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while Italy’s trade with Europe and Asia produced wealth that created a large market for art.

Perspective. To add three-dimensional depth and space to their work, Renaissance artists rediscovered and greatly expanded on the ideas of linear perspective, horizon line, and vanishing point.

Vanishing point: The vanishing point is the point at which parallel lines appear to converge far in the distance, often on the horizon line. This is the effect you can see when standing on railroad tracks and looking at the tracks recede into the distance.

Shadows and light. Artists were interested in playing with the way light hits objects and creates shadows. The shadows and light could be used to draw the viewer’s eye to a particular point in the painting.

Realism and naturalism. In addition to perspective, artists sought to make objects, especially people, look more realistic. They studied human anatomy, measuring proportions and seeking the ideal human form. People looked solid and displayed real emotions, allowing the viewer to connect with what the depicted persons were thinking and feeling.

A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides.

southern end of a very large peninsula. located in southern Europe

natural coastline and many natural harbors

seafood to eat.

The Attack: "The Senate rose in respect for his position when they saw him entering. Those who were to have part in the plot stood near him. Right next to him went Tillius Cimber, whose brother had been exiled by Caesar. Under pretext of a humble request on behalf of this brother, Cimber approached and grasped the mantle of his toga, seeming to want to make a more positive move with his hands upon Caesar. Caesar wanted to get up and use his hands, but was prevented by Cimber and became exceedingly annoyed. That was the moment for the men to set to work. All quickly unsheathed their daggers and rushed at him. First Servilius Casca struck him with the point of the blade on the left shoulder a little above the collar-bone. He had been aiming for that, but in the excitement he missed. Caesar rose to defend himself, and in the uproar Casca shouted out in Greek to his brother. The latter heard him and drove his sword into the ribs. After a moment, Cassius made a slash at his face, and Decimus Brutus pierced him in the side. While Cassius Longinus was trying to give him another blow he missed and struck Marcus Brutus on the hand. Minucius also hit out at Caesar and hit Rubrius in the thigh. They were just like men doing battle against him. Under the mass of wounds, he fell at the foot of Pompey's statue. Everyone wanted to seem to have had some part in the murder, and there was not one of them who failed to strike his body as it lay there, until, wounded thirty-five times, he breathed his last. "

This dearth of biographical information is due primarily to his station in life; he was not a noble, but the son of John Shakespeare, a leather trader and the town bailiff. The events of William Shakespeare’s early life can only be gleaned from official records, such as baptism and marriage records.

He probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read classical literature.

18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of the marriage.

but unfounded stories have him stealing deer, joining a group of traveling players, becoming a schoolteacher, or serving as a soldier in the Low Countries.

wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed.

In 1594, having probably composed, among other plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, he became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which became the King’s Men after James I’s ascension in 1603. The company grew into England’s finest, in no small part because of Shakespeare, who was its principal dramatist.

and the best theater, the Globe, which was located on the Thames’ south bank.

By 1596, the company had performed the classic Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That year, John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, a testament to his son’s growing wealth and fame.

he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre.

In a million words written over 20 years, he captured the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a precision that remains sharp today. As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”

he first constructions in Timbuktu were designed by African architects from Djenne and later on by Muslim architects from North Africa. Trade and knowledge were at their height.

Timbuktu became a celebrated center of Islamic learning and a commercial establishment. Timbuktu had three universities and 180 Quranic schools. These universities were the Sankore University, Jingaray Ber University and Sidi Yahya University. This was the golden age of Africa. Books were not only written in Timbuktu, but they were also imported and copied there. There was an advanced local book copying industry in the city. The universities and private libraries contained unparalleled scholarly works. The famous scholar of Timbuktu Ahmad Baba who was among those forcibly exiled in Morocco claimed that his library of 1600 books had been plundered, and that his library, according to him, was one of the smaller in the city.

The booming economy of Timbuktu attracted the attention of the Emperor of Mali, Mansa Mussa (1307-1332) also known as “Kan Kan Mussa.” He captured the city in 1325. As a Muslim, Mansa Mussa was impressed with the Islamic legacy of Timbuktu. On his return from Mecca, Mansa Mussa brought with him an Egyptian architect by the name of Abu Es Haq Es Saheli.

