farming of direct producers - peasants who were only land holders, and not owners; 3) non-economic coercion in various forms: from serfdom to class inferiority.
Feudal property (Latin - feodum) is hereditary land property associated with compulsory military service. In medieval society, a hierarchy emerged with a large role for personal vassal-feudal connections.
The state went through different stages: the early feudal period was characterized by large but loose empires; for the developed Middle Ages - small entities, class monarchies; For late Middle Ages- absolute monarchies.
Feudal law protected the monopoly of land ownership of feudal lords, their rights to the personality of peasants, to judicial and political power over them.
Religious ideology and the church played a huge role in society.
Thus, the features of feudal production gave rise to specific features of the social structure, political, legal and ideological systems.
The main features of medieval culture are: 1) the dominance of religion, a God-centric worldview; 2) rejection of the ancient cultural tradition; 3) denial of hedonism; 4) asceticism; 5) increased attention to the inner world of a person, his spirituality; c) conservatism, commitment to antiquity, a tendency to stereotypes in material and spiritual life; 7) elements of dual faith (Christianity and paganism) in the popular consciousness; 8) fetishization of works of art; 9) internal inconsistency of culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the opposition between scientific and folk culture, relations between secular and spiritual, church authorities, duality value orientations(spirituality and physicality, good and evil, fear of sin and sin); 10) hierarchical culture, in which one can distinguish the culture of the clergy, knightly culture, urban culture, folk, mainly rural culture; 11) corporatism: the dissolution of a person’s personal beginning in a social group, for example, an estate.
Medieval European culture developed on the ruins of the Roman Empire. In the early Middle Ages, the decline of culture, which had already taken place in late Rome, deepened. The barbarians destroyed cities that were the concentration of cultural life, roads, irrigation structures, monuments of ancient art, libraries, agrarianization of society took place with the dominance of a natural economy, commodity-money relations were undeveloped.
The Church established a monopoly on education and intellectual activity for many centuries. All areas of knowledge were subordinated to church-feudal ideology. Possessing a strong organization and established doctrine in times of political decentralization, the church had and powerful means propaganda.
The essence of the church worldview was the recognition of earthly life as temporary, “sinful”; material life, human nature were opposed to “eternal” existence. As an ideal of behavior that ensures afterlife bliss, the church preached humility, asceticism, strict observance of church rituals, submission to masters, and faith in miracles. Reason, science, and philosophy were despised, which were opposed to faith, although individual elements of philosophical and secular knowledge were borrowed from the ancient heritage. The education system: the so-called “seven liberal arts of antiquity” was divided into the lower - “trivium” (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the highest - “quadrivium” (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music parts). The works of ancient authors were used: Aristotle, Cicero, Pythagoras, Euclid, but to a limited extent. The authority of the Holy Scriptures was placed above all sciences. In general, the knowledge system of the Middle Ages was characterized by the following features: 1) universalism; 2) encyclopedism; 3) allegorism; 4) exegesis (Greek interpretation) - the ability to interpret and give a religious explanation of the Bible.
The universe (space) was viewed as a creation of God, doomed to destruction. A geocentric system prevailed with different spheres, hell and the seat of God. Each material object was considered as a symbol of the hidden and ideal world, and the task of science is to reveal these symbols. Hence the refusal to study the true connections of things with the help of experience. Symbolism left its mark on the entire medieval culture. Words were believed to explain the nature of things. The direct realistic perception of the world in art and literature was often clothed in the form of symbols and allegories.
Feudal-church culture was opposed by folk culture. It was rooted in pre-feudal antiquity and is associated with barbaric cultural heritage, pagan myths, beliefs, legends, and holidays. These traditions, preserved among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages, were permeated with pagan religious ideas, alien to the dark asceticism of Christianity, its distrust of living nature: it was seen not only as a formidable force, but also as a source of life’s blessings and earthly joys. The people's worldview was characterized by naive realism. The forms of folk art are varied: fairy tales, legends, songs. Folk tales formed the basis of the epic (the Irish epic about the hero Cuchulainn, the Icelandic epic - the "Elder Edda", the Anglo-Saxon epic - the poem "Beowulf"). The exponents and bearers of the musical and poetic creativity of the people were mimes and histrions, and from the 11th century. jugglers - in France, houglars - in Spain, spilmans - in Germany, wandering throughout Europe.
The art of the early Middle Ages lost many of the achievements of antiquity: sculpture and the image of man in general disappeared almost completely; Stone processing skills were forgotten; in architecture, wooden architecture predominated. The art of this period is characterized by: barbarization of taste and attitude; cult of physical strength; display of wealth; at the same time, he was characterized by a living, direct sense of material, especially manifested in jewelry and bookmaking, where complex ornamentation and “animal” style dominated. Under primitivism, barbarian art was dynamic, its main visual means was the color. Bright objects created a sense of materiality, corresponding to a barbaric sensual vision and perception of the world, far from Christian church asceticism.
In the early Middle Ages VII - IX centuries. there was a certain rise in feudal-ecclesiastical culture at the court of Charlemagne (768 - 814) - the so-called “Carolingian Renaissance”, caused by the need for literate people to manage the empire. Schools were opened at monasteries and for the laity, educated people from other countries were invited, ancient manuscripts were collected, stone construction began, but this rise in culture was fragile and short-lived.
The advanced Middle Ages were marked by significant urban growth and the emergence of universities.
The emergence of cities as centers of craft and trade meant a new stage in the development of medieval culture. The prerequisites for the growth of cities were the intensive development of commodity production and money circulation on the basis of private property. There was a need for literate people; production gave rise to interest in experimental knowledge and its accumulation; The townspeople are characterized by an active perception of life, sober calculation, and efficiency, which contributed to the development of a rationalistic type of thinking; mental demands and interests grew and, accordingly, the craving for secular education. The monopoly of the church on education was broken, although the church dominated ideology. City schools successfully competed with monastery schools.
Cities grew due to the influx of peasants who fled from their masters or were released on quitrent. In terms of population, medieval cities were small; in the XIV-XV centuries. those of them with a population of 20 thousand people were considered large. The population of the cities actively fought for their independence from the feudal lords: the cities were either bought off or gained independence through armed struggle. Many cities became communes, i.e. they had the right to conduct an independent foreign policy, have their own self-government, mint coins, all townspeople were free from serfdom. In essence, they were city-states reminiscent of an ancient polis. The urban population, or the “third estate,” became the spiritual leader and the predominant bearer of culture.
With the development of urban culture, secular education appears and universities emerge (from the Latin universitas - association, community). In 1088, on the basis of the Bologna Law School, the University of Bologna was opened, in 1167 the University of Oxford began to operate in England, in 1209 - the University of Cambridge, in France in 1160 the University of Paris was opened. In total, by the end of the fifteenth century. in Europe there were 65 universities (in addition to Italy, France, England, universities appeared in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland). Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin, which became the European language of culture. Mutual language and religion created a certain cultural unity in Europe, despite feudal fragmentation and political conflicts. The main faculties (from the Latin facultas - opportunity) were the junior faculties, where they studied the “seven liberal arts of antiquity,” and the senior faculties, where they studied theology, law, and medicine.
