Századok – 2010
TANULMÁNYOK - Csukovits Enikő: A földrajzi megismerés űtjai Európában (az ókortól a nagy földrajzi felfedezések megindulásáig)
A FÖLDRAJZI MEGISMERÉS ÚTJAI EURÓPÁBAN 299 read by many people: as many as some 150 manuscript copies have come down to us from the period preceding the invention of bookprinting. Even more popular was a presumably fictive story by Jehan de Mandeville, entitled Journey around the Earth. About 250 manuscript copies are known of this work prepared in the 14th century, and it was translated to several languages in that century. The author, apparently an Englishman, knew alongside India, Indonesia and China, also the Land of Priest John and even the Earthly Paradise. Humanism, based on a passionate curiosity for classical Antiquity, showed an acute interest in the acquisition of trustworthy geographical information right from the outset. They turned with a renewed interest towards the geographical works of Antiquity, but were also aware that the knowledge of ancient geography is not sufficient as a tool for grasping and describing the world. Thus was born textual critique, a turn to the sources of the Middle Ages, and of individual experience; the humanists began to produce maps and new works of geographical orientation. The 15th centuiy was already the period for summarising the geographical and historical knowledge accumulated thus far. One of the most famous treatises was Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, who in this work mainly based upon the classical authors maintained that India can also be reached from the west. Another widely used book was Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini's De Asia and De Europa , containing the general description of the Earth, as well as the most memorable events of his own age, and a description of the individual countries and of the peoples living there. These works were more than simply pleasure to read: in cases they could become the source of great historical deeds. The Imago Mundi was one of the favourite books of Christopher Colomb, but his library also contained the works of Mandeville and Marco Polo as well as the geography of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini.
