With the term Middle Ages we identify one of the four major periods of human history. More precisely, the ten centuries spanning the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the discovery of the American continent. Ten centuries also often referred to as the "dark centuries" by the historians. We consider that to be a prejudiced and most unjust portrayal of the Middle Ages. Mostly known as a period filled with war, plague, and famine - after all a time not so different from all the other periods of human history, from the dawn of the Sumerian civilization onwards - the Middle Ages were also a time of nascent monastic orders and the birth of the Holy Roman Empire, a time of chivalry and courteous poetry, of philosophy and great men like St. Augustin and St. Thomas. They gave us Peter Abelard's Dialectica, the preaching of St. Francis from Assisi, and Fibonacci's algebra. From the conquests of Genghis Khan to the merchant caravans trading along the endless Spice Routes, from the Crusades to the golden age of Frederick II, from Marco Polo's extraordinary voyages to the great Maritime Republics, The Middle Ages had it all. The renowned medievalist Franco Cardini presents us with a chronicle that will enlighten us and show us that the Middle Ages were indeed an amazing time. Professor of Medieval History at the University of Florence and at the Florence Institute of Humanistic Studies, he has taught as visiting professor in VIII-Vincennes University of Paris, in the Freie Universitat of Berlin, in Alcalà de Henares University and at the Middlebury College in the USA. He worked as Directeur de Recherches at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 1991 and 1992, as Fellow of the Harvard University and as Gastprofessor at the Max-Planck-Institut of Gottingen. Author of numerous essays and novels, he also writes for various newspapers and magazines and collaborates with the Italian Public Television RAI. Professor Cardini has published more than fifty books including the academically acclaimed L’apogeo del medioevo. I secoli XII-XIII (2001), Le crociate in Terrasanta nel medioevo (2003), L’invenzione dell’Occidente (2004), La globalizzazione. Tra nuovo ordine e caos (2005) and Testimone del tempo. Ritorno a Coblenza (2009). Already published in English are his best-selling works Europe 1492: Portrait of a Continent Five Hundred Years Ago (1989), Europe and Islam (2001) and The Companion of Medieval Society (2012).
