The Geography

50.

Parts of cosmography

COSMOGRAPHY is a descriptive
imitation of the whole known world,
along with those things which
are joined to it almost universally.
It differs from Chorography original: "corographia"; the practice of describing or mapping specific regions or localities in great detail.
in this: For chorography is particular,
cutting away places from the whole, and by itself
it treats each of them, describing almost every
single smallest thing gathered from its locations,
such as ports, farms, villages, the courses of rivers,
and other such places. It is the property of Cosmography
to show one and the same habitable earth known to us,
how it is held in nature and position. Concerning
these things, it intends only those which, through
more general descriptions of the world, are joined
together, such as the major towns, great cities, mountains,
and also the more famous rivers. Furthermore, it concerns
all those things which, according to any species, are
worthy of greater note. The end of chorography is to observe
a part of the whole individually, as if one were to paint
just an ear or an eye. But the end of Cosmography is to
inspect the whole according to proportion, as if one
were to designate the entire head. For in complete
images, since it is necessary for the more important members
to be applied first, then those things which images
and pictures receive are placed with equal dimension
between themselves, and they can be discerned by sight
from a proper distance, whether they are the whole or a part
of that which is being painted. It follows, not unworthily
nor beside the point, that we attribute to chorography
whatever are even the smallest things, but to Cosmography
the regions themselves with those things which are
more generally annexed to them. For the more important
parts of our habitable world, which will be noted by an
equal proportion of dimensions, are provinces or
regions and are held as members; the more notable
differences are those which are in the regions themselves.
However, chorography is concerned as much as possible
with quality rather than with the quantity of those things
which are described. For the care of chorography is turned
entirely toward the likeness of painting, having dismissed
the proportion of positions. But Cosmography intends
more toward quantity than quality. For it considers
the proportion of distances in all things, but the
property of painting only in the images of the
greater descriptions. Wherefore chorography needs a picture,
and no one will compose it correctly unless he is a
painter. But Cosmography does not demand the same.
For one will be able to fix places and write general
figurations through pure lines and bare notations.
Wherefore, for the former chorography, mathematical
work is not necessary, but of cosmography
that is the more important part. For in this it is necessary
to contemplate the magnitude and form of the whole world.
Furthermore, the position relative to the whole world, so that
it is possible to say what kind and how great a conceived part
is, and under which parallel a line of latitude on the celestial sphere of the celestial sphere it is located.
Whence he will be able to discourse on the magnitude of days
and nights, on the fixed stars which are above the zenith
for us, on the stars which are carried above the horizon
for us, and on those which never rise for us; then on all things
which look toward the system of our habitations.
Which things, demonstrated by mathematical law to human
minds, are most high and most beautiful: that the sky
itself may be known in its nature, and since it cannot be
shown as if surrounding us, I may be able to look upon the
earth itself through an image, which, since it is certain and
great, and neither the whole nor a part surrounds us,
may be traversed by the same means by which the sky can.

( ( THOSE THINGS WHICH MUST BE
PRESUPPOSED FOR COSMOGRAPHY

THE POWER of the end of
cosmography, and in what things
it differs from chorography, has
been briefly noted in the previous
sections. But since at present it is
proposed to describe the habitable
part of our world as much as can
possibly be done, we think it necessary in the beginning
to propose that which is first in this matter: the history of
travel, having obtained much knowledge from the tradition
of those who most diligently explored the various regions;
and that this observation and tradition pertains to
geometry on one hand, and to the observation of fixed stars
on the other. Which...