Economic and Cultural Revival

The Crusades were a stepping stone in the cultural and technological advancement of Western civilization.

Agriculture

New heavier plow

– More soil open for cultivating

Collar harness replaces ox

yoke

– Horses can now plow (faster)

Three field crop rotation

– improved production

Trade

Rebirth of towns led to expansion

of trade, towns flourish.

Venice, Pisa and Genoa important

Mediterranean trading towns

– Silks and spices

Flanders

– textiles

– Center of trade in on north coast

Banking

Money economy arose out of convenience

and need for luxury goods merchants

Led to growth of banking

Feudal lords become dependent on money,

serfs become able to buy freedom

Decline in feudalism

Growth of towns

Towns grow up along well used

roads or waterways.

Stone walls protected against

marauding bandits

Narrow winding streets, no

sanitation, dirty, noisy, thatched

roofs fire prone, disease prone.

(Black Death)

Guilds

Merchant guilds

– Maintain local monopoly for members

– Foreign traders restricted

– Pricing uniform

Craft guilds

– Regulated work of artisans

– Price controls, advertising controls, standards of

quality

Craft guilds

Master craftsman

– Owned own shop and tools

Apprentice

– Worked for a master without pay to

learn craft

Journeyman

– Works for pay under a master

– Upon approval of masterpiece,

could become a master

Rise of middle class

Town (burg) leads to middle class

– Bourgeoisie

– Burgher

– burgesses

towns people derived wealth not from the land; merchants, bankers and artisans.

Kings depend on middle class for loans and tax income

Town government / feudal lords

Urban dwellers lived outside the feudal

system and resented paying taxes and

services to lords

Wanted their own government and laws

Feudal lords respond with strict enforcement

of feudal laws

Town government

Money economy gave towns income and

independence from lords

Italy

– Communes led to independent city states

Europe

– Charters granted by kings and nobles gave towns

self government

Education

Growth of towns led to need for more

educated officials. Development of courts

led to need for lawyers.

Monastery and cathedral schools

– Church music, theology and liberal arts: grammar,

rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy

and music

Universities

Universities

– Teacher read and discussed texts

– Students took notes and memorized

– Teacher’s guilds

– Bologna (law and medicine), University of Paris

(liberal arts)

Scholasticism

Reconcile classical philosophy (reason) with Church teachings (faith)

Peter Abelard – Sic et Non, showed both sides of

controversial topics

Thomas Aquinas – Summa Theologica, reason is a gift

from God

Literature and Art

Beowulf

Song of Roland

Divine Comedy

The Canterbury Tales

Romanesque,

Gothic architecture

Illuminated texts