The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe

Renaissance poet Petrarch dubbed the centuries between the fall of Rome in 410 CE and the early Renaissance as the "Dark Ages." Modern historians have long since disproven Petrarch's characterization of the era as brutal, ignorant and static. Expanding on that scholarship, this title offers an even broader geographical perspective that considers how the permeable nature and diversity of interwoven cultures of Europe and beyond contributed to the age's dynamics. The authors give credit to the Arabian Peninsula and other regions for playing key roles in Europe's economic well-being via pre-existing trade networks. There were other exchanges as well. Britain's seventh-century-CE Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury migrated from Tarsus (located in modern Turkey), while 12th-century-CE Andalusian Jewish philosopher Maimonides found stability in Saladin's Egypt. Unconstrained by borders or preconceptions, this eye-opening book finds that the "Bright Ages" encircled a much larger world than Petrarch imagined.