History in Documents and a Document in History - страница 12

Notes:

Middle Ages – средние века

The Merovingian kings [ˏmerǝʋˋvindʒiǝn] – франкская династия королей Меровинги

the Alps – Альпы

the Byzantine Empire – Византийская империя

Bordeaux – г. Бордо

1. Answer the following questions:

1) What were documents made of in the past? What materials were used for writing?

2) Which of them were used during the Middle Ages?

3) Who was the main producer of papyrus?

4) Why did North of the Alps papyrus disappear?

5) What was parchment made from?

6) Where did paper appear for the first time?

7) What was paper made from?

8) What countries in the West Europe used paper?

2. Make sentences using the words from A and endings from B:

3. Find in the text the English equivalents to the following words:

доступный / производить (3 слова) / шкура (2 слова) / папа римский / стебель / разглаживать, выравнивать / прожигать, прокаливать, кальцинировать / торжественный / полотно, лен / оставаться

4. Find in the text synonyms to the following words:

vanish (v) _________________________________________

accidentally (adv) ___________________________________

perfectly, completely (adv) ____________________________

substitute (v) ______________________________________

serious, ceremonial (adj) _____________________________

extend (v) ________________________________________

attain, gain (v) _____________________________________

common, regular (adj) _______________________________

Read the text and do the tasks after it.

The medium for writing was ink, generally a mixture of oak gall and copper vitriol. Originally black, ink made north of the Alps sometimes shows a reddish-brown hue, while that made in Italy may contain tinges of brown and yellow. Over the centuries most of these colours have lightened as a result of atmospheric conditions. The Byzantine emperors used purple ink for their signatures. This custom was occasionally taken over by the Lombard rulers of Italy and, later, by the Norman kings of Sicily. Another custom of Byzantine origin is the use of gold lettering.

Throughout the entire Roman Empire, the language used in documents was primarily Latin. Greek was also used, and, during the latter part of the 6th century AD, it slowly superseded Latin in the East. From then onward, Greek was the language of Byzantine documents until the end of the Byzantine Empire (1453). In the West, the collapse of the empire and the establishment of barbarian kingdoms led to a vulgarization of Latin, written as well as spoken.