Flat Earth
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Dougweller
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/* India */ dl text about spherical earth, see talk page
{{otheruses}}
[[Image:T-O Mappa mundi z.jpg|thumb|270px|15th century adaptation of a [[T and O map]]. This kind of medieval [[mappa mundi]] illustrates only the reachable side of a [[spherical Earth|round Earth]], since it was thought that no one could cross a [[clime|torrid clime]] near the [[equator]] to the other half of the globe.]]
The idea of a '''flat Earth''' is that the surface of the [[Earth]] is [[flatness|flat]] (a [[plane (mathematics)|plane]]), rather than the view that it is a very close approximation of the [[spherical Earth|surface of a sphere]]. This was a common belief until the [[Classical Greece|Classical Greeks]] began to discuss the Earth's shape about the 4th century BC.
Regardless of the Earth's actual shape, local regions of its surface can be considered approximately flat for many purposes. The large-scale shape of the Earth is only relevant when considering large distances. Consequently, in antiquity only sailors, astronomers, philosophers, and theologians would have been concerned about the Earth's large-scale shape.
The modern belief that especially medieval [[Christianity]] believed in a flat earth has been referred to as [[Flat Earth mythology|''The Myth of the Flat Earth'']].<ref name="Jeffrey Russell">{{cite web | last = Russell | first = Jeffrey B. | url = http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/history/1997Russell.html | title = The Myth of the Flat Earth | publisher = American Scientific Affiliation | accessdate = 2007-03-14 }}</ref> In 1945, it was listed by the ''Historical Association'' (of Britain) as the second of 20 in a pamphlet on common errors in history.<ref name="historical association">{{cite book| author= Members of the Historical Association
| title= Common errors in history | publisher = P.S. King & Staples for the Historical Association | year= 1945 | location=London | others= General Series, G.1}}, pp.4–5. The Historical Association published a second list of 17 other common errors in 1947.</ref> Recent scholarship<ref>See sources quoted in this article, e.g. Klaus Anselm Vogel (1995), Jeffrey Burton Russell (1997), Reinhard Krüger (1998), also Edward Grant, David Lindberg, Daniel Woodward, and Robert S. Westman</ref> has argued that "with extraordinary [sic] few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat" and that the prevailing view was of a spherical earth.<ref name="Jeffrey Russell"/>
Jeffrey Russell states that the modern view that people of the [[Middle Ages]] believed that the Earth was flat is said to have entered the popular imagination in the 19th century, thanks largely to the publication of [[Washington Irving]]'s fantasy ''[[The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus]]'' in 1828.<ref name="Jeffrey Russell"/> Although these writers reject the idea of a flat earth, others such as the [[Flat Earth Society]] accept or promote the hypothesis.
==Validity and usefulness==
Regardless of whether the entire earth is flat or not, the surface of the Earth can be approximated as flat over small distances. Assuming the whole earth to be flat was actually a sophisticated insight by primitive people: they realized that all the local accidents of geography: hills, valleys, rivers, and so on, were merely unevennesses of a surface which was on average flat as far as they could go. When [[surveying]] and direction-finding we assume that the angles of a triangle add up to 180°, which is not true for a [[spherical geometry|triangle on the surface of a sphere]].<ref>http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/FlatWhyFlat.htm</ref>
== Antiquity ==
Belief in a flat Earth is found in mankind's oldest writings. In early [[Mesopotamian mythology|Mesopotamian thought]], the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early [[Greece|Greek]] maps such as those of [[Anaximander]] and [[Hecataeus of Miletus]].
Some theologians and biblical researchers maintain that at least some of the writers of the [[Old Testament]] books of the [[Bible]] had a [[Babylon]]ian world view, according to which Earth is flat<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06079b.htm Catholic Encyclopaedia]: "That the Hebrews entertained similar ideas appears from numerous biblical passages..." etc.</ref> and stands on pillars, and is covered by a solid sky-dome<ref>[http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=07549 Strong's (H)7549] "considered by Hebrews as solid and supporting 'waters' above"</ref><ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=807&letter=C#2736 Jewish Encyclopaedia]: "The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse."</ref> (the [[Firmament]]). The firmament was the heaven in which God set the [[sun]] ({{bibleverse||Psalm|19:5|HE}}) and the [[star]]s ({{bibleverse||Gen|1:14|HE}}).<ref name=browning>Browning, W.R.F. ''Dictionary of the Bible''. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)</ref> The flat earth concept appears to be mentioned in ({{bibleverse||Isaiah|40:22|HE}}) where it speaks of God "dwelling above the circle of earth" which means a literal circle, from the Hebrew word "chuwg". However in Isaiah 22:18, the word "duwr" is used to describe a ball. This would appear to be in conflict with the Babylonian world view. {{bibleverse||Job|26:7|HE}} states that God was "hanging the earth upon nothing" and the same verse also described the north (of the Earth) as hanging over nothing too. The non-canonical [[Book of Enoch]] presents a concept In which the Sun and Moon move in and out of the Firmament dome through a series of openings (reflecting the apparent movement of their rising and setting points throughout the year). This is explained in considerable detail in the following excerpt:{{Fact|date=June 2008}}
:"This is the first commandment of the luminaries: The sun is a luminary whose egress is an opening of heaven, which is (located) in the direction of the east, and whose ingress is (another) opening of heaven, (located) in the west. I saw six openings through which the sun rises and six openings through which it sets. The moon also rises and sets through the same openings, and they are guided by the stars; together with those whom they lead, they are six in the east and six in the west heaven. All of them (are arranged) one after another in a constant order. There are many windows (both) to the right and the left of these openings. First there goes out the great light whose name is the sun; its roundness is like the roundness of the sky; and it is totally filled with light and heat. The chariot in which it ascends is (driven by) the blowing wind. The sun sets in the sky (in the west) and returns by the northeast in order to go to the east; it is guided so that it shall reach the eastern gate and shine in the face of the sky" (1 Enoch 72:2-5).
