The proof texts on which the mediaeval geographers mainly relied as to the form of the earth were Ezekiel v, 5, and xxxviii, 12.

The progress of geographical knowledge evidently caused them to be softened down somewhat in our King James's version; but the first of them reads, in the Vulgate, "Ista est Hierusalem, in medio gentium posui eam et in circuitu ejus terrae"; and the second reads, in the Vulgate, "in medio terrae," and in the Septuagint, [Greek].

That the literal centre of the earth was understood, see proof in St.Jerome, Commentat.

in Ezekiel, lib.

ii; and for general proof, see Leopardi, Saggio sopra gli errori popolari degli antichi, pp.