This was the age of Recovery and Renaissance, at first a gradual recovery of ancient lost knowledge, and in the end a rapid flood of understanding leading at last to the first fruits of new knowledge. It was also an age of religious upheaval and conflict, with the crusades, with the persecution of heretics, and finally with the 'reformation' of the christian church and the rise of protestant sects. Here again the age could easily be divided into two parts at its mid-point 1350, marked by the black death. The second half also saw great advances in mathematics and the arts, of music, painting and architecture. It may be noted that the science of this period was mixed up with astrology, alchemy, magic and other occult ideas even in the minds of many of the more enlightened thinkers.
1100
Anselm & (1033 - 1109) theologian.
Omar Khayyam & & (c.1048 - c.1122) Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet, The Rubaiyat &.
al Ghazali (1058 - 1111) mystic, Deliverance from Error, The Incoherence of the Philosophers &.
Guillaume, Count of Poitiers (b.1071), the first troubadour whose songs survive.
1150
Adelard of Bath & (1075 - 1160), traveller and scholar.
1121: Peter Abelard & & & (1079 - 1142), Historia Calamitatum autobiography, Logica and Dialectica.
Bernard of Clairvaux & (1090 - 1153) founder of Cistercian order, prosecuted Abelard for heresy, preached the second crusade.
Abraham inb Ezra (1093 - 1167) Hebrew writer on grammar, astrology and biblical criticism.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179), poet and composer.
Heloise & (1101 - 1162), Letter to Abelard
Gerard of Cremona (c.1114 - 1187), translated 87 works from Arabic to Latin, including editions of Euclid's Elements, Ptolemy's Almagest and Al Khwarizmi's Algebra.
Ibn Rushd, aka Averroes (1126 - 1198) physician and philosopher, The Incoherence of 'the Incoherence' is a rationalist response to Ghazali's mysticism.
Leonin (c.1135-1201) and Perotin (c.1160-1205) composers, Notre Dame, Paris, beginnings of polyphony.
Salah al Din, aka Saladin & (1138 - 1193).
1162: Chancellor Thomas Becket becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by knights of Henry II in 1170.
1200
1192: Blondel, troubadour, friend of Richard the Lionheart, rescued him from imprisonment in Austria.
Lotario de Conti, aka Innocent III & & & (1160 - 1216), became Pope 1198, Papal Letters, authorised the fourth crusade & 1198 and fifth crusade 1215, and the Albigensian crusade & & against the Cathar heresy (1209-1255).
King John (1167 - 1216), forced to sign Magna Carta & & 1215.
Dominic de Guzman (c.1170 - 1221) founder of the Dominican order, fourth Lateran council 1215, associated with the inquisition.
Robert Grosseteste (1175 - 1253).
Francis of Assisi, aka Giovanni Bernadone & (1181 - 1226) founder of the Franciscan order, Canticle of Brother Sun &.
1200-1220: Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzifal.
1225: "Sumer is icumen in" sung as a round in England, six-part polyphony.
1202: Leonardo of Pisa, aka Fibonacci & & & (1170 - 1250), 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.
Johannes de Sacrobosco aka John of Halifax or Holywood (d.c.1256), author of widely used school texts on arithmetic Algorismus and astronomy De Sphaera Mundi.
Frederick Hohenstaufen (1194 - 1250), king of Sicily 1198, emperor 1220, crusade 1228-9, wrote on falconry, patron of science and arts.
Albertus Magnus (1206 - 1280), Dominican friar, preached the 8th crusade 1270.
Peter Peregrinus & aka Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt (fl.1270), 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.
Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294), Friar Bacon's Discoveries 1270 (1659 edition).
Johannes Campanus of Novara (1220 - 1296), influential Latin edition of Euclid's Elements.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 -1274) philosopher and theologian.
Adam de la Halle (c.1245 - c.1288), Trouvere, adapted sacred motet to secular texts.
1250
Theodoric (aka Dietrich) von Freiberg & (1250 - 1310), De Iride 1305, experimented with water-filled flasks to simulate primary and secondary rainbow formation by refraction and reflection in rainwater droplets.
Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), poet Divina Commedia 1307.
William of Ockham & & (1287 - 1347) commentaries with extracts and links.
Philippe de Vitry (1291 - 1361) Ars Nova, composer describes developments in polyphony, including motets.
1300
Guillaume du Machaut (c.1300 - 1377), poet and composer of sacred and secular motets, polyphonic Messe de Nostre Dame.
Jean Buridan & (1300 - 1358). 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.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375), Decameron 1358 a hundred romances told among a group of people sheltering from the plague.
Wat Tyler and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Nicolas Oresme & (1323 - 1382). Anticipated Descartes in use of coordinates in geometry. He proved the divergence of the harmonic series.
Francesco Landini (c.1325 - 1397) composer of ballata, dance-song.
William Langland (c.1330 - c.1387), The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman allegorical poem.
Timur aka Tam(b)erlaine (1336 - 1405), conqueror and inventor Timur's game an elaborate form of chess.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343 - 1400), The Canterbury Tales.
1350
1368: China: Ming dynasty. Building of the Great Wall.
1371: Caxton prints translation of the (fictional) travels of Sir John Mandeville.
