<P> The idea of a Dark Age originated with the Tuscan scholar Petrarch in the 1330s . Writing of the past , he said : `` Amidst the errors there shone forth men of genius ; no less keen were their eyes , although they were surrounded by darkness and dense gloom '' . Christian writers , including Petrarch himself , had long used traditional metaphors of ' light versus darkness ' to describe ' good versus evil ' . Petrarch was the first to give the metaphor secular meaning by reversing its application . He now saw Classical Antiquity , so long considered a ' dark ' age for its lack of Christianity , in the ' light ' of its cultural achievements , while Petrarch 's own time , allegedly lacking such cultural achievements , was seen as the age of darkness . </P>
<P> The idea of a Dark Age originated with the Tuscan scholar Petrarch in the 1330s . Writing of the past , he said : `` Amidst the errors there shone forth men of genius ; no less keen were their eyes , although they were surrounded by darkness and dense gloom '' . Christian writers , including Petrarch himself , had long used traditional metaphors of ' light versus darkness ' to describe ' good versus evil ' . Petrarch was the first to give the metaphor secular meaning by reversing its application . He now saw Classical Antiquity , so long considered a ' dark ' age for its lack of Christianity , in the ' light ' of its cultural achievements , while Petrarch 's own time , allegedly lacking such cultural achievements , was seen as the age of darkness . </P>
who called the middle ages the dark ages
who called the middle ages the dark ages
the Tuscan scholar Petrarch
the Tuscan scholar Petrarch