Topic: The legacy of antiquity and renaissance in the Middle Ages

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

IV. Society and culture of medieval Europe. Pupil:

1) (...) explains the concept of state and characterizes social divisions in the Middle Ages;

3) (...) recognizes monuments of medieval culture (...);

4) explains the role of the church (including religious orders) in the fields of science, architecture, art and everyday life.

General aim of education

Students learn how the medieval society was organized and if the achievements of antiquity were used in the Middle Ages.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to describe which achievements of antiquity survived in the Middle Ages;

• to explain how ancient ideas and cultural patterns were revived;

• to define the characteristic features of Carolingian Renaissance and Ottonian Renaissance;

• to explain how the new era began.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students should recall the achievements of Charlemagne and watch carefully the film from the e‑textbook „Relacje średniowiecza z antykiem”.

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the pupils the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher, referring to the homework, asks the students to remind how Charlemagne threw himself into history. What merit did this ruler have? Students should mention the construction of an empire following the example of the Roman Empire, imperial coronation and numerous reforms.

Realization

1. The teacher begins the discussion asking students what we owe to the ancients? Asking questions, he is to remembers that they are to be formulated as key questions. Students should mention primarily the achievements of Greeks and Romans. There should be references to law, philosophy, medicine, architecture, culture and art.

2. Then the teacher, referring to the film that the students should watch while preparing for the lesson, asks how prof. Przemysław Wiszewski describes the memory of antiquity in the first centuries of the Middle Ages.

3. The teacher presents how and why oblivion of ancient knowledge and common knowledge of Latin came to an end. He explains that in the first Germanic countries, Roman knowledge and culture were used and referred to. He lists the thinkers: Boethius and Cassiodor. Students look at the illustration of Cassiododor's work (Exercise 1) and do a related task. The teacher checks if the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback to students.

4. Next, the teacher presents periods of rebirth of ancient values and a return to the patterns of culture and art - the Carolingian renaissance from the ninth century and the Ottonian renaissance from the 10th century. He explains how they came about and what they were characterized by. Students perform Exercise 2, indicating the terms characterizing the Carolingian Renaissance. The teacher checks if the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback to students.

5. The teacher explains to the students the rebirth of ancient philosophy (above all Aristotle and Plato) in medieval Europe. He mentions the characters of Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides. Next, he presents the development of medieval science and adaptations of ancient works to the medieval Christian reality, characterized by scholastics and the teaching of one of the greatest theologians, Thomas Aquinas. Students get acquainted with the interactive illustration and carry out the Task 1.

6. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and provides feedback.

Summary

1. Summing up the lesson, the teacher explains the students that interest in antiquity and return to its patterns and ideas has not been stopped. This led to the pursuit of deepening knowledge. It was a breakthrough that led to the creation of a new era - a Renaissance.

2. The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare an evaluation questionnaire for self‑assessment and evaluation of the teacher's work and other students.

Homework

1. an asylum‑seeker asks homework for students willing (it is not an obligatory part of the script): The knowledge of ancient philosophers has survived, among others thanks to the translation of their works by Arab scholars. Find out the works of which philosophers, scholars and writers have met Europeans thanks to Muslims..

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The legacy of antiquity and renaissance in the Middle Ages

Since the Renaissance it was believed that the Middle Ages broke away from ancient tradition and forwent the ideals of ancient beauty. But despite a decline in population, economic regression, the oblivion and demise of a number of cultural and art genres, not everything was lost. The first rulers of the Germanic states, formed in the territories of the Western Roman Empire, neither destroyed ancient cultural works, nor did they fight Roman standards. The situation, however, changed in the 7th century when classical Latin, not used in everyday life, became a practically dead language and the Roman culture associated with hostility towards Christians was forgotten. Schools to which the aristocrats stopped sending their children also failed to survive. As a result, the knowledge of ancient literature and the ability to read the Bible in Latin ceased to exist. Within the European community, deprived of its connecting elements, internal divisions began to grow. The first revival of ancient standards took place during the reign of Emperor Charles the Great. This enlightened ruler and politician were well aware that only the introduction of one common factor to all his people would allow him to attempt to rebuild the Roman Empire. Returning to the antiquity did not merely mean accepting its standards of beauty, it was a tool to create a common ideological platform connecting the inhabitants of the entire empire. Following the flourishing interest in classical standards, there was a short period of stagnation and even its demise. It was the result of the collapse of the Carolingian Empire and the destructive invasions of neighbouring tribes. The interest in the antiquity revived again in the second half of the tenth century within the elite circles of the German state of Otto I and his reconstruction of the empire began. With the appearance at the court of Byzantine Princess Teofano, later Otton II's wife, works of art, people of science and the ideas of ancient culture, still prevalent in Constantinople, came to Germany. The great imperial monasteries (Regensburg, Gorze) and the episcopal cathedral (Cologne) became educational centers, which gave rise to the so‑called Ottoman renaissance. However, the turning point in reviving the ancient standards was the 12th century, when original works of the most important Greek philosophers and scholars were rediscovered by Western culture. Thanks to Aristotle's treaties, logic began to be studied as a cognitive tool/tool of cognition. Catholic theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas, also derived from it by adapting and combining revealed theological truths with philosophy. The flourishment of medieval culture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries resulted in the creation of original works, perfectly tailored to the needs of spiritual people of the era. As a result, the demand for the works of the antique culture decreased. But that all changed in the mid‑fourteenth century in Italy. A growing interest in ancient works created the conviction that one must reach to the original thoughts and works of ancient authors and imitate them but not in the context of philosophical and theological discussions, but in order to perceive a human being. That constituted the beginning of a new intellectual movement which placed a man and his temporal life as the most important value - humanism. It initiated the changes that led to the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of a new era – Renaissance – during which there was an increased interest in antiquity and the human body.