The ancient Greeks knew the earth was round using maths. Knowledge which was passed to the Romans and later on to the medieval period. Any educated person would know the earth was round.
Anyone who traveled to different latitudes would notice the way the constellations moved, and that the only explanation was a spherical Earth. Also, anyone living in a coastal location would notice ships sailing below the horizon.
Considering the vast majority of people would not have a formal education and wouldnt travel very far, I imagine many had either never thought about it, or just assumed it was flat. While nowadays it's almost trivial to prove the earth is a sphere, there is really no reason for someone without knowledge of basic physics, geography and other natural sciences to assume so, or any particular shape other than what the eyes see, for that matter. In costal towns, you might notice ships disappearing bottom first but, even then, you could just assume there was some curvature or "noise" (similar to how there a mountains on land) in the earths shape, without concluding it was a sphere.
It's not just that there were medieval universities, the university is a medieval invention. It's much more systematic and networked than any ancient academy, and more focused on providing a mix of scholarly education and skills transferable to the work-life, like studies in law and theology.
@@samuelkeogh1058 they did, though they were more informal events and the teachers would lecture in taverns and parks, etc, and usually be paid by the students on the spot.
@@politicallyincorrect2564 yes but there is no evidence the Academy had a structured curriculum or awarded degrees so I wouldn't consider it a university in the modern sense, even though it fostered discussion and important networks between the scholars of it's time.
second sleep would've been really useful for dairy farmers too, you milk cows twice a day so if you went to bed early and got up early for the first milking you could then go back to bed and have a snooze and get up in the afternoon for the second
Cat people know about second sleep. First you get up and feed your cat after about 4 hours of sleep, then you get up a few hours later and feed them again. 😂
The Greeks suggest a round earth around 500bc and showed how big the earth was in 200bc. Any well educated medieval scholar would have know this. Columbus just miscalculated the size because of unit conversion.
Columbus didn't *just* miscalculate the size due to unit conversion. People in the Italian court that he first tried to fund his excursion with pointed out his logic was flawed. Columbus refused to listen. He was also initially rejected by the Spanish court as well until repetitioning the crown.
That's why there's a conspiracy that Columbus knew that there was another landmass, based on sailors tales from Italy & England, and was trying to hide the true goal of his expedition so that he could benefit the most from it by claiming whatever he found without any competition.
@@pacmonster066 Pretty sure Columbus never petitioned the Italian court to fund his voyages. He left Genoa when a teenager and first tried to get funding from Portugal, where he lived and married, and then Spain.
@@pacmonster066 And Columbus would have died long before reaching Asia if hadn't happened upon America. The man was so bad at math it would have killed him if not for an insane stroke of luck.
@BernardDauphinais, there wasn't an "Italian" court in Columbus' time for him to petition. Italy was divided amongst a fair few duchies, kingdoms and republics.
Decimalisation was 15-02-71. I remember boarding a bus in Leeds with old money in my pocket and being given decimalised money in change. That was confusing but once we had transitioned to decimalised money alone then young whippersnappers like me were okay. However, some of the old folk never did get it, which is odd because decimalised currency is so much easier to understand.
I've often heard it said that women didn't wear any kind of underwear, but they must have had something at least once a month. I wish we knew more about that.
Approaching the casuistry of education in the early Middle Ages, I would like to remind you about a forgotten educational institution, namely the University of Constantinople, which preceded the University of Bologna by 663 years. Although not recognized as a true university, it embraced a diverse approach to education, focusing on Greek language, literature, philosophy, and theology. Moreover, it has democratized education, attracting diverse students and promoting the active research necessary for scientific development. As an informative note, there are sources stating that the University Library housed manuscripts from the Great Library of Alexandria. In conclusion, the meritocratic spirit instilled in this educational institution served as the fertile ground from which the Renaissance era would be born.
I hear this often: if you managed to reach adulthood, you had a good chance to live until 60-70 years. Sure. Except if: - you were a woman (see childbirth in the same video) - got a disease they had no idea of how to cure - got whacked in a feud, civil or other war (violent death was much more common than today, and yes, we know it from archaeological research) - starved to death (famine was quite common)
Basically your odds of living to 60-70 were a lot better if you made it to 12 or so than at your birth. Every parent had a dead child or several for most of history and the amount of tragedy from the perspective of others went up with age which speaks to just how common this was. A child born sleeping as we refer to it was very commonplace and is basically only addressed in scant medical advice literature. Mostly this seems to cover how to dispose of the child's body safely to avoid spreading noxious illness with some superstitions. Children were not considered to have souls until 2-3 which speaks to how many died before that age. As a woman, if you successfully gave birth to one or two children your chances of dying in childbirth went down as well. Women remained superstitious with subsequent births, but they seem to focus the most energy on superstition to survive the first and that tracks with how about 30% of first time mothers end up with medical interventions. The remaining 70% are considered to have a proven pelvis and are seen as lower risk with subsequent births even though emergencies can still happen. That first 30% probably would not have survived and then some percent would have died in a later childbirth.
