The geometry of the day chiefly confined itself to the measurement of land, but there were treatises on perspective, and portions of the Latin Euclid extant.
Charles the Wise was not without charts and maps of the world. Many such existed, but, as may be supposed, tolerably incorrect. The earth was supposed to consist of two hemispheres, glued, as it were, to each other, and the globe somehow maintained its place in the void like a suspended lamp.
In 1366, King Charles V., in order to prevail on Pope Urban V. not to remove to Rome, urged that Marseilles was in the centre of the civilized world. This would be rendered still more sensible by cutting off Greece from the general map. "The schismatic Greeks cut themselves off from the spiritual world by their separation from the church: let their land be removed from the material world." It does not appear that this ingenious proposition was put in practice.
Of accounts of foreign parts there was no lack, and it must be said that the early books of travels and accounts of countries, if less strictly confined to facts than ours, were much more entertaining. A copy of Marco Polo's travels was presented in 1307 to Charles Count of Valois by John de Cepoy, son of the Venetian ambassador. John de Meun translated into French the Wonders of Ireland. They had also the Wonders of England, India, the World, etc.
Several works were composed in the fourteenth century on the subject of music, but chiefly in Latin and with reference to the established canons of sacred melody.
Astronomy had a hard strife with the impostor astrology, which had been so long in possession of the general intellect. However, some glimmerings of the true state of heavenly things had been gradually entering the minds of the astrologers themselves. The total eclipse of the moon on the night of the 15th of January, 1305, terrified the Parisians. It was mentioned as an Eclipsis Lunae horribilis. But an eclipse of the sun, 31st January, 1310, was predicted by the Faculty of Astronomy. Another in 1337 was treated of by John of Genoa, who, in 1332, had composed his canon of eclipses. Comets gave considerable disturbance to the public mind during this century. They predicted the death of Louis X., and the destruction of France, the plague, and all varieties of deceit, lies, hatred, and insubordination, etc. However, science was making a sure though slow progress, and toward the close of the century the learned were in possession of many astronomical facts unknown at the beginning. The comets made their fearful visits at these dates—March, 1315, July, 1337. April, 1338, 1340, 1346, 1360, 1368, 1378.
Several voyages and land journeys were performed during this century, and among the rest that by our own Sir John Mandeyille, some of whose discoveries were inferior to those of the truth-loving Lemuel Gulliver alone. The Holy Land possessed strong attractions for devout and cultivated souls. Of all these the most enthusiastic was the Tuscan Dominican, Riccoldo di Monte da Croce. Having gained the valley of Josaphat, he believed himself at the end of the world, and thus gave vent to his burning thoughts:
"We saw about the middle or the valley the tomb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and, considering it to be the place of the final Judgment, we passed between the Mount of Olives and Mount Cavalry, weeping, and trembling with fear, as if the Supreme Judge was already above our heads. In this sentiment of awe we thought within ourselves, and we said to each other—'It is from above this hill that the most Just of Judges will pronounce his decision. Here is the right hand, there is the left. We then selected, to the best of our judgment, our places on the right, and each sunk in the ground a stone to denote his own. I sunk mine, and I retain that spot for myself, and for all those who, after receiving from me the word of God, shall persevere in faith, in charity, and in the truth of the holy gospel, and we marked the stone in the presence of many of the faithful, who wept with us, and whom I call on as witnesses this day."
We have come to the end of our sketch of the progress of intelligence during a brief portion of its course, namely, that portion immediately preceding the epoch of the invention of the printing-press. The impediments in the way of scientific progress were great and humorous. Many weak spirits were discouraged, and did nothing; others, some few of whom we have particularized, wrought like giants, and thus benefited themselves and their kind. Among these benefits we do not reckon in chief the conveniences and luxuries which distinguish our existence from that of the Samoyeds or dog-ribbed Indians. The Mussulman, well to do, and spending the eleven twelfths of his time in mere indolence and indulgence of the senses, would be better off discharging the duties of porter or ferryman. No, the chief advantages we derive from the advance of human knowledge is the easier and swifter communication between the scattered members of the great human family, the advance of education among the working classes, and the healthy occupation of so many active and energetic minds, which, without suitable work to do, would prey on themselves, and become a curse to their possessors.