> There is a work whose translation into English ... is called *The Two
> Cities by Otto, Bishop of Freising*. The subtitle is: "A Chronicle of
> Universal History to the Year 1146 A.D." According to the introduction,
> Otto was probably born between 1111 and 1115, and died in 1158.
> ...
> I conclude, at least provisionally, that there was disagreement in the
> 12th century A.D. about the flatness or sphericity of the earth, at
> least among some scholars.
I add
Roger Bacon, writing a century after Bishop Otto, well and truly espoused
a spherical earth in his Opus Majus (c 1266), eg p248 et seq of R Burke's
translation (1962) where he quotes "Alfraganus" (which Arabic writer was
he?) as giving a diameter of 6500 miles, & a circumference of 20 428 miles,
to the earth.
Bob Berghout
Bob Berghout, rfb@frey.newcastle.edu.au
Department of Mathematics, University of Newcastle 2308
Australia
Ph: (+61 2) 4921 5546 FAX: (+61 2) 4921 6898