A Source Book in Geography

Front Cover
George Kish
Harvard University Press, 1978 - 453 pages

This remarkable volume presents a panorama of geographical writings from Hesiod to Humboldt, from the beginnings of geographical thought in the Western world to the emergence of topical specialization. It includes a wealth of material from non-Western sources, particularly Moslem and Chinese, that has not been collected before.

The selections are arranged chronologically, and contain geographical theory, descriptions of terrestrial phenomena by early observers, and excerpts from major voyages of discovery. Some are obvious classics: Socrates on the nature of the Earth, Ezekiel's description of the commerce of Tyre, Columbus' first glimpse of the West Indies, Buffon on the history of the Earth, and Kant's geographical lectures. Yet more commonly, Mr. Kish provides a sense of the discovery with such finds as the ambassador's report to the Caliph of Baghdad on the lands and customs of the Norsemen, the study of the Tartar Empire by John of Monte Corvino, Archbishop of Peking, and Jefferson's private memo to Alexander von Humboldt seeking information on the American West.

Each section is highlighted by a brief but engagingly written introduction by the editor. Throughout, the unique cultural and professional perspective of George Kish is very much in evidence.

From inside the book

Contents

The Beginnings
1
Early Greek Geography
9
Anaxagoras on the shape of the earth eclipses and atmo
16
From the Geographical Writings of Plato and Aristotle
29
An Early Environmentalist
45
Greek Heliocentric Theory
51
Xenophon on western Asia
63
Megasthenes describes India
71
a Franciscan papal ambassador journeys to the Mongol court
257
William of Rubruck ambassador of the King of France on Mongolia
259
John of Monte Corvino first archbishop of Peking on the Nestorian Christians and the Tartar Empire
262
Pegolottis advice to merchants traveling to Asia
266
Nicolò Conti on India in the early 1400s
269
notes of an armchair geographer
271
Physical Geography in the Later Middle Ages
275
Roger Bacon on the shape of the universe and the size of the earth on the Nile and on China
278

Posidonius on the size of the earth and on zones
80
Ptolemy on the field of geography and on divisions of
105
31
111
Latin Encyclopedists
117
Varro on soils
127
a late Roman geographer
135
Landscape in Latin Prose and Poetry
143
Vergil on the Creation on zones of the earth and on winds
148
Horace describes the Italian landscape
150
Tacitus on Germany Britain and Judaea
152
Christian Geography
156
Bishop Eucherius on the holy places
159
The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes
161
an early Christian encyclopedia
163
the Venerable Bede on the situation of Britain and Ireland
167
From Dicuils De mensura orbis terrae
170
Ohtheres report on northernmost Europe
172
Geography in the Byzantine Empire
175
Constantine VII describes the great water road of Russia the trade routes of the Byzantine Empire and the city of Venice
177
The Norse Contribution
184
Adam of Bremen on the northern islands
187
Norse discoveries in North America
189
a medieval handbook on the northern lands
193
Moslem Geography
199
a geographers experiences in pursuit of knowledge
200
Ibn Haugal on the world of Islam and the lands beyond it
202
Ibn Hauqal on Spain the Byzantine lands and Sicily
205
AlMasudi on the earth and its inhabitable portion on Syria Egypt and Iraq
207
AlBiruni on the determination of longitude
211
AlBiruni reflects on the geography of earlier times
213
Ibn Khordadbeh describes Byzantium some trade routes and the divisions of the inhabitable world
216
AlMuqaddasi on Tiberias Iraq and Kairouan
218
Idrisi on the cities and countries of the Christian and Moslem worlds
220
AlDimashqi on the divisions of the world and on the stone called emery
223
his travels
225
Ibn Khaldun on geography
229
Revival of Geography in the West
236
John of Holywood Sacrobosco on the sphere
240
Enlarging Horizons by Travel
249
Marco Polo on Asia and its marvels
250
Albert the Great on the nature of places
283
Geographical Writings of the Age of Discovery
289
the state of the art in 1507
290
Zurara on the early Portuguese voyages to western Africa
293
Camoens poetic description of da Gamas voyage to India
297
Toscanelli on sailing westward to the Indies
305
Columbus describes the first glimpse of the West Indies
307
the formal report to Ferdinand and Isabella
311
Waldseemüller names the New World America
318
Pigafetta on the first circumnavigation of the earth
319
Roger Barlow first Englishman to sail to South America reports on the New World
323
From Hakluyts Voyages
327
William Bourne presents the basic rules of navigation to his fellow seamen
333
secret orders from the Admiralty and his description of New South Wales
341
German Geographers of the Sixteenth Century
348
Gemma Frisius describes a new method to determine longitude
349
Peter Apianus on Asia and America
350
From the Cosmography of Sebastian Münster
353
Josias Simler describes glaciers and avalanches
360
Leonhart Rauwolf on the lands peoples and plants of the Near East
361
The Seventeenth Century
364
Conrad Gessner contemplates the Alps
366
From the Geographia Generalis of Bernardus Varenius
370
Eighteenth Century Concepts of Geography
378
The Lapland journey of Linnaeus
382
Buaches Framework of the Earth
386
Polycarp Leyser on geography and history
388
Johann Michael Franz defines the state geographer
389
Johann Gottfried von Herder on the charm and necessity of the study of geography
390
Anton Friedrich Büsching on geography
391
Albrecht von Haller on the vertical zoning of vegetation
392
Humboldt on geognosy
403
From Humboldts Aspects of Nature
415
From Ritters introduction to general comparative
421
Robert Dickinson on Ritters main geographical concepts
428
FaHsien a Chinese Buddhist travels to the land of
436
Chau JuKua on Chinese overseas trade
444
Index
451
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