| Ptolemaic astronomy prevailed among the educated classes. According to Ptolemy, the Earth was round. The problem was that there were all sorts of suppositions about what might be found at the antipodes. Some thought there was a maelstrom that would sink any ship. (Dante, in the previous century, thought that one would find Mount Purgatory). Some thought there were monsters. For someone educated, the question was one of navigability. Oh, and it was not just a guess, it was reasoned from the observation of the "moving horizon", which could only mean the Earth was curved, and the periodicity of the planets and stars, which clearly implied a globelike universe. Thus, it made sense that the Earth, in its center, should be round. Have you ever seen an Astrolabe, used for navigation? It shows the Ptolemaic conception of things, including the round Earth........ |
