No one can look at the Arabic maps and their imitations in
mediaeval Christendom, whether conscious or unconscious (as in the
Spanish example of 1109), without despair. It is almost hopeless to try
and recognise in these anything of the shape, the proportions, or the
distribution of the parts of the world which are named, and which one
might almost fancy it was meant to represent at the time.
Place the map of 1459 by the side of the Hereford map of 1300 or of
Edrisi's scheme of 1130 (made at the Christian Court of Sicily), or in
fact beside any of the theoretical maps of the thousand years that had
gone to make the Italy and the Spain of Fra Mauro and Prince Henry, and
it will seem to be almost absurd to ask the question: Do these belong to
the same civilisation, in any kind of way? What would the higher
criticism answer, out of its infallible internal evidence tests? Of
course, these are quite different. The one is merely a collection of
the scratchings of savages, the other is the prototype of modern maps.
Yet the Christian world is answerable for both kinds; it had struggled
through ignorance and superstition and tradition into clearer light and
truer knowledge.
[Illustration: WESTERN SECTION OF THE MAPPE-MONDE OF FRA MAURO.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376