762 GEOGRAPHICAL LATITUDE. 



such fundameDtal ideas it was not possible to bring into harmony the 

 work of Ptolemy, and we accordingly find other maps preferred ; ' 

 though it is but just to add that the Roman itineraries were more 

 practicable for travelling, and probably also more easily acquired than 

 those of Ptolemy. On the other hand, if we turn to the greatest 

 known geographical work of Christendom in the Middle Ages, that of 

 the unnamed geographer of Ravenna, written in the seventh century, 

 we find " no notion of geographical latitude.^ The French geog- 

 raphers of the twelfth century paid no regard to the relative position 

 of cities,^ and the English, even in the following century, gave their 

 entire attention to the itineraries.^ As navigation increased in activity 

 there came into popular use among the mariners the so-called compass 

 maps, which, disregarding projection, latitude, and longitude, were 

 based on observations of the compass, starting from one or more fixed 

 centers. These maps generally neglected the inland, but in course of 

 time came to picture very accurately the most frequently visited coast 

 lines. Lelewel (ii, IG, n. 32) maintains that this kind of map is very 

 ancient, that one in fact served as a model for the world-map of Era- 

 tosthenes, but he fails to mention his authority for the statement, 

 and the writer has not seen elsewhere the suggestion of such an 

 idea. Furthermore, as we have no evidence of the Greeks having 

 possessed the compass, how can they have drawn " compass maps," 

 whose foundation is not a general idea of direction in reference to 

 the equator and the poles, as was the case in Greek maps, but rather 

 of direction from given locai centers, if we may be allowed the expres- 

 sion? 



So we see that Christendom, as a whole, remained for centuries in 

 ignorance and neglect of the principles of geographical latitude, though 

 it had conquered the very region where in better days the theory had 

 been perfected and the practice greatly advanced. Preceding the dawn 

 of the Renaissance travelling became more common; the cultivation of 

 geography followed as a matter of course. Already in the thirteenth 

 century works on geography began to multiply,^' interest in the sub- 

 ject increased, and progress in knowledge of facts was made, though 

 but little in theory until the beginning of the fifteenth century, when 

 Ptolemy was translated into Latin,*' which act signalled the commence- 

 ment of a new era in the science. 



To understand how Grecian knowledge was preserved during this 

 period and handed on with additions to the later world, it will be 

 necessary to turn the attention for a moment to another field of activity. 

 The Arabs, converted to Mohammedanism, having made immense con- 

 quests in arms and established a great realm, turned a part of their 

 energy to intellectual pursuits. Having produced too little of their 



• Lelewel, Br. Ed., i., xix. * Lelewel, ii, 4. 



" Ibid.. I, 5. * Santarem, iii, Iv, Ivi. 



sSautarem, i, 188. eLelewel, Br. Ed., ii, 71. 



