View source for Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries


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= Key to entries =

 
Items in normal text indicate [[South African]] non-theatrical events and activities
Items printed in '''bold''' indicate [[South African]] '''theatre and performance events'''. 
All items in ''italics'' refer to international (i.e. non-South African) events or international '''''theatre and performance events'''''

= Entries =

== Eleventh Century ==


== ±1000 AD ==
''Venice begins to evolve as a great commercial centre.''

''Norwegian Vikings reach North America''.


== 1016AD ==
''The Danish conqueror Canute becomes King of England''


== 1054AD ==
''The Byzantine Church breaks with Rome''.

''William of Normandy wins battle of Hastings and becomes King of England''


== ±1075AD ==
''Wool-manufacturing towns of Flanders help to revive European trade''.


== 1080-1140AD ==
''Peter Abelard writes letters to Héloïse''.

''William IX, Duke of Normandy – the first known troubadour''.


== 1087AD ==
''The Moslems build Timbuktu as a centre of commerce and learning''. 


== ±1090AD ==
''The Song of Roland composed in Medieval French. Chinese text mentions use of the compass by Arabs''.


== 1095-1099AD ==
''First Crusade captures Jerusalem''.

== Twelfth Century ==
==±1100-1200AD==
''Chanson de Roland written''. ''2nd Crusade (1147-1149AD)''.

'''''Growth of drama in China after Mongol take-over'''''

==1123AD==
''Omar Khayyam (?-1123), poet and astronomer,  dies''

==1153AD==
''The Islamic geographer Idrisi’s The Pleasure of the Ardent Inquirer, containing his circular map of the world''.

==1163AD==
''Notre Dame Cathedral begun in Paris''

==1170AD==
''Thomas à Beckett murdered in Canterbury''. '''''Mystère d’Adam performed in France'''''.

==1187AD==
''Saladin defeats the crusaders and takes Jerusalem''.

==1189-1192AD==
''3rd Crusade''.

== Thirteenth Century ==
==1202-1204AD==
''4th Crusade''. THE HEIGHT OF THE GREAT ZIMBABWE TRADITION OF SETTLEMENT BY THE SHONA (±1200-1300AD). 

==1203AD==
''Nibelungenlied written in Germany. Incas begin to settle in Peru''.

==1209AD==
''Cambridge University founded''.

==1215AD==
''Magna Carta signed in England''.

==1217AD ==
''Beginning of 5th–7thCrusades (1217-1254AD)''.

==±1235AD==
''Le Roman de la Rose  begun (±1235-77AD)''.

==1258AD==
''The Mongol Hulagu Khan takes Baghdad ending Abbasid rule''.
MAPUNGUPWE STARTS BECOMING THE DOMINANT POWER IN THE LIMPOPO VALLEY.

==1259AD==
''Hulagu Khan sets up an observatory at Maraga, Persia''.

==±1265AD==
''Marco Polo begins his travels''. 

==±1285AD==
''Spectacles made in Northern Italy''.

==1291AD==
''Aztecs enter and begin to settle Mexico''.
VESSELS FROM GENOA CIRCUMNAVIGATE AFRICA,  PAST CAPE OF STORMS.

==1292AD ==
''Marco Polo discovers a Moslem kingdom on Sumatra''. 

==1295AD==
''Ghazan Khan the Mongol converted to Islam''.

== Fourteenth Century ==
==±1300AD ==
''The Ottoman Turkish conquest of Asia minor begins, diminishing the Byzantine empire''.

SETTLEMENT BEGINS OF THE VARIOUS REGIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA BY SOTHO-TSWANA SPEAKERS (HIGHVELD INTERIOR), NGUNI SPEAKERS (SOUTH EASTERN COAST AND DRAKENSBERG), WHILE THE THE KHOISAN BECOME THE DOMINANT SOCIETY IN THE EASTERNAND WESTERN CAPE. ONGOING RECORDS OF SOCIAL, RITUAL AND OTHER ACTIVITIES ARE KEPT IN ROCK PAINTINGS.

'''A RANGE OF RITUAL AND  SOCIAL DANCES, STORIES AND SONGS EVOLVE AMONG THE VARIOUS GROUPS (SOTHO-TSWANA, NGUNI AND KHOISAN)  AND DEVELOP SPECIFIC FORMS AND STYLES OVER TWO CENTURIES'''.

==1306AD==
''Giotto’s The Lamentation''.

