Michael Baizerman Author

  About three weeks ago, I uploaded a new version of my article "The Enigma of the Antipodes" for Discussions on academia.edu. This is the concluding chapter of Unit II of my manuscript, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". You may view this extract  https://www.academia.edu/40346434/The_Enigma_of_the_Antipodes as well as enjoy reading the rest of my 20 something papers that represent the three projects.  T he paper explores a strand of medieval geography concerning the Antipodes, the legendary fourth continent of the European Middle Ages. It plunges the readers into a scholastic debate, presenting opposite sides. The arguments become intense and controversial on the eve of the Age of Exploration. This is a famous mappamundi featuring the Sciapod, a fantastic one-legged creature living and breathing in the Antipodes.    Burgo de Osma Mappamundi Courtesy:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mappa_mundi_of_Burgo_de_Osma_Beatus#/media/File:B...

I have crossed a Rubicon meaning that my second book is complete.  It includes 29 chapters, to say nothing about summing-ups at the end of each of its 6 units.  The manuscript comprises over 90 K words,  hundreds of notes, and more than 30 images. 'The Enchanting Encounter with the East" tells a story of inter-cultural relations between Latin West and the Far East related from the European point of view. The scenario occurred in the Late Middle Ages when the actual dialog between the two opposite ends of the 'human planet' had become possible due to the opportunities of the Pax Mongolica. However, many European literati were still holding outdated views on the world beyond Islam and were fed by false rumors about the latest developments on the eastern rim of the known world. These legends are passed through generations until they eventually recede, giving up to the outlook based on personal experience of travelers and distinction between the sacred and the p...

The concept of the spherical earth adopted by the classical geography included the division of our planet into five climatic segments that were assessed in relation to their habitation. The academics ruled out three latitudinal belts on behalf of their brutal weather conditions. However, they reckoned that the two remaining zones in the northern and southern hemispheres enjoyed the temperate climate and were fit for accommodation, even though their inhabitants would shun one another, sending no vital signs. No ship could stand a chance of crossing the uncharted ocean throughout the whole span of history. Likewise, no person could survive passing through the magic “firewall”, which was hovering over the equator and burning everybody who would dare to approach its fiery confines. Each part of the humankind would linger in the blissful ignorance of its counterpart. In his poem “Hermes”, Eratosthenes carols this image, placing both human populations face to face and foot to foot: ...

"The fourteenth century saw the major breakthrough in the exploration of the ocean. During the fifty-year period, major archipelagos of the Central Atlantic were discovered and mapped. The Little Age of Discovery was unfolding..."  This is the promo fro my new article which I published at https://scriggler.com/DetailPost/Opinion/71178  I have decided to move a range of excerpts about maritime explorations to a font of materials for my third book. This makes them available for publication even though my work on the second book is going on.  I claim that the Age of Discovery had a "younger brother", a period starting with the tail end of the 13th century (the expedition of Vivaldi brothers to India) through the most part of the 14th century, when almost all islands in the Central Atlantic (the Canaries, the Madeiras, and the Azores) had been identified. I make use of the evidence from a series of portolan charts, from Angelino Dulceti to Abraham Cresque, a...