The science of the Middle Ages refers being studied of the Nature during the Moyen-âge. This science includes/understands the practical disciplines, mathematical sciences and natural philosophy, still called Philosophie first, in the vocabulary of the Middle Ages.

The contents and the classification of sciences evolved/moved much compared to our contemporary context, so that one specifies in the first paragraph the historical context and Culturel in which sciences and philosophy developed with the Moyen-âge in Occident.

Although this period are generally connected with the European Histoire, technological advances of the Eastern world (Civilization arabo-Moslem woman) are also evoked in this present article.

In addition, the period covered in this article (512 with 1492) recuts the period described in the article Renaissance. This is due to the fact that, artistically, scientifically, and Techniquement, the Italy had at least a century in advance in the Renaissance, compared to the remainder of the Europe, and particularly of the France (see Trecento and Quattrocento). The first characteristics of the Rebirth in art appeared at the 13th century in Italy, sculpture (see for example Niccolo Pisano), and in literature.

The world of the the Middle Ages

The Occident (left southern the Western Europe to Gaulle and England) entered the Moyen-âge at the end of the 5th century with large difficulties, been dependant on the Great invasions and the collapse of the old Roman empire of occident. These events have affected the intellectual productions of the dramatic continent of way. Most of the scientific treaties of the Antiquité (especially in Greek old) were inalienable and there were only compilations and summaries which were often denatured by scrapings of Manuscrit S or Traduction S not seeking the exactitude of the original text. The scraping of ancient manuscripts came especially from the shortage of Parchemin, rather than of the ill will. It involved a certain loss of documents of antiquity. The fires of the Library of Alexandria were there also for much.

Since about thirty years, the Historien S are leaning with more interest and of attention on construction of the knowledge Médiéval. The studies of the Médiéviste S for a few decades have made it possible to study under a new lighting how the medieval knowledge was structured, in contact with other civilizations: Civilization arabo-Moslem woman in particular.

It is initially necessary to underline the role of Isidore of Seville in the conservation of the intellectual patrimony resulting from the Antiquité. This scientist constituted a important Bibliothèque for his time, which made it possible to preserve the Manuscrit S in Latin most important, like some manuscripts in Greek old, but as a whole, the knowledge of Greek antiquity was almost completely lost, except the Philosophie of Plato. In addition, it is necessary to take into account that the base of the knowledge of the early Middle Ages was not negligible, although very little divided in the company: the Liberal arts contained at the same time the trivium (literary disciplines) and the Quadrivium (scientific disciplines).

In parallel, the monachism strongly developed in British Isles and particularly in Ireland and Northumbrie. Teaching in the schools of the monasteries is there of very high level. One of these monks, Bède Worthy the reintroduces the 7 liberal arts in occident.

The Carolingian Empire, broad made safe territory, will make it possible to share knowledge of the scholars of the kingdom Visigoth fleeing the Moslem invasion, the British fleeing the Byzantine Vikings and artists fleeing the iconoclasme. The diffusion of this knowledge will be made possible while unifying the language (Latin traditional) and the writing (tiny Caroline) and while basing of the monastic schools on the British model. It results the Carolingian Renaissance from it which will be however of short duration because of dissolution of the empire.

The cultural and technical revival will be able to begin again as from the 10th century thanks to the restoration of states powerful and structured in Europe. Powerful religious orders such as that of Cluny will push with this political reorganization. They also will transmit to the rest of Europe all the knowledge acquired in contact with the Moslem civilization in the states of the Spanish walk as of the 9th century: it is the Renaissance ottono-clunisienne.

This cultural and technical dash finds its apogee with the {{XIIe}} century; the occident found an interest increased for sciences, whose development was started again. Science developed with the golden age of the Scolastique, which recommended a coherent system of thought that we would call today Empirisme, although this word is anachronistic in the context which occupies us. This system of thought perceived the Nature like a coherent whole of Phénomène S (see Pragmata), which we would call today “Loi S”. There too, the term of law is anachronistic, because, at the time of the birth of the first large Université S of Occident, the word law had a significance exclusively Juridique, whereas today it can take a scientific direction (the law of the gravitation, the laws of Kepler, laws of Maxwell,…). The Droit was indeed one of the disciplines queens at that time.

In the time sometimes that one calls Bas the Middle Ages (names are varied) which extends from 11th to the 13th century, one became aware of the delay accumulated in occident compared to the Civilization arabo-Moslem woman, then under development full. It is important to distinguish the Early middle ages from low Moyen-âge, because the characteristics Culturelle S are very different, especially as from the 11th century which saw to start true a Renaissance. One carried out in Occident the delay accumulated compared to the Civilization arabo-Moslem woman, and one more sought to explain the Phénomène S thanks to the Raison. However, this form of reason, articulated around the general Logical , was more intuitive than the contemporary design of logic (logical mathematics). The men of the Moyen-âge Perceived the world with a certain vision, in which the Métaphysique, the ethical , the Droit, etc formed the total structure of the knowledge.

The scientists of the time Médiévale sought explanations on the Phénomène S of the Univers; and achieved the important ones advanced in many fields such as the scientific methodology or the Physique. But these projections were suddenly stopped by the Black Death.

These projections are literally unknown of the uninitiated public of today. This is due partly to the fact that the majority of the theories of medieval science became Obsolète S today, being given last time (more than seven centuries).

Also, and especially, the Stereotype of the the Middle Ages (particularly in France marked by the Cartesian culture ), associates this period with a age sinks, without Percevoir several elements completely fundamental:

• This period very long articulates in several phases very distinct from/to each other,

the early Middle Ages (512 - 768)

The Roman Empire of Occident, although linked by the Latin , contained all the same a great number of different cultures which did not correspond completely to the Roman culture.

With 6th, Boèce founded the Liberal arts, trivium and quadrivium.

Faded by the migrations, the cruel invasions and the political destruction of Rome at the 5th century, and isolated from the rest of the world by the diffusion of the Islam at the 7th century, Western Europe became a painting representing the rural populations and the people semi Nomade S. the political instability and the fall of the urban life had a very negative impact on the cultural life of the continent. The Catholic church, being the only surviving institution, maintained what remains of intellectual force, particularly by the means of the Monachisme. After the fall of Rome, the German ones were not necessarily interested in the ancient culture but they did not destroy it. The Romans feeling collapse to arrive gathered their knowledge in libraries. The king Ostrogoth Théodoric Large the which settled in Ravenne was advised by Latin well-read men such as Boèce or Cassiodore while the large universities were maintained in activity, allowing to the future founding fathers the Middle Ages to exert their influence. The Library of Vivarium created by Cassiodore at the 6th century allowed to preserve ancient hundreds of works (of which Sophocle, Théodoret or Sozomen).

The intellectuals of these first centuries of the Moyen-âge were almost always clerk S for which the study of the Nature was only one small portion of their instruction. These intellectuals lived in an atmosphere which brought only one relative support for the study of natural phenomena. The study of nature was continued more for practical reasons (like medicine, the Astronomie, etc) that abstract. Another aspect curious about science at this period, for modern readers, is that the significance symbolic system natural Phénomène S was treated sometimes beside the technical details in the same work. The majority of scientific works were based on glanées information of sources dating from the Antiquité. These sources are often incomplete and pose serious problems of interpretation. This period of limited scientific projections extends from approximately 476 with approximately 750 and is called the age sinks in the Popular culture.

In addition as of the 6th century British Isles will profit from an exceptional monastic dash. The pope Gregoire 1st by sending Augustin of Canterbury allows the evangelization of the island of Brittany. He creates for itself many monasteries (particularly in Ireland) which are the center of the local spiritual life. They are also hearths of cultural life; in addition to the crowned writings, one studies profane sciences there: poetry, music. Illumination and penmanship are there with the honor. The Celtic legends for the majority are saved by these cultivated monks who provide the only material available thus to reconstitute the culture and the religion of these people. Paradoxically it is with these monks that one owes the conservation of pure Latin. In Ireland, one speaks Celtic, contrary to Gaulle where the vulgar language is Latin who with time and the invasions degenerated what returns the traditional Latin texts difficult to include/understand. Latin, official language of the Roman empire spoken forever in Ireland. It is about a foreign language whose monks will cultivate the most traditional expression. They preserve also the old Greek and the philosophy of this brilliant civilization. This passion will lead them to reproduce many profane texts and thus to save most of Greek and Latin philosophy. Moreover in these monasteries, one is interested closely in the sciences considered elsewhere as laymen: grammar, geometry and geography. One teaches the sphericity of the ground there ten centuries before Copernic! Bède the worthy one is most known of these Moine S and well-read men Anglo-Saxon S of Latin culture, he is the author of a considerable work. Very popular in Europe during all the the Middle Ages, Bède is especially known today like the historian of the Angles by its main work, completed in 731 or 732. Bède, enthusiast of Patristic, writes several works of mathematics and philosophy, in accordance with the courses of the traditional teaching of the Liberal arts ( trivium and Quadrivium ). He is the founder of the Comput, science of the dating and the calculation of the date of the religious holidays (Easter). The fame of these erudite monks is such as one comes by far to receive teaching from it (one can remain in a monastery as student). Certain convents of Ireland and Scotland count more than thousand monks.