@@tiryaclearsong421 Sure, I don't argue with that, but my point is about people claiming the only thing bringing down life expectancy to 40s is infant mortality. Yes, it's definitely a big contributor, but there are the factors I mentioned before.
The only one of those that is a constant is childbirth - disease comes and goes [and there were long periods with no great plagues or anything going on of that sort (not to say the usual diseases didnt exist, of course they did)], and fairly long periods in the high middle ages in particular during which large scale wars were pretty unusual [and it's also worth remembering that for most of the medieval period, large scale pitched battles were avoided as much as possible and engaged in only as a last resort - so it's not to say that people didnt die in wars, of course they did, but it wasnt a constant and commanders and kings werent just trying to go into those horrendous mosh-pit type battles hollywood always portrays them as].
@@Sean.Cordes Pneumonia-not just a disease for the elderly Heart disease-ditto Septicemia Most serious wounds (although I remember a lady who almost died from a paper cut) Renal failure Hepatic failure Diabetes of both types All common ailments we can treat now but in medieval times they didn't have the resources. They were very clever with medicinal plants. Also, you don't have to have a war to meet violent death. Criminals existed. And I don't think you can ever discount malnutrition. It kills people across history, including today.
@@Sean.Cordes I disagree, by diseases I don't mean the plague, that was obviously a rare event, but common, everyday diseases, which definitely resulted in way more death in the ages when antibiotics and antiseptic measures weren't known, and medicine consisted of using herbs (some of it effective to some extent) and letting blood (mostly making matters worse). Also, by violent deaths I don't necessarily mean wars - which were common and civil casualties were part of life, soldiers usually got some extra payment by plundering enemy villages and raping women, killing those trying to resist. But, in addition, violent crime was much more common between people in general, and there are "minor" things that don't get into history books. I once helped digitizing legal documents from the middle ages and there were lots of cases, like "nobleman X was fined to pay 3 pieces of gold, because he got noblemen Y's two peasants hanged in 1722. At least, this expert says he doesn't know the figures related to common folk.
I didn’t intend to comment but this is my field so I have to speak up. The 20th century statistics on maternal mortality for both gestation and childbirth are largely under estimated and under-reported. While it’s true that mortality rates have declined with advances in technology and education, those improved outcomes have only been noted in the 20th century and have not improved significantly since despite further advances. These statistics are the result of a number of serious problems that culminate in a state of under reporting. Hence, maternal mortality is a “hidden in plain sight”issue that degree granting programs are only now beginning to acknowledge. Even with advanced technologies, research emphasis in the past century has overwhelmingly been placed on mitigating infant mortality. Those same advancements increased our post mortem testing capabilities and our ability to detect proximal and underlying disease states in the mother. For a number of reasons, this lead to a shift in attribution reporting and primary cause of death is being attributed to these undetected/ undiagnosed/ untreated conditions. While the pregnancy/ childbirth is listed as causally proximal - if at all. Unless one knows how to access and read the detailed breakdown of Morbidity and Mortality Reports (unlikely unless you’re a clinician or work in public health), these “proximal” causes aren’t part of the statistical record. The fact is the vast majority of these conditions can be mitigated and would not necessarily cause death during pregnancy and childbirth had they been detected and addressed. Meaning many of the maternal deaths occurring today are and have long been preventable. The issue is further complicated by the general perception that maternal mortality is a non issue. Meaning institutions and municipalities are not encouraged to begin accurately reporting these numbers given the questions it would invite about standard of care. Additionally there is fact that maternal mortality is absolutely subjective based on access to prenatal and post natal care. The numbers are simply woefully inaccurate and the real question is- with all the advances we continue to see- why isn’t the number falling? Why isn’t it actually insignificant? The answer is that maternal mortality is an issue hidden in plain sight and at minimum- the flawed understanding surrounding it must change. I share this with the deepest hope that it inspires any who read it to look into these issues so we can save more lives. Both mother and child should have every chance possible to survive.
