In a message dated 01/15/2000 2:47:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< I suggest that the popular suggestion, usually attributed to Otto Ranke,
that
we discover and describe what *really* happened, wie es eigentlich
gewesen war, >>
I hate to be pedantic, but I think you mean Leopold von Ranke.
Anyway, as to the demarcation business:
I've always thought "medieval" is misleading. The term has come to mean a
certain popular and largely erroneous cultural condition. If I use it at all
I see medieval as strictly a chronological adjective. I prefer, however,
seeing the period between 350 and 1500 as Late Antiquity in the West (other
places have different parameters). The hallmark for each transition would be
the change in geo-political perspectives. The end of the 4th century saw the
division of the Roman Empire into smaller units. And though they all
remained nominally Roman these units functioned as independent and
self-serving entities. On the other extreme, the late 15th century, Europe
expanded into other "worlds" and began the slow process of integrating these
worlds into a truly global world picture.
mark
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