The alliance of medieval geography with theology led to
curious results. Map makers, relying on a passage in the Old Testament, [2]
usually placed Jerusalem in the center of the world. A Scriptural reference to
the "four corners of the earth" [3] was sometimes thought to imply
the existence of a rectangular world. From classical sources came stories of
monstrous men, one-eyed, headless, or dog-headed, who were supposed to inhabit
remote regions. Equally monstrous animals, such as the unicorn and dragon,
kept them company. Sailors' "yarns" must have been responsible for
the belief that the ocean boiled at the equator and that in the Atlantic—the
"Sea of Darkness"—lurked serpents huge enough to sink ships. To the
real danger of travel by land and water people thus added imaginary terrors.
Many maps prepared in the Middle Ages sum up the
prevailing knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the world. One of the earliest
specimens that has come down to us was made in the sixth century, by Cosmas, an
Alexandrian monk. It exhibits the earth as a rectangle surrounded by an ocean
with four deep gulfs. Beyond this ocean lies another world, the seat of
Paradise and the place "where men dwelt before the Flood." The rivers
which flow from the lakes of Paradise are also shown. Figures holding trumpets
represent the four winds.
