② Beyond the Edge of the World▪On worldviews in Columbus’ time

Columbus discovers America. But more importantly, he discovers discovery itself.

Wootton, David

The Invention of Science Book

2016, ISBN: 978-0141040837.

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title = {The Invention of Science},
author = {David Wootton},
url = {https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/132992/the-invention-of-science/
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isbn = {978-0141040837},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-09-29},
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tppubtype = {book}
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• https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/132992/the-invention-of-science/

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Britannica, Encyclopædia

Art From The Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–71) Online

1768.

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@online{Britannica1768,
title = {Art From The Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–71)},
author = {Encyclopædia Britannica},
url = {https://www.britannica.com/topic/Encyclopaedia-Britannica-print-encyclopaedia
},
year = {1768},
date = {1768-01-01},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {online}
}

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• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Encyclopaedia-Britannica-print-encyclopaedia

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Clavius, Christoph

In sphaeram ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius Online

1570.

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@online{Clavius1570,
title = {In sphaeram ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius},
author = {Christoph Clavius},
url = {https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/commentary-sphere-sacrobosco
},
year = {1570},
date = {1570-01-01},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {online}
}

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• https://galileo.ou.edu/exhibits/commentary-sphere-sacrobosco

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In 1492, Columbus sailed west to prove that the world was round. His sailors, terrified of falling off the edge of the world, were on the brink of mutiny just as America’s coastline came into view.

Except they weren’t. Ever since antiquity, nobody who had given it a moment’s thought actually believed the world was flat. Especially sailors, who could see the world’s curvature on the horizon with their own eyes.

This myth of medieval people believing the world to be flat was constructed after the fact. It was a story of ignorance that neatly fitted with the newly defined ‘Dark Ages’. It showed just how far men had come, and how truly the Renaissance man was head and shoulders above his ancestors.

Or is there more to the story than that? The discovery of America may not have proven to anyone that the earth was round, but it did completely uproot everyone’s concept of what the world looked like.

Hello and welcome to A History of Science. Episode 2: Beyond the Edge of the World.

Introduction

In 600 BC, Pythagoras was the first of the ancients to call the world round. In the centuries that followed, revered Greek writers including Plato and Aristotle all paid lip service to the idea, until in the second century AD the Alexandrian writer Ptolemy settled the issue once and for all. In his Almagest, he summarized all arguments made over the centuries for a spherical earth. The book would remain the standard on astronomy for the next 1400 years, and ensured that the spherical earth was known throughout medieval Europe.

Among the proofs that Ptolemy gave were theoretical and practical ones. To his more learned readers, he argued that every part of the earth’s surface tended towards the center, and so logically formed a perfectly round globe. Yet he also described how mountains seem to rise out of the sea to sailors on an approaching ship, indicating that they must have been hidden by the curved surface of the sea. And it were imaginative explanations like these that ensured that no fifteenth century sailor was afraid of falling of the edge of the world.

So Columbus’ voyage did not convince his supposedly bac...