12th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages.

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

• Beginning of the Gothic architecture style.
• First European universities founded.
• Christian humanism becomes a self-conscious philosophical tendency in Europe.
• Earliest record of a miracle play, in Dunstable, England.
• Beginning of troubador and trouvère music in France.
• Earliest account of a mariner's compass, by Alexander Neckam is "De utensilibus".
• First fire and plague insurance (in Iceland).
• First authenticated influenza epidemics.
• Start of Middle English