Ebook: Geography in the Middle Ages

With 20 plates.

While there have been many histories of geographical exploration, the history of geographical thought has still to be written. This volume is offered as a modest contribution to that study. It essays to follow the development of medieval earth-knowledge as it was affected, on the one hand, by the prevailing ideologies and, on the other, by the results of human enterprise. Much of the ground covered will be familiar to students, both of history and geography, for my aim has been to select representative men and writings to illustrate the theme rather than to catalogue all the available material, literary and cartographical. Further, few of the conclusions will strike the well-informed reader as novel, but I comfort myself with the knowledge, firstly, that they have not previously been made accessible within the compass of a single volume, and secondly, that the contribution of the Middle Ages to the advancement of geographical studies has still to be adequately appreciated.