In its refined form, spiritual culture was expressed in philosophy. In the course of philosophical debates, the main directions of medieval scholasticism (from the Latin schola - school) emerged. Two main directions arose: “nominalism” (from the Latin nomina - name), which believed that only individual things objectively exist, accessible to human sensations, and general concepts - “universals” - do not really exist, nominalism was the embryo of materialism; "realism", which believed that only general concepts - "universals" - really exist; individual things were considered only as a generation and imperfect reflection of these concepts. The main question of scholasticism was the question of the relationship of knowledge to faith. The problem of the relationship between faith and reason is embodied in literature, fine art, and music. Religious worldview as the core of spiritual culture, and Christian God, as the basis of the moral world of medieval man, determined the subordinate role of philosophy in relation to religion.
Thomas Aquinas (1225/26 - 1274), the greatest scholastic philosopher, argued that philosophy and science are the handmaidens of theology, since faith surpasses reason in human existence. He argued this by the fact that, firstly, the human mind continually makes mistakes, while faith is based on the absolute truthfulness of God, and, secondly, faith is given to every person, and the possession of scientific and philosophical knowledge, which requires intense mental activity, is available not everyone.
An outstanding scholastic was Pierre Abelard (1079 - 1142) - a French philosopher, theologian and poet, a bright exponent of freethinking who opposed extreme forms of both nominalism and realism. His freethinking was based on the priority of reason over faith: “understanding in order to believe.” He was declared a heretic and banned from teaching and writing.
Along with scholasticism, in the Middle Ages there were other directions of philosophy and theology, in particular mysticism. Mystics rejected the need to study Aristotle and use logical proofs of faith. They believed that religious doctrines were learned not through reason and science, but through intuition, insight or “contemplation,” prayer and vigils. Denying the role of reason in knowledge of the world and God, the mystics were more reactionary than the scholastics. But democratic sentiments were strong among them: mystical sects were critical of the feudal system and preached the need to establish the “kingdom of God on earth” without private property, inequality, and exploitation. Among the mystics one can single out Bernard of Clairvaux, Johannes Tauler, and Thomas à Kempis.
In medieval Europe, although slowly, science and technology developed. Thus, Oxford professor Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294), based on the fact that experience is the basis of knowledge, created the “Great Work” - an encyclopedia of that time. IN medieval science Alchemy developed, which expressed the connection between crafts, religion, mysticism, magic, and the occult. Alchemy preceded the emergence of experimental natural science.
The Arab-Islamic civilization, in particular, the works of Al-Biruni (980 - 1048), Ibn Sina (980 - 1037), had a significant influence on European philosophy and science.
In the Middle Ages, inventions were made that influenced the entire subsequent life of society: the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, glasses, and a compass. Of particular importance was printing, which was started in Europe by Johannes Guttenberg (1400 - 1468), which contributed to the development of national literatures, the unification of spelling and, accordingly, education, science, and culture.
In the XII - XIII centuries. Latin-language literature flourishes, in particular, the poetry of vagantes (from Latin vagary - to wander). Developing national literature, in particular, an epic is written down: French - “The Song of Roland”, Spanish - “The Song of Cid”, German - “The Song of the Nibelungs”. Knightly literature is being formed: secular lyrical poetry of the troubadours, glorifying “courtly love” (from the Old French - courtier), chivalric novels. There is an interest in the person’s personality and his feelings. Urban literature is developing in national languages: for example, “The Novel about the Fox” and “The Novel about the Rose” were created in French; the forerunner of the Renaissance in France was François Villon (1431 - 1461). Father English literature Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400) is considered to have created a collection of poems in English in native language"The Canterbury Tales".
In medieval Europe, the place of art was controversial. Art was seen as the Bible for the illiterate. The main task of art is to strengthen religious feelings, to reveal the images of the Holy Scriptures; works, as a rule, are anonymous. What is required from the artist is not realism, but the disclosure of ideas of divine holiness. The transition from the space of the outer world to the inner space of the human spirit is the main goal of art. It is expressed by Augustine’s famous phrase: “do not wander outside, but go inside yourself.” Christian ideology rejected the ideals that inspired ancient artists: the joy of being, sensuality, physicality, truthfulness, the glorification of man, aware of himself as a beautiful element of the cosmos - it destroyed the ancient harmony of body and spirit, man and the earthly world.
Architecture became the most important form of art, embodied in two styles: Romanesque and Gothic. Romanesque architecture is distinguished by its massiveness and squatness, its task is the humility of man, his suppression against the backdrop of the monumental grandeur of the universe, of God. From the 12th century A Gothic style emerges, the features of which are upward direction, pointed arches, stained glass windows. V. Hugo called Gothic “a symphony in stone.” Unlike the harsh, monolithic, imposing Romanesque temples, Gothic cathedrals are decorated with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed towards the sky, their towers rose up to 150 m. The ancient temple was considered the place of life of God, religious ceremonies took place outside, and the medieval the temple was perceived as a place of communication for the religious community and special attention was paid to the interior decoration.
In painting, the main genre was iconography. Painting acted as a silent sermon, “speculation in colors.” Icons were seen as an emotional connection with God, accessible to the illiterate, and they are deeply symbolic. Images are often deliberately deformed, conventional, there is an effect of the so-called reverse perspective for greater impact at the viewer. In addition to icons, the fine art of the Middle Ages is also represented by paintings, mosaics, miniatures, and stained glass.
The basis of musical culture was liturgical singing, praising God in melodies, and then hymns, combining poetic text with a song melody. Canonized music - Gregorian chant- also included chants intended for all services of the church calendar. Another layer of music is associated with the ideology of chivalry (the courtly lyrics of troubadours) and the work of professional minstrel musicians.
In the developed Middle Ages, applied art achieved significant success: carpet making, bronze casting, enamel, book miniatures.
In general, medieval art is characterized by: sincere veneration of the Divine, typification, the absolute opposition of good and evil, deep symbolism, subordination of art to extra-aesthetic, religious ideals, hierarchy, traditionalism, underdevelopment of the personal principle - at the same time, medieval culture expresses the unfrozen forever the state of man and his world, but a living movement. Dynamics cultural development largely determines the interaction and competition between official and popular cultures. In general, medieval culture had integrity; there was an authoritarian value system; dogmatism reigned; she was characterized by a craving for All-Unity (“the city of God on earth”) through the existing fragmentation of existence; Christian universality of man opposed national class limitations; Along with renunciation of the world, there was a desire for a violent worldwide transformation of the world. Man began to turn to himself, and not just to God, but in full this greatest progressive revolution in the history of mankind occurred during the Renaissance, prepared by the Middle Ages.
Byzantium occupied a special place in medieval Europe. At the dawn of the Middle Ages, she remained the only custodian of Hellenistic cultural traditions. But Byzantium significantly transformed the legacy of late antiquity, creating art style, already entirely belonging to the spirit and letter of the Middle Ages.
Moreover, from all the medieval European art it was the Byzantine that was most orthodox Christian. In Byzantine artistic culture, two principles are fused: magnificent showmanship and refined spiritualism. The East had a significant influence on the culture of Byzantium. In turn, Byzantium significantly influenced the culture of Southern and Eastern Europe, especially Russia.