Remember that Aristotle was pretty much the basis for their understanding and Aristotle knew the Earth was round because of lunar eclipses (he saw one). The flat earth thing is a new phenomenon - they didn't believe the Earth was flat when Columbus went on his expedition, Columbus just thought the world was smaller. He hit the Bahamas where he expected Japan to be.
@@danlorett2184 And other people mocked Columbus' plan because they knew his math was off, which it was. Had America not been there, Columbus would have starved long before reaching Asia. He was dead wrong, and just got immensely lucky.
Yeah i dont believe the calories. Youd need to eat lots of animal fats to just get that much. And would have to produce 4x food per person compared to now. Also it is a society were recources are scarce. 8000 is eddie hall type. Its not possible. Its a chore to eat that much even if youre having cakes etc. A 5'5 man would have to eat almost constantly. Id have to see some evidence.
@@asburycollins9182 that's why ale was so popular. It was calorie dense and you could drink it on the go. I can believe that farmwork with only hand tools and no mechanical machinery would consume more calories than a marathon.
@11:22 Which was why Edward I Longshanks got his name. He was 6 foot 2 inches, which is on the tall side TODAY, but back then (the second half of the 13th century) he was a GIANT. His ancestor William the Conqueror was around 5 foot 10 inches, which today would be perfectly average for an American or UK man, but in the 11th century people probably viewed him the way we today would view someone who is 6 foot 4 inches tall- not staggeringly shockingly tall, but quite noticeably a large man
I‘m a history student soon graduating from college. I absolutely love the medieval period and it sucks so many people have these stereotypes about it and don‘t even bother to learn about those times! Thank you for this great video
14:10 actually pilgrims sometimes got a very bad reputation. For example in Viennese dialect the insult "Pülcher" (meaning something like a vagabond, petty criminal or parasite) has it's etymology in the German word "Pilger", meaning pilgrim. The reason for that is that every christian had a duty to accomodate and feed pilgrims and some pilgrims were using this priviledge too much, living off of families that were already struggling before they arrived.
Woman were more likely to die in childbirth if there was a doctor there. Being in a village increased chance of survival significantly. This was true until like 100 years ago
Zoroastrianism is still practiced to this day; albeit by a small number of people. But its influence on other religions such as Christianity and Islam is larger than most people realize and it’s a fascinating study on how religions have evolved and changed over time.
I don't know what I imagined them to look like before, but thinking about all these military men walking around with the Will Beyers special is so funny to me.
Do another one like this please. About medical courts and justice: could you appeal decisions? Assuming you had the resources, could you get the king to adjudicate on your case? If not the king, maybe a king appointed judge? I’ve never heard of a “King Solomon” type story from the Middle Ages.
Perhaps we should send a case or 10 of Steel Reserve 40oz back in time? Underpriced, high content and tastes like crap. That ought to put the kids to sleep.
People tend to be confused/shocked about “second sleep” and it’s honestly so funny to me… like that’s human nature!! If i sleep at the right time, i’ll wake up and then sleep again, and it’s usually the best sleep i can get. The main reason why most people don’t do this is because their schedule won’t allow for it. I’m a student, so during summer i can have a second sleep but for the rest of the year i can’t 😔
The idea of some monks living in a state of continual partying is both feasible and amusing. The amount of wine they appeared to have, beer, mead and so on, well as long as they could keep working, they could be in a constant haze.. Some things never change! Nice one Matt and team. 🌟👍
8:54 _"If you could afford to waste cloth"_ When pieces of cloth are sewn, some pieces that are left over are simply too small to use in sewing. Dito when cloth gets worn. Giving linen to paper mills or using left over cloth for sanitary purposes isn't really waste ... however, the man who could afford cloth in this situation was probably using cloth bought from several people ...
Perhaps not medieval, but something that clearly reflects earlier times, Basho Matsuo, while walking about about in northern Japan in about 1685, took shelter for the night during inclement weather in a boarder guard's lodging and wrote the following 蚤虱馬の尿する枕もと (in romaji: nomi shirami uma no bari suru makura moto and in translation: fleas, lice, and a horse p*ss*ng near my pillow) I think the haiku probably captures how peasants spent their nights in medieval Europe. I had the pleasure of visiting this border guard's dwelling (it still stands) and sitting next to a charcoal brazier close to where Basho spread his futon, looking out over the stable area and talking with the current caretaker on a cold, windy spring day last year.
12 pence to the shilling; 20 shillings to the pound; 1 pound to the sovereign; 5 shillings to the crown. Later, 1 pound and 1 shilling to the guinea (originally a 1 pound coin made of guinea gold).
