The Middle Ages: an Era of Light, Not Dark

Paper Summary:

The author of the paper contends that, contrary to the generally held conception, the Middle Ages was not a time when ignorance reigned supreme and logic and reason had no place. By examining and discussing a number of works relating to the Middle Ages, the author further contends that the medieval period had its great scholars and contributors to human thought. The author examines the novel by Umberto Eco, "The Name of the Rose" which, whilst a piece of fiction, when examined alongside scholarly works on the Middle Ages, presents, in the author's opinion, a fair and reasonable portrayal of the "real" Middle Ages.

From the Paper:

"From the very start of the novel The Name of the Rose Eco decisively shatters stereotypical Monty Python and the Holy Grail beliefs about the medieval era. Upon arriving at the monastery in Melk, William amazes his apprentice, Adso, by deducing what several monks, including the cellarer, Remigio of Varagine, are searching for. "during our whole journey I have been teaching you to recognize the evidence through which the world speaks to us like a great book"(Eco, 23). William of Baskerville is no ignorant man. From this one passage about the Brunellus, the missing horse, which culminates in a lecture to Adso, in which that sentence is the highlight, the reader realizes that William knows how to observe the world and draw logical conclusions. He uses observation, inference and ultimately confidence his own intellectual prowess to deduce the Abbot's most prized horse has gone missing. Furthermore, the reader is also meant to understand that Adso does not represent the ignorance of medieval ages, but rather the ignorance and inexperience of youth. He is, after all, the young apprentice of William. Adso does not have the same life experience or reservoir of knowledge of William. He is Eco's literary tool in which to answer the questions of the reader. Adso often asks exactly what the reader is wondering."

Sample of Sources Used:

• The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco, 1980
• The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved mystery of the most unusual manuscript in the world Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone, 2005
• Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation Malcolm Lambert, 1977
• Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages Bernard McGinn, 1998

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