56 MAPS AND THEIR MAKERS 



course with persons worthy of credence, who have seen 

 with their own eyes what is faithfully set out above." 



He also displays a critical spirit when he inserts in the far north- 

 east of Asia, near the enclosed tribes — ''I do not think it possible 

 for Alexander to have reached so far" — and expresses his 

 doubts about these mountains really being the Caspian range; 

 or when he writes "Note that the Columns of Hercules mean 

 naught else than the break in the mountains which enclose 

 the Strait of Gibilterra". 



He had not been able to arrive at an opinion on the size 

 of the globe: 



"Likewise I have found various opinions regarding this 

 circumference, but it is not possible to verify them. It is 

 said to be 22500 or 24000 miglia or more or less according to 

 various considerations and opinions, but they are not of 

 much authenticity, since they have not been tested." 



He had therefore no very accurate knowledge of what pro- 

 portion of the earth he was portraying in his map. By moving 

 its centre eastwards, however, he had made the relative longi- 

 tudinal extents of Europe and Asia approximately correct. 

 Putting the centre at Jerusalem had of course resulted in the 

 longitudinal extent of Asia being reduced in relation to that of 

 the Mediterranean: on his map he represents it as about twice 

 the length of that sea, which is fairly accurate for that latitude. 

 Having enlarged Asia in relation to Europe, our cosmo- 

 grapher has not put the additional space to \txy good use. 

 It is extremely difficult to comprehend his representation of 

 southern Asia. From the Persian Gulf eastwards, he appears 

 to have taken the Ptolemaic outline, but exaggerated the 

 principal gulfs and capes, and to this outline he has fitted the 

 contemporary nomenclature. The great Gulf of Cambay recalls 

 the similar feature of the fourteenth-century charts, with the 

 addition of the island of Diu, an important trading centre. It is 

 noticeable here that the order of the names from Gogo to 

 Tana is reversed, probably an error in compilation due to the 

 unusual orientation of the map. Beyond Tana, India is broken 