==±1310AD==
''Mechanical clock perfected (±1310)''; ''Mystery and Miracle cycles flourish in England and France, often after feast of Corpus Christi''.

IRON AGE EXPANSION INTO GRASSLANDS BEGINS.

==±1320AD==
''Firearms used in Europe''.

==1321AD==
''The Divina Commedia by Dante''.

==1337AD==
''100 Years War begins between England and France''.

==1342AD==
''Petrarch’s Africa''.

==1347AD==
''General revolt by peasants starts against nobility in Italy, France and England (1347-81)''.

==1348AD==
''Boccacio’s Decameron begun (1348-53). Bubonic Plague (“The Black Death” – 1348-50)''. 

==1353AD==
''Most of the Alhambra Palace is completed in Granada, Spain''.

==c. 1363 – c. 1443==
'''''Zeami writes his plays and theories of acting in Japan'''''.

==±1375AD==
''Ibn Khaldun, the great Moslem historian, begins his Muqaddima''. '''''Noh drama developed in Japan and its conventions codified'''''

==1379AD==
''Timur the Lame (Tamerlane) invades Persia from the North''.

==±1387AD==
''Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales''.

== Fifteenth Century ==
==1401==
'''''The Rederykerskamer Het Boeck founded in Brussel'''''. 

==±1402AD==
''Decline of overland routes and search for alternative (maritime) routes to the East begins''. '''''Guild of amateur actors (Confraternity of the Passion) formed in Paris'''''.  DEVELOPMENT OF VARIOUS CHIEFDOMS AMONG THE BANTU-SPEAKING INHABITANTS OF THE INTERIOR (SOTHO-GROUP).

==±1405AD==
Chinese Ming Dynasty begins sending fleets to India, Persia and Africa.

==1414AD==
'''''Vitruvius’s De Architectura discovered in manuscript at Gallen''''' .

==1419AD==
''Bruneleschi designs and begins dome of cathedral in Florence. He also develops ideas of perspective in drawing''.

==±1425AD==
'''''The Morality play appears, as The Castle of Perseverence''''' 

==1434-64AD==
''Cosimo de Medici begins his domination of Florence''.

==±1440-2AD==
''Donatello’s David''. Slave trade begins in Africa’s Rio do Ouro region. 

==±1450AD==
''Invention of printing with moveable type. Perspective as a device mastered by most Italian artists''.

==1453AD==
''Fall of Constantinople and end of 100 Years War. Taken by Ottoman Turks''.

==1454AD==
''Gutenberg produces first printed Bible''

==1455AD==
''Wars of the Roses begin in England.''

==1465AD==
''Printing press imported into Italy.'' 

==1472AD==
'''''Plautus’s Plays published in Italy'''''

==1474AD==
'''''Seneca’s Plays published in Italy (1474-84)''''' 

==1478AD==
''Spanish Inquisition begins''.

==1479AD==
'''Horatius’s Ars Poetica published in Italy''.

==1480AD==
''Botticelli’s Birth of Venus''.

==1486AD==
'''''Vitruvius’s De Architectura published in Italy'''''

''1488AD''
BARTHOLOMEU DIAS SAILS PAST THE CAPE OF STORMS AND REACHES MOSSEL BAY.

==±1490-1500AD==
''Aztecs control most of Mexico, Inca Empire at its maximum extension from Colombia to Chile''.

==1492-3AD==
''Columbus reaches America (1st and 2nd voyanges). In Granada Moslems libraries destroyed, Moslems and Jews expelled by Christians. Granada falls to the Christians''.

==±1495==
''Leonardo da Vinci begins The Last Supper''. '''''Everyman  performed and also printed in Dutch'''''. 

==1497-8AD==
''Savanarola burnt at the stake (1498)''. '''''Aristotle’s Poetics and Aristophanes’s Plays published in Italy'''''.  VASCO DA GAMA SAILS AROUND CAPE AND REACHES NATAL (25 DECEMBER 1497) AND INDIA. RETURNS BY SAME ROUTE. '''VASCO DA GAMA DESCRIBES HOW, ANCHORED IN MOSSEL BAY IN 1497 HE SAW 200 NEGROES COME TO THE BEACH WITH OXEN, AND PLAYING ON FLUTES AND DANCING, AND THE SAILORS DID THE SAME IN THE BOATS'''.

= Return to =

Return To [[ESAT  Chronology|A Chronology of South African Theatre and Performance]]

Return to [[The ESAT Entries]]

Return to [[Main Page]]