Practices, at the origin specific to the coenobites, are communicated to the entire people. It is the case of the confession and penitence. The monk representing an ideal of holiness which one wants to imitate, the practice of the pilgrimage, (often to Rome) spreads himself among the laic ones. The monks have a missionary role which obliges them to say the eucharistie in the campaigns on portable furnace bridges; for the communion, they are made help of the women who distribute the Body of Christ. The Irish monachism is thus naturally carried to diffuse itself with the whole of British Isles and particularly in Northumbrie, then as from the 7th century towards the continent. Anxious to preserve its influence Rome will yield works preserved in the Italian monasteries or of the relics to support the establishment of relations with the monasteries which create for themselves in all Europe because of monks preachers come from British Isles such Saint Colomban. Thus Rome remains a pilgrimage and a source of unit for the itinerant monks of this time. Rome also helps with the establishment of the Royaume Visigoth which wants to be the heir to the Roman Empire. At the 6th century, under the impulse of Léandre of Seville, Seville had become an arts center particularly shining, and the episcopal library, enriched by many manuscripts brought of Rome and Constantinople by Léandre, and those brought by the taken refuge Christians of Africa, made it possible to have access to many works, crowned as well as profane. His/her brother Isidore continues then his work. While giving a priority to the Christian great writers of 4th at the 6th century, in particular Augustin (354-430), Cassiodore (485-580), Gregoire Large the (540 - pope 590-604) - this last was the personal friend of its Léandre brother -, Isidore tries to assume this immense heritage in all his diversity. This is why school handbooks and classic authors join, in the sources of its works, with the Latin Fathers oldest: Tertullien (155-222), Cyprien de Carthage (200-258), Hilaire of Poitiers (315-367), Ambroise (340-397). During its ministry, it had the constant worry of the training and the education of the clerks. It instituted the episcopal schools sévillanes. Drawing from the very rich library of Seville and being pressed on an important team copyists, it compiled an enormous sum of knowledge aiming at equipping the new Catholic church with solids intellectual foundations. This immense work approaches all the fields.

On the whole, so at this period the culture underwent a retreat, many religious centers preserve ancient knowledge. Particularly in the Italian and Iberian peninsulas like in British Isles.

Early middle ages (768 - 1024)

At the 8th century, one of these British monks, Bède Worthy the wrote works of philosophy and mathematics in accordance with the traditional studies of the seven Liberal arts: the trivium , or literary education (Grammar, Dialectical Rhetoric and ) and the Quadrivium , or scientific education (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy). Bède founded the Comput, or calculation of the movable feasts (Easter) and of the Temps.

It is at the end of the 8th century that occurred the first attempt at rebuilding of the Culture of Western Europe. Charlemagne, having succeeded in unifying most of the Occident (one did not speak yet about Europe) and with an aim of strengthening its empire, decided to carry out a reform of the education. The monk English Alcuin worked out a school development project aiming at renewing traditional knowledge by basing the programmes of studies on the seven Liberal arts defined by Bède Worthy the. Since 787, the Décret started to circulate in all the empire and one started to restore the old schools and to build news of them. Institutionnellement, these new schools were under the responsibility for a Monastère, a Cathédrale or a noble Cour. The adoption in the workshops of copyists of a language and a single writing will allow the exchange and the diffusion of knowledge all the empire.

See also: Carolingian Rebirth

Unfortunately, the invasions Viking, sarrasine and Hungarian woman and especially the dissolution of the empire with the birth of the Féodalité stopped this rebirth.

It is only as from years 920-950, according to the current Médiéviste S, which one saw sciences again setting out again in Occident. At that time create for themselves powerful religious orders such as the Ordre of Cluny. They will support a political reorganization of the continent by supporting the restoration of strong states. The rise of the Spanish operating states which profit from the proximity of the Muslim world, makes it possible to transmit the scientific and technical knowledge used in Andalusia. The propagation of this knowledge can be done in all Europe via the ways of pilgrimage (in particular those of Saint-Jacob de Compostelle). The merit returns from there particularly to Gerbert d' Aurillac, which learned, at the time of its stay in Catalonia in years 970, the sciences which had developed in the world arabo-Moslem. When it was named écolâtre of Rheims, it reintroduced the Dialectique (the Rhétorique and the Grammaire was still known) and the Quadrivium, which had been practically forgotten in the monasteries. One owes him in particular the introduction of the Arab numerals: those Ci enormously facilitate calculations which are very complex with the Roman numbers. Gerbert d' Aurillac became Pape under the name of Sylvestre II of 999 with 1003.

