THE MEDIÆVAL RENASCENCE
It was, in fact, a desire to extend both commerce and Christian
religion into the far eastern lands which led to the rescue of
geographical study from the evil state into which it had fallen. The
Crusades form a group of incidents of no less geographical than of
historical importance. Apart from their religious significance, they
were undertaken with the object of discovering new routes by which the
wealth of the east could be brought into commercial exchange with that
of the west; and in connection with their religious significance they
gave rise to a period of Christian missionary endeavour in the east.
Both movements worked together to bring about the result of a discovery
of Asia, so far as Europe was concerned, only less novel and important
than the discovery of the New World by Columbus and his successors.
Of the many travellers whose records assisted in this discovery a few
may be mentioned as examples. The first whose journeys resulted in a
noteworthy addition to knowledge of the Mongol Empire was Joannes de
Plano Carpini, an Italian of Umbria, who led a catholic mission sent
in 1245 by Pope Innocent IV to the Mongols shortly after their great
invasion of eastern Europe. He was followed in 1253–55 by William of
Rubruquis, a Franciscan, who was sent to Tartary by King Louis IX, and
whose account is in many respects more valuable than that of Carpini.
We may turn aside here to remark that the great philosopher, Roger
Bacon (_c._ 1214–94), freely quoted Rubruquis in the geographical
section of his _Opus Majus_. This work, and that of Albertus Magnus
of Swabia (_c._ 1206–80), the student of Aristotle, exemplify the
revival of interest in geographical theory along lines not dictated by
Christian in opposition to pagan doctrines. Bacon revived Aristotle’s
opinions as to the spherical form of the earth. He held that the sea
did not cover three quarters of the globe, and that there must needs be
lands unknown, to the south, east, and west of the known world, from
which they must be separated only by narrow waters.
A traveller who followed new lines on the return of his expedition to
the east was Hayton, King of Lesser Armenia, in 1224–69, whose journey
was described by a member of his retinue. It led him (returning)
through the Urumtsi region and the Ili valley, the neighbourhood of the
modern Kulja and Aulie-ata, the Syr-darya valley, Samarkand, Bokhara,
Merv, and northern Persia. Next follows the greatest name among the
eastern travellers of this period, and one of the greatest among all;
that of the Venetian Marco Polo (_c._ 1254–1324). His father Nicolo
and his uncle Maffeo had travelled, before his birth, to China and
established friendly relations with Kublai Khan. That ruler sent them
back to Europe to ask the Pope to despatch a large embassy to his
court, for he was anxious to extend his relations with the western
world and his knowledge of western life. There was a long delay owing
to an interregnum in the papacy, nor were the brothers able to obtain
the large following the Khan had desired; but they started back to
China themselves in 1271, and Marco accompanied them. They proceeded
by way of Badakshan, the Pamirs, Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Lop-nor
(where they covered ground not again travelled by a European for five
centuries), and the desert of Gobi. Marco Polo rose in favour at the
court of the Khan. Among many activities he was employed on a mission
to the Indies, and no opportunity arose for him to return home until
1292. He was then sent to accompany a Persian embassy on its return
journey by sea, by way of Sumatra and India. The journey entailed long
delays, and Marco only reached Venice in 1295. He subsequently dictated
his experiences while a captive in Genoa, having been taken prisoner
in a naval encounter between Genoa and Venice at Curzola in 1298. They
were taken down by a fellow-captive of literary ability, Rusticiano of
Pisa. His geographical achievements have been thus summarized[4]:--
[4] Yule and Beazley’s article on “Polo” in _Ency. Brit._ (11th
ed.), vol. xxii.
Polo was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole
longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom
which he had seen; the first to speak of the new and brilliant
court which had been established at Peking; the first to reveal
China in all its wealth and vastness, and to tell of the nations
on its borders; the first to tell more of Tibet than its name,
to speak of Burma, of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin-China, of Japan,
of Java, of Sumatra and other islands of the archipelago, of the
Nicobar and Andaman Islands, of Ceylon and its sacred peak, of
India but as a country seen and partially explored; the first
in mediæval times to give any distinct account of the secluded
Christian empire of Abyssinia, and of the semi-Christian island of
Sokotra, and to speak, however dimly, of Zanzibar, and of the vast
and distant Madagascar; while he carries us also to the remotely
opposite region of Siberia and the Arctic shores, to speak of
dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses.
Among Polo’s successors were John of Montecorvino (_c._ 1247–1328),
a Franciscan, who became Archbishop of Peking, and wrote the first
valuable account of the Coromandel coast of India about 1291; and
Jordanus, a French Dominican, who, having carried Catholicism into
India about 1320, improved even upon Polo’s account of the general
geography, climate, and products of the peninsula. Another Franciscan
who was also a skilled observer both in China and India was Odoric of
Pordenone (_c._ 1236–81).
It may be worth recalling the difficulties which stood in the way of
immediately making use of the work of travellers and students at this
period. Printing was not to come into use in Europe for a century yet.
Scribes, no doubt, tended to pay most attention to works of the most
popular sort, and it is, therefore, no matter for wonder if the works
of conscientious travellers, such as we have been describing, did
not obtain anything like a wide circulation within a short period of
their production. On the other hand, a work which did obtain very wide
favour, judged by the standard of the time, was that much-discussed
account of wholly, or very largely, imaginary experiences and wonders
which appeared first in French about 1357–71 under the name of Jean de
Mandeville, or, in the more familiar English form, Sir John Mandeville.
