<P> According to medieval historian Richard William Southern, Bernard was comparing contemporary 12th century scholars to the ancient scholars of Greece and Rome: </P> <P> (The phrase) sums up the quality of the cathedral schools in the history of learning, and indeed characterizes the age which opened with Gerbert (950--1003) and Fulbert (960--1028) and closed in the first quarter of the 12th century with Peter Abelard . (The phrase) is not a great claim; neither, however, is it an example of abasement before the shrine of antiquity . It is a very shrewd and just remark, and the important and original point was the dwarf could see a little further than the giant . That this was possible was above all due to the cathedral schools with their lack of a well - rooted tradition and their freedom from a clearly defined routine of study . </P> <P> The visual image (from Bernard of Chartres) appears in the stained glass of the south transept of Chartres Cathedral . The tall windows under the Rose Window show the four major prophets of the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) as gigantic figures, and the four New Testament evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as ordinary - size people sitting on their shoulders . The evangelists, though smaller, "see more" than the huge prophets (since they saw the Messiah about whom the prophets spoke). </P> <P> The phrase also appears in the works of the Jewish tosaphist Isaiah di Trani (c. 1180--c. 1250): </P>

If i have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants