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The Mythological Geography of California: Origins, Development, Confirmation and Disappearance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

W. Michael Mathes
W. Michael Mathes*
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
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Extract

Heir to Greek and Roman culture, the revelations of Holy Scripture and the great commentaries upon it written by Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and lesser theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages, the cultured European of the fifteenth century was content that the corpus of his knowledge was complete, and that within it was all that was necessary for a full understanding of the universe. Nevertheless, this satisfaction was greatly upset by the explorations of Christopher Columbus and his followers during the final decade of the century. The European discovery of extensive lands populated with theretofore unknown peoples, with a flora and fauna totally distinct from that of Europe, was, in all senses, a New World. In that this New World had not been incorporated into the extensive and well-defined knowledge of Western civilization, it was, therefore, open to any and all concepts conceivable to the imagination; everything was possible, even the very improbable.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , January 1989 , pp. 315 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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