Middle Ages and Scholasticism

The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.
14th-century image of a university lecture
A late Roman sculpture depicting the Tetrarchs, now in Venice, Italy
Barbarian kingdoms and tribes after the end of the Western Roman Empire
A coin of the Ostrogothic leader Theoderic the Great, struck in Milan, Italy, c. AD 491–501
A mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna (Italy), bodyguards, and courtiers.
Reconstruction of an early medieval peasant village in Bavaria
An 11th-century illustration of Gregory the Great dictating to a secretary
Map showing growth of Frankish power from 481 to 814
Charlemagne's palace chapel at Aachen, completed in 805
10th-century Ottonian ivory plaque depicting Christ receiving a church from Otto I
A page from the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created in the British Isles in the late 8th or early 9th century
Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy) those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry). The relationship between these classes was governed by feudalism and manorialism. (Li Livres dou Sante, 13th century)
13th-century illustration of a Jew (in pointed Jewish hat) and the Christian Petrus Alphonsi debating
Europe and the Mediterranean Sea in 1190
The Bayeux Tapestry (detail) showing William the Conqueror (centre), his half-brothers Robert, Count of Mortain (right) and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux in the Duchy of Normandy (left)
Krak des Chevaliers was built during the Crusades for the Knights Hospitallers.
A medieval scholar making precise measurements in a 14th-century manuscript illustration
Portrait of Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher by Tommaso da Modena, 1352, the first known depiction of spectacles
The Romanesque Church of Maria Laach, Germany
The Gothic interior of Laon Cathedral, France
Francis of Assisi, depicted by Bonaventura Berlinghieri in 1235, founded the Franciscan Order.
Sénanque Abbey, Gordes, France
Execution of some of the ringleaders of the jacquerie, from a 14th-century manuscript of the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis
Map of Europe in 1360
Joan of Arc in a 15th-century depiction
Guy of Boulogne crowning Pope Gregory XI in a 15th-century miniature from Froissart's Chroniques
Clerics studying astronomy and geometry, French, early 15th century
Agricultural calendar, c. 1470, from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi
February scene from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Medieval illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th-century copy of L'Image du monde

Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories.

- Scholasticism

In the West, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities.

- Middle Ages
The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

8 related topics

Alpha
Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. 330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle

Aristotle

Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. 330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle
School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece
Roman copy of 1st or 2nd century from original bronze by Lysippos. Louvre Museum
Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. Aristotle holds his Nicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds his Timaeus.
Plato's forms exist as universals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).
Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired – the potential made actual – by learning.
The four classical elements (fire, air, water, earth) of Empedocles and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.
Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from four causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).
Aristotle noted that the ground level of the Aeolian islands changed before a volcanic eruption.
Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductive hectocotyl arm of the octopus (bottom left).
Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including that brood size decreases with body mass, whereas gestation period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for mouse and elephant.
Aristotle recorded that the embryo of a dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (the yolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.
Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.
Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in the sensorium (the heart), linked by his laws of association (similarity, contrast, and contiguity).
Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions
The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).
Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written around 300 BC
Islamic portrayal of Aristotle, c. 1220
Woodcut of Aristotle ridden by Phyllis by Hans Baldung, 1515
William Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical era thinking.
"That most enduring of romantic images, Aristotle tutoring the future conqueror Alexander". Illustration by, 1866
First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin
Nuremberg Chronicle anachronistically shows Aristotle in a medieval scholar's clothing. Ink and watercolour on paper, 1493
Aristotle by Justus van Gent. Oil on panel, c. 1476
Phyllis and Aristotle by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Oil on panel, 1530
Aristotle by Paolo Veronese, Biblioteka Marciana. Oil on canvas, 1560s
Aristotle and Campaspe,{{efn-ua | Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.}} Alessandro Turchi (attrib.) Oil on canvas, 1713
Aristotle by Jusepe de Ribera. Oil on canvas, 1637
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt. Oil on canvas, 1653
Aristotle by Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder. Oil on canvas, by 1813
Aristotle by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1811
Roman copy of 117-138 AD of Greek original. Palermo Regional Archeology Museum
Relief of Aristotle and Plato by Luca della Robbia, Florence Cathedral, 1437–1439
Stone statue in niche, Gladstone's Library, Hawarden, Wales, 1899
Bronze statue, University of Freiburg, Germany, 1915

He also influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400) during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.

