“中世纪”这个短语起源于十五世纪。当时的学者 – 主要是在意大利 – 被卷入一场激动人心的艺术和哲学运动中，他们看到自己开始了一个新的时代，复兴了“古典”希腊和罗马的悠久文化。在古代世界和他们自己之间进行干预的时间是一个“中间”时代，可悲的是，他们贬低了一个人，并且他们自己也脱离了关系。最终这个词及其相关的形容词“中世纪”被吸引了。然而，如果明确定义所涵盖的术语的时间段，那么所选择的日期永远不会是无懈可击的。在学者开始以不同的眼光看待自己的时刻结束这个时代似乎是合理的;然而，这将假设他们认为他们是合理的。从我们相当后见之明的观点来看，我们可以看到情况并非如此。这一时期外表的运动实际上仅限于艺术精英（以及大多数意大利）。他们周围世界的政治和物质文化并没有从他们自己之前的几个世纪发生根本变化。尽管有参与者的态度，意大利文艺复兴并没有自发地突然出现，而是前千年知识和艺术史的产物。从广泛的历史角度来看，“文艺复兴”不能与中世纪明确区分开来。尽管如此，由于Jacob Burkhardt和Voltaire等历史学家的工作，文艺复兴时期被认为是一个独特的时期。然而，最近的奖学金模糊了“中世纪”和“文艺复兴”之间的区别。将意大利文艺复兴当作一种艺术和文学运动，并将其在北欧和英国所影响的后续运动视为现实，而不是将它们全部集中在一个不精确和误导性的“时代”，现在变得更加重要。
英国兰卡斯特大学艺术代写：艺术精英
The phrase “medieval” originated in the fifteenth century. The scholars of the time – mainly in Italy – were involved in an exciting art and philosophical movement, and they saw themselves embarking on a new era, reviving the “classical” Greek and Roman culture. The time of intervention between the ancient world and themselves is a “middle” era, and sadly, they devalue one person and they themselves are out of relationship. The word and its related adjective “Medieval” were eventually attracted. However, if the time period of the term covered is clearly defined, the date chosen will never be impeccable. It seems reasonable to end this era when scholars begin to look at themselves with different perspectives; however, this will assume they think they are reasonable. From our point of view, we can see that this is not the case. The movement of appearance during this period was actually limited to the artistic elite (and most of Italy). The political and material culture of the world around them has not changed radically from the centuries before them. Despite the attitude of the participants, the Italian Renaissance did not spontaneously appear suddenly, but was the product of the knowledge and art history of the previous millennium. From a broad historical perspective, the “Renaissance” cannot be clearly distinguished from the Middle Ages. Despite this, the Renaissance was considered a unique period due to the work of historians such as Jacob Burkhardt and Voltaire. However, recent scholarships blur the distinction between “medieval” and “Renaissance”. Think of the Italian Renaissance as an art and literary movement and see its follow-up movements in Northern Europe and the United Kingdom as reality, rather than focusing on an inaccurate and misleading “era” that is now becoming More important.