e of the starry
heavens, as well as of the earth beneath them, than any other
scientist alive. "It was Toscanelli who erected the famous solstitial
gnomon at the cathedral of Florence." For his learning he was honored,
when but thirty years of age, with the curatorship of the great
Florentine library, and for nearly sixty years thereafter he passed
his days amid books, charts, maps, and globes.

As a speculative philosopher, he had arrived at a correct conclusion
respecting the sphericity of the earth, and, with all the generosity
of a humanitarian, he freely communicated his ideas to others.
Columbus would have excluded every other human being from
participating in his thoughts, and arrogated to himself alone the
right to navigate westerly. This was the difference between the
broad-minded philosopher and the narrow-minded sailor who by accident
had stumbled upon a theory. The philosopher said, "It belongs to the
world!" The ignorant sailor cried, "It is mine!"

Toscanelli advanced the theory, but it was Columbus who put it to the
test, and reaped all the rewards, as well as suffered for the
mistakes. For mistakes there were, and the chief error lay in
supposing the country "discovered" by Columbus pertained to the
Indies. He died in that belief, and also Toscanelli, who passed away
ten years before the first voyage made to that land, subsequently
known as America. In one sense, perhaps, the Florentine doctor was the
means of that first voyage of Columbus having been accomplished, for
the chart he sent him made the distance between Europe and the western
country seem so short that it was undertaken with less reluctance, and
persisted in more stubbornly, than it might otherwise have been. But
this was a mistake in detail only, and not in theory. A line was
projected from about the latitude of Lisbon, on the western coast of
Europe, to the "great city of Quinsai," as described by Marco Polo, on
the opposite shores of Asia. This line was divided into twenty-six
spaces, of two hundred and fifty miles each, making the total distance
between the two points sixty-five hundred miles, which Toscanelli
supposed to be one-third of the earth's circumference.

[Illustration: A CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF TOSCANELLI'S MAP]

In short, Toscanelli calculated the distance, made a conjectural chart
embodying the results of his readings of Aristotle, Strabo, and
Ptolemy, of his conversations during many years with Oriental
travellers,