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The change came with an increase of literary activity.

The terms Dark Age and Middle Ages are both rather imprecise, and are used differently by different historians.

The Dark Age is also called the Early Middle Ages by some historians. It was a period from the fall of the Roman Empire, for with the date 476 is often given, for a bit over 500 years. Some Historians arbitrarily end the Dark Age at 1000 AD, but some use 1066.

The Dark Age was given that name because of a supposed loss of literacy, writing, and learning in general. Certainly, the literary output of the time was low compared to what had happened at the height of the Roman Empire or in the Renaissance.

But the information we have on the Dark Age is certainly deceptive to some degree. Visigoths began opening schools in the early 6th century. Anglo-Saxons were opening schools by the end of the 6th century, and some such schools remain open to this day. And the Byzantine Empire remained productive. Charlemagne fostered education, and so did Alfred the Great.

We see a general increase in literary productivity, travel, trade, and social stability with the beginning of the High Middle Ages, about the year 1000. Historians who use the term "Dark Age" often use the term "Middle Ages" to indicate this time and the Late Middle Ages that followed. But we might do well not to emphasize that fact, if we want to have a thorough understanding of the time.

It is illustrative to consider the word Renaissance. Most people think of the Renaissance as a time following the Middle Ages. But there was a Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, a Macedonian Renaissance in the 9th and 10th, and an Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th. All this while, there was an Islamic Renaissance from the 8th to the 13th. These were followed by the Renaissance of the 12th century, and the European Renaissance, which began in the 14th century, about a hundred years before the Middle Ages ended. So the Dark Ages saw three or four renaissances, and the period following had perhaps three more.

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