===Classical Antiquity===
By [[Classical antiquity|classical times]] the idea that Earth was spherical began to take hold in [[Ancient Greece]]. [[Pythagoras]] in the 6th century BC, apparently on aesthetic grounds, held that all the [[Astronomical objects|celestial bodies]] were spherical. However, most Presocratic [[Pythagoreans]] considered the world to be flat.<ref name=Burch>{{cite journal | last = Burch | first = George Bosworth | title = The Counter-Earth | journal = Osirus | volume = 11 | publisher = Saint Catherines Press | year = 1954 | pages = 267–294 | doi = 10.1086/368583}}</ref> According to [[Aristotle]], [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic philosophers]], including [[Leucippus]] (c. 440 BC) and [[Democritus]] (c. 460-370 BC) believed in a flat earth.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Didier | last = De Fontaine | title = Flat worlds: Today and in antiquity | journal = Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana, special issue | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | pages = 257–62 | year = 2002 | url = http://www.mse.berkeley.edu/faculty/deFontaine/flatworlds.html | accessdate = 2007-08-03}}</ref> [[Anaximander]] believed the Earth to be a short cylinder with a flat, circular top which remained stable because it is the same distance from all things.<ref>[[Anaximander]]; {{citation | last = Fairbanks (editor and translator)| first = Arthur | title = Fragments and Commentary | journal = The Hanover Historical Texts Project | url = http://history.hanover.edu/texts/presoc/anaximan.htm }} (Plut., ''Strom.'' 2 ; ''Dox''. 579).</ref> It has been suggested that seafarers probably provided the first observational evidence that the Earth was not flat.<ref name=strabo>Hugh Thurston, ''Early Astronomy'', (New York: Springer-Verlag), p. 118. ISBN 0-387-94107-X.</ref>
Around 330 BC, [[Aristotle]] provided observational evidence for the spherical Earth,<ref>{{cite book | last = Lloyd | first = G.E.R. | authorlink = G. E. R. Lloyd | title = Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His Thought | publisher = Cambridge Univ. Press | year = 1968 | pages = 162-164}}</ref> noting that travelers going south see southern [[constellation]]s rise higher above the horizon. He argued that this was only possible if their horizon was at an angle to northerners' horizon and thus the Earth's surface could not be flat.<ref>Aristotle, ''De caelo'', 297b24-31</ref> He also noted that the border of the shadow of Earth on the [[Moon]] during the partial phase of a [[lunar eclipse]] is always circular, no matter how high the Moon is over the horizon. Only a sphere casts a circular shadow in every direction, whereas a circular disk casts an [[Ellipse|elliptical]] shadow in all directions apart from directly above and directly below.<ref>Aristotle, ''De caelo'', 297b31-298a10</ref> Writing around 10 BC, the Greek geographer [[Strabo]] cited various phenomena observed at sea as suggesting that the Earth was spherical. He observed that elevated lights or areas of land were visible to sailors at greater distances than those which were less elevated, and stated that the curvature of the sea was obviously responsible for this.<ref>{{cite book| title= The Geography of Strabo, in Eight Volumes
| author= Strabo
| others= Loeb Classical Library edition, translated by Horace Leonard Jones, A.M., Ph.D.
| year= 1960
| origyear= 1917
| location= London
| publisher= William Heinemann
}}, Vol.I Bk. I para. 20, pp.41, 43. An earlier edition is [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/1A*.html#1.20 available online].</ref> He also remarked that observers can see further when their eyes are elevated, and cited a line from the ''[[Odyssey]]''<ref>''Odyssey'', Bk. 5 393: "As he rose on the swell he looked eagerly ahead, and could see land quite near." [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler's]] translation is [http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.5.v.html#284 available online].</ref> as indicating that the poet [[Homer]] was already aware of this as early as the 7th or 8th century BC.
The Earth's [[circumference]] was first determined around 240 BC by [[Eratosthenes]]. Eratosthenes knew that in [[Aswan|Syene]], in [[Egypt]], the Sun was directly overhead at the summer [[solstice]], while he estimated that a shadow cast by the Sun at Alexandria was 1/50th of a circle. He estimated the distance from Syene to Alexandria as 5,000 [[stadia|stade]]s, and estimated the Earth's circumference was 250,000 stades and a degree was 700 stades (implying a circumference of 252,000 stades).<ref>{{cite book | first = Albert | last = Van Helden | title = Measuring the Universe: Cosmic Dimensions from Aristarchus to Halley | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 1985 | pages = 4-5 | isbn = 0-226-84882-5}}</ref> Eratosthenes used rough estimates and round numbers, but depending on the length of the [[stadia|stadion]], his result is within a margin of between 2% and 20% of the actual circumference, 40,008 kilometres. Note that Eratosthenes could only measure the circumference of the Earth by assuming that the distance to the Sun is so great that the rays of [[sunlight]] are essentially [[parallel]]. A similar measurement, reported in a Chinese mathematical treatise, the ''Zhoubi suanjing'' (1st c. BC), was used to measure the distance to the Sun– albeit by assuming that the Earth was flat.<ref>{{cite book | first = G. E. R. | last = Lloyd | authorlink = G. E. R. Lloyd | title = Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations into Ancient Greek and Chinese Science| publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1996 | pages = 59-60}}</ref>
[[Lucretius]] (1st. c. BC) opposed the concept of a spherical Earth, because he considered the idea of [[antipodes]] absurd. But by the 1st century AD, [[Pliny the Elder]] was in a position to claim that everyone agrees on the spherical shape of Earth,<ref name = Pliny>[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', 2.64</ref> although there continued to be disputes regarding the nature of the antipodes, and how it is possible to keep the [[ocean]] in a curved shape. Pliny also considers the possibility of an imperfect sphere, "shaped like a [[pinecone]]".<ref name = Pliny/>
In the Second century the Alexandrian astronomer [[Ptolemy]] advanced many arguments for the sphericity of the Earth. Among them was the observation that when sailing towards [[mountain]]s, they seem to rise from the sea, indicating that they were hidden by the curved surface of the sea. He also gives separate arguments that the Earth is curved north-south and that it is curved east-west.<ref>{{cite book | last = Ptolemy | title = Almagest | pages = I.4}} as quoted in {{cite book | first = Edward | last = Grant | title = A Source Book in Medieval Science | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 1974 | pages = 63-4}}</ref> [[Ptolemy]] derived his maps from a curved globe and developed the system of [[latitude]], [[longitude]], and [[clime]]s. His writings remained the basis of European [[astronomy]] throughout the [[Middle Ages]], although [[Late Antiquity]] and the [[Early Middle Ages]] (ca. 3rd to 7th centuries) saw occasional arguments in favor of a flat Earth.