An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)

Thomas Aquinas

An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)
The Castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano
Thomas is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his proof of chastity. Painting by Diego Velázquez.
Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Communis", between Plato and Aristotle, Benozzo Gozzoli, 1471. Louvre, Paris.
Icon of the crucifixion speaking to Thomas Aquinas is depicted on this stained glass window in Saint Patrick Church (Columbus, Ohio).
Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Angelicus", with saints and angels, Andrea di Bonaiuto, 1366. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, fresco.
The remains of Thomas Aquinas are buried in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse.
St. Thomas Aquinas and the Pope
Detail of The Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1631
Saint Thomas Aquinas by Luis Muñoz Lafuente
Super libros de generatione et corruptione
Super Physicam Aristotelis, 1595
Thomas Aquinas by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1650
17th-century sculpture of Thomas Aquinas
Portrait of St. Thomas by Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra, c. 1649
A stained glass window of Thomas Aquinas in St. Joseph's Catholic Church (Central City, Kentucky)

Thomas Aquinas (Tommaso d'Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is also known within the latter as the Doctor Angelicus, the Doctor Communis, and the Doctor Universalis.

He has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period" and "the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians.” His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy is derived from his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.

Boethius teaching his students (initial in a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation of Philosophy)

Boethius

Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, historian and philosopher of the early 6th century.

Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, historian and philosopher of the early 6th century.

Boethius teaching his students (initial in a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation of Philosophy)
Boethius imprisoned, from a 1385 manuscript of the Consolation.
Gravestone of Boethius, 6th century, Pavia, Musei Civici.
Narius Manilas Boethius, the father of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.
Lady Philosophy and Boethius from the Consolation, (Ghent, 1485)
Boethius, Arithmetica Geometrica Musica (1492 first printed edition, from Hans Adler Collection)
The Tomb of Boethius in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia.
Dialectica, 1547

While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other issues, which became one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages.

Lorenzo Valla described Boethius as the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastic philosophers.

Illustration from a 16th-century manuscript showing a meeting of doctors at the University of Paris

Medieval university

Illustration from a 16th-century manuscript showing a meeting of doctors at the University of Paris
A map of medieval universities
Teaching at Paris, in a late 14th-century Grandes Chroniques de France: the tonsured students sit on the floor
This Mob Quad group of buildings in Merton College, Oxford was constructed in three phases and concluded in c. 1378.
Diagrams, in a volume of treatises on natural science, philosophy, and mathematics. This 1300 manuscript is typical of the sort of book owned by medieval university students.
A university class, Bologna (1350s)
Universitas Istropolitana (a former university building in present-day Bratislava)

A medieval university was a corporation organized during the Middle Ages for the purposes of higher education.

The word universitas originally applied only to the scholastic guilds—that is, the corporation of students and masters—within the studium, and it was always modified, as universitas magistrorum, universitas scholarium, or universitas magistrorum et scholarium.

The jewelled cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870, a Carolingian Gospel book.

Early Middle Ages

Typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century.

Typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century.

