Authors: Violaine Giacomotto-Charra (University of Bordeaux Montaigne) & Sylvie Nony (Paris Diderot University)
Publisher: Les Belles Lettres, 2021
It remains a commonplace to think that the Middle Ages believed in a flat earth, out of scientific ignorance as much as religious coercion. It would have been necessary to wait for the navigators, Columbus or Magellan, or for the modern astronomers, Copernicus or Galileo, for the darkness to dissipate and for the Earth to finally become round. However, from Greek antiquity to the European Renaissance, the idea that the Earth was flat was practically never defended and even less taught in the West.
The Flat Earth: Genealogy of a False Idea | La Terre plate : généalogie d’une idée fausse attempts to retrace the history of this false idea and to understand its genesis. In the first part, the authors suggest that we read with them the ancient sources, the Fathers of the Church, but also and above all the manuals and encyclopedias written throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and used for teaching in cathedral schools and then in universities, from the thirteenth century onwards. A second part is devoted to the study of the myth itself and questions its genealogy – its genesis and history – to shed light on the causes of its survival. Why, against all the evidence, do we continue to affirm that for the Middle Ages the Earth was flat?
Contents
Introduction
Première partie. Construction et diffusion d’une science de la sphère
Chapitre I. L’établissement des théories antiques
Chapitre II. La circulation des savoirs autour de la Méditerranée
Chapitre III. La sphère en Occident, du haut Moyen Âge à la fin de la Renaissance
Deuxième partie. Histoire et enjeux d’un mythe
Chapitre I. L’invention de la Terre plate
Chapitre II. Un mythe peut en cacher un autre
Chapitre III. Comprendre le succès du mythe
Chapitre IV. L’entretien du mythe du XIXe au XXe siècle : petit florilège
En guise de conclusion
Annexe
Bibliographie
Index des personnes citées
Source: https://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/9782251452234/la-terre-plate