Humanities Chapter 5 Flashcards

Manuscript Materials and Techniques

• Parchment: Made from animal skin, essential for creating manuscripts.
• Vellum: A finer and thinner version of parchment, used for high-quality manuscripts.
• Manuscript Illumination: Involves embellishing manuscripts with paintings and gold leaf, elevating their aesthetic value.

Socio-Political Structures

• Feudalism: Developed in 8th and 9th century Western Europe, a system where lords provided protection to vassals in exchange for military service and land grants (fiefs).

Religious Practices

• Crusade: Military expeditions by Christian countries against the Ottoman Turks, aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land.
• Pilgrimages: Significant journeys made by the faithful to sacred religious sites, often associated with miraculous relics.
• Reliquary: Ornate containers designed to hold and display religious relics.

Architectural Styles

• Latin Cross Plan: Floor plan featuring one long arm and three shorter arms, commonly used in church architecture.
• Greek Cross Plan: Architecture characterized by four equal-length arms.
• Barrel (Tunnel) Vault: A continuous semi-circular vault formed by a series of arches.
• Cross (Groin) Vault: Created by intersecting two barrel vaults at right angles.
• Cloister: Monastery section open to the sky, surrounded by covered walkways, located near the church.
• Tympanum: Semicircular space above doors or windows, often decorated.
• Mandorla: Almond-shaped halo of light that signifies holiness surrounding sacred figures.
• Gothic Architecture: Flourished from the 12th to 16th centuries, characterized by ribbed vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and stained glass.
• Rose (Wheel) Window: Distinctive circular window in Gothic architecture, often adorned with intricate stained glass.
• Flying Buttress: Unique structural element in Gothic architecture that supports walls and allows for taller constructions.
• Triforium: Elevated galleries above church aisles, adding to the structure's vertical dynamics.
• Perpendicular Style: Advanced Gothic architecture in England, marked by unified ribbed vaults that create a web-like appearance.

Literary Genres

• Chanson de Geste: French term for "song of deeds," exemplified by works like the Song of Roland.
• Lais: Medieval French narrative poems, exemplified by the works of Marie de France.
• Troubadours and Trouvères: Poet-singers of the 11th to 14th centuries who traveled across Europe, particularly in France and Italy.
• Mystery Plays: Religious drama from the medieval period, depicting biblical narratives, particularly the life of Jesus.

Musical Styles

• Plainchant: Unmetered vocal music used in the early Christian church, setting the stage for later musical forms.
• Gregorian Chant: A distinctive form of medieval plainchant, popularized during the Papacy of Gregory the Great.
• Monophony: Musical texture consisting of a single melodic line without accompaniment.
• Polyphony: The simultaneous combination of different musical lines, enriching the textural complexity of music.
• Terza Rima: A structured rhyme scheme composed of interlocking tercets (ABA BCB CDC), used in a variety of poetic forms.