This was the age of Feudalism. It saw the beginnings of some recovery of lost knowledge. It was also an age of religious upheaval and conflict, with the crusades, and the persecution of heretics like the Cathars. It was brought to an end by the black death.
Colour coding: red = mathematics, astronomy, physics orange = materials, chemistry, geology, engineering, architecture yellow = biology, medicine, exploration, anthropology, psychology green = visual art, printing blue = literature, poetry, music mauve = history, philosophy, metaphysics, theology grey = wars, politics, events (indented)
1101 - 1162 Heloise &, Letter to Abelard.
c.1114 - 1187 Gerard of Cremona, translated 87 works from Arabic to Latin, including editions of Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's Almagest and Al Khwarizmi's Algebra.
1126 - 1198 Ibn Rushd, aka Averroes physician and philosopher, The Incoherence of 'the Incoherence' is a rationalist response to Ghazali's mysticism.
c.1135-1201 Léonin, Notre Dame, Paris, beginnings of polyphonic music.
1138 - 1193 Salah al Din, aka Saladin &.
c.1160 - 1205 Pérotin, Paris, continues polyphonic music.
1160 - 1216 Lotario de Conti, aka Innocent III & & &, became Pope 1198, Papal Letters, authorised the fourth crusade & 1198 and fifth crusade 1215, and the Albigensian crusade & & against the Cathar heresy (1209-1255).
1162 - 1227 Genghis Khan Founder and first ruler of the Mongol empire, covering central Asia and China.
1162: Chancellor Thomas Becket becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by knights of Henry II in 1170.
1167 - 1216 King John, forced to sign Magna Carta & & 1215.
c.1170 - 1221 Dominic de Guzman founder of the Dominican order, fourth Lateran council 1215, associated with the inquisition.
1170 - 1250 Leonardo of Pisa, aka Fibonacci & & &, Liber Abbaci 1202 and 1228 introduced Hindu decimal numerals, for use in conjunction with the Abacus, in place of the Roman numerals then in use in Europe. The important series now known by his name appears in a problem about breeding rabbits, Practica Geometriae 1220, Liber Quadratorum and Flos 1225 solved some quadratic and cubic equations.
1175 - 1253 Robert Grosseteste.
1181 - 1226 Francis of Assisi, aka Giovanni Bernadone & founder of the Franciscan order, Canticle of Brother Sun &.
1192: Blondel, troubadour, friend of Richard the Lionheart, rescued him from imprisonment in Austria.
1194 - 1250 Frederick Hohenstaufen, king of Sicily 1198, emperor 1220, crusade 1228-9, wrote on falconry, patron of science and arts.
1200 - 1220: Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzifal.
1200 Manuscripts cut on wood block and printed.
1204: Constantinople sacked by Fourth Crusade.
1206: Ghengis Khan declares Mongol empire.
1206 - 1280 Albertus Magnus, Dominican friar, preached the 8th crusade 1270.
1214 - 1294 Roger Bacon, Friar Bacon's Discoveries 1270 (1659 edition).
1215: Mongols conquer Persia.
1215: King John of England forced to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
1215 - 1294 Kublai Khan grandson on Ghenghis Khan and fifth ruler of the Mongol emoire from 1260.
1218: Mongols conquer China, enter Peking.
Yuan (Mongol) dynasty in China (to 1,368).
1220 - 1296 Johannes Campanus of Novara, influential Latin edition of Euclid's Elements.
1225: "Sumer is icumen in" sung as a round in England, six-part polyphony.
1225 -1274 Thomas Aquinas theologian.
1240: Mali empire founded in W. Africa. Benin Kingdom founded in S. Nigeria.
1,244: Massacre of the Cathars at Montsegur.
c.1245 - c.1288 Adam de la Halle, Trouvere, adapted sacred motet to secular texts.
1250 - 1310 Theodoric (aka Dietrich) von Freiberg &, De Iride 1305, experimented with water-filled flasks to simulate primary and secondary rainbow formation by refraction and reflection in rainwater droplets.
1254 - 1324 Marco Polo. Venetian merchant who wrote of his travels, and those of his father, in East Asia, including the China of Kublai Khan.
d.c.1256 Johannes de Sacrobosco aka John of Halifax or Holywood, author of widely used school texts on arithmetic Algorismus and astronomy De Sphaera Mundi.
1258: The Golden Age of Islam was ended by the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258.
1265 - 1321 Dante Alighieri, poet Divina Commedia 1307.
1266 - 1337 Giotto artist
fl.1270 Peter Peregrinus & aka Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt, Epistola de Magnete 1269, states the laws of attraction and repulsion of magnetic poles, describes the floating compass already in use and proposes a pivoted compass.
1277 - 1367 China: Yuan dynasty.
1287 - 1347 William of Ockham & & commentaries with extracts and links.
1291 - 1361 Philippe de Vitry, Ars Nova, composer describes developments in polyphony, including motets.
1,300: Ottoman empire founded in Turkey.
More polynesians, Maoris, arrive in New Zealand.
1300 - 1358 Jean Buridan &. Secular philosopher and logician, Summulae de dialectica [Compendium of Dialectic]. He developed the concept of impetus, the first step toward the modern concept of inertia. His name is most familiar through the thought experiment known as Buridan's ass.
c.1300 - 1377 Guillaume du Machaut, poet and composer of sacred and secular motets, polyphonic Messe de Nostre Dame.
1,309 (to 1,378): Avignon Papacy. Seven successive French popes resided in Avignon rather than Rome, under protection of the French kings.
1313 - 1375 Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron 1358 a hundred romances told among a group of people sheltering from the plague.
1323 - 1382 Nicolas Oresme &. Anticipated Descartes in use of coordinates in geometry. He proved the divergence of the harmonic series.
c.1325 - 1397 Francesco Landini, composer of ballata, dance-song.
1,325: Aztec capital Tenochtitlan founded in Mexico.
1,327: William of Ockham summoned to Avignon by Pope John XXII on charges of heresy.
c.1330 - c.1387 William Langland, The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman allegorical poem.
1336 - 1405 Timur aka Tam(b)erlaine, conqueror
Ala'addin Tabrisi, shatranj player, promoter of Timur's game an elaborate form of chess, including new pieces, dabbaba, zebra.
1,337 - 1,453: Hundred Years War.
c.1343 - 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.
1,347 - 1,350: The black death, bubonic plague, sweeps through Europe.