The Twelfth Century Renaissance

The Twelfth Century Renaissance

Literature

The 12th Century renaissance built on the spread of monasticism and the associated increase in literacy.

Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100-55) set the tone for much twelfth-century literature in his romances about the intrepid knights at Court of King Arthur.

Chrétien de Troyes (ob. c. 1185), the author of Arthurian Romances, argued that contemporary French culture was as fine as that of ancient Greece and Rome.

"… Il fonce sur lui, croyant le prendre au dépourvu,
Mais Lancelot sut se protéger;
Avec son épée tranchante.
Il l'a si bien entaillé
Que Méléagant aura grand-peine à s'en remettre,
Même passé avril ou mai,
Car il lui rembarre le nasal dans les dents,
Lui en brisant trois.
Méléagant ressent une telle colère
Qu'il m'arrive pas à prononcer un seul mot,
Et il ne daigne pas implorer merci,
Car son orgueil s'y oppose,
Un orgueil qui le maîtrise et domine.
Lancelot vient à lui, délace son heaume
Et lui tranche la tête.
Jamais plus il ne lui jouera de mauvais tour;
Méléagant est tombé mort, c'en est fait de lui.
…"

(Chrétien de Troyes, Chevalier de charrette: Lancelot).

[He charges him, hoping to defeat him
But Lancelot stops him
With his powerful sword.
He strikes him so well
That Meleagant would still feel the blow
Until next April or May,
For he knocked his nose-guard into his teeth
Breaking three of them.
Meleagant responds with such fury
That he can't utter one word,
And he won't stoop to beg for mercy
For his pride resists -
A pride that still masters and dominates him.
Lancelot comes up and pulls off his helmet
And chops off his head.
Never will he suffer at his hands
Meleagant falls dead - it's the end of him].

In Germany, Hartman von Aue (ob. c. 1215) also wrote Arthurian romances against the background of the newly confident German courts. (Frederick Barbarossa (Holy Roman Emperor 1155-90) not only wanted to dominate Europe politically - he was convinced of German cultural superiority). Hartmann von Aue's works dealt with courtly themes of knightly duty and chivalrous love.

Sculpture from the 12th Century Church of Saint-Lazare

The Twelfth Century Renaissance was an internationalist movement. One characteristic of this was the "wandering scholars" who traveled from country to country. They developed their own genre of poetry - Carmina Burana - Latin songs celebrating academic and also more earthly pleasures.

Ego sum abbas cucaniensis
et consilium meum est cum bibulis,
et in secta Decii voluntas mea est,
et qui mane me quesierit in taberna,
post vesperam nudus egredietur,
et sic denudatus veste clamabit:
Wafna, wafna!
quid fecisti sors turpissima?
Nostre vite gaudia abstulisti omnia!

[I am the Abbot of Cockaigne
And all my friends drink gallons
And I worship gambling
And if someone finds me in a bar in the morning
He will leave completely fleeced in the evening.
Stripped of everything, whining:
Life sucks
What incredibly lousy luck
Could have taken away everything good in my life?]

In France, fables such as the Roman de Renart began to deal with political subjects.

"… the tyrant is one who oppresses the people by violent domination, just as the prince is one who rules by the laws. … The prince fights for the laws and liberty of the people; the tyrant supposes that nothing is done unless the laws are cancelled and the people brought into servitude …"

(John of Salisbury, Policraticus VIII.17)

In England, John of Salisbury (c. 1120-80) wrote the Policraticus in about 1159. It was a major work of political theory (although it laid too much stress on ecclesiastical independence for Henry II's tastes).

John of Salisbury was noted for his pure Latin style, but the English language began an artistic revival This led in the early 13th Century to such notable works as The Owl and the Nightingale.

Philosophy

Romance played a key role in the life of the philosopher and theologian, Peter Abelard (1079-42). Abelard was a Nominalist - he believed that only particular objects really exist, universals are mere words (that is, there are many - say - trees in the world, but the category "tree" is an arbitrary one, created for our convenience.)

Peter Abelard wrote an important work called Sic et Non (Yes and No), which tried to reconcile the varying opinions of Christian thinkers on points of theology. It was extremely important in the history of philosophy both because it established that all the arguments for and against an issue should be considered, and because it used historical context to understand earlier arguments.

	Abelard also wrote on theological topics; his unorthodox views on the Trinity particularly aroused the opposition of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153.)
	Abelard stood at the beginning of a movement in learning called scholasticism. The recovery of the writings of Aristotle was especially important in provoking new developments in logic and epistemology.
	The University of Bologna was founded in the late 1000s, and rapidly became a principal center for the study of civil and canon law. The University of Paris grew out of the Cathedral schools of Notre Dame by 1170, and became especially important for theological knowledge. (Oxford University was also founded in the 1100s and later re-modeled on the lines of the University of Paris.)

Architecture

Advances in engineering knowledge and skills allowed the development of the Gothic architectural style. Gothic architecture enclosed large spaces while preserving light and elegance.

The abbey of Saint Denis in Paris, built in the 1130s and 1140s was one of the first examples of Gothic architecture.

Salisbury Cathedral
(1220-58)

The pointed arch was far more flexible than the rounded arch in the openings possible for doors and windows. It also made adventurous vaulting possible.

Wells Cathedral
(built late 1100's)

Flying buttresses stood free of the building and supported the walls by using an arch or part of an arch. This made it possible to introduce large windows into walls, which no longer had to bear all the building's weight.

Flying buttresses at York Cathedral (Minster) (built from 1220.)

Gothic architecture was another movement that transcended national barriers. England was in any case a part of Henry II's international empire, and the influences of styles from as far away as Sicily penetrated English building.