Chapter Nine #4
“He was a Greek philosopher who lived more than two thousand years ago. He was the headmaster of a school and drew what many believe is the first accurate map of the known world. Unfortunately, one of his students, Anaximenes, thought his ideas wrong and put forth that the world was of a rectangular form, instead of round.”
Bonny, who had sat back down and was watching Nairne doodle in the dirt, had also been paying attention to what Conan was saying. “What does the world look like?”
“Round,” Conan answered. “Maybe like a potato, but it is definitely not flat.”
“But how do you know?” Bonny pressed, skepticism lining her voice.
“I’ve seen proof.” He knelt down and found a large, mostly round rock and handed it to Bonny. “Now hold it out from you. Do you see the edge of the rock and how it curves?” She nodded, “Well, the world does the same thing.”
“It does?” Mhàiri asked, holding out a rock for herself, mimicking what Conan was showing Bonny.
“Aye. If you ever get a chance to go to the sea, look out at the horizon, and right where the water’s edge meets the sky, you will see a line just like you do with the rock.
If the world was flat, the line would be straight.
But it’s not. It bends,” Conan explained.
He stood back up and went to stand next to Mhàiri.
“Now, some think that the bend means the world is just shaped like a flat disk, but Aristotle ended that argument not long after Anaximander.”
Mhàiri frowned. She took a few steps and threw her rock, silently impressed with how far it went. She then swiped her hands together to get the dirt off. “I’m not sure how math proves the world is round.”
“He didn’t just use math, but logic. The lunar eclipse, for example.”
“Aye, but that is the moon.”
“Then what about the stars?” Conan reached down and picked up the rock that Bonny had discarded and gave it to Mhàiri.
He then picked up a small pebble and held it high above the rock.
“Think about the stars when you travel. They are not in the same place.” He pointed to a place on the rock.
“Let’s say this is the world and you were standing here.
You look straight up and there are the stars.
” He wiggled the pebble. “But if you go to a different spot, when you look up, they would be in a different place. And if you go far enough”—he moved his finger to the other side—“you would not be able to see them at all, but new ones.” Mhàiri’s mouth parted with understanding.
“And that is why ships always seem to sink as they move away out of view.”
“Amazing,” Mhàiri said with heartfelt wonder.
Conan chucked the pebble and then took the rock from her palm, sending it far past the one Mhàiri had thrown earlier.
“And it is not only Aristotle who thinks the world is round. I haven’t read it, but a man named Elucidarius wrote a book that is supposed to have evidence that we live on a sphere.
And Johannes de Sac-robosco’s work was based on Ptolemy. ”
“Who’s Ptolemy?”
Conan began to walk to where he’d thrown the rocks.
Mhàiri grabbed one of the tartans, threw it across her shoulders, and fell in beside him.
“It’s his discoveries that are going to enable me to create the maps I want.
Because the world is round and drawings are flat, it is intrinsically very difficult to capture land accurately. ”
“That might be one of the reasons people stopped trying.”
“Aye,” Conan agreed, kicking one of the smaller stones farther away. “It is much easier to put Jerusalem in the middle of everything and place things randomly around it. But representing the world is possible.”
“Let me guess. Ptolemy.”
A grin lit up Conan’s face. “Aye. Ptolemy developed precise methods for identifying exactly where something is on the world. He came up with a coordinate system made up of latitudes and longitudes.” Using a stick, he drew a straight line.
“If you knew the coordinates . . .” He paused to draw a second line intersecting the first. “You could go to a specific spot anywhere in the world, even if you had never before been there.”
Mhàiri stared at the spot where the two lines met and then back up at Conan, her eyes wide with astonishment. “Is that really true?”
Conan nodded. “Ptolemy assigned coordinates to more than eight thousand locations and put them into a book, Geographia.”
“And you plan to do the same thing, but for Scotland.”
Conan bobbed his head again. “That is my dream.”
“I now see what you meant about drawings needing to have real value. If you really could create such maps, they would be very powerful pieces of information.”
“I was wrong to say that. The world also needs more beauty in it. Not everything has to have a tangible benefit.”
Mhàiri gasped. She stopped short and grabbed his forearm. “Did I hear you right?”
It took a second for him to comprehend Mhàiri’s question. With a smirk, he answered, “You heard me say I was wrong, not that I was sorry.”
Mhàiri shrugged as a smile tipped the corners of her mouth and grew from there. “I know. And I think hearing you admit you were wrong sounds sweeter than an apology.”
Conan chuckled. “You’ll never know.”
He stared down into her eyes, and Mhàiri’s body responded to his seductive gaze. She could feel herself start to sway closer and forced herself to step back. “Um, uh, how did you become so interested in maps?”
Conan stared at her with mixed feelings.
“Father Lanaghly, seeing that I’ve always been interested in books and learning, usually brought me with him when he went to visit other priests.
About nine or ten years ago, we went to one abbey where there was a visiting scholar from Italy who was similarly fascinated with the idea of capturing the world on paper.
He told me of the travels of Marco Polo and the faraway places to which he had been, and at that moment I knew what I wanted to do.
So I stayed there and learned everything he had to teach me about maps, their origin, and history.
Since then, I continued my studies, especially anything that was associated with Ptolemy and how to calculate coordinates. ”
They continued walking and talking, and Conan answered all her questions about how he intended to capture the various topography he might encounter. They were still debating certain difficulties when a strong breeze came up and Mhàiri began to rub her arms. “I think the wind is getting colder.”
Conan nodded and went to tell Bonny and Nairne to pack things up, that they were returning to the castle, but no one was in sight. “When did they leave?”
Mhàiri smiled. “Some time ago. Maegan was not in the mood for an outing in the first place. They said good-bye, but you were telling me about how Aristotle proved the world was round.”
Now that Mhàiri mentioned it, Conan did faintly recall Bonny saying something to him. Another gust of wind swept across them. “We should head in.”
Mhàiri nodded and tried to tuck wisps of her hair back. “I hope this breeze doesn’t mean rain is coming. I’ve never been to a bonfire, and I don’t want it to be canceled.”
Conan looked up and sniffed. “I detect no moisture, just the cold.” Mhàiri shivered, emphasizing his point. “Come on, let’s get you back to the castle and indoors.”
Mhàiri fell in beside him, her own long strides easily keeping up with his. Her mind was spinning on all that Conan had said, going back to even their first conversations on their ride from the priory. “I was wondering something about your maps.”
Conan was rubbing his hands together and blowing into them for warmth. “And that was?” he prompted.
“You mentioned that you wanted to include enough detail so that someone could use them to know what the land looked like at that very spot.”
“Aye, that is why I asked you to give me lessons.”
“But the map I saw in your chambers was of a large area. It would be impossible to capture the overall shape of the land, and include that level of detail.”
Conan sighed. “I know. I’m still trying to figure out a way to address that issue. Symbols might work, but I might just have to accept that I won’t be able to capture as much as I would like on a single sheet of vellum.”
“Have you ever considered including a symbol where you want to show more detail? That symbol could be related to a specific drawing. Then, if someone wanted to see more of that area, they could flip to a particular drawing. Then, the main map would not be cluttered with information some may not be interested in.”
Conan began to rub his hands together vigorously. Excitement coursed through him, for it was the perfect solution. “You know what this means.” He gave her his most dazzling smile. “I need more lessons.”
Mhàiri lifted her lashes and found herself looking up into laughing eyes. The happy glint in the bright blue pools was enough to make her racing heart to skip a beat. “We’ll begin again after Christmastide,” she promised.