A decorative woodcut headpiece consisting of two rows of symmetrical, scrolling floral or vine-like patterns. Below the main title, three asterisks are arranged in a triangular formation.

BOOK ONE

OF THE NATURAL

AND MORAL HISTORY

OF THE INDIES.

CHAPTER 1. Of the opinion held by some authors that the heavens did not extend to the New World.

THE ANCIENTS WERE SO FAR from thinking that there could be people in this New World, that many of them did not want to believe that there was land on this side. What is even more astonishing is that there was no lack of those who also denied that this sky we see existed here. For although it is true that most and the best of the Philosophers natural scientists felt that the sky was entirely round, as it is in effect, and that it thus surrounded the earth on all sides and enclosed it within itself, nonetheless some, and not a few, nor those of the least authority among the holy Doctors, held a different opinion. They imagined the fabric of this world to be like a house, in which the roof that covers it only surrounds it from above and does not enclose it on all sides. They gave as the reason for this that, otherwise, the earth would be hanging in the air in the middle, which seems like a thing alien to all reason. And also, in all buildings, we see that the foundation is on one side and the roof on the opposite side: