Michael Baizerman Author

Image: At the foothills of Pico del Teide Courtesy:  https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/attractions/pico-del-teide/a/poi-sig/444919/360727 I am hopeful you are well and sound. My best advice for those who must spend a lot of time time in isolation is to engage in your favorite activities. In my case, it is research in matters that interest me. As you know, I have launched new research, which focuses on the European discovery of the maritime route to the Indies. I am working on Part I of the study titled " The Little Age of Discovery: The Conquest of the Western Sea". Here I tell the story of the European ventures in the eastern Atlantic throughout the fourteenth century.  The first two chapters are complete. Chapter 1,  How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea, based on the report of Herodotus, defies the idea that Africa had been circumnavigated in antiquity. It  also corrects the impression that Columbus was a lone wolf  obsessed with a crazy idea to f...

I decided to upload my fresh research from the third project: the European quest for the maritime route to India in the XVth century. See my site  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael/Papers The article is titled "How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea".  Herodotus recorded several naval accounts:  however, are they trustworthy and, if positive, to what extent? The Phoenician ship replica attests to the seaworthiness of their vessels rather than to the details of the epic 2700-year-old voyage across Africa. For most intellectuals of the European Middle Ages, the ocean was a dangerous place. Only toward the close of the fifteenth century, some mapmakers endeavored to visualize the 'latitudinal' route connecting the remote West with the Far East. Columbus was a diehard prisoner of his ambition; he could not help manipulating his figures and engaged in wishful thinking to make his dream come true. The research includes two parts: the first one reviews the ...

Courtesy: John Carlton  https://www.quora.com/Why-don%E2%80%99t-modern-civilian-cargo-ships-also-use-sails-in-addition-to-engine-power-to-reduce-fuel-consumption   I am remodeling my old article titled "How Wide Spans the Ocean Sea".  It consists of two parts. The first section covers maritime explorations carried out during the VI and V centuries BCE; it was so vividly described by Herodotus. We refer to the Phoenician expedition which is reported to have circumnavigated Africa, as well as the exploits of Sataspes, Scylax of Caryanda, and Hanno the Navigator.     The other segment collects the views of classical and medieval geographers concerning the prospect of crossing the Atlantic Ocean that was believed to separate Spain (or, in another version, Marocco) from China and Japan.  These scholars discuss such issues as the existence of a landmass in between or an unbroken expanse of the deep blue. Among them, we find Aristotle, Eratosthe...

I downloaded another chapter from the second book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East", on my site  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael    The extract tells about the location of Jerusalem on the European medieval mind maps.  Jerusalem on the Madaba Map  Courtesy:  http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/06/16/stunning-madaba-map-oldest-known-mosaic-built-of-two-million-stone-cubes/   Throughout the late Middle Ages, Jerusalem functioned as the center of the inhabited world on contemporary 'world maps'. The article discloses various aspects of this spiritual vision which only intensifies after the crusaders' exile from the Holy Land.  Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade. Saewulf and San Severino were the pilgrims who visited the Holy Land in the 12th and 15th centuries. They both shared the vision of Jerusalem as the navel of the world.  Sir John Mandeville is a fictitious author of a 14th-century t...

Hopefully, you are perfectly aware of it. However, back in time scholars would come up with educative guesses about the Earth's circumference. This is the story of various evaluations. I made an effort to convert ancient measures into modern ones to show you the margin of deviation. To do this, I blend all the known samples of these measures into a 'consensus value', which is the average meaning. I refer to the stadium, Arab mile, and Roman mile. I mention Eratosthenes, Posidonius, Pierre d'Ailly, Ahmad Al-Farghani, and Christopher Columbus.  You can read this story here  https://independent.academia.edu/BaizermanMichael This is the second chapter of my book, "The Enchanting Encounter with the East". You can also view chapter 1: What If the Earth is the Sphere. My website gets attention from people around the world with more than 250 hits. I intend to continue uploading other parts of my second book. Meanwhile, I decided to review my first ...

Phoenician cargo ship  Courtesy: https://wikis.engrade.com/phoenicianships  My fourth chapter deals with the issue of the dimensions of the ocean and the perspectives of navigation in the Atlantic.  I describe the voyages of ancient explorers from Egypt to West Africa (Sataspes, Hanno the Navigator) and from India to East Africa (Scylax). I also recount the views on crossing the Atlantic expressed by philosophers (Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Posidonius, Strabo, Seneca, Pierre d'Ailly), mapmakers (Henricus Martellus, Martin Behaim), and navigators (Christopher Columbus).  The chapter is accompanied by the table, Estimation of the Breadth of the Ocean Sea. This is an extract which refers to the voyage across Africa carried out by Phoenician mariners in the time of Pharaoh Necho: The first expedition, commissioned by Pharaoh Necho, who reigned at the turn of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, set a task of exploring the confines of the Dark Conti...