The term “Middle Ages” was introduced by humanists around 1500. This is how they designated the millennium that separated them from the “golden age” of antiquity.

Medieval culture is divided into periods:

1.V century AD - XI century n. e. - early Middle Ages.

2.End of the 8th century. AD - beginning of the 9th century AD - Carolingian revival.

Z.XI - XIII centuries. – culture of the mature Middle Ages.

4.XIV-XV centuries. - culture of the late Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages is a period the beginning of which coincided with the withering away of ancient culture, and the end with its revival in modern times. The early Middle Ages include two outstanding cultures– the culture of the Carolingian Renaissance and Byzantium. They gave rise to two great cultures - Catholic (Western Christian) and Orthodox (Eastern Christian). Medieval culture spans more than a millennium and, in socio-economic terms, corresponds to the origin, development and decay of feudalism. In this historically long socio-cultural process of development of feudal society, a unique type of human relationship to the world was developed, qualitatively distinguishing it both from the culture of ancient society and from the subsequent culture of modern times.

The term "Carolingian Renaissance" describes the cultural upsurge in the empire of Charlemagne and the kingdoms of the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th–9th centuries. (mainly in France and Germany). He expressed himself in the organization of schools, the attraction of educated figures to the royal court, and the development of literature, fine arts, and architecture. The dominant direction of medieval philosophy was scholasticism(“school theology”).

Should identify the origins of medieval culture:

The culture of the “barbarian” peoples of Western Europe (the so-called German origin);

Cultural traditions of the Western Roman Empire (Romanesque beginning: powerful statehood, law, science and art);

Christianity.

The culture of Rome was assimilated during its conquest by the “barbarians” and interacted with the traditional pagan tribal culture of the peoples of Northwestern Europe. The interaction of these principles gave impetus to the formation of Western European culture itself.

The conditions for the formation of medieval culture were as follows:

Feudal form of ownership, based on the personal and land dependence of peasants on vassal landowners;

Estate-hierarchical structure of society (vassal service to the overlord);

The process of endless wars that carried a sense of the tragedy of human life;

The spiritual atmosphere of the era, where the traditions of the “lost” ancient culture, Christianity and the spiritual culture of barbarian tribes (heroic epic) were peculiarly intertwined.

Medieval culture was formed under the dominance of a subsistence economy in the closed world of a rural estate and the underdevelopment of commodity-money relations. Subsequently, the urban environment, burghers, craft production, and trade increasingly became the social basis of culture. The process of technical development was also underway: the use of water and windmills, lifts for the construction of temples, etc. Machines became increasingly widespread, preparing the emergence of a “new” Europe.

Characteristic feature The Middle Ages was the idea of ​​class division of society. The concept of “estate” is given a special meaning and value, because behind this term there is the thought of a divinely established order. In the medieval picture of the world, a central place was occupied by social groups, which were a reflection of the heavenly throne, where angelic beings formed a hierarchy of “nine ranks of angels” grouped into a triad. The earthly order corresponded to this - the three main classes of feudal society : clergy, knighthood, people.

In the Middle Ages, the transition began from a slave society to a feudal hierarchy of lords and vassals, from the ethics of statehood to the ethics of personal service. A significant difference in medieval society was the lack of personal freedom. In the early periods of the Middle Ages, each person was doomed to live up to his prescribed role social order. There was no social mobility, since there was no way for a person to move up the social ladder from one class to another, and, moreover, it was practically impossible to move from one city to another, from one country to another. A person had to stay where he was born. Often he could not even dress the way he liked. At the same time, since the social system was considered as a natural order, a person, being a certain part of this order, had confidence in his safety. There was relatively little competition. At birth, a person found himself in an established environment, which guaranteed him a certain standard of living that had already become traditional.

The uniqueness of medieval culture was most clearly manifested in folk festivals, including carnivals, from which the culture of laughter was born. This cultural and psychological phenomenon was associated with the fact that people had a natural need for psychological relief, for carefree fun after hard work, which resulted in parodic ridicule of the vices of Christian culture. The presence of folk culture represents ideological opposition to orthodox Christianity.

You can select the main features of the spiritual culture of the Middle Ages:

The dominance of the Christian religion;

Traditionalism, retrospectiveness - the main tendency is “the more ancient, the more authentic”, “innovation is a manifestation of pride”;

Symbolism - the text of the Bible was the object of reflection and interpretation;

Didacticism - figures of medieval culture, primarily preachers and teachers of theology;

universality, encyclopedic knowledge - the main advantage of a thinker is erudition (creation of “sums”);

Reflexivity, self-absorption - confession plays a big role;

Hierarchy of the spiritual sphere (the relationship between faith and reason); As experimental knowledge accumulated, Augustine’s credo “I believe in order to understand” was supplanted by P. Abelard’s principle “I understand in order to believe,” which significantly prepared the ground for the development of the natural sciences.

In the XI-XIII centuries. There has been a certain economic and cultural upswing in Europe. It was at this time that those processes began to mature (primarily the growth of urban culture) that made it a leader in global development in the future. The culture of the mature Middle Ages is the flowering of the Western Christian, Catholic cultural tradition, the “medieval classics.”

The structure of the culture of the mature Middle Ages was a complex system made up of four subcultures:

- "temple and monastery culture"

- "the culture of the castle and palace",

- "village culture"

- "culture of a medieval city."