In late antiquity such widely read encyclopedists as [[Macrobius]] (4th c.) and [[Martianus Capella]] (5th c.) discussed the circumference of the sphere of the Earth, its central position in the universe, the difference of the [[season]]s in [[Northern hemisphere|northern]] and [[southern hemisphere]]s, and many other geographical details.<ref name = Macrobius>{{cite book | last = Macrobius | authorlink = Macrobius | title = Commentary on the ''Dream of Scipio, V.9-VI.7, XX. | pages = 18-24}}, translated in {{cite book | first = W. H. | last = Stahl | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 1952 | title = Martianus Capella, The ''Marriage of Philology and Mercury}}</ref> In his commentary on [[Cicero|Cicero's]] ''[[Dream of Scipio]]'', Macrobius described the Earth as a globe of insignificant size in comparison to the remainder of the cosmos.<ref name = Macrobius/>
===India===
{{see|Indian astronomy}}
From antiquity, a cosmological view prevailed in [[India]] that held the Earth to consist of four continents grouped around the central mountain [[Mount Meru (mythology)|Meru]] like the petals of a flower; surrounding these continents was the outer ocean. This view was elaborated in traditional [[Buddhist cosmology]], which depicts the world as a vast, flat oceanic disk (of the magnitude of a small planetary system), bounded by mountains, in which the continents are set as small islands.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} In the center of this disk is the immense Mount [[Sumeru]], the linchpin of the world, around which the stars, the Sun, and the Moon revolve; the change of day and night is caused by the occultation of the Sun by this mountain. This world is only one of an infinite number of similar worlds, which extend in all directions.{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
===China and the Far East===
{{see|Chinese astronomy}}
In [[ancient China]], the prevailing belief was that the earth was flat and square, while the Heavens were round,<ref name="needham volume 3 498">Needham, Volume 3, 498.</ref> an assumption which remained dominant until the introduction of European astronomy in the 17th century.<ref name ="Jean-Claude Martzloff 69">{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/ans/eastm/back/cs11/cs11-4-martzloff.pdf|title=Jean-Claude Martzloff, “Space and Time in Chinese Texts of Astronomy and of Mathematical Astronomy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, ''Chinese Science'' 11 (1993-94): 66-92 (69)|format=PDF}}</ref><ref>Christopher Cullen, “Joseph Needham on Chinese Astronomy”, ''Past and Present'', No. 87. (May, 1980), pp. 39-53 (42 & 49)</ref>
In the [[Han Dynasty]] (202 BC-220 AD) text of the ''Da Dai Li Ji'' (大戴禮記) (''Records of Ritual Matters by Dai Senior''), it quotes the earlier [[Zengzi|Zeng Shen]] (505 BC-436 BC) replying to a question of [[Shanchu Li]], admitting that it was hard to conceptualize the orthodox Chinese view of the four corners of the earth and how they could be properly covered.<ref name="needham volume 3 498"/> Earlier conjectures<ref name="needham volume 3 498"/> that [[Zhang Heng]] (78-139 AD) theorized that the universe was in the oval shape of a hen's egg, and the earth itself was like the curved yolk within, have been refuted by the English sinologist Cullen:
<blockquote>In a passage of [[Zhang Heng's]] cosmogony not translated by Needham, Chang himself says: "Heaven takes its body from the Yang, so it is round and in motion. Earth takes its body from the Yin, so it is flat and quiescent". The point of the egg analogy is simply to stress that the earth is completely enclosed by heaven, rather than merely covered from above as the kai t'ien describes. Chinese astronomers, many of them brilliant men by any standards, continued to think in flat-earth terms until the seventeenth century; this surprising fact might be the starting-point for a re-examination of the apparent facility with which the idea of a spherical earth found acceptance in fifth-century B.C. Greece.<ref>Christopher Cullen, “Joseph Needham on Chinese Astronomy”, ''Past and Present'', No. 87. (May, 1980), pp. 39-53 (42)</ref></blockquote>
In the 17th century, due to the influence of the [[Jesuits]], who held high positions as astronomers at the Chinese court, the idea of a spherical earth spread in Chinese. Thus, shortly after the collapse of the [[Ming Dynasty]], the ''Ge Chi Cao'' treatise of [[Xiong Ming-yu]] was written (1648 AD), and showed a printed picture of the earth as a spherical globe, with the text stating that "The Round Earth certainly has no Square Corners".<ref name="needham volume 3 499">Needham, Volume 3, 499.</ref> The text also pointed out that sailing ships could return to their port of origin after circumnavigating the waters of the earth.<ref name="needham volume 3 499"/> Xiong Ming-yu, in order to persuade the elite class of his time, harkened back to ideas of the Hun Tian theorists to defend his ideas, with the earth 'as round as a crossbow bullet' ('yuan ru dan wan').<ref name="needham volume 3 499"/>
The influence of the map is distinctly Western, as traditional maps of Chinese cartography held the graduation of the sphere at 365.25 degrees, while the Western graduation was of 360 degrees. Also of interest to note is on one side of the world, there is seen towering [[Chinese pagoda]]s, while on the opposite side (upside-down) there were European [[cathedral]]s.<ref name="needham volume 3 499"/> Western influence of [[geography|geographical]] knowledge was used by Xiong to enforce what he believed had already been argued by earlier Chinese astronomers. However, the French sinologist Jean-Claude Martzloff regards this as a retrospective interpretation:
<blockquote>European astronomy was so much judged worth consideration that numerous Chinese authors developed the idea that the Chinese of antiquity had anticipated most of the novelties presented by the missionaries as European discoveries, for example, the rotundity of the earth and the “heavenly spherical star carrier model.” Making skillful use of philology, these authors cleverly reinterpreted the greatest technical and literary works of Chinese antiquity. From this sprang a new science wholly dedicated to the demonstration of the Chinese origin of astronomy and more generally of all European science and technology.<ref name ="Jean-Claude Martzloff 69"> Jean-Claude Martzloff, “Space and Time in Chinese Texts of Astronomy and of Mathematical Astronomy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, ''Chinese Science'' 11 (1993-94): 66-92 (69)</ref></blockquote>
In a more recent work reviewing Needham's hypotheses, the English scholar Cullen emphasizes the point that there was actually no concept of a round earth in ancient Chinese astronomy:
<blockquote>A century later Chiang Chi attempted to meet the objection with a hypothesis of the curvilinear propagation of light along the celestial sphere. Here, if at all, we might have expected to find some reference to the sphericity of the earth, but, as already noted, Chinese astronomy shows no trace of this idea.<ref name ="Christopher Cullen">Christopher Cullen, “Joseph Needham on Chinese Astronomy”, ''Past and Present'', No. 87. (May, 1980), pp. 39-53 (49)</ref></blockquote>
==Early Christian Church==
From [[Late Antiquity]], and from the beginnings of [[Christian theology]], knowledge of the sphericity of the Earth had become widespread.<ref>As depicted by the (spherical) [[globus cruciger]], on coins by [[Theodosius II]]</ref> There was some debate concerning the possibility of the inhabitants of the antipodes: people imagined as separated by an impassable torrid [[clime]] were difficult to reconcile with the Christian view of a unified human race descended from [[Adam and Eve|one couple]] and redeemed by a single Christ.
