I find myself very interested in trying to figure out the story of medieval progress. Because I learned it was all fallen and ruined as a kid, and now I don’t b

I find myself very interested in trying to figure out the story of medieval progress. Because I learned it was all fallen and ruined as a kid, and now I don’t believe it. But, I don’t have a grasp of the timescales of progress involved. My working theory is that progress was really slow until the written word, incremental improvements but still slow until the printing press, and pretty quick thereafter (until computers, and then the wheels came off). But…I would love to read a history from someone who actually studied it, and said “look at the pace of discovery from 1000BC-200AD, 200AD-1200AD, 1200-1600, etc.”