The culture of the mature, “high” Middle Ages was characterized by secularization of culture- strengthening the non-religious, secular nature of culture.

At the same time, there was a process of accumulation of practical knowledge: XI-XIII centuries. - the era of the highest flowering of the Middle Ages, the discovery of stable forms social organization, new state formations, organically born with the awakening of national self-awareness. Young Europe found in this era a synthesis of trends, borrowings and traditions that, without merging with each other, influenced the worldview of medieval man. This is how it appeared Roman style- the first pan-European artistic style.

The essence of the synthesis found is in the combination of figurative expressiveness and patterned geometricity, simple-minded spontaneity and purely conventionality with sophisticated ornamentation and massive, sometimes crude monumentality. The term "Romanesque style" introduced by analogy with the term “Romance languages” and conditionally indicates continuity from Rome, covering the art of Western and Central Europe of the 11th-12th centuries. Architecture became a leading art during the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the truly grandiose construction of that time. The main creations of the Romanesque style that meet the needs of self-defense are the castle-fortress and the temple-fortress. Feudal castles were powerful structures with high stone walls, gates, and a high tower - a donjon.

The temple usually had the shape of an oblong cross with narrow sparse windows. Romanesque style temple architecture was based on roman basilica. Christian architecture, continuing the ancient tradition, used the structure of precisely such structures, as they were quite suitable for a temple designed to accommodate as many worshipers as possible in front of the altar. Buildings often looked harsh, simple and ponderous. The Romanesque style was sometimes endowed with such epithets as “common people”, “peasant”, and the Arabs considered it primitive. But it was precisely with this style that medieval Europe first said its true word in art, thereby asserting its historical identity and at the same time the organic continuity of the artistic heritage of antiquity.

The church and monasteries increasingly turned into profitable enterprises for the sale of positions, indulgences, sacred relics, etc. All this gave rise to criticism of the church, demands for its spiritual purification, which was expressed in the emergence of numerous movements that the Catholic Church hastened to declare heretical and exterminate. In the fight against them, a type of monasticism was born - Dominican Order, he was granted extraordinary powers by the Pope to eradicate heresy. In the XII-XIII centuries, when social contradictions reached particular severity, the “bright” Christian ideal was replaced by the image of a militant Christian, a fierce persecutor of all dissent, which was expressed in the activities of the Inquisition, in the organization crusades not only against non-believers, but also against Christians, in which a monk with a cross and a sword participated along with the knight-crusader.

In the XI-XIII centuries. an image of the ideal appears knight with a kind of “code of honor”, ​​reflected in heroic epics, chivalric novels, historical chronicles, and recorded in the eight-pointed knight’s cross and the coat of arms of spiritual knightly orders. The knight, as a rule, came from ancient family, but they were also knighted for military exploits. The knight required strength and courage. He had to constantly care about glory, which required tireless confirmation of his military qualities, and, consequently, new tests and exploits. The "knight errant" becomes a familiar element of medieval life. Crusades XI-XIII centuries. turned out to be in tune with knightly morality. The most important knightly virtue was loyalty - to God, the overlord, the word, which gave rise to vows and oaths until the “set goal was achieved.” The knight had to be distinguished by the unique beauty of an athlete, which, along with the beauty of his costume, armor, horse decoration, etc. matched his social status. The immutable quality of a knight should have been generosity towards his equal. Stinginess led to loss of honor and position in society. It was not so much victory that brought glory to the knight, but noble behavior in battle. A mandatory attribute of the code of honor was service to the “Beautiful Lady.” “Fight and love” is the knight’s motto. With the aim of ennobling morals, elevating the soul, it develops code of courtly love. At the center of this model of “refined love” is a married woman - the Lady. In her honor, the knight had to perform feats, win tournaments, remain faithful during long separations, and clothe his feelings in aesthetic forms of courtship. Formed courtly culture- the aristocratic cult of the beautiful lady.

Courtly love, condemned by the church, grew out of the Christian postulate of love as suffering. She responded to the needs of her time - to rehabilitate earthly love, which the church considered base and sinful. However, under the superficial courtly gloss often lurked wild morals, a fundamentally rough knightly life, full of violence, cruelty and treachery.

The most important element of medieval culture was literature. Medieval literature wears religious character , the predominant works are built on biblical myths, dedicated to God, and the lives of saints; they are written in Latin. Secular literature is the embodiment of ideal ideas about man. The main genres are epics, lyrics, novels. The so-called chivalric literature, glorifying the spirit of war, vassal structure, worship of a beautiful lady.

The idealized, elevated image of the knight remained largely unclaimed in real life, but at the same time had a great influence on the formation of knightly literature of the Middle Ages, which was usually built on secular motives, alien to official church morality, and is closely connected with the traditions of oral folk art. This is clearly visible in the knightly heroic epic - the Spanish "Song of Cid", the French "Song of Roland", the German "Song of the Nibelungs". These later versions of folk legends that arose in the early Middle Ages widely introduce themes of impeccable courtly love, the struggle for faith, and the fulfillment of vassal duty, where reality is fancifully combined with a fairy-tale flavor. The same motives permeate knightly "novels", told in poetry and prose about the legendary King Arthur and his companions, about the brave and gallant knight Lancelot, about the unfortunate lovers Tristan and Isolde, about virtues, adventures and fights. Romance- presenter literary genre mature Middle Ages. The mental model of the Middle Ages, embedded in these works, simultaneously embraced the vision of the world characteristic of warriors, and at the same time assumed a simplified dualism, the opposition of two opposites. The entire spiritual life of people of that time was concentrated around the confrontation between good and evil, virtues and vices of soul and body. This story line had extraordinary success in the Middle Ages: virtues turned into knights in romantic works, and vices into monsters.

With all the diversity and contradictory themes of knightly literature, its class limitations, deep humanity often emerges in it, which contributed to the creation of enduring artistic values. This is poetry of the troubadours(from French to invent, to compose), which reflected the economic and cultural rise of Southern France (Provence and Languedoc) in the 12th century. Among the troubadours there were representatives of different classes, but most often - knights . Troubadours are poets and singers of courtly culture. At the center of Provençal poetry is love passion, awakening bright feelings, harmony of life and joy, but war was not alien to it. At the same time, the militant knightly lyrics did not hide their contemptuous attitude towards the people.

