The Medieval Institute – Notre Dame

Dear Friends,

The Middle Ages profoundly shaped the modern world! Greek, Arab, and Latin natural philosophers built our scientific tradition. European poets and story-tellers invented vernacular literature while reading classical poetry and Middle-Eastern frame tales. Rabbis, priests, and imams—as they talked, and squabbled, with each other—constructed our religious traditions. Our representative democracies and university systems are essentially medieval institutions.

The years between the end of the Roman Empire and the start of the Renaissance (roughly 500 to 1500 A.D.) witnessed the birth of our modern love song; the invention of spectacles and mechanical clocks and new ways of maritime navigation; the rise of the university and representative assemblies; the creation of masterful illuminated manuscripts; and the establishment of hospitals.

Many theologians and thinkers who are still deeply influential—whether Thomas Aquinas, Moses Maimonides, or al-Ghazali—flourished then; and many of our most beautiful buildings—the gothic Cathedral in Chartres, the Great Mosque of Damascus, the Sinagoga del Tránsito in Toledo—were built then.

Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute, with fifty faculty fellows from thirteen different departments and an unparalleled library and growing manuscript collection, is the nation’s largest and most prestigious center for understanding the Middle Ages. Our conferences and lecture series bring the world’s leading scholars to campus, while our graduate and undergraduate programs train future medieval scholars and leaders in all walks of life.

The Medieval Institute is pleased to partner with ThinkND to share the research we do. Join us!

Best wishes,

Thomas E. Burman
Robert M. Conway Director and Professor of History
The Medieval Institute
University of Notre Dame

Medieval Institute on ThinkND

Started 75 years ago by Fr. Philip Moore, CSC, the Medieval Institute has been the leading institution in the United States for the study of medieval Catholic culture and history. Beyond that, it has grown as well into a pre-eminent center for research and education on Greek Byzantium, Arab Islam, and the Jewish diaspora — and especially on a millennium of interactions among them. Explore recent programming from the Medieval Institute on ThinkND.