Figure 1.--This fresco by Giotto about 1300 depicts the Biblical 'Rising of Lazarus'. The clothing depicted is not how Giotto thiught people at th times dressed, but bhow midevil Europeans dressed--long dress-like robes. It may look to us like he was depicting Biblical dress. He was not. What he depicted was how medieval Italians dressed in his age. n

As the Western Empire declined in the 5th century, Germanic peoples (Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Huns, Heruli, Alemanni etc.) migrated west, many settled in Italy. The fall of Rome, however, meant a gradual decline in the economy and falling populations, especially urban populations. The early medieval era became known as the Dark Ages and life was dominated by the Church. Despite the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy remained largely united in the early Mideveal era. First Odoacer ruled who ws then replaced by Theodoric the Ostrogoth (493-526). With the fall of the Roman imperial regime, the influnce of the Christian church became increasingly important and the Papacy began exerting its auhority. Leo I (440-461) and Gregory the Great (590-604) played especially important roles. With Gregory the Papacy begn to assume temporal political functions as it expanded its territory from Rome to an increasing part of central Italy. Westen monachism began to grow with the guidance of St. Benedict of Nursia (480-543). The Benedictine monasteries and abbeys and those of other orders were not only places of religious veneration, but centers for preserving culture and important economic institutions. A period of stability permitted the Eastern Emperor Justinian (527-565) the opportunity to recapture lands lost to the barbarians. This raised the prospect of restablihing the Roman Empire. The result was the lomg Italian campaign--the destructive Graeco-Gothic War (535-553). There were three sieges of Rome which turned the once great metropolis into a foresaken ruin. Justinian suceeded in recapturing much of Italy and other areas of the former Roman Empire. The gains, however, proved transitory. [Jacobsen] The Gothic War resulted in the Lombards invaded Italy. They were followed by the Germans (Holy Roman Empire). Eventually Italy became a patchwork of competing city-states. Rome became the domaine of the Catholic Church and the papal states became the most powerful Italian state. Other developments began the process of craeting the modern map of Europe and North Africa. The Franks began transforming Roman Gaul into France. And Christian North Africa soon fell to the first wave of Arab expansion transplaning Islam.

Geography

Rome became the geographic center of a vast Mediterranean empire. With the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa (7th century AD), Rome found itself on the southern perifery of Christian Europe. Even it was no longer the seat of political power, Rome came to play a central role in the ecomomy nof Wesrern Europe. Jutting out into the Mediterranean, Italy provided numerous ports from which goods from the East, includung Chinese luxury goods from the Silk Road could enter Europe. There were no roads in Eastern Europe over which these goods could be transpported. The vtrade routes went from the Black Sea to Italy. indian goods went through Arab ciuntries intom Italy.

Political Developments

We see the evolving process of craeting the modern map of Europe and North Africa. The Franks began transforming Roman Gaul into France. And Christian North Africa soon fell to the first wave of Arab expansion transplaning Islam to the Middle EWast and North Africa--imprtant sectors of the Roman Empire. Justunian nearly suceeded in uniting Italy and recreating the Roman Empire. His failure and the failure of the Holy Roman Empire to create a unified nation state would leave Germany divided for centuries into small, competing principalities and foreign controlled areas.

Collapse of Rome (5th century)

The early medieval era became known as the Dark Ages and life was dominated by the Church. Despite the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy remained largely united in the early Mideveal era. The military power of the Wetern Empire was broken at Adrionople (378). The Viscothic chief Alaric sacked Rom (410). Pope Leo the Great met Attila the Hun and allegedly persuaded him to turn his maurauding forces back from an invasion of Italy (452). The end of the ancient era and the beginning of the medieval period is a never ending debate. The Battle of Châlons commonly seen variously as either the last battle of the ancient world or the first battle of the medieval Europe (451). Emperor Flavius Romulus Augustus was the last Roman Emperor (475-76). Romulus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer, a Germanic foederatus officer. The abdication of Romulus which occured teo decades after Châlons is another reasonable point. Of course the collapse of Rome was a process, not something that had one precise date, but it is helpul to have a general time line. First Odoacer ruled who ws then replaced by Theodoric the Ostrogoth (493-526).

