(Vol. v., p. 469.)
The question there put by L. T. is still constantly asked, and the answer
given by a reference to Mr. Dowling's work may perhaps be unsatisfactory to
many, as not sufficiently defining the period at which the Middle Ages may
be said to terminate. By some of the best historical writers, the
commencement and termination are variously stated. In a work recently
published by George T. Manning, entitled _Outlines of the History of the
Middle Ages_, with heads of analysis, &c., the Querist seems answered with
more precision. Mr. Manning divides General History into _three_ great
divisions--Ancient History, that of the Middle Ages, and Modern History;
the first division extending from the Creation to about four hundred years
after the birth of Christ; the second from A.D. 400 to the close of the
fifteenth century of the Christian era; the third embracing those ages
which have elapsed since the close of mediæval times.
The Middle Age portions he divides into _five_ great periods, denoted by
the vast changes which took place in the course of that history, viz.:
A.D. 400 to A.D. 800, _First Period_.
A.D. 800 to A.D. 964, _Second Period_.
A.D. 964 to A.D. 1066, _Third Period_.
A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1300, _Fourth Period_.
A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1500, _Fifth Period_.
The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope being the last important event, which
he places in 1497.
This is nearly the same view as taken by M. Lamé Fleury, who commences with
the fall of the Western Empire in 476, and closes with the conquest of
Granada by the Spaniards in 1492: thinking that memorable event, which
terminated in a degree the struggle of the Western against the Eastern
Empire, a better limit ("une limite plus rigoureusement exacte") than the
taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II. in 1453, the date when this
historical period is generally terminated by most writers.
Appended to this little volume is a list of remarkable dates and events, as
also of battles and treaties during the Middle Ages.