Flat Earther Society and Dante

[Dustin Decker]

> On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 09:55:14 -0500, Brian Densmore
> <densmoreb at ctbsonline.com> wrote:
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Monty J. Harder
> > > The majority thought the earth was flat, until
> > > Columbus and Magellan proved them wrong.
> > BS! This is a legend (as in urban legend). Everyone
> > knew the Earth was round, especially sailors. This
> > story came about because of a fiction novel written
> > by I believe Dante. 

If one reads "The Divine Comedy" (The work by Dante Alighieri cited in this
post) you will find this is not true.  I do not know if Dante himself
provided illustrations, but the version I have clearly depicts the earth as
round in Canto II.  Through the story, Dante travels _through_ the earth by
was of Jerusalem to Purgatory, which is on the other side.  (Oh and all that
hell stuff in the center!)

Given the original text was written in Italian, and the illustrations in my
reference are in English, I expect they are merely a supplement provided by
the translators.  Hard to say... my source is the Carlyle-Wicksteed
Unabridged translation, Random House circa 1932.

So... it must have been another work of fiction.
D.