Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/141

117 XVI. HIS APPLICATION AT THE COURT. 117 speculation at the close of the fifteenth century ; chapter when maritime adventure was daily disclosing the mysteries of the deep, and bringing to light new regions, that had hitherto existed only in fancy. A proof of this popular belief occurs in a curious pas- sage of the "Morgante Maggiore" of the Florentine poet Pulci, a man of letters, but not distinguished for scientific attainments beyond his day. ^"^ The passage is remarkable, independently of the cos- mographical knowledge it implies, for its allusion to phenomena in physical science, not established till more than a century later. The Devil, alluding to the vulgar superstition respecting the Pillars of Hercules, thus addresses his companion Rinaldo. " Know that this theory is false ; his bark The daring mariner shall urge far o'er The western wave, a smooth and level plain, Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. Man was in ancient days of grosser mould, And Hercules might blush to learn how far Beyond the limits he had vainly set, The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way. Men shall descry another hemisphere, weight which belongs to more se- dition and experience to the illus- rious suggestions, of similar im- tration of many interesting points port, in the writings of Aristotle connected with the discovery of and Strabo. The various allusions the New World, and the personal in the ancient classic writers to an history of Columbus, undiscovered world form the sab- i" It is probably the knowledge ject of an elaborate essay in the of this which has led some writers Memorias da Acad. Real das Scien- to impute part of his work to the cias de Lisboa, (torn. v. pp. 101- learned MarsilioFicino, and others, 112,) and are embodied, in much with still less charity and probabil- greater detail, in the first section ity, to refer the authorship of the of Humboldt's "Histoirede la Geo- whole to Politian. Comp. Tasso, graphic duNouveau Continent"; a Opere, (Venezia, 1735-42,) torn, work in which the author, with his x. p. 129, — and Crescimbeni, Is- usual acuteness, has successfully toria dellaVolgarPoesia, (Venezia, applied the vast stores of his eru- 1731,) torn. iii. pp. 273, 274.