[[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] (354–430) argued against assuming people inhabited the antipodes:
<blockquote>But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. And, indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that the earth is suspended within the concavity of the sky, and that it has as much room on the one side of it as on the other: hence they say that the part which is beneath must also be inhabited. But they do not remark that, although it be supposed or scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical form, yet it does not follow that the other side of the earth is bare of water; nor even, though it be bare, does it immediately follow that it is peopled.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf102.iv.XVI.9.html ''De Civitate Dei'', Book XVI, Chapter 9 — ''Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes''], translated by [[Marcus Dods (theologian)|Rev. Marcus Dods]], D.D.; from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College</ref></blockquote>
Since these people would have to be descended from [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]], they would have had to travel to the other side of the Earth at some point; Augustine continues:
<blockquote>It is too absurd to say, that some men might have taken ship and traversed the whole wide ocean, and crossed from this side of the world to the other, and that thus even the inhabitants of that distant region are descended from that one first man.</blockquote>
Scholars of Augustine's work have traditionally assumed that he would have shared the common view of his educated contemporaries that the earth is spherical. That assumption has recently been challenged, however.<ref>''Cosmography'', in ''Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids MI, 1999, p.246</ref><ref>Leo Ferrari, ''Augustine's Cosmography, Augustinian Studies'', 27:2 (1996), 129-177. Ferrari undertook a detailed analysis of Augustine's references to the physical features of the universe and concluded that he viewed the earth as an essentially flat disc surrounded by a vast ocean.</ref>
Some authors and artists less prominent in the Church's history directly opposed the round Earth. After his conversion to Christianity, [[Lactantius]] (245–325) became a trenchant critic of all pagan philosophy. In Book III of ''The Divine Institutes''<ref>Lactantius, ''The Divine Institutes'', Book III [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-06.htm#P1049_466302], Chapter XXIV, ''THE ANTE-NICENE FATHERS'', Vol VII, ed. Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D., and James Donaldson, LL.D., American reprint of the Edinburgh edition (1979), W.B.Eerdmans Publishing Co.,Grand Rapids, MI, pp.94-95.</ref> he ridicules the notion that there could be inhabitants of the antipodes "whose footsteps are higher than their heads". After presenting some arguments which he claims advocates for a spherical heaven and earth had advanced to support their views, he writes:
[[Image:Cosmas Indicopleustes - Topographia Christiana 1.jpg|thumb|right|Cosmas Indicopleustes' world picture - flat earth in a Tabernacle.]]
<blockquote>
But if you inquire from those who defend these marvellous fictions, why all things do not fall into that lower part of the heaven, they reply that such is the nature of things, that heavy bodies are borne to the middle, and that they are all joined together towards the middle, as we see spokes in a wheel; but that the bodies which are light, as mist, smoke, and fire, are borne away from the middle, so as to seek the heaven. I am at a loss what to say respecting those who, when they have once erred, consistently persevere in their folly, and defend one vain thing by another; </blockquote>
In his ''Homilies Concerning the Statutes''<ref>St. John Chrysostom, ''Homilies Concerning the Statutes'', Homily IX [http://www.ccel.org/schaff/npnf109.xix.xi.html#xix.xi-p30], paras.7-8, in ''A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH'', Series I, Vol IX, ed. Philip Schaff, D.D.,LL.D., American reprint of the Edinburgh edition (1978), W.B.Eerdmans Publishing Co.,Grand Rapids, MI, pp.403-404.</ref> St.[[John Chrysostom]] (344–408) explicitly espoused the idea, based on his reading of Scripture, that the Earth floated on the waters gathered below the firmament, and [[Athanasius of Alexandria|St. Athanasius]] (c.293–373) expressed similar views in ''Against the Heathen'', though in context he is clearly speaking of the landmasses of the earth floating upon the ocean. As he supports the assumption in chapter 27 that the Sun revolves around the earth, this is unlikely to be support for a flat earth.<ref>St.Athanasius, ''Against the Heathen'', Ch.27 [http://www.ccel.org/schaff/npnf204.vi.ii.i.xxvii.html], Ch 36 [http://www.ccel.org/schaff/npnf204.vi.ii.iii.ii.html], in ''A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH'', Series II, Vol IV, ed. Philip Schaff, D.D.,LL.D., American reprint of the Edinburgh edition (1978), W.B.Eerdmans Publishing Co.,Grand Rapids, MI.</ref> [[Diodorus of Tarsus]] (d. 394) also argued for a flat Earth based on scriptures; however, Diodorus' opinion on the matter is known to us only by a criticism of it by [[Photius]].<ref>[[J. L. E. Dreyer]], ''A History of Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler''. (1906); unabridged republication as ''A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler'' (New York: Dover Publications, 1953).</ref> [[Severian, Bishop of Gabala|Severian]], Bishop of Gabala (d. 408), wrote: "The earth is flat and the sun does not pass under it in the night, but travels through the northern parts as if hidden by a wall".<ref>J.L.E. Dreyer, ''A History of Planetary Systems'', (1906)</ref> The Egyptian monk [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]] (547) in his ''Topographia Christiana'', where the Covenant Ark was meant to represent the whole universe, argued on theological grounds that the Earth was flat, a [[parallelogram]] enclosed by four oceans.
At least one early Christian writer, [[Basil of Caesarea]] (329–379), believed the matter to be theologically irrelevant.<ref>Saint Basil the Great, ''Hexaemeron'' 9 - HOMILY IX - "The creation of terrestrial animals", Holy Inocents Orthodox Church.[http://www.reu.org/public/basil/bas011.txt]</ref>
==In the Middle Ages ==
===Early Medieval Europe ===
[[Image:Macrobian Planetary Diagram.jpg|thumb|right|9th century Macrobian cosmic diagram showing the ''sphere of the Earth'' at the center, (''globus terrae'').]]
[[Image:Diagrammatic T-O world map - 12th century.jpg|thumb|12th century [[T and O map]] representing the inhabitated world as described by [[Isidore of Seville]] in his ''[[Etymologiae]]''. (chapter 14, ''de terra et partibus'').]]
[[Image:Hildegard von Bingen- 'Werk Gottes', 12. Jh..jpg|thumb|12th century depiction of a spherical earth with the four seasons (book "Liber Divinorum Operum" by [[Hildegard of Bingen]]).]]
With the end of Roman civilization, [[Western Europe]] entered the [[Middle Ages]] with great difficulties that affected the continent's intellectual production. Most scientific treatises of [[classical antiquity]] (in [[Greek language|Greek]]) were unavailable, leaving only simplified summaries and compilations. Still, the dominant textbooks of the Early Middle Ages supported the sphericity of the Earth. For example: many early medieval manuscripts of Macrobius include maps of the Earth, including the antipodes, [[mappa mundi#Zonal maps|zonal maps]] showing the Ptolemaic climates derived from the concept of a spherical Earth and a diagram showing the Earth (labeled as ''globus terrae'', the sphere of the Earth) at the center of the hierarchically ordered planetary spheres.<ref>B. Eastwood and G. Graßhoff, ''Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval Europe, ca. 800-1500'', ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', 94, 3 (Philadelphia, 2004), pp. 49-50.</ref> Further examples of such medieval diagrams can be found in medieval manuscripts of the [[Dream of Scipio#Gallery|Dream of Scipio]]. In the [[Carolingian Renaissance|Carolingian era]], scholars discussed Macrobius's view of the antipodes. One of them, the Irish monk [[Saint Dungal|Dungal]], asserted that the tropical gap between our habitable region and the other habitable region to the south was smaller than Macrobius had believed.<ref>Bruce S. Eastwood, ''Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance'', (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 62-3.</ref>
Europe's view of the shape of the Earth in [[Late Antiquity]] and the [[Early Middle Ages]] may be best expressed by the writings of early Christian scholars:
* [[Boethius]] (c. 480 – 524), who also wrote a theological treatise ''On the Trinity'', repeated the Macrobian model of the Earth as an insignificant point in the center of a spherical cosmos in his influential, and widely translated, ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]''.<ref>S. C. McCluskey, ''Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe'', (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1998), pp. 114, 123.</ref>
* [[Isidore of Seville|Bishop Isidore of Seville]] (560 – 636) taught in his widely read encyclopedia, the ''[[Etymologiae|Etymologies]],'' that the Earth was round. His meaning was ambiguous and some writers think he referred to a disc-shaped Earth; his other writings make it clear, however, that he considered the Earth to be globular.<ref>Isidore, ''Etymologiae'', XIV.ii.1[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/14.shtml]; Wesley M. Stevens, "The Figure of the Earth in Isidore's De natura rerum", ''Isis'', 71(1980): 268-277.</ref> He also admitted the possibility of people dwelling at the antipodes, considering them as legendary<ref>Isidore, ''Etymologiae'', XIV.v.17[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/14.shtml].</ref> and noting that there was no evidence for their existence.<ref>Isidore, ''Etymologiae'', IX.ii.133[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/isidore/9.shtml].</ref> Isidore's disc-shaped analogy continued to be used through the Middle Ages by authors clearly favouring a spherical Earth, e.g. the 9th century bishop [[Rabanus Maurus]] who compared the habitable part of the northern hemisphere ([[Aristotle]]'s northern temperate clime) with a wheel, imagined as a slice of the whole sphere.
