Upvote:1
As James's answer said, there were innovations during the Middle Age as during other periods, even if the Middle Ages, considering their length, are not the period at which Europe showed its fatest innovation.
The political fragmentation as well as natural diseases and foreign invasions did not help to theoretical innovation: people only accepted innovations that could be fastly used to survive: For example, a better collar for labour horses, or the yoke for military cavalrymen. The lack of knowledge for writing and not-yet invented printing press also triggered less written, theoretical treaties compared to the Modern Age.
But it should be considered, in a broader vision, that:
Upvote:9
In general, modern historians emphasize continuity in history. They know that the tripartite division (Ancient, Middle, Modern) is artificial and biased since it was coined: it is somehow implied that the "Classical World" was better than Medieval, but we know this is not true. Modern historias are very wary of this "backward medieval view". The true answer is continuous improvement, yet a different velocity: Only modern innovation is exponential. Medieval innovation was not (neither was ancient innovation, although it might seem more remarkable than the medieval period).
Also, in Europe in the Middle Ages they emphasize the "political fragmentation", which is not "technological backwardness" or "technological stagnation", but affects both. In a fragmented space, such as Medieval Europe, tech innovation was smaller and the spread was slower. But there were innovations indeed.
On the three citations:
Also, on the Ancient technologies Le Goff cites, some of them are Neolithic, so not a "classical" invention! The true answer is that there was innovation but not an exponential one as we are used to since the Modern Age started.