Tuesday, April 09, 2013

No Educated Person in the Middle Ages Thought the Earth Was Flat

Except for Cosmas Indicopleustes.

Cosmas who, you ask? That's pretty much what they said back then, too. Except for the scholars who didn't ask because they knew he was a crank who managed to make several sea voyages to India without managing to notice the way ships go hull down on the horizon as the distance increases, and likewise how the heights on the coastline are hidden last as you sail away from them.

2 comments:

Steve Muhlberger said...

Cosmos was the equivalent of a Young Earth fundamentalist rejecting the whole body of inherited advanced knowledge because it was impure.

Steve Muhlberger said...

Cosmas!