'
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
-7
From the fourth century A.D. onwards, When civilizatiün
suffered '
at
the
hands
of
barbarian
inva-der‘s, «knowledge of the geography of the world received-a great—Set—
-
back.” Fantastic Suggestions were made as to the shape
of the world, and Isidore of Seville in the seventh century
.
originated the “wheel maps” in which the world was repre—
sented as being surrounded by a circleof =wa‘ter as was
thought in Homeric times (Fig. 2).
In addition the world
/5
/‘
çf’
_
_
_O
-
-
!
Mare Med/fern‘zheum
}
o/ _
_
'
.
FIG.
Map of Isidore of
.
'
was Cut up into three portions by waters connected With this
‘
circle of ocean, au eastern portion, Asia, and two, Western
portions, Europe in the north and Africa in the south.
For many years little advance was made save
for information
_
_
obtained by
the
north and voyages of the
Arabs in the east, and in the Ïteenth
maps "
—
"
'_O…f Ptolemy reappeared. But the knowledge of the oceas
.