Gerald James Whitrow on Middle Ages

“In the early and high Middle Ages it had been possible to spend many tens and even hundreds of years on erecting a single building... This was possible because human life was regarded as primarily the life of the community in which one generation quietly succeeded another... All this was destined to change in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period. Even in painting the time factor made itself felt... causing painting a secco to replace al fresco... since the very long apprenticeship... could not be maintained, and a successful painter had to work fast...”

“In the Middle Ages society was far more static and was essentially hierarchical in nature. As a result the causal or genetic attitude was far less important in medieval thought that it is in ours and the concept of evolution had little influence compared with the role of symbolism in the general world-view... Moreover, even the concept of time itself was of less significance to historians... For St Augustine the date of an event was of far less importance than its theological significance. His tendency to see everything in a theological rather than in a historical perspective was a powerful influence in the Middle Ages... It was not until the nineteenth century that the fundamental significance of the historical perspective came to be generally recognized. This was several hundred years after the theory and practice of perspective had been developed by painters and others. In each case a new way of looking at the world resulted.”

“Although western-European society in the Middle Ages developed no general concept of progress, many important innovations were made. ...[M]edieval inventions included... spectacles for reading, the spinning wheel, stronger iron tools... the heavy plough... flying buttresses. Some of the most important innovations in the Middle Ages were connected with the use of the horse... A more efficient harness than the crude yoke, which had been so well suited for draft-oxen, was introduced about the ninth century. ...Alfred the Great noted, with apparent surprise, that horses were used for ploughing in Norway. This would have been impossible with the yoke-harness, because as soon as the horse begins to pull with it the neck-strap presses on the animal's windpipe and thus tends not only to restrict the flow of blood... but also to suffocate it! ...Previously, the [horseshoe] had only been tied on... The first indisputable evidence of the use of nailed horseshoes goes back to the ninth century. ...[M]etal armour ...gave considerable impetus to the craft of the blacksmith. ...[T]he blacksmith was the forerunner of those who constructed the first mechanical clock. ...[T]he greatest of these, Richard of Wallingford ...in the early fourteenth century ...was the son of a blacksmith.”