The work of the outstanding French medievalist Jacques Le Goff addresses the problem of historical periodization, which has not only formal, but also meaningful significance: the transition to a new stage of development is accompanied by society's denial of the values ​ ​ of the previous period. It is precisely such ideological fractures that Le Goff considers systemically important: they allow us to draw boundaries between such eras as Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the New Age.