A syllabus of studies in a range of disciplines, textbooks, lectures, examinations, an annual cycle arranged into semesters, and the preferred pattern of teaching in the morning and early afternoon, all took shape between the end of the Barbarian invasions and the Black Death. Even some of the questions of pedagogic principle and practice debated today – such as the startingage for school, the separation of the sexes, and what subjects should be mandatory – were first raised by our medieval forebears.
The culture of education that emerged across the Middle Ages was a conscious act of recovery. Antiquity’s school tradition was uprooted with the break-up of Rome’s western empire. Long-standing city centres of teaching and learning either fell or were transformed. With their old civic way of life were…
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Medieval World Culture & Conflict (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 16 - 2025