A map made about seven hundred years later, and now
preserved in Hereford Cathedral, shows the earth as a circular disk with the
ocean surrounding it. In the extreme east—that is, at the top—lies Paradise,
Jerusalem occupies the center, and below it comes the Mediterranean, liberally
supplied with islands. The Black Sea appears as a narrow body of water, and
even the British Isles are strangely distorted to fit the circle. Such a map
could have been of little use to travelers; it simply satisfied a natural
curiosity about the wonders of the world.
OPENING UP OF ASIA
The crusades, more than anything else, first extended
geographical knowledge. As a religious movement they led to pilgrimages and
missions in Oriental lands. With the pilgrims and missionaries went hard-headed
traders, who brought back to Europe the wealth of the East. The result, by 1300
A.D., was to open up countries beyond the Euphrates which had remained sealed
to Europe for centuries. This discovery of the interior of Asia had only less
importance than that of the New World two centuries later.