The poetry of the troubadours resonated in the 13th century. in the north of France in creativity Trouvères(French: find, invent) and especially in Germany, in Minnesingers(German singer of love). In their poetry, the idea of ​​combining the knightly-Christian ideal and secular worldview was further developed, and an attempt was even made to go beyond the boundaries of courtly knighthood. Since the 15th century courtly literature is in decline: the time of chivalry is over, and after another two centuries, chivalric novels will become the target of caustic ridicule by humanists.

Folk culture The Middle Ages was a carnival and laughter culture. Folk holidays resulted in carnival processions, “feasts of fools”, etc., where pagan traditions were traced and a grotesque attitude towards the surrounding world was manifested. During the Middle Ages, theatrical performances were an integral part of folk fair culture or an addition to church services. First appeared liturgical drama- short dramatizations on the theme of the birth and Resurrection of Christ, shown in the church during festive services - liturgies. In the XIII-XIV centuries. arose miracle- a genre of religious plays about miracles. The top medieval theater it is generally accepted mystery- a medieval theatrical performance, a spiritual drama that took plots from the Holy Scriptures.

The term “Middle Ages” was introduced by humanists around 1500. This is how they designated the millennium that separated them from the “golden age” of antiquity.

Medieval culture is divided into periods:

1. V century AD - XI century n. e. - early Middle Ages.

2. End of the 8th century. AD - beginning of the 9th century AD - Carolingian revival.

Z. XI - XIII centuries. - culture of the mature Middle Ages.

4. XIV-XV centuries. - culture of the late Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages is a period the beginning of which coincided with the withering away of ancient culture, and the end with its revival in modern times. The early Middle Ages include two outstanding cultures - the culture of the Carolingian Renaissance and Byzantium. They gave rise to two great cultures - Catholic (Western Christian) and Orthodox (Eastern Christian).

Medieval culture spans more than a millennium and, in socio-economic terms, corresponds to the origin, development and decay of feudalism. In this historically long socio-cultural process of development of feudal society, a unique type of human relationship to the world was developed, qualitatively distinguishing it both from the culture of ancient society and from the subsequent culture of modern times.

The term "Carolingian Renaissance" describes the cultural upsurge in the empire of Charlemagne and the kingdoms of the Carolingian dynasty in the 8th-9th centuries. (mainly in France and Germany). He expressed himself in the organization of schools, the attraction of educated figures to the royal court, and the development of literature, fine arts, and architecture. Scholasticism (“school theology”) became the dominant direction of medieval philosophy.

The origins of medieval culture should be outlined:

The culture of the “barbarian” peoples of Western Europe (the so-called German origin);

Cultural traditions of the Western Roman Empire (Romanesque beginning: powerful statehood, law, science and art);

The Crusades significantly expanded not only economic, trade contacts and exchanges, but also contributed to the penetration of the more developed culture of the Arab East and Byzantium into barbarian Europe. At the height of the Crusades Arabic science began to play a huge role in Christendom, contributing to the rise of medieval culture in Europe in the 12th century. The Arabs passed on to Christian scholars Greek science, accumulated and preserved in eastern libraries, which was greedily absorbed by enlightened Christians. The authority of pagan and Arab scientists was so strong that references to them were almost obligatory in medieval science; Christian philosophers sometimes attributed their original thoughts and conclusions to them.

As a result of long-term communication with the population of the more cultured East, Europeans adopted many of the cultural and technological achievements of the Byzantine and Muslim world. This gave a strong impetus to the further development of Western European civilization, which was reflected primarily in the growth of cities and the strengthening of their economic and spiritual potential. Between the X and XIII centuries. There was a rise in the development of Western cities, and their image changed.

One function prevailed - trade, which revived the old cities and created a little later the craft function. The city became a hotbed of hatred for the lords economic activity, which led, to a certain extent, to population migration. From a variety of social elements the city created a new society, contributed to the formation of a new mentality, which consisted in choosing an active, rational life, rather than a contemplative one. The flourishing of the urban mentality was favored by the emergence of urban patriotism. Urban society was able to create aesthetic, cultural, and spiritual values, which gave new impetus to the development of the medieval West.

Romanesque art, which was an expressive manifestation of early Christian architecture, throughout the 12th century. began to transform. The old Romanesque churches became too crowded for the growing population of the cities. It was necessary to make the church spacious, full of air, while saving expensive space inside the city walls. Therefore, cathedrals stretch upward, often hundreds or more meters. For the townspeople, the cathedral was not just a decoration, but also an impressive evidence of the power and wealth of the city. Along with the town hall, the cathedral was the center and focus of all public life.

The town hall housed the business and practical part related to city government, and in the cathedral, in addition to divine services, university lectures were given, theatrical performances (mysteries) took place, and sometimes parliament met there. Many city cathedrals were so large that the entire population of the then city could not fill it. Cathedrals and town halls were erected by order of city communes. Due to the high cost building materials, the complexity of the work itself, the temples were sometimes built over several centuries. The iconography of these cathedrals expressed the spirit of urban culture.

In her, active and contemplative life sought balance. Huge windows with colored glass (stained glass) created a flickering twilight. Massive semicircular vaults gave way to pointed, rib vaults. In combination with a complex support system, this made it possible to make the walls light and openwork. The evangelical characters in the sculptures of the Gothic temple acquire the grace of courtly heroes, smiling coquettishly and suffering “subtly.”

Gothic - artistic style, predominantly architectural, which reached its greatest development in the construction of light, pointed, skyward cathedrals with pointed vaults and rich decorative decoration, became the pinnacle of medieval culture. Overall, it was a triumph of engineering and the dexterity of guild artisans, an invasion of the Catholic church by the secular spirit of urban culture. Gothic is associated with the life of a medieval city-commune, with the struggle of cities for independence from the feudal lord. Like Romanesque art, Gothic art spread throughout Europe, and its best creations were created in the cities of France.

Changes in architecture led to changes in monumental painting. The place of the frescoes was taken stained glass. The Church established canons in the image, but even through them it made itself felt creative individuality masters In terms of their emotional impact, the subjects of stained glass paintings, conveyed through drawing, are in last place, and in the first place are color and, along with it, light. The design of the book has achieved great skill. In the XII-XIII centuries. manuscripts of religious, historical, scientific or poetic content are elegantly illustrated color miniature.

Of the liturgical books, the most common are books of hours and psalms, intended mainly for the laity. The artist had no concept of space and perspective, so the drawing is schematic and the composition is static. The beauty of the human body was not given any importance in medieval painting. Spiritual beauty came first, moral character person. The sight of a naked body was considered sinful. Particular importance was attached to the face in the appearance of a medieval person. The medieval era created grandiose artistic ensembles, solved gigantic architectural problems, created new forms of monumental painting and plastic arts, and most importantly, it was a synthesis of these monumental arts, in which it sought to convey a complete picture of the world .

