Chapter 9 Section 4:
Learning, Literature and the Arts
Medieval Universities
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Better educated clergy
Cathedral schools  first universities
Academic guilds – rights of members and
standards
Student Life
Wake early and study
 Students memorize what they were taught
 Students take oral exams; the more study, the higher the
degree
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Women and Universities
 Not allowed to attend university
 Limits types of jobs and skills acquired
 Christine de Pizan –
 earned $ through writing  very unusual
“New Learning”
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Muslim manuscripts that were translated into
Latin are coming to Europe
Philosophy –
 Christians
believe on faith; Church is final
authority
 Scholasticism – reason used to support Christian
ideas
Muslim – Averroes and Jewish – Maimonides
 Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica = faith and
reason live in harmony
- Very little scientific advances; all knowledge must fit
with Church teaching
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Medieval Literature
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Vernacular – everyday language of common
people (begins to be the way people write)
Epics - long narrative poems
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Chansons de geste – songs of heroic deeds
 Song of Roland – knight dies killing Muslims
 El Cid
Dante’s Divine Comedy –
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Hell, purgatory and heaven
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Shows belief that people’s actions determine fate
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales
- follows pilgrims to Thomas Becket’s tomb; many
characters who tell a story each
Architecture and Art
Romanesque
Style
- About 1000
- Roman like
structure
- Long barrel like
roof
- Thick walls to
support heavy
roof
- No windows
- Dark and
gloomy
Gothic Style
- About 1140
- Flying buttresses
(stone supports
outside church)
- High walls (carries
eye towards heavens)
- Pointed arches
- Huge stained glass
windows
- People began to
build many –
gave inspiration
Art in Stone & Glass
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Carved sculptures portrays
scenes from Bible and
everyday life
Stained-glass windows
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Religious education for the
illiterate
Rose window (circle stained
glass window in front fascade)
Illuminated
manuscripts
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Gothic style applied to
painting and
illumination (artistic
decoration of books)
Contains designs and
paintings of biblical
scenes and daily life
Bold and brilliant
colors; detail