Museo dell'Alto Medioevo

The Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times. The idea of such a periodisation is attributed to Flavio Biondo, an Italian Renaissance humanist historian.
The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (or by some scholars, before that) in the 5th century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the late 14th or early 15th century. Which field of study a scholar specializes in, or what regions of Europe they study cause much of the variation. Commonly seen periodization ranges span the years ca. 400–476 AD (the sackings of Rome by the Goths to the deposing of Romulus Augustus) to ca. 1453–1517 (the Fall of Constantinople to the Protestant reformation begun with Martin Luther's 95 theses). These dates are approximate, and are based upon nuanced arguments; for other dating schemes and the reasoning behind them, see "periodisation issues", below.
The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained urbanisation of northern and western Europe. Modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements in this tumultuous period, as it "set the table" for the decisive events and movements like the Protestant Reformation forming the huge shifts in attitude that led to the rise of modern nation-states which came to increasingly dominate the world from the seventeenth century on. (...) more....