The shift in the center of gravity of culture from monasteries to cities was especially clearly evident in the field of education. During the 12th century. City schools are decisively ahead of monastery schools. New training centers, thanks to their programs and methods, and most importantly - the recruitment of teachers and students, are very quickly coming forward.

Students from other cities and countries gathered around the most brilliant teachers. As a result, it begins to create high school - university. In the 11th century The first university was opened in Italy (Bologna, 1088). In the 12th century. Universities are also emerging in other Western European countries. In England, the first was the university in Oxford (1167), then the university in Cambridge (1209). The largest and first of the universities in France was Paris (1160).

Studying and teaching science becomes a craft, one of the many activities that have been specialized in urban life. The name university itself comes from the Latin “corporation”. Indeed, universities were corporations of teachers and students. The development of universities with their traditions of debate, like main form education and movement of scientific thought, appearance in the XII-XIII centuries. A large amount of translated literature from Arabic and Greek became a stimulus for the intellectual development of Europe.

Universities represented the concentration of medieval philosophy - scholastics. The method of scholasticism consisted in the consideration and collision of all arguments and counterarguments of any position and in the logical development of this position. The old dialectics, the art of debate and argumentation, are receiving extraordinary development. A scholastic ideal of knowledge is emerging, where rational knowledge and logical proof, based on the teachings of the church and on authorities in various branches of knowledge, acquire a high status.

Mysticism, which had a significant influence in the culture as a whole, is accepted very cautiously in scholasticism, only in connection with alchemy and astrology. Until the 13th century. scholasticism was the only possible way to improve the intellect because science was subordinate to theology and served it. The scholastics were credited with developing formal logic and the deductive way of thinking, and their method of knowledge was nothing more than the fruit of medieval rationalism. The most recognized of the scholastics, Thomas Aquinas, considered science to be the “handmaiden of theology.” Despite the development of scholasticism, it was universities that became centers of a new, non-religious culture.

At the same time, there was a process of accumulation of practical knowledge, which was transferred in the form of production experience in craft workshops and workshops. Many discoveries and finds were made here, mixed with mysticism and magic. The process of technical development was expressed in the appearance and use of windmills and lifts for the construction of temples.

A new and extremely important phenomenon was the creation of non-church schools in cities: these were private schools, financially independent of the church. Since that time, there has been a rapid spread of literacy among the urban population. Urban non-church schools became centers of free thought. Poetry became the mouthpiece of such sentiments vagrants- wandering school poets, people from the lower classes. A feature of their work was the constant criticism of the Catholic Church and the clergy for greed, hypocrisy, and ignorance. The Vagantes believed that these qualities, common to the common man, should not be inherent in the holy church. The Church, in turn, persecuted and condemned the vagants.

The most important monument of English literature of the 12th century. - famous Ballads of Robin Hood, which to this day remains one of the most famous heroes world literature.

Developed urban culture. The poetic short stories depicted dissolute and selfish monks, dull peasant villans, and cunning burghers (“The Romance of the Fox”). Urban art was nourished by peasant folklore and was distinguished by great integrity and organicity. It was on urban soil that they appeared music and theater with their touching dramatizations of church legends and instructive allegories.

The city contributed to the growth of productive forces, which gave impetus to development natural sciences. English encyclopedist R. Bacon(XIII century) believed that knowledge should be based on experience, and not on authorities. But the emerging rationalistic ideas were combined with the search by alchemical scientists for the “elixir of life”, the “philosopher’s stone”, and with the aspirations of astrologers to predict the future by the movement of the planets. At the same time, they made discoveries in the field of natural sciences, medicine, and astronomy. Scientific research gradually contributed to changes in all aspects of the life of medieval society and prepared the emergence of a “new” Europe.

The culture of the Middle Ages is characterized by:

Theocentrism and creationism;

Dogmatism;

Ideological intolerance;

Suffering renunciation of the world and craving for a violent worldwide transformation of the world in accordance with the idea (crusades)

The history of the Middle Ages in Europe covers the period from the 5th to the middle of the 17th century, within the period the following stages can be distinguished: a) early Middle Ages: V - 11th centuries; b) developed Middle Ages: XI - XV centuries; c) late Middle Ages: XVI - mid-XVII century.

The term “Middle Ages” (from the Latin medium aevum - hence the name of the science that studies the Middle Ages, medieval studies) arose in Italy during the Renaissance among humanists who believed that this time was a period of cultural decline, as opposed to the high rise of culture in the ancient world and in new time.

The Middle Ages were a time of feudalism, when humanity made significant progress in the development of material and spiritual culture, and the area of ​​civilization expanded.

Feudal society is characterized by: 1) the dominance of large land ownership; 2) a combination of large land ownership with small individual farming of direct producers - peasants who were only land holders, and not owners; 3) non-economic coercion in various forms: from serfdom to class inferiority.

Feudal property (from Latin - feodum) is hereditary land property associated with compulsory military service. In medieval society, a hierarchy emerged with a large role for personal vassal-feudal connections.

The state went through different stages: the early feudal period was characterized by large but loose empires; for the developed Middle Ages - small entities, class monarchies; for the late Middle Ages - absolute monarchies.

Feudal law protected the monopoly of land ownership of feudal lords, their rights to the personality of peasants, to judicial and political power over them.

Religious ideology and the church played a huge role in society.

Thus, the features of feudal production gave rise to specific features of the social structure, political, legal and ideological systems.

The main features of medieval culture are: 1) the dominance of religion, a God-centric worldview; 2) rejection of the ancient cultural tradition; 3) denial of hedonism; 4) asceticism; 5)

increased attention to the inner world of a person, his spirituality; c) conservatism, commitment to antiquity, a tendency to stereotypes in material and spiritual life; 7) elements of dual faith (Christianity and paganism) in the popular consciousness; 8) fetishization of works of art; 9) internal inconsistency of culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the opposition between scientific and folk culture, the relationship between secular and spiritual, church authorities, the duality of value orientations (spirituality and physicality, good and evil, fear of sin and sin); 10) hierarchical culture, in which one can distinguish the culture of the clergy, knightly culture, urban culture, folk, mainly rural culture; 11) corporatism: the dissolution of a person’s personal beginning in a social group, for example, an estate.

Medieval European culture developed on the ruins of the Roman Empire. In the early Middle Ages, the decline of culture, which had already taken place in late Rome, deepened. The barbarians destroyed cities that were the concentration of cultural life, roads, irrigation structures, monuments of ancient art, libraries, agrarianization of society took place with the dominance of a natural economy, commodity-money relations were undeveloped.

