Note 668 — Chapter VI · COSMOGONY, COSMOLOGY, AND COSMOGRAPHY

The text upon which this accusation is based is from Otia imper., 425II, 2, where Gervase says: “Nos tamen assignantes orbis divisionem distributioni filiorum Noë, a quibus summa totius orbis coepit partitio, orbem totius terrae Oceani limbo circumseptum et quadratura statuimus secundum Pauli Orosii sententiam, eiusque tres partes Asiam, Europam et Africam nominamus.” This was interpreted by Daunou (Discours, 1824, p. 120)—who was followed by Santarem (Essai, vol. i, 1848, p. 107), C. B. Jourdain (Infl. d’ Arist., 1861, pp. 19–20), and others—as implying that Gervase believed the earth to be square. On the other hand, Lecoy de La Marche rallied to the defense of Gervase (Connaiss. géogr., 1884, p. 208). He argued that the passage should be rendered thus: “Nous calculons, nous pensons, que le monde terrestre est entouré et encadré (quadratum) par une ceinture de mers” and that elsewhere Gervase asserts definitely that the earth is a sphere: “Forma eius (terrae) rotunda est ad modum pilae” (Otia imper., vol. i, p. 885). As a matter of fact Gervase was speaking of the universe and not of the earth when he made this comparison with a ball, and Lecoy de La Marche would have been more correct if he had inserted mundi after eius instead of terrae. It seems, nevertheless, that we are justified in rejecting the text first quoted as furnishing any sure evidence that Gervase believed the earth to be square, especially since he also adopted the old comparison of the universe to an egg (Otia imper., loc. cit.) with which it would have been difficult, though not impossible, to reconcile a theory of a square earth. Gervase, however, had an uncritical mind. His work was in large measure one of compilation from the writings of others, and it would not be surprising to find contradictory statements in it. Quite as contradictory passages on the same subject occur in Isidore and in most medieval writings of a similar encyclopedic character. See above, p. 54. Lecoy de La Marche, it would seem, tried to do the impossible when he attempted to show that Gervase had clear and consistent ideas of a scientific nature.

There is no question, however, but that belief in the sphericity of the earth was well grounded in the consciousness of many Western Europeans of the late twelfth century. Other evidence of this beside that already cited is furnished by the fact that in an ecstasy Alpis (or Alpäis) of Cudot, of the diocese of Sens, was said to have seen the entire world in the form of a globe, compact and united. The sun was larger than the earth; and the latter was suspended in the midst of the air like an egg surrounded by water on all sides (Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. ix, 1750, p. 155). This vision was much like those of Hildegard of Bingen; see above, p, 423, note 92.