Rishonim ראשונים
The «first ones» — the medieval authorities from the end of the geonic age to the Shulchan Aruch: Rashi, the Tosafists, the Rambam, the Ramban.
The rishonim span roughly five centuries, from the decline of the Babylonian academies around 4760 to the Shulchan Aruch in 5325. It is the era in which the Jewish world ceases to have a single centre and lives in several at once: Ashkenaz, Provence, Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Italy.
In Ashkenaz: Rabbeinu Gershom, Rashi, whose commentary made the Talmud accessible, and the Tosafists, who set the method of comparing the entire corpus. In Spain and the East: the Rif, who reduced the Talmud to practical law; the Rambam; the Ramban, joining commentary, halacha and kabbalah; the Rashba, the Ran, the Meiri. In the fourteenth century the Rosh carried Ashkenazi tradition into Spain, and his son wrote the Tur.
This is also the age of crusades, blood libels, disputations and expulsions.