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Return To A Chronology of South African Theatre and Performance

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.

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