1

THE MIRACULOUS REVIVAL OR THE PAINFUL RECOVERY

a. What if the Earth is the Sphere?

Thus when the God, whatever God was he, Had formd the whole and made the parts agree, That no unequal portion might be found, He moulded Earth into a spacious round. Ovid. Metamorphoses

The term geography was not fluent on the lips of medieval Latin scholars. It was never treated as a legitimate branch of natural science but rather as a handmaid of the scientific mainstream i.e. part of Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, or other noble branches of learning. The geographical ideas of the Middle Ages were sown in Ancient Greece. By defending and also perfecting these old-fashioned and often deeply erroneous concepts, many western scholars blindly followed the path of universal wisdom pouring the old wine into new wineskins. As their classical mentors, Latin disciples almost unanimously held the image of the spherical earth. They perceived our planet as a tiny eyeball inside an enormous socket of the heaven; this eyeball was surrounded by a number of concentric circles which were the orbits of the revolving planets. Astronomers of the Latin West viewed the earth as a pivot for the rotating universe whose seven planets were moving round the immovable center, a fixed globe embraced by water and shrouded by air. Each of these celestial bodies followed its private circular orbit and was spinning at its own pace. Medieval scholars not only supported the ancient teaching of the spherical earth; they excluded any other reasonable explanation of the above mentioned proofs. Listen how John of Hollywood, an author of The Sphere, a popular treatise of 13th century that was studied in all European universities, hammers final nails in the coffin of a passing doctrine of a flat earth: If the earth were flat from east to west, the stars would rise as soon for westerners as for Orientals If the world were flat from north to south the stars that were always visible to anyone would continue to be so wherever he went. In his great poetical vision cited above, Ovid disclosed the anonymous creator of the world as a diligent potter who had fashioned his masterpiece into a huge orb. This attractive pagan outlook

took fancy among outstanding Christian scholars who conceived the spherical earth as a ball, an apple, or the yolk of an egg. One of these authors, the Venerable Bede, who flourished in the 8th century, explained that the days were unequal in length because of the roundness of the globe. A sphere set in the middle of the whole universe, he claimed, is not merely circular like a shield but resembled more a ball, being equally round in all directions. The shape of the sphere should comply with its central position at the heart of the cosmos. Another popular image was an apple. Gautier de Metz, a French 13 th century poet, compared an explorer with a fly that could stretch its wings in a constant motion around the globe: a man can go around the world as a fly makes the tour of an apple. Here the shape of our planet implies and even demands its circumnavigation. This imaginary journey is often illustrated by an image of a pair of travelers who set off from the same spot moving in opposite directions along the sphere and inevitably meeting at the antipodal point on the other side. If only a curious explorer knows how to navigate his route, he will never go astray. An author and his readers hoped that one day this prophesy might come true. Jacob Perez de Valencia, a 15th century theologian, criticized these old-fashioned conceptions of the earth-as an apple and a playground ball-in favor of a more progressive view. He thought that the land occupied far greater space than the water. However, according to the perverted outlook of his opponents, the earth is like a light ball or like an apple in a basin full of water which only the top appears above the water. His critiques were die-hard retrogrades who imagined that most of the land was plunged into the Ocean leaving only the top of the terrain to float like the tip of an iceberg. Still another common image was an egg. An anonymous philosopher writing at the turn of the 11th and the 12th centuries defined the earth as an immovable sphere placed in the center of the revolving universe. He compared the globe with an egg where the yolk signified the land, the white symbolized the ocean, and the shell indicated the air: The earth is an element placed at the middle of the worldas the yolk is in the egg; about it there is water, as about the yolk there is the white. About the water the air [is] like the skin containing the white of the egg. Medieval scholars never refused to build their arguments on the old solid foundation. However, they didnt cease to look for new evidence to confirm the universal truth of their beliefs. The concept of the immovable earth was based on the following proof: when an archer shoots his arrow directly upward, the projectile may return very close to the place of projection (in case that an impact of wind is ignored). If the earth really rotated around its axis, they argued, it would deviate the arrow from its original position in accordance with the rotation. The outcome was predetermined by the conditions of the experiment. a. How to Measure the Earths Circumference?

