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Mediaeval and
Renaissance

mediaeval & renaissance
(500 to 1500 A.D.)


This page is dedicated to a long and in many ways disjunct period of time. From the fall of Rome to the Age of Discovery, the story of mankind in the period of the so-called Middle Ages is one of violence and struggle, yet curiously also a tale of stability and preservation. In Europe, it is a period dominated by the Christian church and its efforts to create what was then seen as a perfect society, as indicated by the writings of (for instance) St. Augustine. The religious life and its imagery spilled over into the secular world, and very little was done without proper reference to God. In the later part of the period, the intellectual life of the church gave rise to a new group of erudite people, whose reappraisal of the ways of the world was to change them far beyond anything the Church had imagined or sanctioned.

In this period, my interests lie chiefly with the time of Charlemagne, the spread of Christianity, the Nordic countries of the 9th to 13th centuries, and the Italian Renaissance.


general links

Wallpaintings in Danish churches is a project of the University of Copenhagen History Institute, in the capable hands of Axel Bolvig. The project is an ambitious attempt to catalogue all Danish church frescos in a comprehensive database.

The Amsterdam Society for Medieval Studies has a well-stocked Dark Ages and Medieval page, devoted to the period from 800-1200 A.D., and concentrating on Northern Europe.

Medieval Scandinavia is a well-crafted page by Stine & Tom Bjørnstad

Secrets of the Norman Invasion is a quality site maintained by Nick Austin.

Dr. Klaus Graf, at the U. of Koblenz, has a fine German-language page titled Stadt-Adel-Region.

Joan's Witch Directory.

Regia Anglorum. Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman and British history subjects.

1066 Archive, a page devoted to the battle of Hastings.

Patrick Tingler's Medieval Web Resources FAQ

The Scottish Wars of Independence

Byzantine and Medieval Studies Sites

The ORB Library at rhodes.edu is a fine source of reference materials on mediaeval times.

Medieval history, with the help of Mining Co. guide Melissa Snell.


documents available on-line

Note: For additional documents, see my page on Historians and Philosophers of the Mediaeval and Renaissance Period.


Book recommendations:

Medieval Europe 400-1500 (History of Europe)
by Helmut Koenigsberger

The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History
by Colin McEvedy

The Black Death
by Philip Ziegler

...in association with Amazon.com


This page is the work of Peter Ravn Rasmussen.

Updated: August 27, 1998.

Go to Peter's homepage | Go to Peter's History page