I know there are wackos nowadays who believe the Earth is flat (or at least claim to believe it). I also know that, despite modern folklore and Bugs Bunny cartoons, it was widely known that the Earth was spherical before Columbus sailed, and that the Greeks knew the circumference of the Earth fairly accurately. So, what’s the Straight Dope? Was there ever a time when the general populous really thought the Earth was flat, or has the flat Earth always been a wacko belief?
(I sent this in to Cecil, too, but I figure you guys might give a quicker response.)
Only people with a limited education have believed the earth was flat in the last 3000 years. Of course, that was most of them. Up until recently, only the very wealthy had any kind of formal education. The rest had no reason to think the earth was any shape in particular, having never really thought about it and having not bothered to take detailed astronomical observations or learn trigonometry.
And I assume we all know Columbus was wrong? His major contention was not that the Earth was round (which, as the OP states, was not disputed) but that the distance sailing west from Europe to Asia was about 3000 miles. The scholars of the day claimed it would be over 10000 miles. They were right; he was wrong. But he convinced the Queen and sailed west; finding land exactly where he said it would be, 3000 miles west of Spain.
Yeah, I realized I should have used “The Earth, She Issa Flat” to transliterate the Bugs Bunny cartoon (or, of course, used a more descriptive title). I deserved the pun
Well, I suspect that in most places, at most times, the general populace may have thought the Earth was flat.
The interesting, if probably unanswerable, question is when did this stop being the case, particularly in Western Europe? Some people knew the Earth was round, but how far down the educational scale did this percolate? The obvious sort of evidence that might answer this question - written texts - is exactly what’s lacking from this sector of the population.
One bit of evidence is that by 1599 the sphericity of the Earth had become a commonplace amongst Londoners. Why else should the Burbages have called their new(ish) theatre The Globe?
Arguably a different question. If one accepts Henry Burton Russell’s reconstruction of what happened, it’s only in the late 19th century that people begin to think that all pre-1493 Europeans believed that the Earth was flat. Only then can a flat Earth become an example of an utterly daft belief supposedly once common amongst even the educated. Otherwise it’d just an example of a folk belief. Something many people were possibly understandably wrong about.
Well, the Latin phrase for “the earth” is orbis terrarum, which means “sphere of land”. Given that Latin was the language for educated types even until the last century, I’m sure this would have an impact as well.