Justinian (6th century)

Rome had been split into a Western and eastern Empire. The eastern Empire or Byzantium was the richer of the two. A period of stability permitted the Eastern Emperor Justinian (527-565) the opportunity to recapture lands lost to the barbarians. This raised the prospect of restablihing the Roman Empire. The result was the lomg Italian campaign--the destructive Graeco-Gothic War (535-553). There were three sieges of Rome which turned the once great metropolis into a foresaken ruin. Justinian suceeded in recapturing much of Italy and other areas of the former Roman Empire. The gains, however, proved transitory. [Jacobsen] A horific plague was a major reason for Justinians failure.

Germanic Invaders (7th-10th centuries)

The Gothic War resulted in the Lombards invaded Italy. Lombard Kings Germanic people from their invasion of Italy (567-68) until the Lombardic identity disappeared (9th-10th centuries). Fairly early, the Lombard kings began styling themselves Kings of Italy aming their other titles. The Italian Kingdom became a constituent kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It comprised northern and central Italy, but excluded the Republic of Venice and the Papal States. They were followed by the Frankish conquest under Charlemagnes (Holy Roman Empire). The Franks kept the Italo-Lombard realm separate from their own. The Italian kingdom was an independent, but highly decentralised, state.

Division (11-14th centuries)

Enforcement of German imperial rule was complicated by disatnceand geography. The Emperors lived in northern Europe. Italy south of the Alps was difficult to govern from afar. The Investiture Controversy with the Pope, was a major factor in preventuing the Holy Roman Emperor from creating a centralized state in Germany, let alone Italy. Beginning with Pope Gregory VII's humiliation of Emperor Henry IV at Canossa (1077) you begin to see the formation of city states independent of the Holy Roman Emperor. Germany was potentially the most poerrful state vin Europe. But whilke England, France, and Spain began moving toward centralized nation stares, Germany became a loose confederation of diverse principalities. The Pope desiring to limit the emperor's power supported this idea. By the time of the Treaty of Venice (1177), Italy had become a patchwork of often waring principalities, including many city states. Venice was the richest of these states. Rome became the domaine of the Catholic Church and the papal states in central area became the most powerful Italian state. Italy would not be united for 800 years. The Italaian principalities also competed in the arts. Florence became particularly notable.

The Roman Church

With the fall of the Roman imperial regime, the influnce of the Christian church became increasingly important and the Papacy began exerting its auhority. Leo I (440-461) and Gregory the Great (590-604) played especially important roles. With Gregory the Papacy begn to assume temporal political functions as it expanded its territory from Rome to an increasing part of central Italy.

Mosnasticism

Westen monachism began to grow with the guidance of St. Benedict of Nursia (480-543). The Benedictine monasteries and abbeys and those of other orders were not only places of religious veneration, but centers for preserving culture and important economic institutions.

New Cities

Rome of course was eternal. Entirely new cities, hiowever, rose, especially in northern Italy. Thevmost important of these new cities was Venice. It was founded by mainlanders escaping barbarian invaders (811). It became as a trading center with goods from the East. This only changed when sea routes to the East were oened by Atlantic-ciast countries beginning with Portugal (16th century). Bologna opoened Italy's first university (1060). Tuscany in the north was the focal point for tremendous political and economic growth.