The Emperor also brought Arabs scholars to Timbuktu. To his great surprise, the Emperor has found that these scholars are underqualified compared to the black scholars of Timbuktu

Mansa Mussa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 had made Mali known worldwide. The great rulertook 60,000 porters with him. Each porter carried 3 kilograms of pure gold, that is, 180,000 kilograms or at least 180 tons of gold (Reference: Volume IV UNESCO General History of Africa, pages 197-200). He had so much gold with him that when he stopped in Egypt, the Egyptian currency lost its value and as result, the name of Mali and Timbuktu appeared on the 14th century world map.

perfidiously

decreed

They numbered more than three thousand and were all bound with ropes.

once and massacred them with sword and lance in cold blood.

seeing what was being done to the prisoners, rushed against the Franks and in the combat, which lasted till nightfall, several were slain and wounded on either side

Musulmans

morning our people gathered at the spot and found the Musulmans stretched out upon the ground as martyrs for the faith.

Ascalon,

Those who survived the Black Death believed that there was something special about them – almost as if God had protected them. Therefore, they took the opportunity offered by the disease to improve their lifestyle.

Peasants could demand higher wages as they knew that a lord was desperate to get in his harvest.

To curb peasants roaming around the countryside looking for better pay, the government introduced the Statute of Labourers in 1351 that stated: No peasants could be paid more than the wages paid in 1346. No lord or master should offer more wages than paid in 1346. No peasants could leave the village they belonged to.

Though some peasants decided to ignore the statute, many knew that disobedience would lead to serious punishment. This created great anger amongst the peasants which was to boil over in 1381 with the Peasants Revolt. Hence, it can be argued that the Black Death was to lead to the Peasants Revolt.

Why did the bubonic plague spread so quickly?

In towns and cities people lived very close together and they knew nothing about contagious diseases.

1.5 million people

In Medieval England, the Black Death was to kil

out of an estimated total of 4 million people between 1348 and 1350

The Black Death is the name given to a disease called the bubonic plague which was rampant during the Fourteenth Century. In fact, the bubonic plague affected England more than once in that century but its impact on English society from 1348 to 1350 was terrible.

It symptoms were described in 1348 by a man called Boccaccio who lived in Florence, Italy:

ck Death was caused by fleas carried by rats that were very common in towns and cities

The Bla

all privileges dearest to and most valued by the nobles.

Knights had the right of receiving double rations when prisoners of war; the right of claiming a year's delay when a creditor wished to seize their land; and the right of never having to submit to torture after trial, unless they were condemned to death for the crime they had committed.

of claiming the goods of a person dying on their lands who had no direct heir. They also had the right of claiming a tax when a fief or domain changed hands.

the right of common oven required serfs to make use of the mill, the oven, of the lord

feudalism was a political arrangement that provided for the performance of these functions of government by a class of landed nobles.  Nobles bound by an interdependent system of personal ties; the heart was the feudal contract, which established relations between lord and vassal, the most important of which were protection and service.

knights were to be Christian, brave, faithful, generous, and protective of women and the poor; evidence of this code may be found the French epic The Song of Roland and the Spanish El Cid.

which supported the lord, his family, and his soldiers.  Landed estate organized as manors; each a self-supporting economic unit; the lord provided the land and protection; serfs provided the labor.

Serfs (=landless peasants) bound to the soil; could not be bought or sold individually; they passed new owners when land changed hands.  Medieval farming methods primitive; yield was low

The law followed in a feudal court was largely based on old Germanic customs. The court did not act in the public interest, as with us, but waited until the plaintiff requested service. Moreover, until the case had been decided, the accuser and the accused received the same treatment. Both were imprisoned; and the plaintiff who lost his case suffered the same penalty which the defendant, had he been found guilty, would have undergone.

The burden of proof lay on the accused, who had to clear himself of the charge, if he could do so.

