I was recently reading an article about Saladin on Wikipedia, and found a picture of him holding the globus, albeit without the cross, traditionally a medieval European and Byzantine symbol of authority of Christ's dominion over the world through the rule of a king, emperor, etc.
I knew the ancient Greeks believed that the world was round, and almost accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth. So if medieval Europeans believed the world was flat, why the globus used to illustrate the world?
Turns out they believed the world was round through medieval times, and that the only mistaken belief was that the other side of the world was either entirely dominated by the ocean, or if there was land there, there were no men in that land because they wouldn't have been descended from Adam. Those who asserted there were were often charged with blasphemy.
Photos: Saladin, Justinian, Frederick Barbarossa, and the 12th century Imperial Orb of the Holy Roman Empire:
I knew the ancient Greeks believed that the world was round, and almost accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth. So if medieval Europeans believed the world was flat, why the globus used to illustrate the world?
Turns out they believed the world was round through medieval times, and that the only mistaken belief was that the other side of the world was either entirely dominated by the ocean, or if there was land there, there were no men in that land because they wouldn't have been descended from Adam. Those who asserted there were were often charged with blasphemy.
Photos: Saladin, Justinian, Frederick Barbarossa, and the 12th century Imperial Orb of the Holy Roman Empire:
Comment