14th century in the context of "Apple pie"

Lviv (/ləˈviːv/ lə-VEEV or /ləˈviːf/ lə-VEEF; Ukrainian: Львів [ˈlʲviu̯] ; Polish: Lwów [ˈlvuf] ; see below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the fifth-largest city in Ukraine, officially with a population of 723,403 (2025 estimate). It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Lviv also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. It was named after Leo I of Galicia, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia.

Lviv (then Lwów) emerged as the centre of the historical regions of Red Ruthenia and Galicia in the 14th century, superseding Halych, Chełm, Belz, and Przemyśl. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1340, when it went to King Casimir III the Great of Poland in a war of succession. In 1356, Casimir the Great granted it town rights. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg semi-autonomous Polish-dominated Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. From 1918, between the wars, the city was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. There it flourished in culture, industry and academia such as the Lwów School of Mathematics, the Lwów Historical School (Polish: lwowska szkoła historyczna) and the Lwów School of Economics. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the massacre of Lwów professors took place, and Lwów was eventually annexed by the Soviet Union.

Giovanni Boccaccio (UK: /bəˈkætʃioʊ/ bə-KATCH-ee-oh, US: /boʊˈkɑːtʃ(i)oʊ, bəˈ-/ boh-KAH-ch(ee)oh, bə-; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni bokˈkattʃo]; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was sometimes simply known as "the Certaldese" and one of the most important figures in the European literary panorama of the fourteenth century. Some scholars (including Vittore Branca) define him as the greatest European prose writer of his time, a versatile writer who amalgamated different literary trends and genres, making them converge in original works, thanks to a creative activity exercised under the banner of experimentalism.

His most notable works are The Decameron, a collection of short stories, and On Famous Women. The Decameron became a determining element for the Italian literary tradition, especially after Pietro Bembo elevated the Boccaccian style to a model of Italian prose in the sixteenth century. Boccaccio wrote his imaginative literature mostly in Tuscan vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot. The influence of Boccaccio's works was not limited to the Italian cultural scene but extended to the rest of Europe, exerting influence on authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, a key figure in English literature, and the later writers Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega and classical theatre in Spain.

The Ajuran Sultanate (Somali: Saldanadda Ajuuraan, Arabic: سلطنة الأجورانية), natively referred to as Ajuuraan, and often simply Ajuran/Ajur, was a Muslim empire in the Horn of Africa that thrived from the late medieval and early modern period. Founded by Somali Sultans its rise to prominence began during the 13th and 14th centuries and by the 15th century, it was Africa's only 'hydraulic empire'. Through a strong centralized administration and an aggressive military stance towards invaders, the Ajuran Empire successfully resisted Oromo invasions from the west and fought against Portuguese incursions from the east.

The Ajuran were among the great centres of commerce in the contemporary African and Islamic world. Trading routes dating from ancient and early medieval periods of Somali maritime enterprise were strengthened and re-established, foreign trade and commerce in the coastal provinces flourished with ships sailing to and from kingdoms and empires in the Near East, East Asia, and the wider world. The Ajuran are believed to be the first Africans to have contact with China.

The English term lance is derived, via Middle English launce and Old French lance, from the Latin lancea, a generic term meaning a spear or javelin employed by both infantry and cavalry, with English initially keeping these generic meanings. It developed later into a term for spear-like weapons specially designed and modified to be part of a "weapon system" for use couched under the arm during a charge, being equipped with special features such as grappers to engage with lance rests attached to breastplates, and vamplates, small circular plates designed to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact. These specific features were in use by the beginning of the late 14th century.

Though best known as a military and sporting weapon carried by European knights and men-at-arms, the use of lances was widespread throughout East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa wherever suitable mounts were available. Lances were the main weapon of lancers of the medieval period and beyond, and these troops also carried secondary weapons such as swords, battle axes, war hammers, maces, and daggers for use in hand-to-hand combat, since the lance was often a one-use-per-engagement weapon, becoming embedded in their targets or being broken on impact. Assuming the lance survived the initial impact without breaking, it could also prove inappropriate for more static, closer engagements where its length became a hindrance.

The Christianization of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos krikštas) occurred in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, initiated by the Lithuanian royals Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas the Great. It signified the official adoption of Catholic Christianity by Lithuania, the last pagan country in Europe. However, Lithuania's first ruler to be baptised was Mindaugas in 1250s. This event ended one of the most complicated and lengthiest processes of Christianization in European history.

Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, romanized: Ādi Śaṅkara, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, lit. 'First Shankaracharya', pronounced [aːd̪i ɕɐŋkɐraːt͡ɕaːrjɐ]), was an Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher (acharya) of Advaita Vedanta. While he is often revered as the most important Indian philosopher, reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and the historical influence of his works on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned. The historical Shankara was probably relatively unknown and Vaishna-oriented. His true impact lies in his "iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture," despite the fact that most Hindus do not adhere to Advaita Vedanta.

Until the 10th century Shankara was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra, and there is no mention of him in concurrent Hindu, Buddhist or Jain sources until the 11th century. The legendary Shankara was created in the 14th century, centuries after his death, when Sringeri matha started to receive patronage from the emperors of the Vijayanagara Empire and shifted their allegiance from Advaitic Agamic Shaivism to Brahmanical Advaita orthodoxy. Hagiographies dating from the 14th-17th centuries deified him as a ruler-renunciate, travelling on a digvijaya (conquest of the four quarters) across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy, defeating his opponents in theological debates. These hagiographies portray him as founding four mathas (monasteries), and Adi Shankara also came to be regarded as the organiser of the Dashanami monastic order, and the unifier of the Shanmata tradition of worship. The title of Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries in India, is derived from his name. Tradition also portrays him as the one who reconciled the various sects (Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism) with the introduction of the Pañcāyatana form of worship, the simultaneous worship of five deities – Ganesha, Surya, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi, arguing that all deities were but different forms of the one Brahman, the invisible Supreme Being.

A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked. The term can also be used to refer to similar forms in other musical traditions, such as the Turkish fasıl and the Arab nuubaat.

In the Baroque era, the suite was an important musical form, also known as Suite de danses, Ordre (the term favored by François Couperin), Partita, or Ouverture (after the theatrical "overture" which often included a series of dances) as with the orchestral suites of Christoph Graupner, Telemann and J.S. Bach.