Abstract
MR. KIMBLE has made a valuable contribution to the history of geography in this volume. His title is somewhat misleading, for the last two chapters take us beyond the strict limit of the geography of the Middle Ages and introduce the great Age of Discovery. The author shows how, for example, Pontana blended traditions of Marco Polo with knowledge gained by the Portuguese in West Africa, and laid stress 011 the importance of a habitable land south of the equator. This idea may have influenced Columbus —as others have pointed out—to shape his course towards the south-west rather than due west.
Geography in the Middle Ages
By George H. T. Kimble. Pp. xi + 272 + 20 plates. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1938.) 15s. net.
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L. B., J. Geography in the Middle Ages. Nature 143, 875 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143875a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143875a0
