Medievalists.net

This is a site well worth looking at.

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages is available in an English translation - you can find it at http://www.italicapress.com/index165.html

Many thanks for the information! I certainly wonder why his Athens work has been ignored for so long?

After a quick look, I had better start saving my dollars! chuckle



Edited by opuslola - 02-Oct-2009 at 03:37

While I will try to view your site, I tend to agree with;
Aster Thrax Eupator, as to the justification of this designation. IE, prior to 1000 CE, there seems to be very little if any real information (real means original documents, and facts) concerning what many people of learning have, (nnot "originally") called this period after the fall of Western Rome, as the "Dark Ages!" Ase regards "Dark Ages" all of the ancient societies have them! Greece, Egypt, Syria / Assyria, Mesopatomia, Iran, etc. You sometimes have to recognize them in the literature called, "interregnums" or "intermediate periods!"

A historian, who is mostly unknown to the Western world today, with the name of Ferdinand Gregorovius, repeatedly belated the lack of real documents concerning the times before 1200 CE, etc. This was a man who really entered the dusty, moldy, rat infested holes there were called the "libraries" of Southern Europe. Mostly he found decay and very little of importance!

He actually wrote two series of epic books, one concerning the "History of Rome in the Middle Ages", and the other "The history of Athens during the Middle Ages!"

Unfortunately, for me at least, his histories or mostly only found in German and maybe Italian or Russian.

These books are even "infrequently" referred to by later scholars! Why?

Even the history of the Spanish "Catalan Company" and surrounding Iberian events, was only translated into English by a woman who was called or mayve named "Goodenough!" I would tend to support that the origin of this name is Slavic and might more correctly be "Gudenov!", or some variation thereof!



Edited by opuslola - 01-Oct-2009 at 16:00

I have just had a look at your site, there looks to be some great articals.

Lol! Conor Kostick is my teacher, I've had him all year for the Crusades. Great guy.

I just want to update you on what we have recently added to the site:

I have been noticing that scholars are now doing a lot of research that looks at periods like 1400 to 1800, or 1200-1700, so the idea of a medieval period for them seems old fashioned.   Since my first post, we did some updates on the site, including posting the video of a recent British TV series on the conflict between Islam and Christendom - it is called After Rome: Holy War and Conquest. We also posted some articles on medieval medicine and updated the News for Medievalists blog.

Originally posted by Aster Thrax Eupator Some might even say that the whole idea of the "medieval" Period is obselete - the idea that there is a period of non-progress and ignorance between the end of the classical era and the begining of the modern has to be re-evaluated. I'd question whether it's a viable term to even use!

I am a medievalist and it is obsolete. It is there for categorical purposes. Just as Classical Era, etc... It is a point of reference, and the term stuck, thus it has been retained for that purpose in the field. Similar to Byzantium, it is clear no Eastern Roman ever called himself that, and we still use it as a point of reference.

Thank you for the support! In terms of what falls into the Middle Ages, in our site it is roughly the years 400 to 1500, but it really varies depending on area too. For example, it is somewhat traditional for medieval era for Hungary to extend to 1526; in Japan the medieval era goes up to 1603 (and some would argue it goes up until the Meiji Restoration). Meanwhile, I classify China's medieval era to begin with the Later Han Dynasty, which is begins at AD 25 - this is partly done so I could talk about Romance of the Three Kingdoms on the site. Overall, it is an issue I will be rather vague about (and you might have noticed that our little tag line "Where the Middle Ages Begins" is a bit of a pun with all of this).