218. MEDIEVAL GEOGRAPHY
THE GEOGRAPHICAL RENAISSANCE
There was also a geographical Renaissance. The revival of the exploring spirit led to the discovery of ocean routes to the Far East and the Americas. In consequence, commerce was vastly stimulated, and two continents, hitherto unknown, were opened up to civilization. The geographical Renaissance, which gave man a New World, thus cooperated with the other movements of the age in bringing about the transition from medieval to modern times.
MEDIEVAL IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY
The Greeks and Romans had become familiar with a large part of Europe and Asia, but much of their learning was either forgotten or perverted during the early Middle Ages. Even the wonderful discoveries of the Northmen in the North Atlantic gradually faded from memory. The Arabs, whose conquests and commerce extended over so much of the Orient, far surpassed the Christian peoples of Europe in knowledge of the world.
GEOGRAPHICAL MYTHS
The alliance of medieval geography with theology led to curious results. Map makers, relying on a passage in the Old Testament, [2] usually placed Jerusalem in the center of the world. A Scriptural reference to the "four corners of the earth" [3] was sometimes thought to imply the existence of a rectangular world. From classical sources came stories of monstrous men, one-eyed, headless, or dog-headed, who were supposed to inhabit remote regions. Equally monstrous animals, such as the unicorn and dragon, [4] kept them company. Sailors' "yarns" must have been responsible for the belief that the ocean boiled at the equator and that in the Atlantic—the "Sea of Darkness"—lurked serpents huge enough to sink ships. To the real danger of travel by land and water people thus added imaginary terrors.
THE COSMAS MAP
Many maps prepared in the Middle Ages sum up the prevailing knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the world. One of the earliest specimens that has come down to us was made in the sixth century, by Cosmas, an Alexandrian monk. It exhibits the earth as a rectangle surrounded by an ocean with four deep gulfs. Beyond this ocean lies another world, the seat of Paradise and the place "where men dwelt before the Flood." The rivers which flow from the lakes of Paradise are also shown. Figures holding trumpets represent the four winds.
[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS
From an early edition of Sir John Mandeville's Travels. Shakespeare
(Othello, I, iii, 144-145) refers to:
"The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.">[
THE HEREFORD MAP
A map made about seven hundred years later, and now preserved in Hereford Cathedral, shows the earth as a circular disk with the ocean surrounding it. In the extreme east—that is, at the top—lies Paradise, Jerusalem occupies the center, and below it comes the Mediterranean, liberally supplied with islands. The Black Sea appears as a narrow body of water, and even the British Isles are strangely distorted to fit the circle. Such a map could have been of little use to travelers; it simply satisfied a natural curiosity about the wonders of the world.
OPENING UP OF ASIA
The crusades, more than anything else, first extended geographical knowledge. As a religious movement they led to pilgrimages and missions in Oriental lands. With the pilgrims and missionaries went hard-headed traders, who brought back to Europe the wealth of the East. The result, by 1300 A.D., was to open up countries beyond the Euphrates which had remained sealed to Europe for centuries. This discovery of the interior of Asia had only less importance than that of the New World two centuries later.
LEGEND OF PRESTER JOHN
What specially drew explorers eastward was the belief that somewhere in the center of Asia existed a great Christian kingdom which, if allied to European Christendom, might attack the Moslems from the rear. According to one form of the story the kingdom consisted of the Ten Tribes of Israel, [5] who had been converted to Christianity by Nestorian missionaries. [6] Over them reigned a priest-king named Prester (or Presbyter) John. The popes made several attempts to communicate with this mythical ruler. In the thirteenth century, however, Franciscan friars did penetrate to the heart of Asia. They returned to Europe with marvelous tales of the wealth and splendor of the East under the Mongol emperors.
THE POLOS IN THE EAST, 1271-1295 A.D.
The most famous of all medieval travelers were Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, and Nicolo's son, Marco. These Venetian merchants set out for Asia in 1271 A.D., and after an adventurous journey reached the court of Kublai Khan at Peking. [7] The Mongol ruler, who seems to have been anxious to introduce Christianity and European culture among his people, received them in a friendly manner, and they amassed much wealth by trade. Marco entered the khan's service and went on several expeditions to distant parts of the Mongol realm. Many years passed before Kublai would allow his useful guests to return to Europe. They sailed at length from Zaitun, a Chinese seaport, skirted the coast of southeastern Asia and India, and then made their way overland to the Mediterranean. When the travelers reached Venice after an absence of twenty-four years, their relatives were slow to recognize in them the long-lost Polos.
[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, 535 A.D.
THE HEREFORD MAP, 1280 A.D.]
MARCO POLO'S BOOK
The story of the Polos, as written down at Marco's dictation, became one of the most popular works of the Middle Ages. In this book Europe read of far Cathay (China), with its wealth, its huge cities, and swarming population, of mysterious and secluded Tibet, of Burma, Siam, and Cochin- China, with their palaces and pagodas, of the East Indies, famed for spices, of Ceylon, abounding in pearls, and of India, little known since the days of Alexander the Great. Even Cipango (Japan) Marco described from hearsay as an island whose people were white, civilized, and so rich in gold that the royal palace was roofed and paved with that metal. The accounts of these countries naturally made Europeans more eager than ever to reach the East.