The Church established a monopoly on education and intellectual activity for many centuries. All areas of knowledge were subordinated to church-feudal ideology. Possessing a strong organization and established doctrine during the time of political decentralization, the church also had powerful means of propaganda.

The essence of the church worldview was the recognition of earthly life as temporary, “sinful”; material life, human nature were opposed to “eternal” existence. As an ideal of behavior that ensures afterlife bliss, the church preached humility, asceticism, strict observance of church rituals, submission to masters, and faith in miracles. Reason, science, and philosophy were despised, which were opposed to faith, although individual elements of philosophical and secular knowledge were borrowed from the ancient heritage. The education system: the so-called “seven liberal arts of antiquity” was divided into the lower - “trivium” (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and the highest - “quadrivium” (geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music parts). The works of ancient authors were used: Aristotle, Cicero, Pythagoras, Euclid, but to a limited extent. The authority of the Holy Scriptures was placed above all sciences. In general, the knowledge system of the Middle Ages was characterized by the following features: 1) universalism; 2) encyclopedism; 3) allegorism; 4) exegesis (Greek interpretation) - the ability to interpret and give a religious explanation of the Bible.

The universe (space) was viewed as a creation of God, doomed to destruction. A geocentric system prevailed with different spheres, hell and the seat of God. Each material object was considered as a symbol of the hidden and ideal world, and the task of science is to reveal these symbols. Hence the refusal to study the true connections of things with the help of experience. Symbolism left its mark on the entire medieval culture. Words were believed to explain the nature of things. The direct realistic perception of the world in art and literature was often clothed in the form of symbols and allegories.

Feudal-church culture was opposed by folk culture. It was rooted in pre-feudal antiquity and is associated with barbaric cultural heritage, pagan myths, beliefs, legends, and holidays. These traditions, preserved among the peasantry throughout the Middle Ages, were permeated with pagan religious ideas, alien to the dark asceticism of Christianity, its distrust of living nature: it was seen not only as a formidable force, but also as a source of life’s blessings and earthly joys. The people's worldview was characterized by naive realism. The forms of folk art are varied: fairy tales, legends, songs. Folk tales formed the basis of the epic (the Irish epic about the hero Cuchulainn, the Icelandic epic - the "Elder Edda", the Anglo-Saxon epic - the poem "Beowulf"). The exponents and bearers of the musical and poetic creativity of the people were mimes and histrions, and from the 11th century, jugglers in France, huglars in Spain, shpilmans in Germany, wandering throughout Europe.

The art of the early Middle Ages lost many of the achievements of antiquity: sculpture and the image of man in general disappeared almost completely; Stone processing skills were forgotten; in architecture, wooden architecture predominated. The art of this period is characterized by: barbarization of taste and attitude; cult of physical strength; display of wealth; at the same time, he was characterized by a living, direct sense of material, especially manifested in jewelry and bookmaking, where complex ornamentation and “animal” style dominated. Under primitivism, barbarian art was dynamic, its main means of representation was color. Bright objects created a sense of materiality, corresponding to a barbaric sensual vision and perception of the world, far from Christian church asceticism.

In the early Middle Ages in the 7th - 9th centuries, there was a certain rise in feudal-ecclesiastical culture at the court of Charlemagne (768 - 814) - the so-called “Carolingian Renaissance”, caused by the need for literate people to manage the empire. Schools were opened at monasteries and for the laity, educated people from other countries were invited, ancient manuscripts were collected, stone construction began, but this rise in culture was fragile and short-lived.

The advanced Middle Ages were marked by significant urban growth and the emergence of universities.

The emergence of cities as centers of craft and trade meant a new stage in the development of medieval culture. The prerequisites for the growth of cities were the intensive development of commodity production and money circulation on the basis of private property. There was a need for literate people; production gave rise to interest in experimental knowledge and its accumulation; The townspeople are characterized by an active perception of life, sober calculation, and efficiency, which contributed to the development of a rationalistic type of thinking; mental demands and interests grew and, accordingly, the craving for secular education. The monopoly of the church on education was broken, although the church dominated ideology. City schools successfully competed with monastery schools.

Cities grew due to the influx of peasants who fled from their masters or were released on quitrent. In terms of population, medieval cities were small; in the XIV - XV centuries, those of them with a population of 20 thousand people were considered large. The population of the cities actively fought for their independence from the feudal lords: the cities were either bought off or gained independence through armed struggle. Many cities became communes, that is, they had the right to conduct an independent foreign policy, have their own self-government, mint coins, and all citizens were free from serfdom. In essence, they were city-states reminiscent of an ancient polis. The urban population, or the “third estate,” became the spiritual leader and the predominant bearer of culture.

With the development of urban culture, secular education appears and universities emerge (from the Latin universitas - association, community). In 1088, on the basis of the Bologna Law School, the University of Bologna was opened, in 1167 the University of Oxford began to operate in England, in 1209 - the University of Cambridge, in France in 1160 the University of Paris was opened.

In total, by the end of the 15th century there were 65 universities in Europe (besides Italy, France, England, universities appeared in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland). Teaching at universities was conducted in Latin, which became the European language of culture. A common language and religion created a certain cultural unity in Europe, despite feudal fragmentation and political conflicts. The main faculties (from the Latin facultas - opportunity) were the junior faculties, where they studied the “seven liberal arts of antiquity,” and the senior faculties, where they studied theology, law, and medicine.

In its refined form, spiritual culture was expressed in philosophy. In the course of philosophical debates, the main directions of medieval scholasticism (from the Latin schola - school) emerged. Two main directions arose: “nominalism” (from the Latin nomina - name), which believed that only individual things objectively exist, accessible to human sensations, and general concepts - “universals” - do not really exist, nominalism was the embryo of materialism; "realism", which believed that only general concepts - "universals" - really exist; individual things were considered only as a generation and imperfect reflection of these concepts. The main question of scholasticism was the question of the relationship of knowledge to faith. The problem of the relationship between faith and reason is embodied in literature, fine art, and music. The religious worldview, as the core of spiritual culture, and the Christian God, as the basis of the moral world of medieval man, determined the subordinate role of philosophy in relation to religion.

Thomas Aquinas (1225/26 - 1274), the greatest scholastic philosopher, argued that philosophy and science are the handmaidens of theology, since faith surpasses reason in human existence. He argued this by the fact that, firstly, the human mind continually makes mistakes, while faith is based on the absolute truthfulness of God, and, secondly, faith is given to every person, and the possession of scientific and philosophical knowledge, which requires intense mental activity, is available not everyone.