* The monk [[Bede]] (c.672 – 735) wrote in his influential treatise on [[computus]], ''The Reckoning of Time'', that the Earth was round, explaining the unequal length of daylight from "the roundness of the Earth, for not without reason is it called 'the orb of the world' on the pages of Holy Scripture and of ordinary literature. It is, in fact, set like a sphere in the middle of the whole universe." (''[[De temporum ratione]]'', 32). The large number of surviving manuscripts of ''The Reckoning of Time'', copied to meet the [[Carolingian]] requirement that all priests should study the computus, indicates that many, if not most, priests were exposed to the idea of the sphericity of the Earth.<ref>Faith Wallis, trans., ''Bede: The Reckoning of Time'', (Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Pr., 2004), pp. lxxxv-lxxxix.</ref> [[Ælfric of Eynsham]] paraphrased Bede into [[Old English]], saying "Now the Earth's roundness and the Sun's orbit constitute the obstacle to the day's being equally long in every land."<ref>Ælfric of Eynsham, ''On the Seasons of the Year'', Peter Baker, trans. [http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/aelfric/detemp.html#ch06]</ref>
* [[Vergilius of Salzburg|Bishop Vergilius of Salzburg]] (c.700 – 784) is sometimes cited as having been persecuted for teaching "a perverse and sinful doctrine ... against God and his own soul" regarding the sphericity of the earth. [[Pope Zachary]] decided that "if it shall be clearly established that he professes belief in another world and other people existing beneath the earth, or in another sun and moon there, thou art to hold a council, and deprive him of his sacerdotal rank, and expel him from the church."<ref>''[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica|MGH]]'', Epistolae Selectae 1, 80, pp. 178-9.[http://www.dmgh.de/]; translation in M. L. W. Laistner, ''Thought and Letters in Western Europe: A.D. 500 to 900'', 2nd. ed., (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1955), pp. 184-5.</ref> The issue involved was not the sphericity of the Earth itself, but whether people living in the antipodes were not descended from Adam and hence were not in need of [[redemption (religion)|redemption]]. Vergilius succeeded in freeing himself from that charge; he later became a [[bishop]] and was [[canonised]] in the thirteenth century.<ref>Catholic Encyclopedia.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15353d.htm]</ref>
A non-literary but graphic indication that people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was a sphere, is the use of the '''orb''' ([[globus cruciger]]) in the regalia of many kingdoms and of the Holy Roman Empire. It is attested from the time of the Christian late-Roman emperor [[Theodosius II]] (423) throughout the Middle Ages; the ''Reichsapfel'' was used in 1191 at the coronation of [[Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor|emperor Henry VI]].
A recent study of medieval concepts of the sphericity of the Earth noted that "since the eighth century, no cosmographer worthy of note has called into question the sphericity of the Earth."<ref>Klaus Anselm Vogel, "''Sphaera terrae'' - das mittelalterliche Bild der Erde und die kosmographische Revolution," PhD dissertation Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 1995, p. 19.[http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/diss/2000/vogel/index.htm#inhalt]</ref> However, the work of these intellectuals may not have had significant influence on public opinion, and it is difficult to tell what the wider population may have thought of the shape of the Earth, if they considered the question at all.
=== Later Medieval Europe ===
[[Image:Sacrobosco-1550-B3r-detail01.jpg||thumb|left|Picture from a 1550 edition of ''[[De sphaera mundi|On the Sphere of the World]]'', the most influential [[astronomy]] textbook of the 13th century.]]
[[Image:Gossuin de Metz - L'image du monde - BNF Fr. 574 fo42 - miniature.jpg|thumb|Illustration of the [[spherical Earth]] in a 14th century copy of ''[[Gautier de Metz|L'Image du monde]]'' (ca. 1246).]]
[[Image:John Gower world Vox Clamantis.jpg|thumb|[[John Gower]] prepares to shoot the world, a sphere with compartments representing earth, air, and water (''[[Vox Clamantis]]'', around 1400).]]
Some historians consider that the early advocates of the flat Earth were influential (19th century view typified by [[Andrew Dickson White]]); others that they were relatively unimportant (typified by Religious Studies Scholar [[Jeffrey Burton Russell]] in the 1990s<ref name="Jeffrey Russell"/>) in the later Middle Ages.
By the 11th century [[Europe]] had learned of [[Islamic astronomy]]. The [[Renaissance of the 12th century]] from about 1070 started an intellectual revitalization of Europe with strong [[philosophical]] and [[scientific]] roots, and increased appetite for the study of nature. Abundant records suggest that by then Europeans generally believed that the Earth was spherical.
[[Hermannus Contractus]] (1013–1054) was among the earliest Christian scholars to estimate the circumference of Earth with [[Eratosthenes]]' method. [[Thomas Aquinas]] (1225–1274), the most important and widely taught theologian of the Middle Ages, believed in a spherical Earth; and he even took for granted his readers also knew the Earth is round.<ref>When Aquinas wrote his Summa, at the very beginning ([http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1001.htm#1 ''Summa Theologica'' Ia, q. 1, a. 1]; see also [http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2054.htm#2 ''Summa Theologica'' IIa Iae, q. 54, a. 2]), the idea of a round earth was the example used when he wanted to show that fields of science are distinguished by their methods rather than their subject matter... "''Sciences are distinguished by the different methods they use. For the astronomer and the physicist both may prove the same conclusion - that the earth, for instance, is round: the astronomer proves it by means of mathematics, but the physicist proves it by the nature of matter.'' [http://hsci.cas.ou.edu/exhibits/exhibit.php?exbgrp=-999&exbid=45&exbpg=12]"</ref> Lectures in the [[medieval universities]] commonly advanced evidence in favor of the idea that the Earth was a sphere.<ref>E. Grant, ''Planets. Stars, & Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos, 1200-1687'', (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1994), pp. 626-630.</ref> Also, "''[[De sphaera mundi|On the Sphere of the World]]''", the most influential [[astronomy]] textbook of the 13th century and required reading by students in all Western European universities, described the world as a sphere. Thomas Aquinas, in his [[Summa Theologica]], wrote, "The physicist proves the earth to be round by one means, the astronomer by another: for the latter proves this by means of mathematics, e.g. by the shapes of eclipses, or something of the sort; while the former proves it by means of physics, e.g. by the movement of heavy bodies towards the center, and so forth."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2054.htm#2|title=''Summa Theologica'' IIa Iae, q. 54, a. 2}}</ref>
The shape of the Earth was not only discussed in scholarly works written in [[Latin]]; it was also treated in works written in [[vernacular]] languages or dialects and intended for wider audiences. The Norwegian book [[Konungs Skuggsjá]], from around 1250, states clearly that the Earth is round - and that it is night on the other side of the Earth when it is daytime in Norway. The author also discusses the existence of antipodes - and he notes that they (if they exist) will see the Sun in the north of the middle of the day, and that they will have opposite seasons of the people living in the Northern Hemisphere.