See also: Rebirth ottono-clunisienne

Thus, all the current Médiéviste S consider that the An thousand was one period of rebirth in Occident. The stereotype of terrors of the An thousand is due, according to Pierre Riché, with a popularization at the 19th century (Jules Michelet of works of the monk Raoul Glaber, envisaging the end of the world for 1033 (1000 years after the death of the Christ).

The consequence of these measurements was felt at 10th and 11th centuries (Renaissance ottono-clunisienne), and especially as from the 12th century. The teaching of the Dialectique (a discipline which corresponds to the Logique of today) was responsible for the rebirth of the interest for the speculative questions. Of this interest the increase in the tradition Scolastique of the Christian Philosophie followed. Moreover, during 12th and 13th centuries, much of these schools built under Charlemagne, particularly the schools under the responsibility of a Cathedral, became Université S.

Low the Middle Ages (1024-1280)

Low Moyen-âge is the golden age of medieval civilization. Carried by the rebirth Ottono-clunisienne, the company evolves/moves considerably. The improvement of the agricultural techniques upsets the demographic and social reports/ratios.

The networks of monasteries make it possible to diffuse the agricultural techniques in all Europe. The major part of the monks are Convers what makes it possible to diffuse this knowledge in the neighbouring villages.

• the hydraulic mill is spread in the medieval Occident as of the Carolingian time.
• the introduction of the Fallow, then the three-year rotation make it possible to increase the productivity of agriculture.
• the outputs improve thanks to the diffusion of tools out of iron and with rise of the Charrue.
• technique of attachment: the collar of shoulders replaces the “collar of neck” and makes it possible to draw from the heavier loads.

The outputs reach 4 per 1 in Burgundy with the XII° S against 2 to 3 per 1 at the time Carolingian.

These improvements involve a very considerable population growth: It is considered that between 950 and 1300, the European population doubled and in certain areas triplet. The increase in the population involves immense clearings and drainings of marshes which make it possible to extend the surface cultivateds. That makes it possible to increase the agricultural production further and thus to nourish more mouths.

Consequently, that releases from labor for other tasks and the farm surpluses generate an enrichment. Create for themselves new social classes, the craftsmen and the tradesmen. With the commercial crossroads create for themselves cities which grow bigger more and more, multiplying the administrative and legal problems to regulate. Clerks thus should be trained more and more, having increasingly pointed knowledge. The size of the schools and the quality of teaching must increase. With the takeover of the Mediterranean and the contacts increasingly major with the world arabo-Moslem because of the Croisade S (which open indirectly with knowledge of the Persian world), the exchanges of informations increase further.

See also: Mediterranean World in XIIe century, Mediterranean World in XII^e century

It is then natural to create universities which on the model of the Islamic schools teach the religion and sciences. Western medieval civilization reaches its golden age then.

• Rebirth of XIIe century

• Islamic Sciences and technology

To supplement.

the late Middle Ages (1280 - 1492)

This period was initially marked by the Black Death (1347-1350) and, in France, by the Guerre One hundred Year old. The context of the One hundred Year old war made that the development of France was delayed of at least a century compared to what it was in good number of areas of Europe. So that what one calls late Moyen-âge in France pays rather to an early Rebirth in Italy, in Flandres (Bruges, Ghent), in the Rhineland.

This period is initially marked by the invention of printing works (1453) with Mainz (the Rhineland) by Gutenberg.

It is also marked by the first great voyages of missionaries, of Explorateur S, commercial S, in Orient, and Africa, which brought back the first information on these remote regions for the time.

It is necessary to underline the advance which the countries of Europe of the south took: Italy (Dominican missionaries franciscains and, Marco Polo.), Portugal, but so English (Jean de Mandeville), whose inaccuracy of the accounts makes debate.

They led to cartographic and geographical knowledge already precise for this time: Pierre d' Ailly ( Imago mundi ), Henri the Navigator, Paolo Toscanelli, FRA Mauro, which was used by Christophe Colomb and the Explorateur S of the Renaissance.

This information made progress knowledge on the Nature, on the regions of Asia crossed by the explorers: information geographical, cartographic, cosmographic, botanical, etc to which the techniques of navigation were added, preparing the Grandes explorations.

See also: Astronomy # the Middle Ages: the Greek heritage developed by the Islam and transmitted to the occident, the Middle Ages: the Greek heritage developed by the Islam and transmitted to the occident