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Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics ("scholastics," or "schoolmen") of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100 to 1700, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending dogma in an increasingly pluralistic context. / Some of the main figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (written 1265-1274), considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy.

Dolce stil novo founded by Guido Guinizelli (c. 1230–1276). Compared to its precursors, the poetry of the dolce stil novo is more refined with regular use of metaphors and symbolism, as well as subtle double meanings. Many literary critics have argued that introspection in Italian literary works was first introduced by the Stil Novo poets, and later developed by Petrarch. The importance of the dolce stil novo lies in the fact that apart from being the manifestation of the first true literary tradition in Italy, it ennobled the Tuscan vernacular.

The prestige of the Papacy while it was in Rome, and its insistence on the use of Latin, held back the development of Italian vernaculars (according to Antoine de Rivarol in 1784)

Petrarch (1304-74) 'Father of Humanism'. 'I turned my inner eye upon myself' (Mount Ventoux, 1336). His "Letter to Posterity" (completed in 1371 or 1372) gives an autobiography and a synopsis of his philosophy in life - the first such autobiography in a thousand years (since Saint Augustine).

John Wycliffe (1331-84), "the evening star of scholasticism and the Morning Star of the Reformation", his vernacular English Bible (1382) from the Vulgate

The Canterbury Tales 1380s. Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343-1400) helped legitimize the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

The intellectual basis was humanism, derived from the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy. As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures; the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting; and gradual but widespread educational reform. In politics, the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in science an increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468). Introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information—including revolutionary ideas—transcended borders, captured the masses in the Reformation and threatened the power of political and religious authorities; the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. Across Europe, the increasing cultural self-awareness of its people led to the rise of proto-nationalism, accelerated by the flowering of the European vernacular languages to the detriment of Latin's status as lingua franca.
See also mechanisation of paper manufacture

1474, France. Alors que se développent de petits réseaux postaux privés (messageries universitaires, communales, réseaux postaux des communautés religieuses, des banquiers et marchands), Louis XI met en place la première poste d'État.
1490 First european postal service set up by fr:François de Taxis

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492).
From history.com: By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the principal centre of Renaissance art, reaching a high point under the Medici Pope Leo X. Three great masters - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564), and Raphael - dominated the period known as the High Renaissance

In 1539, Latin replaced as language of law & government in the fr:ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts. Dialects and patois not excluded at this stage as any 'French maternal language' was acceptable. Clauses are the oldest extant law still applied in France.

Mannerism (1520~1580+) favours compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. Mannerism in literature and music is notable for its highly florid style and intellectual sophistication; Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino

Henry II persecuted Protestants: 1551 Edict of Châteaubriant; 1562 massacre of Huguenots at Vassy by Duc de Guise starts Wars of Religion; Henry's widow Catherine de'Medici often blamed for St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when thousands of Huguenots were murdered in Paris and the provinces of France.
The Wars of Religion culminated in the War of the Three Henrys (1584–98), at the height of which bodyguards of the King Henry III assassinated Henry de Guise, leader of the Spanish-backed Catholic league, in December 1588. In revenge, a priest assassinated Henry III in 1589. This led to the ascension of the Huguenot Henry IV; in order to bring peace to a country beset by religious and succession wars, he converted to Catholicism. "Paris is worth a Mass," he reputedly said. He issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants, thereby effectively ending the civil war

Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists, the Florentine Camerata,also known as the Camerata de' Bardi. Significantly, Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation.

La journée des Dupes désigne les événements des dimanche 10 et lundi 11 novembre 1630 au cours' desquels le roi de France Louis XIII réitère contre toute attente sa confiance à son ministre Richelieu, élimine ses adversaires politiques et contraint la reine-mère Marie de Médicis à l'exil. 'Je suis plus attaché à mon État qu'à ma mère'

William Harvey (1578–1657), notable for mix of observation, theory and experiment "Don't think; try"

End of the Counter-Reformation with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ends both Eighty Years' War ((Catholic) Spain recognises the (Protestant) Dutch Republic) and Thirty Years' War (princes can choose the religions of their territories). "Westphalian sovereignty" step towards international law: Sovereign boundaries to be respected, no interference in another state's internal affairs. Inhabitants to be subject first and foremost to the laws and edicts of their respective state authority, replacing the previously overlapping, sometimes conflicting political and religious allegiances.
The Pope is not pleased: "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time"

a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theater, and music. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement. The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors and expressing triumph, power and control.

The French word fronde means "sling"; Parisian crowds used slings to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin. "Bachoumont once said, in jest, that the Parlement acted like the schoolboys in the Paris ditches, who fling stones [frondent, that is, fling using slings], and run away when they see the constable, but meet again as soon as he turns his back". The end of the 30 Years War left a need for taxes, and allowed the army to return from the borders. The First or Parlementary Fronde attempted to limit the powers of the king by restoring traditional feudal liberties. The whole country, wearied of anarchy and disgusted with the princes, came to look to the king's party as the party of order and settled government, and thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV. (Things had gone the other way in England where the Civil War 1642-1651 laid the ground for a more constitutional govt)

microscope ~1590s; first account of living tissues 1644; extensive research 1660s/70s; Micrographia Robert Hooke 1665; micro-organisms Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1676

The idea of travelling for the sake of curiosity and learning was a developing idea in the 17th century. With John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), it was argued, and widely accepted, that knowledge comes entirely from the external senses, that what one knows comes from the physical stimuli to which one has been exposed. Thus, one could "use up" the environment, taking from it all it offers, requiring a change of place. Travel, therefore, was necessary for one to develop the mind and expand knowledge of the world.

Rococo (Late Baroque) (peak in 1730s, decline from early 1760s when criticised by Voltaire et al). The first major defeats of the Ottoman Empire (?Battle of Vienna, 1683) reduced the perceived threat in European minds, which led to an artistic craze for things Turkish, Turquerie, just as there was a fashion for Chinese things with Chinoiserie, both of which became constitutive components of the Rococo style.
Boucher (1703-1770) and Fragonard (1732-1806)

À la veille de la Révolution française, on estime qu'un quart seulement de la population française parle français, le reste de la population parle des langues régionales. En 1790, l’Assemblée nationale commence par faire traduire dans toutes les langues régionales les lois et décrets, avant d’abandonner cet effort, trop coûteux. Le décret du 2 thermidor An II (20 juillet 1794) impose le français comme seule langue de toute l’administration.
Hobsbawm notes importance of conscription under Napoleon, and post-revolutionary fervour for spreading std French.

Neoclassicism (1750+) is a revival of the styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period,[3] which coincided and reflected the developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style.
The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books (1750 and 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing a trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence... Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur", and praised the (Platonic) idealism of Greek art ..." The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was.

Italian "natural simplicity facing the harmonic richness of (French) tragédie en musique". In the pro-Italian Queen's Corner: Rousseau, Baron von Grimm, and other Encyclopedists

The reform operas of Gluck represented a specifically neo-classical approach, spelt out in his preface to the score of Alceste (1769): "simplicity, truth and naturalness are the primary principles of beauty in all artistic creations"

Impact of the French Revolution (on Swiss): proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, freedom of thought and faith; it created a Swiss citizenship, basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorized mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.

Cholera: bacterium isolated 1854, link with water and sewage established 1855. Developed nations made massive investment in clean water supply and well-separated sewage treatment infrastructures between the mid-1850s and the 1900s, eliminating the threat of cholera epidemics in cities.