Dante's [[Divine Comedy]], the last great work of [[literature]] of the Middle Ages, written in Italian, portrays Earth as a sphere, discussing implications such as the different stars visible in the [[southern hemisphere]], the altered position of the [[sun]], and the various [[timezone]]s of the Earth. Also, the Elucidarium of [[Honorius Augustodunensis]] (c. 1120), an important manual for the instruction of lesser clergy which was translated into [[Middle English]], [[Old French]], [[Middle High German]], [[Old Russian]], [[Middle Dutch]], [[Old Norse]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and several Italian dialects, explicitly refers to a spherical Earth. Likewise, the fact that [[Bertold von Regensburg]] (mid-13th century) used the spherical Earth as a [[sermon]]ic illustration shows that he could assume this knowledge among his congregation. The sermon was held in the vernacular German, and thus was not intended for a learned audience.
Reinhard Krüger, a professor for Romance literature at the University of Stuttgart (Germany), has discovered more than 100 medieval Latin and vernacular writers - 79 known by name - from the late antiquity to the 15th century who were all convinced that the earth was round like a ball:<ref>Reinhard Krüger, ''Materialien und Dokumente zur mittelalterlichen Erdkugeltheorie von der Spätantike bis zur Kolumbusfahrt (1492)'' [http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/lettres/krueger/forschungsvorhaben_erdkugeltheorie_biblio.html]</ref>
'''Authors between late antiquity and Columbus' voyage (1492) who argued for a spherical earth:'''<ref>Reinhard Krüger: [http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/lettres/krueger/forschungsvorhaben_arenosus.html ''Zur Archäologie des globalen Raumbewußtseins''])</ref>
* '''Kings and politicians'''
[[Brunetto Latini]], [[Sisebut|Visigoth king Sisebut]], [[Alfred the Great|King Alfred of the Anglo-Saxons]], [[Alfonso X of Castile]]
* '''Church fathers, popes, bishops, priests, members of religious orders'''
[[Basil of Caesarea]], [[Ambrose|Ambrose of Milan]], [[Aurelius Augustinus]], [[Paulus Orosius]], [[Jordanes]], [[Cassiodorus]], [[Isidore of Seville]], [[Beda Venerabilis]], [[Theodulf of Orléans]], [[Vergilius of Salzburg]], [[Dicuil|Irish monk Dicuil]], [[Rabanus Maurus]], [[Remigius of Auxerre]], [[Johannes Scotus Eriugena]], [[Leo of Naples]], [[Pope Sylvester II|Gerbert d’Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II)]], [[Notker Teutonicus|Notker the German of Sankt-Gallen]], [[Hermann of Reichenau|Hermann the lame]], [[Hildegard von Bingen]], [[Petrus Abaelardus]], [[Honorius Augustodunensis]], [[Gautier de Metz]], [[Adam of Bremen]], [[Albertus Magnus]], [[Thomas Aquinas]], [[Berthold of Regensburg]], [[Meister Eckhart]], [[Pius II|Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II)]]
* '''Theologians, philosophers and encyclopedists'''
[[Ampelius]], [[Chalcidius]], [[Macrobius]], [[Martianus Capella]], [[Boethius]], [[Guillaume de Conches]], [[Philippe de Thaon]], [[Muhammad al-Idrisi|Abu-Idrisi]], [[Bernardus Silvestris]], [[Petrus Comestor]], [[Thierry de Chartres]], [[Gautier de Châtillon]], [[Alexander Neckam]], [[Alain de Lille]], [[Averroes]], [[Moshe ben Maimon]], [[Lambert de Saint-Omer]], [[Gervasius of Tilbury]], [[Robert Grosseteste]], [[Johannes de Sacrobosco]], [[Thomas de Cantimpré]], [[Peire de Corbian]], [[Vincent de Beauvais]], [[Robertus Anglicus]], [[Juan Gil de Zámora]], [[Perot de Garbelei]], [[Roger Bacon]], [[Ristoro d'Arezzo]], [[Cecco d'Ascoli]], [[Fazio degli Uberti]], [[Levi ben Gershon]], [[Konrad of Megenberg]], [[Nicole Oresme]], [[Petrus Aliacensis]], [[Alfonso de la Torre]], [[Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli|Toscanelli]]
* '''Poets, travellers, printers, seafarers, merchants'''
[[Snorri Sturluson]], [[Marco Polo]], [[Dante Alighieri]], [[Brochard the German]], [[Jean de Meung]], [[Jehan de Mandeville|Jean de Mandeville]], [[Christine de Pizan]], [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], [[William Caxton]], [[Martin Behaim]], [[Christopher Columbus]]
[[Portugal|Portuguese]] exploration of [[Africa]] and [[Asia]], Columbus voyage to the Americas (1492) and finally [[Ferdinand Magellan]]'s circumnavigation of the earth (1519-21) provided the final, practical proofs for the global shape of the earth.