Medieval Italian Economy

Medieval Italy was an overwhelmingly agrarian society. The population of Rome and other Roman cities had shrunk to a fraction of their imperial dimensiins. Wealth was ;lrimarily the prodyct of agriculture. This was primarily conduycted on estates where subsistence tenants labored on standard medieval pattern. The great slave plantations of Imperial Rome whiuch had dominated central Italy no longer existed. The Church had played a role in abolishing slavery. The agricyltural alnors were servus, a tenant without public rights as a freeman. Some slaves remained in the early medieval mperiod as skilled specialists and artisans but this quickly disappeared. The free and servile tenants paid rents, in both money and kind to their landlords, often former barbarian fighters. We see some more organized feudal estates in the north and Tuscany where the agricultural workers had become serfs (8th-9th century). As was the pattern in feudal Europe, serfs were obligated to work the lord's demesne in exchange for a plot of land that they farmed. These estates were largely royal or ecclesiastical. Somee werevhuge. . The surplus producen sold in the nerby developing urban centers. This was possible ober short distances. In the south such highly feudal estates were rare. The Italian landowning nobility was increasingly receiving money rents rather than crops from their tenants, espeually the free ones. [Libelli] This is evudence of a weakening oif the feudal system, something that was not yet happening in much of the rest of Western Europe (10th century). . The use of coin in for payment by the peasantry is a good inducator small-scale commercial exchange was taking place even in rural areas, a good indiucation of the quickening oif the Western European ecnonomy. New castles commanding estates often had markets. And as poartbof this process, ore servile tenants were gaining their freedom from feudal obligations. This included the legal mprocess (manumission) or illegally. As the European economy began to quicken trade expanded (around 1000 AD). Here Italy because of its geography benefitted more thana any other country. Goods from the East over the Silk Road could not reach Western Euripe over non existent overland routes. They entered through Italy's many ports from Black sea ports (Chinese goods) or Arab ports (Indian goods). The Crusades were launched by Pope Urban II in Rome (1095). They were a military effort, but had enormous economic import. As bloody as the Crusades were, actually expanded European interest in Eastern goods. Countries with Atlantic ports at the time did not benefit. What was important was Meditrranean ports. It is no accident that the development of capitalism began in Italy with the creation of banks duriung the Crusases. Banks were necessary to deliver money to crusading knights. Here the crusading orders played an important role. As a quirk if history, the same Church that prohibited usury, played an important role in the development of the European banking system that played an important role in the creration of capitalism. This is an important point often ignored by liberally minded historians. China at the time was the riches, most creative, and most innovative society on earth. Italian merchant Marco Polo. described this to other Italians (13th century). Much of medieval technological advances were Chinese inventions, including clocks, high temperture furnaces, gunpoweder, the plow and much more. China was the font of technology, but the Chinese did not invent science--the Europeans beginning in Italy did. So the inevitable question arises, why is that that it was the West that invented modernity--especially capitalism, democracy, and science )as opposed to technology).

Architecture

Cities began constructing massive buildings, especiually churches, as a matter of civic pride. Italian churches were commonly bin the romesque style. Cathedrals in the gothic style were built high with windows to allow light to enter, but this was more in niorthern Europe than Italy. The best known Gothic cathedral in Italy is the Duomo in Flornce (began late-13th century).It is one of the lrgest chyurches in the world, although not nearly as high as the csthedrals of northern Eurooe.

The Arts

The revolutiinary explosion of European art in the Renaisaance largely began in Ital during the late-middle ages. Italian artistic motivated in part by the classical Roman heritage began rebelling against the idea that art should only have religious connotations. This was not only a convention but the result that it was the Church that had the wealth to commission art. Cimabue was one of the early artists to portray everyday people in realistic settings (13th century). Giotto, perhaps Cimabue's student, continued to focus almost entirely on religious themes, but made a decisive break with the dominant Byzantine style. One art historian credits him with initiating 'the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years.' [Vasari, pp. 15–36.] We also see the beginning of modern literature. Dante Alighieri finished La Divina Commedia (the Divine Comedy) (1321).

Clothing

Clothing during the medueval era was not as fashionanle or as country destunctibe as it would become during the Renissance. The medival era was a long period encompasing several centuries. It began in the 6th century. Fashion did not change significantly over long periods. We begin to see more fashionable clothing as the Renaisance approched in the late- medieval period (abouth 13th-14th centuries. The clothing worn by nobles, both men and women, had the same basic pattern as that of the peasantry and urban working class. Men and women both wore long, dress-like robes. We see this in Giotto's paintings (figure 1). It may look to us like he was depicting Bibloical dress. He was not. What he depicted was how medieval Italians dressed in his age. The difference was more luxurious fabric, bolder and brighter colors, and the degree of decoration. Some changes appeared (12th and 13th century). We begin to see a surcoat, perhaps influenced by the tabard, a shirt worn by crusading knights over their armor. It wasn't until another century (mid-14th century) that we begin to see dramatically new styles. It should be stressed that this was toward the end of the medevil era, not during the many centuruies after the fall of Rome. Many if the besr=t unmpags come from the later period because mostly Italian artists like Giotto were developing the increasing cpability to realistically depict scenes. The clothing became more tailored and much more elaborate. These are the styles that the nobility began wearing It is the style of the nobility in the high Middle Ages that most people would recognize as 'medieval clothing'.

Sources

Libelli. There were actual written contracys, some of whivh nhave survived.

Vasari, Giorgio. Trans. George Bull. Lives of the Artists (Penguin Classics: 1965.

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Created: 11:46 PM 11/25/2020
Last updated: 4:41 AM 11/26/2020