<P> After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe had entered the Middle Ages with great difficulties . Apart from depopulation and other factors, most classical scientific treatises of classical antiquity, written in Greek or Latin, had become unavailable . Philosophical and scientific teaching of the Early Middle Ages was based upon the few Latin translations and commentaries on ancient Greek scientific and philosophical texts that remained in the Latin West, the study of which remained at minimal levels . Only the Christian church maintained copies of these written works, and they were periodically replaced and distributed to other churches . </P> <P> This scenario changed during the renaissance of the 12th century . For several centuries, Popes had been sending clerics to the various kings of Europe . Kings of Europe were typically illiterate . Literate clerics would be specialists of some subject or other, such as music, medicine or history etc., otherwise known as Roman Cohors amicorum, the root of the Italian word corte' court' . As such, these clerics would become part of a kings retinue or court educating the king and his children, paid for by the pope, whilst facilitating the spread of knowledge into the Middle Ages . The church maintained classic scriptures in scrolls and books in numerous scriptoriums across Europe, thus preserving the classic knowledge and allowing access to this important information to the European kings . In return, kings were encouraged to build monasteries that would act as orphanages, hospitals and schools, benefiting societies and eventually smoothing the transition from the Middle Ages . </P> <P> The increased contact with the Islamic world in Muslim - dominated Spain and Sicily, the Crusades, the Reconquista, as well as increased contact with Byzantium, allowed Europeans to seek and translate the works of Hellenic and Islamic philosophers and scientists, especially the works of Aristotle . Several translations were made of Euclid but no extensive commentary was written until the middle of the 13th century . </P> <P> The development of medieval universities allowed them to aid materially in the translation and propagation of these texts and started a new infrastructure which was needed for scientific communities . In fact, the European university put many of these texts at the center of its curriculum, with the result that the "medieval university laid far greater emphasis on science than does its modern counterpart and descendent ." </P>

Due to its many cathedral schools the intellectual center of europe by the twelfth century was