Qadi Zada (1364 - 1436), Treatise on the sine.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446) architect of the Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
Jan van Eyck (c.1380 - 1441) artist The Arnolfini Portrait.
Donatello (1386-1466) sculptor.
Ghiyath al-Kashi (c.1380 - 1429), Treatise on the circumference 1424 computes 2pi to sixteen decimal places using inscribed and cirumscribed polygons.
Ulugh Beg (1393 - 1449) grandson of Timur, set up observatory at Samarkand and made accurate determinations, Zij-i Sultani 1437 catalogue of (992) stars.
John Dunstable & & (1385/90? - 1453) composer. Used major and minor thirds.
Fra Giovanni aka Fra Angelico (1395 - 1455) painter.
1400
Guillaume Dufay (1397?/1400 - 1474), Gilles de Bins, aka Binchois, (c.1400 - 1460), Johannes Ockeghem (c.1410 - c.1497) and Josquin Des Prez (c.1440 - 1521) composers of songs, motets and masses, and masses, the Franco-Flemish school under patronage of Duke Philip "the Good", Burgundy.
Johannes Gutenberg & & & & (c.1400 - 1468), invention of printing with moveable type 1439, 42-line Bible & 1455.
Leone Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472), De Pictura 1435 on laws of perspective.
Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431).
Piero della Francesca (1412 - 1492), De prospectiva pingendi 'On perspective for painting'.
Tomas de Torquemada (1420 - 1498), head of Spanish Inquisition 1483, expelled Jews from Spain 1492.
Giovanni Cibo, aka Pope Innocent VIII & (1432 - 1492), pope 1484, Summis desiderantes (papal bull against witchcraft) 1484, authorised Malleus Maleficarum 'The Hammer of the Witches' 1486 (by Henry Kramer 1430 – 1505 and Jakob Sprenger c. 1435 – 1495).
Marsilio Ficino (1433 - 1499), Corpus Hermeticum 1471, translated Plato's complete works into Latin 1484.
Johannes Muller von Konigsburg, aka Regiomontanus (1436 - 1476), astronomer Alphonsine Tables, Ephemerides (1475-1506) 1473.
Luca Pacioli (1445 - 1517), Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita 1494, encyclopedic textbook explaining double-entry book-keeping and summarising the mathematics of Euclid, Boethius, Sacrobosco and Fibonacci, Divina proportione 1509, illustrated by da Vinci.
1450
Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506), navigator, first voyage 1492-3 to Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti).
Girolamo Savonarola & (1452 - 1498) theocrat.
Leonardo da Vinci & & & (1452 - 1519), artist and scientist.
Johann Reuchlin (1455 - 1522), De Verbo Mirifico, De Arte Cabbalistica 1517.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 - 1494), Oration on the Dignity of Man 1486, Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem 1495.
Scipione del Ferro (1465 - 1526), first to solve cubic equations 1520.
Desiderius Erasmus & & ¶ (1466 - 1536), The Praise of Folly 1509 a satirical attack on superstition, Education of a Christian Prince 1516.
Vasco da Gama (c.1469 - 1525), Portuguese navigator.
Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527), The Prince 1532.
Albrecht Durer & (1471 - 1528), artist, Melencolia I 1514.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543), Commentariolus a brief account of his moving earth theory 1512, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium 1543.
Michelangelo (1475 - 1564).
Thomas More (1478 - 1535), Utopia 1516.
Martin Luther & & (1483 - 1546).
Cornelius Agrippa (1486 - 1535), occultist, Philosophy of Natural Magic, De Occulta Philosophia.
Nicolo Fontana aka Tartaglia (1500 - 1557), solved cubic equations (independent of the earlier work of del Ferro), Quesiti et Inventioni 1546.
Girolamo Cardano (1501 - 1576), physician, mathematician, gambler, Ars Magna 1545 solution of cubic and quartic equations.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480 - 1521), navigator, whose crew were first Europeans to observe the irregular star clusters now called the Magellanic Clouds.
Tiziano Vecellio, aka Titian (1488 - 1576) artist.
1500
Philipp Melanchthon (1497 - 1560) theologian.
John Calvin & & (1509 - 1564), theologian Institutes of the Christian Religion 1836.
Michael Servetus (1511 - 1553) physician (investigated circulation of blood), persecuted by Calvin, burnt at the stake for unitarian heresy.
Georg Joachim Rheticus (1514 - 1574), Narratio Prima 1540 on Copernican system, Opus Palatinum de triangulis trigonometric tables, completed by Valentine Otho 1596.
Conrad Gesner (1516-1565), De Rerum Fossilium 1565, the first book about fossils.
Lodovico Ferrari (1522 - 1565), solves the quartic equation 1540.
Luis de Camoes, aka Camoens (1524 - 1580), Os Lusiadas, The Lusiads, epic poem on history and myths of Portugal.
Pieter Breughel the Elder (c.1525 - 1569).
Rafael Bombelli (1526 - 1572), Algebra 1572, uses negative and complex numbers.
John Dee (1527 - 1609).
Francis Drake & & & & & (c.1540 - 1596), circumnavigation 1577-1580.
Thomas Digges (1546 - 1595), observed Tycho's new star of 1572, wrote on the Copernican system within an infinite universe, 1576.