Terrestrial and Celestial Globes in the Christian Middle Ages
General attitude of the period toward the theories of the Greeks and the Romans.—Scripture statements as sources of information.—Inclination of certain early writers to accept the doctrine of a spherical earth.—The particular attitude of Pope Sylvester II.—The asserted interest of Emperor Frederick II in scientific studies.—Alfonso the Wise and the Alfonsian tables.—Interesting allusions in Alfonso’s work to globes and globe construction.—Giovanni Campano of Novara and the statements in his ‘Tractatis de sphera solida.’—The attitude of Albertus Magnus, Sacrobosco, Roger Bacon, Vincent of Beauvais, Dante.
FOR many centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there appears to have been in Christian Europe but little interest in the fundamental principles of geographical or astronomical science. The theories of the Greeks and the Romans respecting a spherical earth and a spherical firmament encompassing it, in illustration of which they had constructed globes, were not entirely forgotten, but such theories in general were considered to be valueless, hindrances rather than helps to the theological beliefs of the new Christian era.[70]
Though the early Church Fathers were inclined to reject the idea of a globular earth,[71] there were not a few among them who found the theory of a circular earth an acceptable one. The latter, it is true, was an early Greek belief, referred to above as having been entertained in Homer’s day, and as having been passed down to succeeding centuries, but Christian writers did not find in the fact of its pagan origin a particular argument for accepting it; on the contrary, the Bible was held by many to be the fountain of all knowledge, and a sure guide no less in the solution of problems pertaining to the physical sciences than in the solution of problems pertaining to faith and doctrine. What was contained in the Scriptures found a more ready acceptance than what was to be found in pagan writers.[72] Isaiah’s statement, “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” was regarded as one altogether adequate on which to found a theory of the form of the earth, and it was accepted by such biblical interpreters as Lactantius, Cosmas Indicopleustes (Figs. [16], [17]), Diodorus of Tarsus, Chrysostom, Severian of Gabala, by those who were known as the Syrians, by Procopius and Decuil.[73] Men, however, such as Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Philoponos inclined strongly toward the Aristotelian doctrine of a spherical earth.[74] Isidore of Seville appears to have been a supporter of the spherical doctrine,[75] as was also the Venerable Bede, who, in his ‘De natura rerum,’ upholds the doctrine of a spherical earth on practically the same grounds as those advanced by Aristotle.[76]
Fig. 16. The Universe according to Cosmas Indicopleustes, Sixth Century.
Fig. 17. Cosmas’ Illustration Confuting the Existence of Antipodal Peoples.
In illustration of the doctrine of a circular earth, terrestrial globes certainly could not have been thought of as having any practical value. With a rejection of the spherical theory of the ancients very naturally went the rejection of their globes.