Editing Middle Ages (section)

== Terminology and periodisation ==
The Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing [[European history]]: [[classical civilisation]] or [[Ancient history|antiquity]], the Middle Ages and the [[Modern Period|modern period]].<ref name=Power304>Power ''Central Middle Ages'' p. 3</ref> The "Middle Ages" first appears in Latin in 1469 as ''media tempestas'' or "middle season".<ref name=Miglio112>Miglio "Curial Humanism" ''Interpretations of Renaissance Humanism'' p. 112</ref> In early usage, there were many variants, including ''medium aevum'', or "middle age", first recorded in 1604,<ref name=Albrow205>Albrow ''Global Age'' p. 205</ref> and ''media saecula'', or "middle centuries", first recorded in 1625.<ref name=Murray4 /> The adjective "medieval" (or sometimes "mediaeval"<ref name=Random1194 /> or "mediæval"),<ref name=OED290>"Mediaeval" ''Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary''</ref> meaning pertaining to the Middle Ages, derives from {{lang|la|medium aevum}}.<ref name=Random1194>Flexner (ed.) ''Random House Dictionary'' p. 1194</ref>

Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the "[[Six Ages]]" or the "[[Four Empires]]" and considered their time to be the last before the end of the world.<ref name=mommsen236>Mommsen "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" ''Speculum'' pp. 236–237</ref> When referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being "modern".<ref name=Dailyx>Singman ''Daily Life'' p. x</ref> In the 1330s, the Italian humanist and poet [[Petrarch]] referred to pre-Christian times as {{lang|la|antiqua}} ('ancient') and to the Christian period as {{lang|la|nova}} ('new').<ref name=idea>Knox "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120203005134/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/latemiddleages/renaissance/historyren.shtml History of the Idea of the Renaissance]"</ref> Petrarch regarded the post-Roman centuries as "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|dark]]" compared to the "light" of [[classical antiquity]].<ref name=Mommsen227>Mommsen "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" ''Speculum'' pp. 227–228</ref> [[Leonardo Bruni]] was the first historian to use [[Late Middle Ages#Historiography and periodization|tripartite periodisation]] in his ''History of the Florentine People'' (1442), with a middle period "between the fall of the Roman Empire and the revival of city life sometime in late eleventh and twelfth centuries".<ref name=Brunixvii>Bruni ''History of the Florentine people'' pp. xvii–xviii</ref> Tripartite [[periodisation]] became standard after the 17th-century German historian [[Christoph Cellarius]] divided history into three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern.<ref name=Murray4>Murray "Should the Middle Ages Be Abolished?" ''Essays in Medieval Studies'' p. 4</ref>

The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is around 500,<ref>"[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Middle%20Ages Middle Ages]" Dictionary.com</ref> with the date of 476 first used by Bruni.<ref name="Brunixvii" />{{efn-ua|This is the year the last Western Roman Emperors were driven from Italy.<ref name=Wickham86 />}} Later starting dates are sometimes used in the outer parts of Europe.<ref>For example, Scandinavia in Helle, Kouri, and Olesen (ed.) ''Cambridge History of Scandinavia Part 1'' where the start date is 1000 (on page 6) or Russia in Martin ''Medieval Russia 980–1584''</ref> For Europe as a whole, 1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages,<ref>See the titles of Watts ''Making of Polities Europe 1300–1500'' or Epstein ''Economic History of Later Medieval Europe 1000–1500'' or the end date used in Holmes (ed.) ''Oxford History of Medieval Europe''</ref> but there is no universally agreed upon end date. Depending on the context, events such as the [[conquest of Constantinople]] by the Turks in 1453, [[Christopher Columbus]]'s first voyage to the [[Americas]] in 1492, or the [[Reformation]] in 1517 are sometimes used.<ref name=Davies291 /> English historians often use the [[Battle of Bosworth Field]] in 1485 to mark the end of the period.<ref>See the title of Saul ''Companion to Medieval England 1066–1485''</ref> For Spain, dates commonly used are the death of King [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Ferdinand II]] in 1516, the death of Queen [[Isabella I of Castile]] in 1504, or the [[conquest of Granada]] in 1492.<ref>Kamen ''Spain 1469–1714'' p. 29</ref>

Historians from [[Romance-speaking]] countries tend to divide the Middle Ages into two parts: an earlier "High" and later "Low" period. English-speaking historians, following their German counterparts, generally subdivide the Middle Ages into three intervals: "Early", "High", and "Late".<ref name=Power304 /> In the 19th century, the entire Middle Ages were often referred to as the "[[Dark Ages (Europe)|Dark Ages]]",<ref name=mommsen226>Mommsen "Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" ''Speculum'' p. 226</ref> but with the adoption of these subdivisions, use of this term was restricted to the Early Middle Ages, at least among historians.<ref name=mommsen236 />