Chapter VII: Part IV: The Discovery of the World and of Man

CHAPTER I.

JOURNEYS OF THE ITALIANS.

Columbus 286

Cosmographical purpose in travel 287

CHAPTER II.

NATURAL SCIENCE IN ITALY.

Empirical tendency of the nation 289

Dante and astronomy 290

Attitude of the Church towards natural science 290

Influence of Humanism 291

Botany and gardens 292

Zoology and collections of foreign animals 293

Human menagerie of Ippolito Medici 296

CHAPTER III.

THE DISCOVERY OF NATURAL BEAUTY.

Landscapes in the Middle Ages 299

Petrarch and his ascents of mountains 301

Uberti’s ‘Dittamondo’ 302

The Flemish school of painting 302

Æneas Sylvius and his descriptions 303

Nature in the poets and novelists 305