At 06:06 PM 7/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>The book should include that old warhorse ""Columbus and the Egg,"
>
> tom izbicki
>
Lynn White, Jr., did some work on flat-earth misconceptions of
medieval geography as well as on Columbus and the egg. These myths are most
widespread in the United States. Their main impetus came from Washington
Irving's biography of Columbus. His tales include the conference at
Salamanca where the monks argue for a flat earth (instead of opposing
Columbus, as they properly did, because he had chosen his geographical
sources tendentiously and had underestimated the circumference of the
globe). From Irving, the Columbus stories entered 19th century primers.
John Howe
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