The History of Medieval Europe / Lynn Thorndike

In 410 Alaric, King of the Visigoths, sacked the city of Rome.

Never again would the Roman Empire regain complete control over the western half of Europe.

Yet, this would not be the civilization in Europe.

After a brief period of anarchy and turmoil various nations across the continent rose up and forged new ideas and identities that not only drew upon the classical past but upon them and developed them far more than their Roman and Greek forebears could envisage.

Lynn Thorndike’s remarkable book The History of Medieval Europe explores the development of Europe and its civilization, from the decline of the Roman Empire to the opening of the sixteenth century.

At the outset of the book, Thorndike explains, that the general plan is to treat medieval Europe as a whole rather than to give the respective histories of individual nations, such as France, Germany, England, and Italy. This is due to the fact that “the modern interest in that national state has usually been carried too far in the study of the Middle Ages. Local division, not national unity and central government, is surely the striking feature through most of the medieval centuries.”

Through the course of the book Thorndike uncovers many fascinating subjects and themes, including the emergence of Christianity as the dominant religion of the continent, the Islamic invasions of the eighth century, the conflicts between Papacy and Emperors, Charlemagne and the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, how feudalism developed, the expansion of merchant trade and how it was dominated by guilds, up to the emergence of the Renaissance.

“the book is a fresh, scholarly, and up-to-date treatment mediaeval history by an experienced and successful teacher of the subject.”The American Journal of Education

Lynn Thorndike was an American historian who specialized in the history of medieval science and alchemy. Counter to Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt who argued that the Italian Renaissance was a separate phase, Thorndike believed that most of the political, social, moral and religious phenomena which are commonly defined as Renaissance seemed to be almost equally characteristic of Italy at any time from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. His book The History of Medieval Europe was first published in 1917 and he passed away in 1965.

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