GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 279 



eight volumes. Masoudi deserves to l)e siii-iiained the 1'liny of the Must. A 

 great number of works on geography in the Arab literature of the Middle 

 Ages might be cited, the best known of which is that by Edrisi, a Spanish 

 Arab, who wrote his book at the court of Roger, King of Sicily, in 1154. It 

 was for this prince, a friend of letters and sciences, that Edrisi constructed an 

 armillurv sphere and a terrestial planisphere in silver. (See the chapter on 

 Occult Sciences.) 



The example of the Arabs was not without its influence upon the renais- 

 sance of geographical science in Europe, when the Crusades made a knowledge 

 of geography indispensable. First of all, it was necessary to study all the 

 routes leading to Jerusalem, to prepare itineraries and tract charts for the 



ig. 201. "How Alexander did battle with White Lious big as Bulls." Miniature from a 

 Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century (No. 11,040). In the Burgundy Library, Brussels. 



crusaders ; and in these new and unknown lands, into which eager multitudes 

 were about to penetrate, there was nothing to guide them save the untrust- 

 worthy descriptions of the ignorant pilgrims who from the fifth century 

 had undertaken the laborious task of visiting the holy places. This led to an 

 improved study of geography in the schools of the West ; and in the monas- 

 teries, each of which had its library, the monks set to work at copying the 

 writings of the early geographers, such as Strabo, Pausanias, and Polybius, 

 Pliny, Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Ethicus. These authors were expounded, 

 commentated, and compared with the less ancient and almost contemporary 

 writers. The famous Abbey of Monte Casino, in the kingdom of Naples, was at 

 that time one of the principal centres of geographical lore. Numerous pilgrims 



