Re: Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages: Continuity or Discontinuity?

On Mar 25, 1:24 pm, VtSkier <VtSk...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Christopher Ingham wrote:
This new thread is an attempt to stimulate a discussion in the area of
ancient history, as the threads in this NG recently seem to have been
overwhelmingly about religious, mythological, and supernatural topics.

An offhand remark of mine in another thread, "The Middle Ages is not
particularly well-known as a period with a keen interest in classical
antiquity," was vehemently disputed by a medievalist.  I still
maintain
that the preserved corpus of ancient literature, apart from that of
early
Christian writers and such philosophical treatises that might be
applied
to theology, were on the whole ignored until the revival of classical
learning which commenced in the High Middle Ages.

Notwithstanding that this subject can be analyzed from a variety of
perspectives, and that ultimate evaluations can at most be
subjective,
it would be interesting to hear from others who either support or
oppose
this viewpoint.

Below is a quote, followed by some points I am presenting to bolster
my argument.

"The European Middle Ages is commonly understood as a northward
expansion of classical culture, primarily through the means of
Christianity.
At best, the Middle Ages are regarded as an innovative and energetic
recreation of classical culture -- a kind of preface to modernity.  At
worst,
the period is regarded as a cultural setback from the high point of
classical
culture in Greece and Rome, an often poor and superstitious
descendant
of that culture.  In the least friendly assessments of the European
Middle
Ages, the period is a kind of holding pattern, a temporary bathroom
break
on the way to the revival of classical culture in the fourteenth
century."
-- Richard Hooker

The knowledge of Greek in the West died out with shocking suddenness;
Augustine had only a rudimentary knowledge of the Greek language, and
translators such as Jerome and Rufinus were scarce. The few Greek
studies
were undertaken for the sake of theology or philosophy, and the
translation
of secular authors was rare; Calcidius' fourth-century version of the
Timaeus
was for eight centuries the only Latin translation of a Platonic
dialogue.

The period during which the Merovingian dynasty was in power was a
veritable dark age for learning, although there was not a complete
breach
with the past.  Under the influence of the Church the barbarian
invaders
endeavored to base their civilization on the Latin model, and since it
was
the language of the Church, Latin continued to be the language of
literature.
Under the protection of the Church learning survived in the monastic
schools,
and classical texts provided a grounding in grammar, a training in
logical
thought, and a philosophical premise for theology; but interest in
antiquity for
its own sake had little part in the early medieval ideal,

Prior to the revival of intellectualism beginning in the twelfth
century, there
was not much concern with science and reason, but with the
preservation
of the books -- the inscribed words.  Books were luxuries, treasures to
be
hoarded.  The Church and the monks working in the_scriptoria_viewed
the
work of copying as a kind of worship, a holy act, which was often
more
important than the effort to know and understand the text.  Church
leaders
wrote little on worldly topics, but concentrated on theology.  Many
clerics felt
that with the victory of the Church in Europe, history was no longer
important,
and progress was limited to being a symbol for the afterlife - the
fate of the
world. Outside the Church, the few literate noblemen and women often
wrote
poetry or prose in the chivalric tradition.

The Carolingian interlude, of course, was an exceptional period, a
time of
revived interest in classical literature.

Christopher Ingham

Just to add another tickler to what you said.

One might ask the question: Was the Carolingian interlude
somehow due to the influence of the Irish on the continent?

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/ihm/ire600.htm

There are other websites which refer to the "Golden Age
of Ireland" from approximately 600AD to the Viking attacks
in 900AD.

My study of history as presented in the schools I attended
usually focused on a time and place while ignoring what
was going on in the world elsewhere.

U.S. History, except for our attendance at various European
wars, largely ignores what was going on in Europe that had
some influence on what was going on here. Even European
fashion, which certainly influenced the U.S. was pretty
much ignored in classrooms and we simply saw pictures of
Americans with changing fashions which seemingly appeared
out of thin air.

At any rate, I think Ireland should be included in any
discussion of the time period as it was vitally important
to the rest of Europe.

Where did the scholars and learning appear from in the
Carolingian court? It wasn't Greece or the lands of
Islam. Scratch the surface and you'll probably find Irish.

The Irish were evidently employing scholarly methods quite early
on:

"Irish scholars beginning in the fifth century approached Latin as
a language to be acquired by learning to read books in school,
not from speaking [the local_lingua romana_] to parents in the
home. They soon developed methods for teaching it as a foreign
language. Latin thus was a written, learned language, not a living,
spoken one. They clung to traditional rules for spelling and
grammar, in sharp contrast to the fluid usages of native speakers
of the_lingua romana_." -- J.M.H. Smith,_Europe after Rome: A
New Cultural History, 500-1000_(New York: Oxford University
Press, 2005), 25

Christopher Ingham


.

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