An outstanding scholastic was Pierre Abelard (1079 - 1142) - a French philosopher, theologian and poet, a bright exponent of freethinking who opposed extreme forms of both nominalism and realism. His freethinking was based on the priority of reason over faith: “understanding in order to believe.” He was declared a heretic and banned from teaching and writing.

Along with scholasticism, in the Middle Ages there were other directions of philosophy and theology, in particular mysticism. Mystics rejected the need to study Aristotle and use logical proofs of faith. They believed that religious doctrines were learned not through reason and science, but through intuition, insight or “contemplation,” prayer and vigils. Denying the role of reason in knowledge of the world and God, the mystics were more reactionary than the scholastics. But democratic sentiments were strong among them: mystical sects were critical of the feudal system and preached the need to establish the “kingdom of God on earth” without private property, inequality, and exploitation. Among the mystics one can single out Bernard of Clairvaux, Johannes Tauler, and Thomas à Kempis.

In medieval Europe, although slowly, science and technology developed. Thus, Oxford professor Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294), based on the fact that experience is the basis of knowledge, created the “Great Work” - an encyclopedia of that time. In medieval science, alchemy developed, which expressed the connection between crafts, religion, mysticism, magic, and the occult. Alchemy preceded the emergence of experimental natural science.

The Arab-Islamic civilization, in particular, the works of Al-Biruni (980 - 1048), Ibn Sina (980 - 1037), had a significant influence on European philosophy and science.

In the Middle Ages, inventions were made that influenced the entire subsequent life of society: the invention of gunpowder, paper, printing, glasses, and a compass. Of particular importance was printing, which was started in Europe by Johannes Guttenberg (1400 - 1468), which contributed to the development of national literatures, the unification of spelling and, accordingly, education, science, and culture.

In the 12th - 13th centuries, Latin-language literature flourished, in particular, the poetry of vagantes (from Latin vagary - to wander). National literature is developing, in particular, an epic is being written down: French - “The Song of Roland”, Spanish - “Song of Cid”, German - “Song of the Nibelungs”. Knightly literature is being formed: secular lyrical poetry of the troubadours, glorifying “courtly love” (from the Old French - courtier), chivalric novels. There is an interest in the person’s personality and his feelings. Urban literature is developing in national languages: for example, “The Novel about the Fox” and “The Novel about the Rose” were created in French; the forerunner of the Renaissance in France was François Villon (1431 - 1461). Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400) is considered the father of English literature, who created a collection of poems in the English vernacular, The Canterbury Tales.

In medieval Europe, the place of art was controversial. Art was seen as the Bible for the illiterate. The main task of art is to strengthen religious feelings, to reveal the images of the Holy Scriptures; works, as a rule, are anonymous. What is required from the artist is not realism, but the disclosure of ideas of divine holiness. The transition from the space of the outer world to the inner space of the human spirit is the main goal of art. It is expressed by Augustine’s famous phrase: “do not wander outside, but go inside yourself.” Christian ideology rejected the ideals that inspired ancient artists: the joy of being, sensuality, physicality, truthfulness, the glorification of man, aware of himself as a beautiful element of the cosmos - it destroyed the ancient harmony of body and spirit, man and the earthly world.

Architecture became the most important form of art, embodied in two styles: Romanesque and Gothic. Romanesque architecture is distinguished by its massiveness and squatness, its task is the humility of man, his suppression against the backdrop of the monumental grandeur of the universe, of God. Since the 12th century, the Gothic style has emerged, the features of which are upward direction, pointed arches, and stained glass windows. V. Hugo called Gothic “a symphony in stone.” Unlike the harsh, monolithic, imposing Romanesque temples, Gothic cathedrals are decorated with carvings and decorations, many sculptures, they are full of light, directed towards the sky, their towers rose up to 150 m. The ancient temple was considered the place of life of God, religious ceremonies took place outside, and the medieval the temple was perceived as a place of communication for the religious community and special attention was paid to the interior decoration.

In painting, the main genre was iconography. Painting acted as a silent sermon, “speculation in colors.” Icons were seen as an emotional connection with God, accessible to the illiterate, and they are deeply symbolic. Images are often deliberately deformed, conventional, there is an effect of so-called reverse perspective for a greater impact on the viewer. In addition to icons, the fine art of the Middle Ages is also represented by paintings, mosaics, miniatures, and stained glass.

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 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 were the time of the formation, establishment and flourishing of feudalism, although its specific historical variants differed significantly. Ethnocultural reasons for 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 of the ancient world with the world of “barbarians”, in the combination of 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 new religion put ethical values ​​in 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 a 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, the desire for justice and much more, in a special way combining Christian virtues with military virtues.

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 of different levels of 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, canonization 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 and, above all, academic disciplines were adopted. 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 for 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 - institutions of higher education, which received 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 played an important role in preparing the ground for those changes that subsequently led to the formation of modern culture. 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 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. The clash of different points of view, 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 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, shining example what - 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, 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 the late period, quite a lot of geographical works appeared - descriptions compiled by travelers, updated maps and geographical atlases - the ground was 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. Medieval epic that was a phenomenon verbal creativity, at the same time, reflected the most important collective ideas: 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. Poetic tradition began to take shape in the early Middle Ages, but was most clearly manifested in 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 Round table. The well-known story about the tragic love of 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 chivalric romance had fallen into decline, and parodies of the chivalric romance began to appear within urban culture - picaresque novel ironically outlined 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 creativity French poet XV century 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. It is often possible to reduce how architecture is called the leading form of 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 arched system and numerous windows decorated with stained glass made it possible to create special interiors filled with light and air in Gothic buildings. 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 a collision different paintings world, in the interaction of dissimilar peoples, a cultural community and 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 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, and knowledge was also clothed in artistic forms.

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. The same ancient tradition Obviously, the close relationship between philosophy and natural science knowledge - medical, physical and chemical, mathematical and astronomical - is also due.

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. This is 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 it is necessary to name the attraction to the independence of individual parts and elements 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. Musical composition 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 of literary works were considered respected people, but still their talent and skills were valued lower than the talent of a writer.

From a formal point of view, the creativity 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 artistic 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 works of applied arts - weapons decorated with calligraphy and ornaments, carpets, clothing, and dishes. Now we can say that Koranic tales, poetic works, philosophical ideas, architectural structures and much more are an invaluable and unique contribution of the Arab-Muslim Middle Ages to world culture.