The dreaded number at the end of the title will warn my regular readers that this is likely to be a continuing series of posts. I am provoked to it by two very recent discoveries by me of some utterly useless facts both of which intrigued and amused me. They will be of equal uselessness to you, unless you are a Trivial Pursuits fanatic, in which case I suggest that your social life requires attention!
Did you know ...
... that the ancient Romans, long before Copernicus, believed that the earth was round not flat? (1) An example, I suppose, of ideas being lost without trace, and then re-found.
Also, did you know ...
... that the word 'silhouette' originated from an 18th c. French minister of finance, Etienne de Silhouette, whose influence on affairs was, shall we say, as minimal as the word he gave rise to. (2)
I will throw in a third useless fact which I have known for some time but I am still surprised, when I ask the question at my military history talks, how few people know ...
... that the traditional Olympic sport of pentathlon was based on the skills required by a 19th c. military courier, that is, to fight his way out using sword and pistol, to ride his horse across country and when it is exhausted, to swim across a river (presumably clenching the dispatch in his teeth!) and finally, to run the last mile back to base.
Yes, you're quite right, you would not wish to sit next to me at a dinner party!
(1) Farewell Britannia by Simon Young
(2) 1759 by Frank McLynn
was it not Aristarchus, a Greek ,who not only believed the earth was spherical but that the earth went round the sun? However since this was contrary to all empirical contemporary evidence the idea did not catch on. Please correct me if my memory is at fault.
Posted by: F Jones | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 16:25
The roundness of the earth was the near-unanimous belief of medieval scholars, and of many mariners. The "flat earth" myth is essentially a 19th century libel against the Roman Catholic Church; a worthy target, of course, but an unworthy weapon. The origin of the scholars' belief is, as I understand it, The Greeks.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 17:08
I cannot correct you, Jones, for I do not know, but thanks for the info.
'DM', are you telling me that no-one ever believed in a flat earth except for a few loonies in the Flat Earth Society? I thought it was 'the consensus' ('pace', the Human Global Warmers) until Copernicus blew it away. How woeful is my ignorance!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 18:39
Of course people believed in a flat earth as It was what they could see. The evidence of their senses supported the idea just as the same evidence supported the idea that the earth was the centre of their known universe. Anything else was wildly improbable. Have a look at Arthur Koestler's "The Sleepwalkers" for a mythbreaking account of the rise of modern science. Its initial assertions depended more upon faith than fact. As for Copernicus he did not account for the observed phenomena any better than did Ptolemy and his system was almost as complicated. Real proof such as the observation of a shift in the position of the stars, the parallex, was not available until telescopes were sufficiently powerful , I believe in the eighteenth century.
Posted by: F Jones | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 19:09
"Of course people believed in a flat earth as It was what they could see." Not so. Try going to sea. Observe the order in which things vanish from sight:low stuff first, high stuff last, whichever direction you sail in. Consistent with a round earth, not a flat one.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 20:51
Gentlemen, let's not get at cross-purposes!
It's probably true that some sailors might have wondered, but my confusion concerns the common belief over time. I had always assumed that *everyone* believed the earth was flat, not least because of the long-held Ptolemaic idea of crystal spheres into which (presumably flat) pieces of matter were embedded and which glowed to give us what we called the stars and planets. Thus, it came as a slight shock to find out that the Romans did not believe the earth was flat. And yet, my scanty knowledge of the medieval led me to believe that the accepted view was that the earth was flat.
I have two books on the history of science and whilst both of them discuss in detail the Copernican revolution (no pun intended!), neither of them deal with the history of belief in a flat earth. I'm away next week, but on return I must try and dig a little deeper.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 17 June 2007 at 21:38
Any one with education knew the world was round. Aquinas in the 1200's used the the world is round as an example to illistrate a point, which would have useless if ti was not common and unchallanged information.
Posted by: Hank_F_M | Tuesday, 19 June 2007 at 02:29
Hank, better not read 'Dearieme's' comment under my "Away Days" post above!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 19 June 2007 at 10:43
How many people read Aquinas? Indeed how many could read? How many were mariners?
Posted by: F Jones | Monday, 25 June 2007 at 10:07
Please see new post above.
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 25 June 2007 at 11:42