[25] From Jacques, a common French name for a peasant.
CHAPTER XXVI
GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION [1]
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.