The period between 1st and 2nd sleep was known as " The watches of the Night ". During Winter , nights are long. If you had the luxury of a candle you might perform a little bit of work thus having more time when the Sun was up to do the outdoor stuff. Makes sense, huh ?
In the realm of music, we also have the Carmina Burana, a 13th-century collection of music compiled in Germany. It includes some religious music, also a lot of love songs and such, plus a number of bawdy drinking songs. Some are in Latin, but most are in medieval French, German, and so on. News from outside the local community was spread by traveling troubadours, who passed information on to each other. Monks also engaged in agriculture, because each monastery was supposed to be self-sufficient. English wool was in high demand because of its quality. In addition, medicinal herbs were raised for the concoction of remedies for all sorts of illnesses.
@@lizzyh7417 You're thinking of Carl Orff's adaptation, with which I'm very familiar.. The original manuscript from the Benediktbeuern monastery includes the original medieval melodies and sometimes neumes for most of the songs. Several recordings of the originals are available.
There was Hildegard of Bingen who wrote music earlier than the collection of Carmina Burana and we still have her music to this day. She often is over looked for whatever reason, but if you’re into medieval music she’s worth a listen.
Seems a bit weird how much he stresses how hard rural medieval people worked... A third of the year they barely worked, if at all. It would only be at peak seasonal(ie. sow, harvest) times that they would work 14hours or so a day... Then you have to count all of the festival and holy days, which there were far many than 2 weeks on easter... On average, most medieval people would have probably worked far less than your average westerner today who works 40 hours a week year round with maybe 2-3 weeks off. I get it, farming is hard work, but like, half the year you are literally just sitting at home & maybe doing busy-work & trying to make sure your animals don't starve.
This video was all over the place.. Some of it was correct, some of it was speculation stated as fact and some of it was just flat out incorrect. I've never seen an education so scattered 😂
up until i was 9 years old my grandma raise me in a mountain, we never had water and we used corn cob as our toilet paper. did that for years. imagine that
In re music, instruments developed in the mediaeval include crumhorns, sackbutts, shawms (wind/brass), tabors and various hand percussion things, rebec, viola da gamba (cello like), viola da braccia (viola type), rebec is an early violin. Troupes of 'waits' would play for alms (sort of buskers) in towns, and the first known example of licencing of this is the award of such a permit to The Waites Of Beverley. 🎶🌟👍
The name bubonic becomes from the greek word vouvonas [βουβωνας] which means the region of human body around genitals or ypogastric pubic region. In Greece we also say [βουβωνικη κηλη] which means hernia of that region. The type of plague that inficted that area named bubonic plague. Thank you and sorry but my english are not good at all.
Re: Money. I encourage you to read "Debt, the First 5,000 Years. by David Graeber, who demonstrates that although coinage was not so common, money in the form of tally sticks, which were used as a medium of exchange. Interestingly, when the the practice (I believe under Sir Isaac Newton, who was the head of the treasury department) was discouraged in the early 19th century, the sticks were collected and an attempt to burn them in the furnace ended up in the 1834 fire that burned down the parliament building.
17:50, weren't the bells of churchs for that purpose? Sure they wouldn't ring at every hour like now, but for sure they would ring some time during the day. About the holidays breaks, there were religious holidays, that would make people have a break from time to time no?
If you run a farm, there really isn't a break. Your cows still need to milked on St. Crispin's day. There more and less intensive periods, depending on time of year, but there would never be a day without work. A religious holiday just means you also have to attend religious festivities that day, whether it's convenient or not.
9:13 actually these arabic travellers to China said things like that the Chinese don't wash themselvey with water, but used paper instead. So the usual way at least in the middle east was washing your backside with water.
Have you ever heard of a bidet? While the bidet was a French invention, it no doubt would have gotten inspiration from other cultures, including the Middle East.
Only a spherical Earth would cast a round edged shadow on the Moon, which is what everyone can observe with their own eyes in the nightsky during half moon periods. Why would Earth be flat when all other bodies we can observe in the sky (Sun, Moon, planets) are spherical?
The moon phases aren't caused by the Earth's shadow on the moon. It's caused by how much of the moon is getting lit up by the sun based on our viewpoint on Earth. That changes over the month it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth. A lunar eclipse is when Earth's shadow is cast on the moon. That's when we can see the curved shadow of Earth.
