Fwd: Re: [asa] Flat Earth in earlier Christendom

>A handy example of explicity round earth views is Dante, who actually
>gave some thought as to how astronomical phenomena would appear in the
>southern hemisphere in the Divine Comedy.

I second the recommendation of Dante on this. I have been reading the
Divine Comedy in a book club. Dante has a detailed grasp of the
implications of Ptolomaic astronomy, which he employs throughout the
book, and you get nice summations of the early 14th century view of
the world as seen by a very sophisticated intellectual. I found it
particularly interesting that Dante saw the decadence and political
problems of his day as being largely caused by the pursuit of
political power by the Church. He seems to have been very much ahead
of his time in that regard.

Allen Mandelbaum's translation is wonderful poetry - very pleasant
reading. I highly recommend it.

Preston G.

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Received on Wed Nov 12 13:52:47 2008