The simplicity of having a flat world

Round celestial bodies and eclipses. Page of De sphaera mundi written by Johannes de Sacrobosco circa the year 1230.
Round celestial bodies and eclipses. Page of "De sphaera mundi" written by Johannes de Sacrobosco circa the year 1230.  

Before Copernicus we had De sphaera mundi or Textus de sphaera or De sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco - aka John of Holywood -, a text of the Middle Ages that carried Cecco d'Ascoli to his dead by fire after obsessing with spheres. 

An excerpt from Sacrobosco's text:

THE EARTH A SPHERE. -- That the earth, too, is round is shown thus. The signs and stars do not rise and set the same for all men everywhere but rise and set sooner for those in the east than for those in the west; and of this there is no other cause than the bulge of the earth. Moreover, celestial phenomena evidence that they rise sooner for Orientals than for westerners. For one and the same eclipse of the moon which appears to us in the first hour of the night appears to Orientals about the third hour of the night, which proves that they had night and sunset before we did, of which setting the bulge of the earth is the cause.

FURTHER PROOFS OF THIS. -- That the earth also has a bulge from north to south and vice versa is shown thus: To those living toward the north, certain stars are always visible, namely, those near the North Pole, while others which are near the South Pole are always concealed from them.

Now all is simpler: Earth is again flat - we're back to the times of Homer. The idea of the sphere was just a false invention that resulted from a government conspiration with the objective of... - does anyone knows the objective? 

Let's hope we don't bring back the fires. 

The earth together with its surrounding waters must in fact have such a shape as its shadow reveals, for it eclipses the moon with the arc of a perfect circle.

Copernicus (1473-1543)

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