===Islamic World===
{{see|Islamic astronomy}}
Around 830 CE, Caliph [[al-Ma'mun]] commissioned a group of astronomers to measure the distance from Tadmur ([[Palmyra]]) to [[Ar Raqqah|al-Raqqah]], in modern Syria. They found the cities to be separated by one degree of latitude and the distance between them to be 66 2/3 miles and thus calculated the Earth's circumference to be 24,000 miles (about 38,600 km), a value which differs from modern estimates by about 3.6%.<ref>''Gharā'ib al-funūn wa-mulah al-`uyūn'' (The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes), 2.1 "On the mensuration of the Earth and its division into seven climes, as related by Ptolemy and others," (ff. 22b-23a)[http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/bookofcuriosities]</ref>
Many Muslim scholars declared a mutual agreement ([[Ijma]]) that celestial bodies are round, among them [[Ibn Hazm]] (d. 1069), [[Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi|Ibn al-Jawzi]] (d. 1200), and [[Ibn Taymiya]] (d. 1328).<ref name=earlymuslimconsensus>[http://thetruereligion.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=38 ''History, Science and Civilization: Early Muslim Consensus: The Earth is Round''].</ref> Ibn Taymiya said, "Celestial bodies are round—as it is the statement of astronomers and mathematicians—it is likewise the statement of the scholars of Islam". Abul-Hasan ibn al-Manaadi, [[Ibn Hazm|Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm]], and [[Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi]] have said that the Muslim scholars are in agreement that all celestial bodies are round. Ibn Taymiyah also remarked that Allah has said, "And He (Allah) it is Who created the night and the day, the sun and the moon. They float, each in a Falak." [[Ibn Abbas]] says, "A Falaka like that of a spinning wheel." The word 'Falak' (in the [[Arabic language]]) means "that which is round."<ref name=earlymuslimconsensus/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070312042239/http://arabic.islamicweb.com/Books/taimiya.asp?book=381&id=3003|title=Majmu'ul-Fatawa, Vol. 6, pp. 566}} (In Arabic.)</ref>
The Muslim scholars who held to the round earth theory used it in an impeccably Islamic manner, to calculate the distance and direction from any given point on the earth to [[Mecca|Makkah (Mecca)]]. This determined the [[Qibla]], or Muslim direction of prayer. Muslim mathematicians developed [[spherical trigonometry]] which was used in these calculations.<ref>David A. King, ''Astronomy in the Service of Islam'', (Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum), 1993.</ref> [[Ibn Khaldun]] (d. 1406), in his [[Muqaddimah]], also identified the world as spherical. The later belief of Muslim scholars, like [[Suyuti]] (d. 1505), that the earth is flat represents a deviation from this earlier opinion.<ref name=earlymuslimconsensus/>
==Modern times==
===Myth of the Flat Earth===
{{main|Myth of the Flat Earth}}
The common misconception that people before the [[age of exploration]] believed that Earth was flat entered the popular imagination after [[Washington Irving]]'s publication of ''The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus'' in 1828. This belief is even repeated in some widely read textbooks. Previous editions of [[Thomas A. Bailey|Thomas Bailey's]] ''[[The American Pageant]]'' stated that "The superstitious sailors [of Columbus' crew] ... grew increasingly mutinous...because they were fearful of sailing over the edge of the world"; however, no such historical account is known.<ref>James. W. Loewen, ''[[Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your History Textbook Got Wrong]]'', (Touchstone Books, 1996), p. 56</ref> <!-- Can someone confirm whether the 13th edition of The American Pageant (2006) still contains this sentence? --> Actually, sailors were probably among the first to know of the curvature of Earth from everyday observations, for example seeing how mountains vanish below the horizon on sailing far from shore.
[[Image:Flammarion.jpg|270px|thumb|left|The [[Flammarion woodcut]]. Flammarion's caption translates to "''A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet...''"]]
During the 19th century, the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] conception of a European "[[Dark Ages|Dark Age]]" gave much more prominence to the Flat Earth model than it ever possessed historically.
The widely circulated woodcut of a man poking his head through the firmament of a flat Earth to view the mechanics of the spheres, executed in the style of the 16th century cannot be traced to an earlier source than [[Camille Flammarion]]'s ''L'Atmosphère: Météorologie Populaire'' (Paris, 1888, p. 163).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/flatEarth/source.html|title=homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/flatEarth/source.html<!--INSERT TITLE-->}}</ref> The woodcut illustrates the statement in the text that a medieval missionary claimed that "he reached the horizon where the Earth and the heavens met", an anecdote that may be traced back to [[Voltaire]], but not to any known medieval source. In its original form, the woodcut included a decorative border that places it in the 19th century; in later publications, some claiming that the woodcut dated from the 16th century, the border was removed. According to anecdotal evidence Flammarion had commissioned the woodcut himself; certainly no source of the image earlier than Flammarion's book is known.
In ''Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians'', [[Jeffrey Burton Russell|Jeffrey Russell]] (professor of history at University of California, Santa Barbara) claims that the Flat Earth theory is a fable used to impugn pre-modern civilization, especially that of the Middle Ages in Europe. Today many scholars agree with Russell that the "medieval flat Earth" was an exaggeration of Medieval beliefs, which became popular in the nineteenth-century.
It should be noted, however, that [[Cyrano de Bergerac]] in chapter 5 of his ''The Other World The Societies and Governments of the Moon'' quotes St. Augustine as saying "that in his day and age the earth was as flat as a stove lid and that it floated on water like half of a sliced orange."<ref>[http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue29/cyrano5.html The Other World The Societies and Governments of the Moon], translated by Donald Webb</ref> [[Robert Burton (scholar)|Robert Burton]], in his ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]''<ref>Second Partition, Section 2, Member 3 "Air Rectified. With a Digression of the Air" [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-8.txt The Anatomy of Melancholy]</ref> wrote: "[[Vergilius of Salzburg|Virgil]], sometimes bishop of Saltburg (as Aventinus ''anno'' 745 relates) by [[Saint Boniface|Bonifacius]] bishop of Mentz was therefore called in question, because he held antipodes (which they made a doubt whether Christ died for) and so by that means took away the seat of hell,or so contracted it, that it could bear no proportion to heaven, and contradicted that opinion of Austin [=St. Augustine], Basil, Lactantius that held the earth round as a trencher (whom [[José de Acosta|Acosta]] and common experience more largely confute) but not as a ball;"
Thus, there is evidence that accusations of flatearthism, though somewhat whimsical (Burton ends his digression with a legitimate quotation of St. Augustine: "Better doubt of things concealed, than to contend about uncertainties, where Abraham's bosom is, and hell fire:"{{Fact|date=June 2008}}) were used to discredit opposing authorities several centuries before the 19th.
===Transvaal perspective===
In 1898 during his solo [[circumnavigation]] of the world [[Joshua Slocum]] encountered such a group in Durban. Three Boers, one of them a clergyman, presented Slocum with a pamphlet in which they set out to prove that the world was flat. [[Paul Kruger|President Kruger]] of the [[Transvaal]] Republic advanced the same view: "You don't mean ''round'' the world, it is impossible! You mean ''in'' the world. Impossible!"<ref>Joshua Slocum, ''Sailing Alone Around the World'', (New York: The Century Company, 1900), chaps. 17-18.[http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/js/saaw.htm]</ref>
===The Flat Earth Society===
{{main|Flat Earth Society}}
[[Image:Final-Frontier.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Final Frontier Voyager or Flat Earth Society, [[George Grie]]]]
The last known group of Flat Earth proponents, the [[Flat Earth Society]], kept the concept alive and at one time claimed a few thousand followers. The last president of the Society, [[Charles K. Johnson]], spent years examining the studies of flat and round earth theories and proposed evidence of a [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] against flat-earth: "The idea of a spinning globe is only a conspiracy of error that Moses, Columbus, and FDR all fought…" His article was published in the magazine ''[[Science Digest]]'', 1980. It goes on to state, "If it is a sphere, the surface of a large body of water must be curved. The Johnsons have checked the surfaces of Lake Tahoe and the Salton Sea (a shallow salt lake in southern California near the Mexican border) without detecting any curvature."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/fe-scidi.htm|title=www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/fe-scidi.htm|title=The Flat-out Truth|accessdate=2007-09-15}}</ref>
The Society declined in the 1990s following a fire at its headquarters in California and the death of Charles K. Johnson in 2001.<ref>Donad E. Simanek, ''The Flat Earth''.[http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/flat/flateart.htm]</ref>
===Other modern flat-earthers===
William Carpenter (1830-1896) published "A hundred proofs the Earth is not a Globe".<ref>William Carpenter, ''One hundred proofs that the earth is not a globe, (Baltimore: The author, 1885).[http://www.geocities.com/lclane2/hundreda.html]</ref> For example, he argues that "there are rivers that flow for hundreds of miles towards the level of the sea without falling more than a few feet — notably, [[the Nile]], which, in a thousand miles, falls but a foot. A level expanse of this extent is quite incompatible with the idea of the Earth's 'convexity'"; and that an aeronaut at the highest possible altitude will see what appears to be a concave surface "this being exactly what is to be expected of a surface that is truly level, since it is the nature of level surfaces to appear to rise to a level with the eye of the observer".
