The Classical/Medieval World I
- Writing in the hands of the few
- Expensive effort to reproduce knowledge- need scribes
and skins/paper. Takes time and material.
- Writing represents to official knowledge, but there is
other
- Specialist scribes; books/demonstrations/symbols help
an oral world
- Oral world- writing not far from speaking- 'writing out
loud'
- Trusting Writing?
- Documents easily forged! Use of 'symbolic objects.'
- Invention of 'printing' wouldn't quickly change this!
- Deeds to land, Authorship of books, Papal Bulls all suspect
- Books/symbols organized for memorization
- Chained to table- so they won't be stolen- incredibly
valuable
- Scholars had to travel to find books (and teachers)
- Mnemonics- strategies include: lists, stress visual images,
sticking with traditional organization
- Renaissance- learning explosions did occur
- They happened before Gutenberg; But they were hard to
sustain; Medieval Classical Revivals
- Learning from Neighbors- Crusades (1100) introduces Greco-Islamic
Learning
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