Biographia Britannica literaria; or, biography of literary characters of Great Britain and Ireland. Anglo-Saxon period / arranged in chronological order.
- Thomas Wright
- Date:
- 1842
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Biographia Britannica literaria; or, biography of literary characters of Great Britain and Ireland. Anglo-Saxon period / arranged in chronological order. Source: Wellcome Collection.
102/582 page 90
![intended for recitation among the common people. In the latter of these dialogues, to the question “ how large is the sun?” the reply is, “ larger than the earth,” and this is deduced from the circumstance that it shines on all parts of the earth. ‘The spherical form of our planet was universally acknowledged, although it was erroneously placed in the centre of the system. An early Latin writer compares the universe to an egg, in which the earth is the yolk, with the sea surrounding it resembling the white of the egg, while the firmament, supposed to be inclosed in fire, is the shell.* It is doubtful, however, if it were not the most common impression that this round mass on which we live swam in the water, that the part we inhabit and know was a small portion of the surface which stood above the waves, and that the sun dived into the ocean each evening, and arose out of it on the following morn. 7. The ideas which the Anglo-Saxons held with regard to that portion of the earth, which was then believed to be alone habitable, were derived indirectly or immediately from the writings of the Ancients; and they were on the whole more correct than might be expected. Their maps were undoubtedly made after Roman models. A map of the tenth century, in the British Museum, accompanies the Periegesis of Priscian,t which, with the slight sketch given by Orosius, and the work of Solinus, were the chief autho- * Est ergo terra elementum in medio mundi positum, et ideo infimum. In omni enim spherico solum medium est infimum. Mundus nempe ad simili- tudinem ovi dispositus est. Namque terra est in medio ut meditullium in ovo; circa hanc est aqua, ut circa meditullium albumen ; circa aqua[m] est aer, ut pannid’es (sic) continens albumen ; extra vero est ignis cetera con- cludens, admodum teste ovi. MS. Burney, No. 216, fol. 99, r°. of the twelfth century. In an English poem of the thirteenth century, in MS. Harl. 2277, fol. 133, we have the following definition of the earth,— ‘‘ Urthe is amidde the see, a lute (little) bal and round.’’ + MS. Cotton. Tiber. B. v. fol. 58, v°.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33096740_0102.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
