Western culture

I promoted a sub-section.

← Previous revision Revision as of 04:14, 28 April 2026 Line 55: Line 55: In a broader sense, the [[Middle Ages]], with its fertile encounter between Greek philosophical [[reasoning]] and Levantine [[monotheism]] was not confined to the West but also stretched into the old East. The philosophy and science of Classical Greece were largely forgotten in Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, other than in isolated monastic enclaves (notably in Ireland, which had become Christian but was never conquered by Rome).<ref>"How The Irish Saved Civilisation", by Thomas Cahill, 1995{{page needed|date=February 2015}}</ref> The learning of [[Classical Antiquity]] was better preserved in the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian's [[Corpus Juris Civilis]] Roman civil law code was created in the East in his capital of Constantinople,<ref name="The Cambridge Companion to Roman La">{{cite book |last1=Kaiser |first1=Wolfgang |title=The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law |date=2015 |pages=119–148}}</ref> and that city maintained trade and intermittent political control over outposts such as [[Venice]] in the West for centuries. Classical Greek learning was also subsumed, preserved, and elaborated in the rising Eastern world, which gradually supplanted Roman-Byzantine control as a dominant cultural-political force. Thus, much of the learning of classical antiquity was slowly reintroduced to European civilization in the centuries following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. In a broader sense, the [[Middle Ages]], with its fertile encounter between Greek philosophical [[reasoning]] and Levantine [[monotheism]] was not confined to the West but also stretched into the old East. The philosophy and science of Classical Greece were largely forgotten in Europe after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, other than in isolated monastic enclaves (notably in Ireland, which had become Christian but was never conquered by Rome).<ref>"How The Irish Saved Civilisation", by Thomas Cahill, 1995{{page needed|date=February 2015}}</ref> The learning of [[Classical Antiquity]] was better preserved in the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian's [[Corpus Juris Civilis]] Roman civil law code was created in the East in his capital of Constantinople,<ref name="The Cambridge Companion to Roman La">{{cite book |last1=Kaiser |first1=Wolfgang |title=The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law |date=2015 |pages=119–148}}</ref> and that city maintained trade and intermittent political control over outposts such as [[Venice]] in the West for centuries. Classical Greek learning was also subsumed, preserved, and elaborated in the rising Eastern world, which gradually supplanted Roman-Byzantine control as a dominant cultural-political force. Thus, much of the learning of classical antiquity was slowly reintroduced to European civilization in the centuries following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

=== The birth of the European West during the Middle Ages === === The birth of the European West during the Early Middle Ages === [[File:Sanvitale03.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of [[Justinian I]] with his court, circa 547–549, [[Basilica of San Vitale]] ([[Ravenna]], Italy)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fortenberry|first1=Diane|title=THE ART MUSEUM |date=2017|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=978-0-7148-7502-6|page=108|language=en}}</ref>]] [[File:Sanvitale03.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of [[Justinian I]] with his court, circa 547–549, [[Basilica of San Vitale]] ([[Ravenna]], Italy)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fortenberry|first1=Diane|title=THE ART MUSEUM |date=2017|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=978-0-7148-7502-6|page=108|language=en}}</ref>]] [[File:Slovakia region Spis 33.jpg|thumb|Two main symbols of the medieval Western civilization on one picture: the gothic [[Spišská Kapitula and St. Martin's Cathedral|St. Martin's cathedral]] in [[Spišské Podhradie]] ([[Slovakia]]) and the [[Spiš Castle]] behind the cathedral]] [[File:Slovakia region Spis 33.jpg|thumb|Two main symbols of the medieval Western civilization on one picture: the gothic [[Spišská Kapitula and St. Martin's Cathedral|St. Martin's cathedral]] in [[Spišské Podhradie]] ([[Slovakia]]) and the [[Spiš Castle]] behind the cathedral]] Line 73: Line 73: In 1054 came the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]] that, following the [[Greek East and Latin West]] divide, separated Europe into religious and cultural regions present to this day. In 1054 came the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]] that, following the [[Greek East and Latin West]] divide, separated Europe into religious and cultural regions present to this day.

==== High Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation ==== === High Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation ===

[[History of Christianity during the Middle Ages|Medieval Christianity]] is credited with creating the first modern universities.<ref name="Rüegg, Walter 1992" /> The [[List of oldest universities in continuous operation|oldest university currently in continuous operation in the world]]<ref name="Verger Bologna">{{cite book|title=[[A History of the University in Europe]]|volume=1, Universities in the Middle Ages|page=35|chapter=Patterns|author=Jacques Verger|editor1=Hilde de Ridder-Symoens|editor2=Walter Rüegg|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|date=16 October 2003|isbn=9780521541138|quote=It is no doubt true that other civilizations, prior to, or wholly alien to, the medieval West, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Islam, or China, were familiar with forms of higher education which a number of historians, for the sake of convenience, have sometimes described as universities. Yet a closer look makes it plain that the institutional reality was altogether different and, no matter what has been said on the subject, there is no real link such as would justify us in associating them with medieval universities in the West. Until there is definite proof to the contrary, these latter must be regarded as the sole source of the model which gradually spread through the whole of Europe and then to the whole world. [[History of Christianity during the Middle Ages|Medieval Christianity]] is credited with creating the first modern universities.<ref name="Rüegg, Walter 1992" /> The [[List of oldest universities in continuous operation|oldest university currently in continuous operation in the world]]<ref name="Verger Bologna">{{cite book|title=[[A History of the University in Europe]]|volume=1, Universities in the Middle Ages|page=35|chapter=Patterns|author=Jacques Verger|editor1=Hilde de Ridder-Symoens|editor2=Walter Rüegg|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|date=16 October 2003|isbn=9780521541138|quote=It is no doubt true that other civilizations, prior to, or wholly alien to, the medieval West, such as the Roman Empire, Byzantium, Islam, or China, were familiar with forms of higher education which a number of historians, for the sake of convenience, have sometimes described as universities. Yet a closer look makes it plain that the institutional reality was altogether different and, no matter what has been said on the subject, there is no real link such as would justify us in associating them with medieval universities in the West. Until there is definite proof to the contrary, these latter must be regarded as the sole source of the model which gradually spread through the whole of Europe and then to the whole world.