Deck 5: The Early Middle Ages

Question 1

The technique of interlace is best associated with what topic or term?

A) Hiberno-Saxon manuscript illumination
B) Romanesque sculpture
C) musical notation
D) the rise of feudalism

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which statement is best associated with the Viking age?

A) Europe blossomed with a "white mantle of churches"
B) an age of tolerance was instituted in Muslim Spain
C) Norse raiders plundered much of Christian Europe
D) pilgrims traveled the great "roads" to reach Santiago de Compostela

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What European leader nurtured a rebirth or flowering of early medieval culture centered at his palace on the Rhine River?

A) Constantine
B) St. Augustine
C) Charlemagne
D) Beowulf

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which was an important accomplishment of Alcuin of York's at the court of Charlemagne?

A) devise rules for a monastic order
B) defeat the Moslems in battle in Spain
C) develop the medieval education system
D) invent the Romanesque?style church

Question 5

Who was recruited from an English monastery to lead Charlemagne's palace school at Aachen?

A) Alcuin of York
B) Count Roland
C) William the Conqueror
D) Pope Gregory

Question 6

What Norman leader won a military victory at the Battle of Hastings that is celebrated in the Bayeux Tapestry?

A) Constantine
B) William the Conqueror
C) Charlemagne
D) Charles Martel

Question 7

What kind of person would most likely have sung the Song of Roland?

A) a Norman minstrel
B) a student of Abelard
C) a Cluniac monk
D) a feudal peasant

Question 8

Which term or phrase is best associated with the Song of Roland?

A) chanson de geste
B) Quem queritis?
C) trope
D) Sephardic

Question 9

Which term is best associated with the flowering of civilization in Muslim Spain at the capitals of Cordoba and Granada?

A) pilgrimage
B) cloister
C) al-Andalus
D) mysticism

Question 10

Which of these figures composed an influential set of rules for Christian monks?

A) Charlemagne
B) Hildegard of Bingen
C) Peter Abelard
D) St. Benedict

Question 11

In the literary works of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, what author had the most influence?

A) the early Christian philosopher St. Augustine
B) the Roman comic dramatist Terence
C) the controversial teacher Peter Abelard
D) the ancient Greek poet Sappho

Question 12

What kind of scene would most likely be depicted in a stone mural of the Classic Maya period?

A) ritual blood sacrifice
B) the crucifixion of Christ
C) Norman cavalry in battle
D) the birth of the Buddha

Question 13

Which of these is best cited as an example of the Romanesque style?

A) Bayeux Tapestry
B) Utrecht Psalter
C) Book of Kells
D) bronze doors of Hildesheim

Question 14

Which statement best describes the third church of the abbey of Cluny (Cluny III)?

A) was the centerpiece of an influential monastic network
B) was built to solidify the reign of Charlemagne in Saxony
C) stood on one of the great pilgrimage routes to Spain
D) imitated the circular plan of Byzantine churches

Question 15

Which describes distinguishing feature(s) of the medieval Romanesque style in architecture?

A) highly decorated domed interiors
B) rounded arches and barrel vaults
C) a rectangular nave without transept
D) exteriors decorated with marble and bronze

Question 16

Imagine that you are a medieval pilgrim entering a church to view the sacred relics displayed in the chapels that radiate from the apse. Entering from one end of the transept, what would you want to find to reach your destination?

A) west portal
B) ambulatory
C) narthex
D) clerestory

Question 17

Which would have decorated the portal of a Romanesque church?

A) monophonic melisma
B) manuscript illumination
C) tympanum sculpture
D) trivium relief

Question 18

Where would one find a carved scene of Christ at the Last Judgment judging the righteous and sinful?

A) on the Bayeux Tapestry
B) in the Song of Roland
C) on the tympanum of a Romanesque church
D) described in a feudal oath of loyalty

Question 19

In or on which of these would one most likely find the bones of a Christian saint?

A) a carved ivory Bible cover of the early Middle Ages
B) a library at the School of Toledo
C) the carved capitals of a Romanesque church
D) a jeweled reliquary on the altar of a pilgrimage church

Question 20

In or on which of these would one expect to find a trope?

A) a carved ivory Bible cover of the early Middle Ages
B) the singing of a Gregorian chant
C) the carved capitals of a Romanesque church
D) a chapel of the abbey church of Cluny

Question 21

Which name or term is best associated with the development of sacred music in medieval Christianity?

A) St. Benedict
B) Guido of Arezzo
C) archivolt
D) interlace

Question 22

The musical trope Quem queritis ("Whom do you seek?") played an important role in what event or process?

A) the development of solmization techniques
B) the codification of Gregorian chant under Charlemagne
C) the origins of the earliest Church dramas
D) the banning of instrumental music in the medieval Church

Question 23

Which of these figures engaged in a famous exchange of letters with a prominent medieval philosopher?