This is an account in the nature of a parody of the work of Odoric
and other eastern travellers, in the sense that the writer took their
facts and substituted or superimposed his own fictions. It is a matter
for discussion how far his work was based, if it were based at all, on
independent travel and research; yet it contains something of interest
to students of the history of geography, if only as an opportunity for
the exercise of their imagination--as, for example, when the writer
tells a story of a man who started forth from his home and travelled
always eastward, until at last he reached it again, thus encircling
the globe. The difficulties in the way of disseminating knowledge will
similarly account for the fact that, although the great Arab traveller
Ibn Batuta has his place in this period, he in no way affected European
geographical study. He was a native of Tangier (1304–78), who occupied
thirty years of his life in travel, covering extraordinary distances in
west, south, and east Asia, and in Africa, and wrote valuable accounts.
Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Persia, the
territories north of the Black Sea and the Caspian, were all well known
to this wanderer, who also sailed through the Red Sea and along the
East African coast, visited many parts of India, the Maldive Islands,
Ceylon, Sumatra, and China, and closed his career as a traveller with
journeys through Spain and across the Sahara to Timbuktu. His journeys
are estimated to have amounted to more than 75,000 miles. Modern
criticism has proved the remarkable accuracy of his descriptions of
many lands and places; but they were unknown to contemporary Europe,
and, indeed, until the last century.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--The Hereford Map.]
It may be said that if a traveller’s results did immediately come to
be quoted as authoritative, it was in a measure accidental. We have
already mentioned the use of the results of Rubruquis by his brother
Franciscan, Roger Bacon; but Marco Polo’s results, for example,
do not appear to have had any influence on cartography for about
half-a-century. An excellent example of mediæval cartography, before
these results and others like them began to show their influence
on maps, is provided by the celebrated map preserved in Hereford
Cathedral, made about 1280 by Richard of Haldingham. Here is the world
still shown as a round disk, with little conception of the form of the
Mediterranean and its branch seas; while even the British Isles and
north-west Europe are strangely distorted to fit the circle. Such is an
illustration of the conception of the world still existing in western
Europe. Few maps of special areas survive from this period, but that
of Great Britain accompanying the work of the famous historical writer
Matthew Paris (1259) is an example. It reveals, on the whole, a better
idea of the internal features of the land than of its coasts and its
shape, which somewhat resembles a fool’s-cap. There are also local maps
of Palestine; and that country, it may be added here, is the subject of
the earliest extant Christian map, in the form of a mosaic on the floor
of a church in Madaba, in Syria: it dates from the sixth century. The
Crusades would naturally give rise to a demand for maps of Palestine,
and they also gave rise to a class of work which may be compared to the
modern guide-book.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Chart of the Mediterranean, 1500, by Juan de la
Cosa.]
But among maps of special regions the most notable are those known as
Portolano maps, which were sailing charts accompanying the Portolani,
or sailing directions for the Mediterranean Sea. These, no doubt,
existed long before the Crusades, in connection with which they first
come to our knowledge. They are in most respects remarkably accurate.
They are distinguished by groups of rhumb-lines radiating from a series
of centres, and marked usually with the initials of the names of the
principal winds. As the accuracy of these maps was probably improved
largely as the mariners’ compass came into use, it may be mentioned
that the first European notice of the use of that instrument is
provided by the English scientist Alexander Neckam (1157–1217) of St.
Albans, foster brother to King Richard I. From his mention it appears
by this time to have been a familiar object. The chief centres for
the production of Portolano maps were naturally those identified in
an important degree with over-sea commerce; such were Genoa, Venice,
Ancona, and Majorca, while the seamen of Catalonia were also prominent
at this period. These maps were in some cases extended to cover lands
and seas beyond the immediate Mediterranean area, and even the whole
world. World maps were usually circular with Jerusalem as a centre,
and, in contrast to their accuracy in respect of the Mediterranean,
they were not distinguished as a rule for much regard to the best
sources of information, though for that we have already adduced some
measure of excuse. The map of the world by Petrus Vesconte of Genoa
(_c._ 1320) shows the Mediterranean and the Black Seas well, the Nile
fairly, the Caspian indifferently, Scandinavia badly. A mountain range
extends west and east across almost the whole of northern Europe and
central Asia; rivers drain southward to the Black Sea from this; the
Indian Ocean appears as a gulf; the south-eastward extension of the
African coast is retained, and the peninsular form of India is not
realized. Subsequent cartographers disagreed on such points as this
last. Thus in a Florentine map of about 1350, called the Laurentian
or Medicean Portolano, the west coast of India is well shown, and the
influence of Marco Polo’s travels is to some degree apparent. This map,
moreover, has other details of interest, such as the first appearance
in any known map of the Azores and the islands of Madeira with their
modern names. The Catalan map of 1375 recognizes the peninsular form
of India for the first time, and Marco Polo’s results are shown to be
thoroughly appreciated; and yet a century later the old errors as to
the form of India and Ceylon persist even in a map so excellent in many
directions as that of Fra Mauro (1457).