Of The Action Of The First Cause No Examples Can Be More Striking Than We
Find In The False Conception
Of the Caspian as a gulf of the Ocean,
entertained by Strabo, and the opposite error in regard to the
Indian Sea
held by Ptolemy, who regards it as an enclosed basin, when we contrast
these with the correct ideas on both subjects possessed by Herodotus. The
later Geographers no doubt knew his statements, but did not appreciate
them, probably from not possessing the evidence on which they were based.
[Sidenote: General characteristics of Mediaeval Cosmography.]
80. As regards the second cause alleged, we may say that down nearly to
the middle of the 15th century cosmographers, as a rule, made scarcely any
attempt to reform their maps by any elaborate search for new matter, or by
lights that might be collected from recent travellers. Their world was in
its outline that handed down by the traditions of their craft, as
sanctioned by some Father of the Church, such as Orosius or Isidore, as
sprinkled with a combination of classical and mediaeval legend; Solinus
being the great authority for the former. Almost universally the earth's
surface is represented as filling the greater part of a circular disk,
rounded by the ocean; a fashion that already existed in the time of
Aristotle and was ridiculed by him.[1] No dogma of false geography was
more persistent or more pernicious than this. Jerusalem occupies the
central point, because it was found written in the Prophet Ezekiel: "Haec
dicit Dominus Deus: Ista est Jerusalem, in medio gentium posui eam, et
in circuitu ejus terras;"[2] a declaration supposed to be corroborated by
the Psalmist's expression, regarded as prophetic of the death of Our Lord:
"Deus autem, Rex noster, ante secula operatus est salutem in medio
Terrae" (Ps. lxxiii. 12).[3] The Terrestrial Paradise was represented as
occupying the extreme East, because it was found in Genesis that the Lord
planted a garden east ward in Eden.[4] Gog and Magog were set in the far
north or north-east, because it was said again in Ezekiel: "Ecce Ego
super te Gog Principem capitis Mosoch et Thubal ... et ascendere te faciam
de lateribus Aquilonis," whilst probably the topography of those
mysterious nationalities was completed by a girdle of mountains out of the
Alexandrian Fables. The loose and scanty nomenclature was mainly borrowed
from Pliny or Mela through such Fathers as we have named; whilst vacant
spaces were occupied by Amazons, Arimaspians, and the realm of Prester
John. A favourite representation of the inhabited earth was this [Symbol];
a great O enclosing a T, which thus divides the circle in three parts; the
greater or half-circle being Asia, the two quarter circles Europe and
Africa.[5] These Maps were known to St. Augustine.[6]
[Sidenote: Roger Bacon as a geographer.]
81. Even Ptolemy seems to have been almost unknown; and indeed had his
Geography been studied it might, with all its errors, have tended to some
greater endeavours after accuracy. Roger Bacon, whilst lamenting the
exceeding deficiency of geographical knowledge in the Latin world, and
purposing to essay an exacter distribution of countries, says he will not
attempt to do so by latitude and longitude, for that is a system of which
the Latins have learned nothing. He himself, whilst still somewhat
burdened by the authoritative dicta of "saints and sages" of past times,
ventures at least to criticise some of the latter, such as Pliny and
Ptolemy, and declares his intention to have recourse to the information of
those who have travelled most extensively over the Earth's surface. And
judging from the good use he makes, in his description of the northern
parts of the world, of the Travels of Rubruquis, whom he had known and
questioned, besides diligently studying his narrative,[7] we might have
expected much in Geography from this great man, had similar materials been
available to him for other parts of the earth. He did attempt a map with
mathematical determination of places, but it has not been preserved.[8]
It may be said with general truth that the world-maps current up to the
end of the 13th century had more analogy to the mythical cosmography of
the Hindus than to any thing properly geographical. Both, no doubt, were
originally based in the main on real features. In the Hindu cosmography
these genuine features are symmetrised as in a kaleidoscope; in the
European cartography they are squeezed together in a manner that one can
only compare to a pig in brawn. Here and there some feature strangely
compressed and distorted is just recognisable. A splendid example of this
kind of map is that famous one at Hereford, executed about A.D. 1275, of
which a facsimile has lately been published, accompanied by a highly
meritorious illustrative Essay.[9]
82. Among the Arabs many able men, from the early days of Islam, took an
interest in Geography, and devoted labour to geographical compilations, in
which they often made use of their own observations, of the itineraries of
travellers, and of other fresh knowledge. But somehow or other their maps
were always far behind their books. Though they appear to have had an
early translation of Ptolemy, and elaborate Tables of Latitudes and
Longitudes form a prominent feature in many of their geographical
treatises, there appears to be no Arabic map in existence, laid down with
meridians and parallels; whilst all of their best known maps are on the
old system of the circular disk. This apparent incapacity for map-making
appears to have acted as a heavy drag and bar upon progress in Geography
among the Arabs, notwithstanding its early promise among them, and in
spite of the application to its furtherance of the great intellects of
some (such as Abu Rihan al-Biruni), and of the indefatigable spirit of
travel and omnivorous curiosity of others (such as Mas'udi).
[Sidenote: Marino Sanudo the Elder.]
83. Some distinct trace of acquaintance with the Arabian Geography is to
be found in the World-Map of Marino Sanudo the Elder, constructed between
1300 and 1320; and this may be regarded as an exceptionally favourable
specimen of the cosmography in vogue, for the author was a diligent
investigator and compiler, who evidently took a considerable interest in
geographical questions, and had a strong enjoyment and appreciation of a
map.[10] Nor is the map in question without some result of these
characteristics.
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