Ordeals, however, formed a method of appealing to God, the results of which could be immediately observed. A common form of ordeal was by fire. The accused walked barefoot over live brands, or stuck his hand into a flame, or carried a piece of red-hot iron for a certain distance. In the ordeal by hot water he plunged his arm into boiling water. A man established his innocence through one of these tests, if the wound healed properly after three days. The ordeal by cold water rested on the belief that pure water would reject the criminal. Hence the accused was thrown bound into a stream: if he floated he was guilty; if he sank he was innocent and had to be rescued. Though a crude method of securing justice, ordeals were doubtless useful in many instances. The real culprit would often prefer to confess, rather than incur the anger of God by submitting to the test and ordeals.

a trial by combat.

However, there is no denying that Alexander changed the world.

When he finally came home, his dad got him a job in the royal court in nearby Macedonia as a tutor to the young prince Alexander.

They taught him the art of war. Artistotle taught him to admire and respect the Greek culture. Artistotle was only Alexander's tutor for 3 years, but he had an enormous affect on the young prince, so much so that Alexander soon convinced himself that his father, King Phillip II of Macedonia, was not his real father at all.

Alexander was 19 years old, his father (King Phillip II) was assassinated. Alexander took over as king of Macedonia in 336 BC. Alexander quickly pulled together all of Macedonia under his leadership.

Alexander turned his attention to the massive Persian Empire.

By the time Alexander was 25 years old, against incredible odds, and in only six years, Alexander had become not only the king of Macedonia, but also the leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor, pharaoh of Egypt, and the great king of Persia.

Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents, and covered around two million square miles. The entire area from Greece in the west, north to the Danube, and south into Egypt, and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. This network was united by a common Greek language and culture."

As a scholar, Alexander felt it was his mission to spread the Greek culture.

schools everywhere he went to teach Greek philosophy and the Greek language.

Alexander adopted many of the customs of the local people he conquered, blending their culture with the Greek culture.

established hospitals, built fortified cities, and created the largest library in the ancient world at Alexandria.

but he never lost a battle.

very little known about the detailed life of peasants in Europe because the lords and the clergy did not keep records of the peasants

only

early records were concerning

duties

peasants owed their masters

slaves and serfs.

manors were divided into two:

Those who were full time servants would work every day of the week and would get a break to attend Mass on Sundays. Peasants were forbidden from leaving the lord’s manor without seeking permission. The condition of serfdom was hereditary and one would be tied to his master unless he saved enough to purchase some land or if he married a free person.  At the end of the twelfth century, the ties that bound peasants to their masters began to loosen.

Peasant life in the Middle Ages was confined to the manors,

The lords had great influence over the lives of the peasants;

Majority of the peasants worked three days a week in their lord’s land but they would work longer during the harvest and plantation periods

was where the peasants worked, tilled the land, planted and harvested on

he Church offered help to the neediest peasants in the form of food and necessities.

behalf of the lord

he peasants would receive a larger piece of land as long as they adhered to the condition that they work on the lord’s land before working on their own.

The plows and horses were so few and the peasants themselves spent the entire day working in the “demense”.

peasant also tended to the horses and cattle in meadows

Most peasants did not do much other than working, going to church and the occasional celebration.

hardly travelled outside their villages but they did have a sense of community amongst themselves

Peasant life was generally marked by having few possessions in the home

houses were basic shacks with benches, stools, wooden cups, bowls and spoons. Most households had a chest of drawers where the family would keep their valuable items. Peasants hardly slept on beds; they slept on straw mattresses on the floor. Given that they had few possessions even in terms of personal attires, they typically slept with their work apparels and covered themselves with animal skin.

Women

a small garden behind their house.

one part of the land, the “demense”

Church was also a source of education mainly for the peasant’s children who attended the local school that was part of the church. The peasants looked to the priests for baptism, marriage, and performance of last rites for the dying.  Christianity guided the moral decisions that peasant men and women made in their day-to-day life.

Education was meager and only available to a select group of boys.

young girls helped with chores in the house and they were married off as soon as they attained maturity; this was usually at the young age of thirteen or sixteen years.

Societal and economic development saw the rapid rise of cities and towns. As the ties between serfs and their masters became lose, the peasants were able to rent land and some even migrated to the towns. Catastrophes such as the Black Death, a plague that killed thousands of peasants made it difficult for lords to find peasants to work in their farms.