Heaven and Earth in the Middle Ages: the physical world before Columbus

Abstract

Part 1 Christopher Columbus and his achievement. Part 2 The Earth as the protected centre of a finite universe and the Earth as the yolk in the cosmic egg: the spherical shape of the world the cosmos as an egg the structure of the universe from the four elements. Part 3 The shape of the Earth: Columbus and the spherical shape of the Earth the learned clerical tradition the astronomical handbooks of the High Middle Ages and the universities circumnavigating the Earth disc or sphere? the background to the concept of the disc-shaped Earth. Part 4 The fascination of the world Down Under - the fourth continent and the Antipodes: the three continents and the medieval maps of the world the fourth continent Terra Australis Incognita and the Antipodes. Part 5 To the ends of the Earth: the far-off East the hot South the bleak North excursus hope in the East the Indian kingdom of Prester John. Part 6 The journey to the centre of the Earth - Jerusalem as the hub of the world. Part 7 The fruits of original sin - monstrous races on the edges of the world known to man: the discoverers and the cannibals Alexander and the wonders of the East the Europeans and the monsters. Part 8 God's mysterious ways, or the hidden powers of nature - astro-meteorology in the Middle Ages: earth water air fire. Part 9 A new continent, a new Earth, a new world - from Columbus to Galileo: geography astronomy. Appendix: interpretation of a medieval world map based on the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral.