The Loose And Scanty Nomenclature Was Mainly Borrowed
From Pliny Or Mela Through Such Fathers As We Have Named; Whilst Vacant
Spaces Were Occupied By Amazons, Arimaspians, And The Realm Of Prester
John.
A favourite representation of the inhabited earth was this [Symbol];
a great O enclosing a T, which thus divides the circle in three parts; the
greater or half-circle being Asia, the two quarter circles Europe and
Africa.[5] These Maps were known to St. Augustine.[6]
[Sidenote: Roger Bacon as a geographer.]
81. Even Ptolemy seems to have been almost unknown; and indeed had his
Geography been studied it might, with all its errors, have tended to some
greater endeavours after accuracy. Roger Bacon, whilst lamenting the
exceeding deficiency of geographical knowledge in the Latin world, and
purposing to essay an exacter distribution of countries, says he will not
attempt to do so by latitude and longitude, for that is a system of which
the Latins have learned nothing. He himself, whilst still somewhat
burdened by the authoritative dicta of "saints and sages" of past times,
ventures at least to criticise some of the latter, such as Pliny and
Ptolemy, and declares his intention to have recourse to the information of
those who have travelled most extensively over the Earth's surface. And
judging from the good use he makes, in his description of the northern
parts of the world, of the Travels of Rubruquis, whom he had known and
questioned, besides diligently studying his narrative,[7] we might have
expected much in Geography from this great man, had similar materials been
available to him for other parts of the earth. He did attempt a map with
mathematical determination of places, but it has not been preserved.[8]
It may be said with general truth that the world-maps current up to the
end of the 13th century had more analogy to the mythical cosmography of
the Hindus than to any thing properly geographical. Both, no doubt, were
originally based in the main on real features. In the Hindu cosmography
these genuine features are symmetrised as in a kaleidoscope; in the
European cartography they are squeezed together in a manner that one can
only compare to a pig in brawn. Here and there some feature strangely
compressed and distorted is just recognisable. A splendid example of this
kind of map is that famous one at Hereford, executed about A.D. 1275, of
which a facsimile has lately been published, accompanied by a highly
meritorious illustrative Essay.[9]
82. Among the Arabs many able men, from the early days of Islam, took an
interest in Geography, and devoted labour to geographical compilations, in
which they often made use of their own observations, of the itineraries of
travellers, and of other fresh knowledge. But somehow or other their maps
were always far behind their books. Though they appear to have had an
early translation of Ptolemy, and elaborate Tables of Latitudes and
Longitudes form a prominent feature in many of their geographical
treatises, there appears to be no Arabic map in existence, laid down with
meridians and parallels; whilst all of their best known maps are on the
old system of the circular disk.
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