English scientist [[Samuel Rowbotham]] (1816-1885), writing under the pseudonym "Parallax," published results of many experiments which tested the curvatures of water over lakes. He also produced studies which purported to show the effects of ships disappearing below the horizon can be explained by the laws of perspective in relation to the human eye.<ref>Parallax (Samuel Birley Rowbotham), ''Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe'', Third edition, (London:Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.,1881).[http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/za32.htm]</ref>
===Ibn Baz controversy===<!--There were two longish bits about Ibn Baz in different parts of the article. I have moved them into one place (here) one after another, but haven't rewritten them. So this section could do with attention. pol098-->
One influential modern Muslim jurist has been said to have claimed that the earth is flat, and that anyone who denies this is an unbeliever. [[Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz]] (Ibn Baz), the [[Grand Mufti]] of [[Saudi Arabia]], was a traditionally educated cleric who suffered from [[blindness]]. In 1993, he is said to have issued a [[fatwa]], or religious ruling, declaring, "The Earth is flat. Whoever claims it is round is an atheist deserving of punishment."<ref>Youssef M. Ibrahim, "Muslim Edicts Take on New Force", ''New York Times'', February 12, 1995.</ref> While the edict reportedly caused embarrassment for many Saudis, Ibn Baz issued a statement maintaining that the earth was spherical but expansive enough to be flat<ref>[http://binbaz.org.sa/RecDisplay.asp?f=n-04-1407-0300007.htm Audio recording of Ibn Baz] - Binbaz.org. Translation provided below.</ref> and saying that he "only" denied [[Earth's rotation]].<ref> [http://thetruereligion.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=258]</ref><ref>[http://www.fatwa-online.com/fataawa/miscellaneous/miscellaneous/0040819.htm MISCELLANEOUS \ Miscellaneous \ Is the Earth round or flat?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Supporters of Ibn Baz said that the book in which the flat earth claim was supposed to have been laid out does not exist, and that the entire controversy was based on one interview with Egyptian journalists. They said that Ibn Baz, as he clarified later, was referring to the surface of earth that we walk on being flat although he believed the Earth to be spherical. In [[Arabic language|Arabic]], the same word is commonly used for both the earth as well as the ground. The journalist, having not paid attention to this distinction, misquoted Ibn Baz and created a story; the story was picked up by a [[Kuwait]]i magazine (''Assiyasah'') and from there spread around the world. Ibn Baz was an admirer and a scholar of the works of [[Ibn Taymiyyah]], who did not support the flat earth theory.<ref>
Shaykh Bin Baz on the Roundness of the Earth (with Sound) on the Shaykhs website
The audio is played automatically as the page is opened:
http://binbaz.org.sa/RecDisplay.asp?f=n-04-1407-0300007.htm
translated...
-The question and answer was translated by Aqeel Walker, a former translator for Darussalam Publications in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
Introduction: The following letter reached the program (broadcast program) from Kenya, sent by our brother, the student, Ibraheem Muhammad Al-Awwal. The brother says, "I heard the program Nurun 'alad-Darb (A Light upon the Path) and I benefited greatly from it. Therefore, I wanted to send these questions to you all because their topics are very perplexing to me. The first is: Is the earth round or flat?"
Shaikh Bin Baz: According to the people knowledge (scholars of Islaam) the earth is round, for indeed Ibn Hazim and a group of other scholars mentioned that there is a consensus (unanimous agreement, Ijmaa') among the people of knowledge that it is round. This means that all of it is connected together thus making the form of the entire planet like a ball. However, Allaah has spread out surface for us and He has placed firm mountains upon it and placed the animals and the seas upon it as a mercy for us. For this reason, Allaah said: "And (do they not look) at the Earth, how it was made FLAT (Sutihat)." [Al-Ghaashiyyah (88):20]
Therefore, it (the Earth) has been made flat for us in regards to its surface, so that people can live on it and so that people can be comfortable upon it. The fact that it is round does not prevent that its surface has been made flat. This is because something that is round and very large, if it is made flat (its surface), then its surface will become very vast or broad (i.e. having a flat appearance). Yes."</ref>
==Cultural references==
The notion of a flat Earth continues to be referred to in a wide range of contexts.
An early mention in literature was [[Ludvig Holberg]]'s comedy ''Erasmus Montanus'' (1723). Erasmus Montanus meets considerable opposition when he claims the Earth is round, since all the peasants hold it to be flat. He is not allowed to marry his fiancée until he cries "The earth is flat as a pancake". In [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat'', the protagonists spread the rumor that a Parish Council meeting had voted in favor of a flat Earth.
[[Fantasy fiction]] is particularly rich in references to the flat Earth. In [[C. S. Lewis]]' ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' the fictional world of [[Narnia (world)|Narnia]] is "round like a table" (i.e., flat), not "round like a ball", and the characters sail toward the edge of this world. [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Strata (novel)|Strata]] and [[Discworld]] novels (1983 onwards) are set on a flat, [[Discworld (world)|disc-shaped world]] resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle.
==See also==
*[[Bedford Level experiment]]
*[[Myth of the Flat Earth]]
*[[Hollow earth]]
*[[Scientific mythology]]
*[[Skepticism]]
*[[T and O map]]
==Further reading==
* [[Raymond Fraser]] (2007). ''When The Earth Was Flat: Remembering Leonard Cohen, Alden Nowlan, the Flat Earth Society, the King James monarchy hoax, the Montreal Story Tellers and other curious matters.'' Black Moss Press, ISBN 978-0-88753-439-3
==Notes and references==
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{{reflist|3}}
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Earth]]
[[Category:Astronomical myths]]
[[de:Flache Erde]]
[[es:Tierra plana]]
[[eo:Plata Tero]]
[[it:Terra piatta]]
[[nl:Platte Aarde]]
[[ja:地球平面説]]
[[no:Flat jord]]
[[pt:Terra plana]]
[[fi:Litteä maa]]
[[sv:Platt jord]]
[[tr:Düz Dünya]]
[[zh:地平說]]