“Medieval people thought the Earth was flat”

It is a common belief that people in the Middle (Review) Ages thought the Earth was flat, but this notion is a widespread historical inaccuracy. In truth, the concept of a spherical Earth was well-established among educated Europeans throughout the medieval period.

This understanding dates back to ancient Greek scholars. As early as the 5th century BC, Greek philosophers discussed a spherical Earth, and by the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes had not only theorized its round shape but also accurately calculated its circumference. This sophisticated knowledge was preserved through the Roman Empire and into the Middle Ages, with scholars and universities continuing to teach the Earth's sphericity. Even medieval texts, like the 8th-century work by the Venerable Bede, explicitly described a spherical Earth.

The misconception that medieval people believed in a flat Earth largely gained traction in the 19th century. Writers such as Washington Irving, in his romanticized 1828 biography of Christopher Columbus, portrayed Columbus as a lone visionary fighting against a prevailing belief in a flat world. This dramatic narrative, though fictional, served to highlight the supposed scientific backwardness of earlier eras and has unfortunately persisted in popular imagination and textbooks, creating an enduring myth that misrepresents the historical understanding of the time.