The jewelled cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870, a Carolingian Gospel book.
Dark Ages Cold Period
Die Hunnen im Kampf mit den Alanen, (The Huns in battle with the Alans by Johann Nepomuk Geiger, 1873). The Alans, an Iranian people who lived north and east of the Black Sea, functioned as Europe's first line of defence against the Asiatic Huns. They were dislocated and settled throughout the Roman Empire
A paten from the Treasure of Gourdon, found at Gourdon, Saône-et-Loire, France.
Theodora, Justinian's wife, and her retinue
Restored Walls of Constantinople
Christ crowning Constantine VII ivory plaque, ca. 945
Europe around 650
The Sutton Hoo helmet, an Anglo-Saxon helmet from the early 7th century
The Lombard possessions in Italy: The Lombard Kingdom (Neustria, Austria and Tuscia) and the Lombard Duchies of Spoleto and Benevento
The Gokstad ship, a 9th-century Viking longship, excavated in 1882. Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway
Ceramic icon of St Theodore from around 900, found in Preslav, Bulgarian capital from 893 to 972
St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim, 1010s. Ottonian architecture draws its inspiration from Carolingian and Byzantine architecture.
The Islamic Prophet Muhammad preaching

They marked the start of the Middle Ages of European history.

The teaching of dialectic (a discipline that corresponds to today's logic) was responsible for the increase in the interest in speculative inquiry; from this interest would follow the rise of the Scholastic tradition of Christian philosophy.

Page from Apologia contra Bernardum, Abelard's reply to Bernard of Clairvaux

Peter Abelard

Page from Apologia contra Bernardum, Abelard's reply to Bernard of Clairvaux
Abelard Teaching by François Flameng, mural at the Sorbonne
"Abaelardus and Heloïse surprised by Master Fulbert", by Romanticist painter Jean Vignaud (1819)
Abelard, attacked and castrated
Statue of Abelard at Louvre Palace in Paris by Jules Cavelier
Abelard receives the monastery of the Paraclete Héloïse (1129)
Dedicatory panel in the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Abelard and Héloïse in a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (14th century)
Jean-Baptiste Goyet, Héloïse et Abailard, oil on copper, c. 1829.
Heloise and Abelard, Achille Devaria, 19th c. engraving
Abelard, Heloise, and medieval astrolabe portrayed in Michael Shenefelt's stage play, Heloise

Peter Abelard (Pierre Abélard; Petrus Abaelardus or Abailardus; c. 1079 – 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician.

William of Ockham depicted on a stained glass window at a church

William of Ockham

William of Ockham depicted on a stained glass window at a church
Sketch labelled "frater Occham iste", from a manuscript of Ockham's Summa Logicae, 1341
Quaestiones in quattuor libros sententiarum

William of Ockham (also Occam, from Gulielmus Occamus; c. undefined 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, and theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey.

During the Middle Ages, theologian Peter Lombard's Sentences (1150) had become a standard work of theology, and many ambitious theological scholars wrote commentaries on it.

The University of Bologna in Italy, founded in 1088, is often regarded as the world's oldest university in continuous operation

University

Institution of higher education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines.

Institution of higher education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines.

The University of Bologna in Italy, founded in 1088, is often regarded as the world's oldest university in continuous operation
Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest university in the United States and is routinely ranked among the world's best universities
Moroccan higher-learning institution Al-Qarawiyin (founded in 859 A.D.) was transformed into a university under the supervision of the ministry of education in 1963.
Meeting of doctors at the University of Paris. From a medieval manuscript.
The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the United Kingdom and among the world's top ranked
The University of St Andrews, founded in 1410, is Scotland's oldest university and one of the UK's best ranked universities.
Old main building of the University of Basel—Switzerland's oldest university (1460). The university is among the birthplaces of Renaissance humanism
17th-century classroom at the University of Salamanca
King's College London, established by Royal Charter having been founded by King George IV and Duke of Wellington in 1829, is one of the founding colleges of the University of London.
Peking University in Beijing was founded as the Imperial University of Peking
The University of Sydney is Australia's oldest university.
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia in the United States was founded in 1819 by American founding father Thomas Jefferson

At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialized "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term.

The efforts of this "scholasticism" were focused on applying Aristotelian logic and thoughts about natural processes to biblical passages and attempting to prove the viability of those passages through reason.