Chivalrous Confrontation
Model designed and created by Anton
Terra cotta
Élèves avec leur professeur (détail), miroir de la vie humaine 15e siècle © J.L Charmet.
Création des universités «Scène de vie d'écoliers». Moulage. Notre-Dame de Paris. 13th century.
Christianity breaks with antiquity and imposes itself as the new written monotheistic religion. The Western Church adopts Latin and adapts the Greco-Roman educational model to a Christian perspective. In monastic schools, instruction is reserved for monks who learn to read from Psalters. The illiterate masses receive instruction from sermons, sculptures and frescoes. In the period of medieval expansion that lasts until the 13th century, Europe is the site of technical innovations, land reclamation in the country, construction of towns and roads.
Trades form corporate guilds. The University demands similar corporate privileges as intellectual activities begin to be recognised as work.
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These are the thumbnails and texts for this alcove. They can be printed.
The Middle Ages, educating to form the faithful
Under the auspices of the Church, education was modelled on the teachings of Saint Augustine: the teacher's role was to help the student seek inner truth, that is to say divine knowledge, through questioning. But at the same time, the child was considered to be in an sinful state full of evil inclinations to be suppressed through education. Thus the Augustinian conception went hand in hand with a repressive system of pedagogy.
Some children were entrusted to patrons, others joined monasteries to learn how to read and copy. Education was based on Christianity and morality.
The contributions of Islam
In the 7th century, a new, monotheistic religion saw the light of day in the Middle East. During their conquests, Muslims flocked to major intellectual centres where Greek science and philosophy were taught. In addition to translating a considerable number of ancient texts, they furthered research in numerous scientific fields such as mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
The long-forgotten Greek texts were rediscovered in the late Middle Ages by European science, which incorporated these scientific innovations.
Universities
The first universities were founded in the 13th century. Theology and the arts, law, and logic and theology were taught at Paris, Bologna and Oxford respectively. Oxford’s masters, Grosseteste and Roger Bacon, laid the foundations of a renewed conception of knowledge. Grosseteste invented the optical lens, while Bacon devoted himself to linguistics. Apart from demonstrating that mathematics were indispensable for understanding nature, they paved the way for experimental science.
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The teaching of music
In the 11th century, a man by the name of Guy d’Arezzo invented notes and staves, whereupon it became possible to teach music. The basis of this teaching was the harmonic hand, in which the joints and extremities of the fingers correspond to the tones and half tones of the scale. In the Middle Ages, the use of the hand in teaching music and singing had gained wide acceptance as a training technique.
Knightly battles
The young knight had no intellectual training whatsoever. At 12, he was initiated into the art of war, which training continued until he was dubbed into knighthood. In time of peace, tournaments served as an outlet for pent-up energy, but it often degenerated into pure savagery. In 1240, 60 knights killed one another in the space of a single day. In the 14th and 15th centuries, tournaments were transformed into sporting events, and the nobleman became a courtly knight capable of learning good manners. |
