The economic foundation. Landholding and agriculture: the manorial system ; Commerce and industry -- Political organization. The feudal state and the monarchy ; The church and the feudal states ; Urban government: the cities and the feudal states -- Social organization and social life. The nobles ; The clergy ; The peasants ; The burghers -- Religion and culture. Religion ; Clerical culture: literature and learning ; Feudal culture: vernacular literature ; Architecture and art: the age of high gothic ; Music of the early and high middle ages -- The growth of capitalism and the disintegration of manorial economy. The growth of capitalism in Italian commerce, finance and industry ; Northern commerce and industry ; Rural economy in transition: the disintegration of the manor -- The decline of feudal and communal institutions and the growth of centralized territorial states. Italy: from commune to territorial state ; France: the growth of royal government ; The Hundred Years' War and the triumph of monarchy in France ; England: the new monarchy and parliament ; Germany: the triumph of particularism and the consolidation of the territorial states ; The church and the papacy: crisis and partial recovery -- The changing social structure. Italy: the crystallization of an urban society ; The northern countries: the decline of feudal and chivalric society ; The lower classes and social unrest -- Literature and learning. The rise of vernacular literature in Italy ; The first century of Italian humanism (c.1350-1450) ; Vernacular literature in France, Germany, and England ; Late scholastic philosophy and science -- Popular piety, mysticism and heresy. The general tone of religious life: symptoms of decline ; Lay piety and mysticism ; Heretical deviations -- Art and music. Art and architecture in Italy ; Art and architecture in the north ; Music: the ars nova and the early Renaissance -- The reorientation of Christian Europe: contraction in the East and expansion to the west. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire ; The sea road to the Indies and the founding of the Portuguese Empire ; Spanish exploration and colonization in the new world -- The shifting economic fortunes of the European states. The Indian summer of Italian economy ; The rise of south German capitalism in commerce, industry, mining and finance ; Rise and decline in the maritime states of the north and west -- The consolidation of the territorial and national states and the wars in Italy. Italy from the peace of Lodi to the first French invasion (1454-94): the era of equilibrium ; The great European states and their dynasties: the era of consolidation and centralization ; The wars in Italy (1494-1520) -- Continuity and innovation in the social scene. The refinement of social life and the growth of a courtly society in Italy ; The reconstruction of the aristocracy in the northern and western states ; Social unrest on the eve of the reformation -- Literature and learning. Humanism and philosophy in Italy ; The revival of Italian vernacular literature ; History and political theory in the Italian vernacular ; The rise of northern humanism ; Christian humanism and the Erasmian reform program -- Art and music. Art and architecture in Italy ; The fine arts in the north ; Music

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