The Middle Ages, usually dated from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, were a period of striking contrasts. Castles rose ...

Meanwhile in Europe, Greece (c. 800–146 BCE) developed democracy, philosophy, and literature, shaping Western intellectual traditions, but Greek states were politically fragmented and prone to ...

Accounts that are received from antiquity and repeated over and over again, then merge with eyewitness accounts and blend ...

Picturesque castles, noble knights, minnesingers and troubadours - these romantic images fire our imagination in the generally accepted conception of the Middle Ages. On the darker side of this world, ...

Why were the Middle Ages dark? Isn't it true that this epoch conjures up ominous images of superstition and witch-hunting? Burning pyres and plague doctors hurrying strangely muffled along dark ...

The question of why, at the turn of the 20th century, modern art flourished in Europe has long been one of art history’s most intriguing. Was it exposure to non-Western influences? The advent of the ...