(Siglo V- siglo XV)

I. CONTEXTO. SOCIEDAD
poca muy larga y compleja, que se inicia con el fin del Imperio romano. En la Edad Media la Iglesia catlica domina la sociedad y la cultura. La religin lo impregna todo (Teocentrismo).

La sociedad es estamental. En la pirmide feudal, el emperador y el papa estn en lo ms alto, debajo estaran los reyes y los abades de los monasterios, debajo los nobles, luego los caballeros y los monjes, y por ltimo, en la base, el pueblo llano o plebe.

Se construyeron monasterios por todo el continente europeo, donde vivan comunidades de monjes que, en los scriptorium, copiaron y conservaron los libros de la antigedad: los cdices. El resto del pueblo era analfabeto.

CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In the middle ages almost nobody could read or write. Most of the people only thought about getting enough food, to protect themselves against the very cold in winter, and to find a place to live safely. Kings and knights were occupied on training for the war to defend their territories or conquering new lands. Religious people were the only one who preserved and transmited the cultural legacy. In the monasteries the monks always had a library and in the scriptorium they create their own manuscripts translating classic texts from the ancient Greece and Rome and illustrating it with miniatures. They invented the first system for writing music (the Gregorian chant).