If the earth is a globe, its circumference has to be determined. The two geniuses of the ancient world managed to solve this tremendous task. Both of them compared the angle of elevation of certain heavenly bodies above the horizon at various places located presumably along the same meridian but at different parallels and calculated the distance between them by converting travel days on land or at sea into an accepted standard of length. Each of these estimations had versions which prove that the scholars were unhappy with their initial scores and, being confronted with sound criticism, had to improve their performance. The first of these geniuses was Eratosthenes of Cyrene, North Africa, who flourished in the third century BCE and coined the word geography, i.e. the description of the world. His first circumference measured 250,000 stades and was a 15 percent overestimation of the modern standard. Later on, the Hellenistic scholar raised his figures even higher to 252,000 stades probably for the sake of mathematical convenience since his new score would make exactly 700 stades (129.5 km) per meridian degree at the equator. Who doesnt love rounded numbers? The second estimate had surpassed the modern value even higher, by 16 percent. This outcome seemed exaggerated for his opponent, Posidonius, of Apamea, Syria, a celebrated astronomer who lived in the 1st century BCE and was known for calculating the distance between the earth and the sun. In his first attempt he set the terrestrial circumference at 240,000 stades. His mean figure errs only by 11 percent against the modern standard and considerably improves Eratosthenes numbers. However, Posidonius didnt follow his own sound logic and revised his initial score cutting it down to 180,000 stades to reach a spectacular round figure of 500 stades per meridian degree. The new outcome is well beyond the modern value underestimating it by 17 percent. If we compare the scores obtained by the great Greek scholars, that of Posidonius in his first estimation is the closest to our understanding. However, in his second attempt he made a fatal error underestimating the earths circumference even greater than Eratosthenes had overestimated it. Table 1. Estimation of the Earths Circumference by Greek Scholars Geographer Eratosthenes (250,000) Eratosthenes (252,000) Posidonius (240,000) Posidonius (180,000) Circumference in km 46,250 46,620 44,400 33,300 Difference from Modern Value + 15% +16% +11% -17%

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, Pierre dAilly in his treatise The Image of the World, put forward another learned opinion, based on the estimate of al-Farghani, a Persian astronomer who thrived in the 9th century CE and belonged to the supporters of the huge earth. Al-Farghani

assumed that the length of one longitudinal degree at the equator equaled 56.67 mi. A famous astronomer should have used an Arab mile whose value fluctuates between 1,925 and 1,995 m (with the consensus value staying at 1,960 m). If we take this estimate for granted, al-Farghanis degree can be converted into 111.1 km which makes his circumference equal 39,986 km-a close match to the modern calculation (with a discrepancy of less than 90 km). However, dAilly made his estimations in Roman miles (one Roman mile equals 1.48 km) and received the tiny earth of 20,400 mi or 30,194 km with the value of the meridian degree on the equator being only 83.872 km. Christopher Columbus, an involuntary discoverer of America, adopted this last estimate which reduced the circumference for nearly 10,000 km. He shared the record in falsification of the earths size with dAilly. Columbus confronted his figures with what he calls a vulgar opinion of a huge earth. He also claimed, in accordance with the apocryphal composition of Esdras that the dry land occupied the lions share of our planet: six parts out of seven. He was certain that his calculations matched the truth of the Scriptures and the opinion of experienced navigators. Even his four trips to the newly discovered lands had not led this die-hard to change his opinion. In the letter to the Spanish king and queen sent in 1503, during his last voyage, he claims: The world is but small: out of seven divisions of it the dry part occupies six, and the seventh is entirely covered with water the world is not so large as vulgar opinion makes it one degree from the equinoctial line measures fifty six miles and two-thirds. This is a fact that one can touch with ones own fingers. In another letter to the same address, Columbus admits that the execution of the enterprise of the Indies was not a question of scholarship, nor mathematics, nor mappemondi; it was the fulfillment of what Esdras has said. Conclusion Medieval scholars didnt speak in one voice. There was no general consent even on basic issues: the size of the earth, the extent of the inhabited landmass, or the breadth of the world ocean and the possibility of circumnavigation. However, there was no argument about the spherical earth. One cannot deny the spirit of discovery that was blowing in many corners of the medieval world. However, the new wine was distilled into dismantling wineskins of ancient wisdom. In spite of explicit preference to round figures multiple of one hundred, no ancient sage calculated a meridian degree as 600 stades (111 km) which would hit the mark.