One thing that wasn't quite answered right was how people told time. Yes, they did need to know how much time had passed for cooking and baking and many other things. One way that a peasant could measure short amounts of time was through prayer. Everyone learned to say their prayers, usually from the Rosary. And everyone learned how to say these prayers at a certain pace, or cadence. Then if someone was told to, for example, whisk the eggs for three Hail Marys, and it usually takes 20 seconds(ish) to repeat this prayer, then they would whisk the eggs for about one minute. This lasted up until very recently. I remember when I would go camping and my grandfather would gauge how hot the wood stove's oven was by opening the door and putting his hand in the baking area. If he could repeat the first line of his favorite hymn, then it was just the right temperature for baking bread.
Death in chilbirth is a common medieval trope but the mortality rate is estimated at about 1% per live birth. The main risk factor being repeated childbirth at short intervals and perhaps young age. Malnutrition too obviously but that is the case for all causes. Mind that this would still mean that pregnancy often more than doubled the chances of a young woman dying in a given year.
when you talk about studies and work. Great that you say in one place that you talk about the boys of the time and not women. However do you need to do a special video about how women lived in the medieval time or not? married or not women and their fashion apparently is where they finally get noticed,
Siesta and second sleep were not the same. They took place at different times of the day/night. Siesta was in the middle of the day, usually in the early- to mid-afternoon. Second sleep started at around 1am to 3am and lasted until dawn or early morning. Medieval Europe was vastly predominantly Caucasian. You might see people of other ethnicities especially in Southern Europe and in ports, but most people in Europe throughout the Medieval period would never see anyone from sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent or East Asia.
Sure, but the exceptions to that rule are attested and should be mentioned since it was asked. It's also worth remembering that lumping all white people into the same category as "Caucasian" is a post-medieval invention. If you asked a medieval Englishman what he thought about the Welsh, Cornish, or Irish, he would most likely consider them foreigners even if they lived in the same king's domains. Diversity of Caucasian groups is still diversity if the groups consider themselves separate.
19:36 "Peasants would eat 8,000-9,000 calories a day" This can't be right. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is an Icelandic strongman who eats 8,000 calories a day, is about 7 feet tall and weighs 400 pounds. The idea that a 5 foot 5 inch tall peasant is eating the same is absurd. I hope this was a misspeak. Maybe he meant a week? 9,000 divide by 6 working days would be 1,500 calories and sensible.
You seem to be a bit misinformed about music in the medieval period. We DO have lots of medieval secular music, specially late medieval courtly music from the 11th century onwards; not only the songs and poems by troubadours, trouveres and Minnesänger, but also cantigas, laudas and many more examples of both vocal and instrumental music, for which we've found many tunes and melodies written down in the crude music notation systems of the era. And, of course, since the 12th century there are many known composers of elaborated music in several parts or voices. Here an example of song by a 12th century troubadour: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UfJwnPebeXg.html
WHY do historians, who should know better, keep saying that the first universities appear at the end of the 11th century? And why do they say that they first appear in Europe? The University of Al Karaouine, founded in 859 in Morocco, is recognized as the world's oldest degree-granting university. Universities began as an Islamic golden age phenomenon and in fact, that's why we wear robes at graduations, it's a cultural artifact of the origins of universities.
Well they should make it clearer that he's an expert in Medieval European history and talking about Medieval Europe. That's what he's been asked to talked about so it's not really his fault they haven't made that clear
0:56 In the Middle Ages, children in cities were _generally_ going to at least elementary school, since the literacy revolution in the 1200's. Grammar schools are actually a step beyond that, it implies you were learning Latin, here is what wiki had to say: // Although the term scolae grammaticales was not widely used until the 14th century, the earliest such schools appeared from the sixth century, e.g. the King's School, Canterbury (founded 597), the King's School, Rochester (604) and St Peter's School, York (627)[1][2] The schools were attached to cathedrals and monasteries, teaching Latin - the language of the church - to future priests and monks. // Parts of the future clerics were certainly younger sons to richer parents. But parts were also people from poorer classes whom the already extant clergy considered fit.
He is incorrect at 1:40 to say the university at Bologna was "the first one," appearing in "the late eleventh century." He may be correct about that university's founding date, but The Jagellonian University, in Warsaw, was founded in the tenth century, during the 960's. Nobody has ever claimed that The Jagellonian was the first university, but it is certainly the oldest in Europe still in operation. Japanese, Chinese, or other Asian universities may very well make longer plausible claims; I don't know.
Poland adopted christianity in 966 lol so there definitely were not any universities existing there before that. Also, Jagiellonian University is in Krakow, not Warsaw...
