The medieval mind [WorldCat Entities]

"Second program: Illustrates the intellectual and artistic climate of Florence during the fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, by closely observing the daily life of a contemporary Florentine. The lives of th three historical figures, Petrarch, Alberti, and Leonardo da Vinci, illustrate the several facets of the Renaissance that made it unique in religion, education, discovery, art, literature, and politics."
"First program: Points out the tensions and conflicts of the Middle Ages, and shows how the architecture of the cathedrals reflects the uneasy balance of opposing forces with their soaring columns, arches, and flying buttresses. Explains how this left a permanent mark on Western civilization."
"Active, curious, inventive, and tough - these were the traits of the medieval mind, not so different from our own. But the Middle Ages has special tensions and conflicts, conveyed to us through reports adapted from men and women of the time. The architecture of the cathedrals reflects an "uneasy balance of opposing forces" with soaring columns, arches and flying buttresses. Men may have reached for the City of God, but to live the real world they invented the harness and horseshoes, the stirrup, water-wheel, and eye-glasses. Mercy and cruelty, attractions of the present world versus hope for Paradise, technology versus spirituality: these were the tensions that left their permanent mark on Western civilization."
"An examination of the medieval world view, perhaps best symbolized by the cathedral, earthbound but soaring heavenward. Topics include: technological innovation vs. superstition, worldliness vs. retreat/monasticism, pacifism (St Franics) vs. violence (church-sponsored crusades)."@en
"Points out the tensions and conflicts of the Middle Ages, and shows how the architecture of the cathedrals reflects the uneasy balance of opposing forces with their soaring columns, arches, and flying buttresses. Explains how this left a permanent mark on Western civilization."@en