The library of original sources Book

Excerpt from The Library of Original Sources Modern times, though heralded by Guttenberg's invention of printing in 1438, and by the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the resulting diffusion of Greek scholars throughout western Europe, were actually ushered in by Columbus's discovery of the western hemisphere, Magellan's trip round the world, the Copernican theory, and the great revolution in religion. The discovery of Columbus in effect laid open a new world before the eyes of Europe as truly as if some one should now open up a route to Mars. Five years later Vasco da Gama found the way round the cape of Good Hope to India. In 1519 Magellan crossed the Pacific, and after his death his men completed the circumnavigation of the globe. This proved forever the hypothesis of the rotundity of the earth. These three expeditions, taken together, metamorphosed the geographical ideas of Europe, opened a vast field for effort, weakened the church fathers as scientific authorities, and broke the spell of self-complacent, all-knowing ignorance that had held Europe in its thrall. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1435. In his youth he was much interested in geographical studies, and he later made a number of voyages on the Mediterranean under his uncle and cousin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.