A) abbess of Cluny
B) Hildegard
C) William the Conqueror
D) Héloïse

Question 24

Which phrase best describes the sculpted figures of the Mystic Mill, on a column capital of the church of La Madeleine at Vézelay?

A) designed according to classical proportions
B) based on Roman?style sculpture and painting
C) grotesquely shaped to fit their architectural setting
D) influenced by the lost traditions of free-standing sculpture

Question 25

Which statement best describes the abbey church of Ste.-Foy in Conques, France?

A) an influential example of Romanesque architecture
B) site of Charlemagne's coronation by the pope
C) served as chapel for the three generations of Roman emperors
D) based on the floor plan of San Vitale in Ravenna

Question 26

What phrase best describes John the Scot's (or Erigena's) book On Nature?

A) the account of a medieval pilgrim's journey
B) a Neoplatonic study of categories of being
C) an epic reflecting chivalric and military values
D) an important tract in the nominalist debate

Question 27

What work most actively engaged in the medieval disputes over the teachings of Church scholars?

A) Bayeux Tapestry
B) Song of Roland
C) Gislebertus' sculpture
D) Abelard's Sic et Non (For and Against)

Question 28

Which statement most accurately describes the clef?

A) a song usually accompanied by an organ
B) a medieval system of four-note chords
C) first arose in the Muslim Spain
D) established the key note of a musical staff

Question 29

What was it called when a musician elaborated on a musical syllable by adding a chain of additional notes?

A) tympanum
B) cantus
C) melisma
D) plainchant

Question 30

In what pursuit is solmization useful or important?

A) musical education
B) Romanesque architecture
C) medieval combat
D) the chanson de geste

Question 31

Which of these figures was noted for assertive religious leadership, mystical religious writings, and the composition of exquisite sacred song?

A) Charlemagne
B) Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
C) Peter Abelard
D) Hildegard of Bingen

Question 32

Which medieval work contained advice to the Jewish faithful, including instructions for pious charity?

A) Abelard's Sic et Non (For and Against)
B) the rule of St. Benedict
C) Hrotsvit's religious dramas
D) Moses Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed

Question 33

Who would have most likely engaged in a questio?

A) Norman minstrel
B) student of Abelard
C) Cluniac monk
D) Romanesque-style sculptor

Question 34

What work or topic would best serve to illustrate the culture of Anglo-Saxon England and its Nordic origins?

A) the chevet configuration in medieval building
B) the epic poem Beowulf
C) the Guidonian staff
D) the reliquary of Ste. Foye

Question 35

What work would teach you most about the campaign of William the Conqueror to defeat the English king?

A) the Bayeux Tapestry
B) the epic poem Beowulf
C) the reliquary of Ste. Foye
D) the Song of Roland

Question 36

The Caliphate of Córdoba is best associated with what phenomenon?

A) development of the Romanesque style in architecture
B) a flowering of Arabic learning and culture
C) the invention of musical notation
D) conflict between German rulers and the pope

Question 37

What organization or institution played a key role in transmitting the wisdom of Arabic civilization to Europe's Christian intellectuals?

A) Abbey of Cluny
B) the Court of Lions
C) Holy Roman Empire
D) School of Toledo

Question 38

What term or topic would be most helpful in explaining the medieval cult of saints as a powerful force in medieval life?

A) relic
B) melisma
C) manor
D) questio

Question 39

What statement best describes the role in early medieval history of the Saxon rulers called the Ottonians?

A) achieved reforms of monastic life and built a network of reformed abbeys
B) promoted the unification and expansion of Gregorian-style music in Europe
C) sought to establish a Holy Roman Empire modeled after Charlemagne's regime
D) restored the political power and authority of the pope in the German provinces

Question 40

Define "the culture of the book" in the context of the Carolingian Renaissance.

Question 41

Briefly explain the feudal system of medieval Europe.

Question 42

Characterize the culture of Muslim Spain in terms of its artistic and intellectual achievements.

Question 43

Define the "monastic ideal" as established by the rule of St. Benedict.

Question 44

Describe Guido of Arezzo's role in the development of early medieval sacred music.

Question 45

Identify the principal characteristics of the Romanesque style in architecture.

Question 46

Summarize Peter Abelard's contribution to medieval philosophy.

Question 47

Discuss the role of Christian monasticism in sustaining European civilization during the early Middle Ages. Refer specifically to monasticism's contributions to the arts, learning, and education from the age of Charlemagne to Peter Abelard.

Question 48

Trace the development of sacred architecture during the early medieval period, from its origins in the Byzantine style to the high Romanesque style. In your answer, refer to both the construction and decoration of sacred buildings, and note important changes in the developing style of medieval architecture.

Question 49

Using examples from the early medieval period, analyze the medieval compromise between Christianity's teachings of peace and love and feudalism's values of war and personal loyalty. In your examples, note the evidence of Christian belief and feudal practice, and analyze the compromise, tension, or conflict between these differing values.