>The Dark Ages are from ~500AD to ~900AD and as a term were first used in the 14th century. Petrarch, the 14th C dude you're referencing, believed in a two age

>The Dark Ages are from ~500AD to ~900AD and as a term were first used in the 14th century. Petrarch, the 14th C dude you're referencing, believed in a two age history demarcated by the fall of Rome and that he was living in dark, post-Roman world. The three age history of light-dark-light that would give us the term middle ages/medieval wouldn't come til the 15th C with Bruni when he tacked a modern age onto Petrarch's scheme.